Free Witch Twins by Adele Griffin Page A

nodded distractedly. She was thinking of the perfect compliment to give Angelica after rehearsal. Something to express exactly how the music danced like butterflies in her stomach whenever she heard Angelica’s voice.
    But it was hard for Luna to speak up to people she didn’t know. She decided to proceed with caution.
    After rehearsal, she stood next to Angelica backstage and tried to say her compliment. She stood there for a long time. She began to feel stupid. When Angelica turned to her and raised an eyebrow in a way that meant why are you standing next to me? Luna hurried off.
    That night after dinner, Luna tried to sing as she dried the dishes. Just to test the sound of her own voice, which she did not remember as being very good.
    “Uh, did you swallow a tongue depressor?” asked Justin. Then he and Claire laughed and gave each other high-fives.
    “Shut up,” Luna muttered. It didn’t seem fair that a person who loved-loved -loved singing as much as herself should have such a bad, crackly voice.
    The next afternoon at rehearsal, Luna had an idea. She was just finishing up some back-drop scenery for Act Two, which showed the palace hall. She had been painting a silver mirror. But in a burst of inspiration, she decided to turn it into a portrait of Princess Winifred.
    She worked hard to get the portrait to look like Angelica, with long hair and silvery musical notes floating from her mouth. As a final touch, she painted a tiger-striped kitten in Angelica’s arms.
    “Who’s that supposed to be?” The sound of Angelica’s voice made Luna turn with a start.
    “Oh, I don’t know,” said Luna, stepping back and looking at the picture as if she just noticed it herself.
    “It looks dumb to put a face there,” said Angelica. “I liked it better when it was an empty window.” Then she walked away before Luna could explain that it was not a window, but a mirror.
    Quickly, Luna painted over the portrait and turned it into a window.
    On the evening of the performance, Luna had another idea. She bought Angelica a white rose and a card. Inside the card she wrote, I think you sing perfectly!
    She left the rose and note on the makeup table backstage, where Angelica would be sure to see it.
    “Does anyone know gave this to me?” asked Angelica when she came into the dressing room. She held up the rose and spun around so that her hair swished. “Was it Zack? Adam? Peter? Who? Come on, guys! I know it was one of you!”
    Luna could not bring herself to say any thing. She kept her head down.
    “See? That’s what you get for being nice to snotty Angelica Antonio!” snapped Claire after Angelica left the dressing room. She turned so that Luna could button up the back of her lady-in-waiting costume. “Let me cast a throat-scratch spell on her!”
    “Don’t even dare.” Now Luna turned so that Claire could button up the back of her costume. “That would wreck the play for everyone.”
    “Well, guess what I did do? I put a wobbly chair in the place where Fluffy’s sitting. I peeked out into the audience and she looks all crooked! Ha ha!”
    Luna was not really listening.
    She waited until Act One was over before she steeled her nerve.
    It was now or never.
    Angelica was in the wings, sitting on one of the Styrofoam tree stumps and drinking hot lemon-and-honey water. Lindsey Berger, a sixth grader who played the Queen, was braiding Angelica’s hair. (There was always one girl or another braiding Angelica’s hair.)
    “It’s me who thinks you sing perfectly, Angelica,” Luna said, so quiet she could hardly hear herself.
    Angelica shrugged. “Okay,” she said. Then she realized. “Oh, you were the one who gave me that card and the rose. Thanks, Claire.”
    “I’m Luna,” said Luna.
    Angelica smiled in a way that didn’t really look like a smile at all. “Listen. Luna. That’s nice of you and all, but sixth graders and fifth graders are like oil and water,” she said. “They don’t mix. Get it? No