Free Freaksville by Ashley Brooke Robbins

do that…are you?
    He never was good with explaining or keeping some things to himself. I guess that’s why we get along so well.
    I stand once the assembly’s over with. “I need to go home. I have to tell mom and we have to–” The gym’s not completely empty yet.
    “Can you get a ride?” Devin flexes his hands. “I have a stupid test to take today. If I fail, there goes my grade for the rest of the year.”
    “Poor baby.” I slap his arm.
    “I’ll take her,” Jake volunteers, surprising us all. He hardly ever talks.
    “Thanks, Jakey.” I give him a one-armed hug. Now I can question him….
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    ~ A Wiccan Woman’s Cry ~
     
    We pause by the door where Billy and Principal Knight are talking. Billy takes a look at my face and so does Principal Knight and an understanding passes between them. “Go on home. Make sure to eat something.” Billy goes right back to talking with the principal.
    Without saying anything to each other, we make our way to the parking lot. Ever since I’ve known Jake, he’s never asked any unnecessary questions. He’s always just known things. So, when we get in his small truck and he turns to me with a serious expression and asks, “Are you okay? I mean besides you knowing that girl and all,” all I can do is stare for a moment.
    “Yeah.” I reply awkwardly.
    “About Nicks—” He pulls out of the parking lot.
    “He has his asshole-ish tendencies.” I shrug it off. “No biggie.”
    He gazes straight ahead, chewing on the inside of his cheek. One of his nervous habits, not that he’d ever let on he gets nervous. Then he shakes his head, briefly glancing at me. “I know you. I know when you want to kick his ass. Why’re you pretending you don’t want to?”
    “I’m just….” I lean heavily against the window. “Tired.”
    “Then you should go home and get some rest,” he remarks. “Instead of sticking your nose in books.”
    “Not that kind of tired,” I whisper, staring absentmindedly out the window.
     
    <<<->>>
     
    My mom gasped when the news left my lips. She sat unmoving for twenty minutes and then she got on the phone. First she called Racheal’s mom—Janice—and then I don’t know who else or even what all she did. Mostly because I zoned out, not wanting to be there anymore.
     
    <<<->>>
     
    In Wicca—which is what my religion is technically considered—we don’t do the “funeral” thing. We believe in celebrating the life she had the chance to live. Not crying as her body goes into the ground. We believe in helping her soul, spirit, whatever you want to call it, move on from this realm and be at peace with what happened.
    She felt closest to fire, and it couldn’t be a more perfect day to celebrate her life. The sky looks like it’s ablaze as the sun slowly starts its descent.
    It’s like she’s standing right here with us in the circle of men and women.
    Mom lets the match fall into the fire pit and the heat welcomes me with its warmth. Seeing Janice standing there by herself at the edge of the group has my heart sinking into the pit of my stomach. I hurry over and embrace her. After a moment of hesitation, she hugs me back. “Thanks, Nessa.” She whimpers and then lets me go, going on to accept hugs from other people.
    As soon as my mom let out the SOS call, everybody hurried to our meeting spot. Down the mountain a little bit from our house, through the woods into a clearing in the shape of a circle, a place where people hardly ever go anymore. Because of the ghost stories and things people have “seen” down here.
    It was rumored that an old, dark witch had a small cabin down here. She kidnapped little kids, sucked their souls from their bodies, and cooked the remains, feeding them to her animals.
    It wasn’t exactly a myth, though. I would know because that old, dark witch was my Grandma Delliana. Except she wasn’t evil, she was just antisocial sometimes and she most definitely wasn’t a succubus. Ignorant