Free wicked witches 06.9 - you only witch once by Amanda M. Lee Page B

help.”
    “We can’t make the ghost come to us, Bay. She’ll have to come when she’s ready. Are you even sure it’s a woman?”
    “It’s a woman,” Bay said, her nose wrinkling. “She’s sad.”
    “I know she’s sad, Bay. There’s still nothing we can do until she’s ready to be helped.” That was true of the living as well as the dead. “When she wants help, she’ll ask for it. Now, come on. You guys didn’t get breakfast and I think we could all use some lunch.”
    “But … .” Bay wasn’t ready to give in.
    “Come on,” Thistle said. “Don’t you want to see how bad Lila looks? She probably looks like a giant zit that needs to be popped. I’m not missing that.”
    Bay brightened considerably. “Okay.”
    Funnily enough, Thistle is the one who always knows how to cheer Bay up. That was another part of her charm.
     

Eight
    “Is anyone else glad this is our final night here?” Marnie asked, handing the hot dog platter to Twila and gathering the utensils so we could wash them back at the cabin. “In twenty-four hours, we’re going to be back home with only three teenagers to deal with.”
    “Don’t forget Aunt Tillie,” Twila said.
    “I could never forget Aunt Tillie.”
    “How are the infected girls?” I asked, lifting my head so I could study the crowded field where Terry was taking advantage of the limited light left in the day to play freeze tag with all of the kids. Well, to be fair, it wasn’t all of the kids. Lila, Rosemary and a few of the others who were still struggling with poison oak symptoms were hanging around the bonfire pit.
    After a few hours under the watchful eyes of Bay, Clove, Thistle and Aunt Tillie, most of the girls figured out pretty quickly that they felt better when they stopped casting verbal – and mental – stones. Only five girls were still sick, and Lila and Rosemary looked like rejects from an episode of The X-Files .
    Their faces – which were hideously spotted – were enough to keep all of the boys (and most of the girls) away. Lila was spitting nails by the time Terry showed up for dinner, and she gave him an earful about wanting Bay arrested. After listening to her complaints – from a safe distance, mind you – and asking her a few questions, he informed her there was no evidence of Bay’s guilt.
    Lila didn’t take it well. She’d spent the past hour conspiring with her limited group of cronies, and I had a feeling we weren’t quite out of the woods yet. No pun intended.
    “They’re crabby,” Marnie said. “Only three of the girls agreed to clean up the cabin. They were the ones who felt better first. Their faces cleared up before they were even done.”
    “Did the other girls notice?”
    “The smart ones did,” Marnie said. “I’m betting you can guess who the stupid ones are.”
    “Rosemary is the one who surprises me,” I said. “She knows about magic. Aunt Willa isn’t a practitioner, but Rosemary still knows … something. She should have figured it out first.”
    “Maybe she has. Maybe she just doesn’t care how she looks.”
    “I don’t think anyone could ignore those big pus balls on their faces,” I said.
    “Maybe Rosemary is more interested in revenge,” Marnie suggested.
    That thought occurred to me, too. “We have to watch them tonight,” I said. “We just have to get through tonight.”
    “Maybe we should split up and sleep in the cabins with the girls,” Twila said. “If one of us is in each cabin, they’ll be forced to behave themselves.”
    That was an idea. Still … . “Who wants to sleep in Lila’s cabin?”
    Marnie and Twila immediately started shaking their heads.
    “I think that should be your job,” Marnie said. “You’re the one who let Aunt Tillie off her leash.”
    “I’m not sleeping in that cabin.”
    “You could sleep in the hammock,” Twila said. “It’s right by the cabin.”
    “I’d rather do that,” I said. “Let’s just watch things. Maybe Lila and Rosemary will