Free Ring of Light by Isobel Bird

sitting across from her. His red hair was, as usual, shaved down almost to the skin. The three earrings in his ear and the stud in his nose looked totally normal on him, not affected like they did on a lot of the kids who liked to think of themselves as punks or rocker types. T.J. always seemed to do things because he liked doing them, and not because anyone else said they were cool or because everyone was doing them. Cooper liked that.
    Do you have a crush on this guy or what? she asked herself. The thought embarrassed her. She was the one who was always picking on Kate for being so boy crazy. She thought girls who drooled over guys were spritz-heads, brainless dolts who didn’t have anything better to do than hang on their boyfriends’ every word and sit at home waiting for them to call. She herself had never dated anyone, preferring to be by herself and pursue the things that interested her.
    But T.J. liked the things that interested her. And she liked being around him. She could talk to him, at least when she wasn’t scared of saying something stupid like she was now. But a boyfriend? She couldn’t even imagine what that would be like.
    The arrival of the pizza saved her from having to think about it anymore. As she and T.J. picked up their slices and started chewing, her thoughts turned to other things, namely Kate and Annie. She found herself wondering what they were doing. She hadn’t called either of them in a long time, and she felt a little guilty about that. She’d almost picked up the phone on Tuesday night, but then she’d realized that they were probably at Crones’ Circle with the rest of the study group.
    Of the three of them, Cooper had always thought that she was the one with the strongest ties to witchcraft. After all, her grandmother had been teaching her simple charms and spells when she was a little girl, even though Cooper hadn’t realized what they were at the time. She was the one who had accused Kate of being afraid of what Wicca could do back when Kate had tried to run away from the group, and there had never been any doubt in her mind that she would be joining a coven as soon as her year and a day of study was completed. Why, she’d been one of the first ones to step up to the cauldron and claim her word of power during their dedication ceremony in April.
    Connection. That had been her word. It was supposed to signify both the challenge of her journey that year as well as one of the gifts that would help her along the way. And at first her connections had helped her. Her friendship with Annie and Kate had brought a lot of good things to her life. Her connection to the women at Crones’ Circle, and to the members of the various covens who participated in the rituals she attended, had taught her many things about magic and the Wiccan way. Even her connection to Elizabeth Sanger’s ghost had been something she welcomed.
    But those connections hadn’t helped her during her ordeal on Midsummer Eve. If anything, her connections to the witch community had been severed that night when she’d run into those strange kids. After pretending to befriend her, they had turned on her. Even though they claimed it was all in fun, she hadn’t had fun. She’d been frightened, and angry, and all they had succeeded in doing was showing her that sometimes connections couldn’t be trusted.
    But where did that leave Kate and Annie? Did cutting her ties to the Wiccan community mean she had to cut her ties to them as well? She didn’t want to think that it did. But could she really still be friends with them in the way that they were all friends before? She wasn’t sure that they could, and that made her sad.
    â€œYou look awfully serious all of a sudden,” T.J. said, snapping her out of her thoughts. “Are you having vegetarian guilt over eating the shrimp?”
    Cooper finished chewing the food in her mouth and swallowed.