Free The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

not unlike April. I didn’t know who I was until I came here to visit my aunts and learned the rules.”
    Franny felt herself flush. “What if I don’t wish to be what I am?”
    â€œThen you will face a life of unhappiness.”
    â€œDid you accept it?” Franny asked.
    She could see the regret in Isabelle’s expression. There had definitely been a before in her life.
    â€œNot fully. But I grew to enjoy it.”

    Jet’s initial mistake was to go to the pharmacy that day, or maybe the error was made when she sat at the counter and ordered avanilla Coke, but disaster was definitely set in motion as soon as she began chatting to the two handsome brothers who were entranced by her as soon as they spied her. She was, without a doubt, the most beautiful girl they had ever seen. They were so utterly enchanted they followed her to the house on Magnolia Street, which they should have known well enough to avoid. Franny was sprawled in the grass, eating raspberries and reading one of Aunt Isabelle’s books on how to raise poisonous plants when she heard the rumble of voices. The cats were sunning themselves, but as soon as the strangers approached, they leapt into the shadows.
    Jet came bursting into the yard, waving at her sister, but the boys hesitated at the gate. Seventeen-year-old twins, one with brown hair, the other fair, both daring and brave. When she saw the strangers Franny grew quite pale; the freckles sprinkled across her face stood out as if they were spots of blood.
    Jet cheerfully gestured to the boys. “They’ve heard it’s dangerous to come here.”
    â€œIt is, ” Franny said to her sister. “What were you thinking?”
    The blond boy, called Jack, geared up his courage and came traipsing through some blustery raspberry bushes that pricked the hand of anyone who tried to pick their fruit. The lovestruck boys begged Jet and Franny to meet up with them that night, and frankly both girls were flattered. Jet turned to Franny and pleaded. “Why can’t we have some fun? April would.”
    â€œApril!” Franny said. “She’s in trouble more than she’s out of it.”
    â€œShe’s right about some things,” Jet said.
    They climbed out the attic window after midnight, then shimmied down a rain pipe. All the while, Franny thought abouthow Hay would laugh if he could see her sneaking out of their aunt’s house. Don’t you even check the weather report? he would have asked. Is it really worth climbing onto the roof?
    The night was indeed cloudy, with a storm brewing. It was Massachusetts weather, unpredictable and nasty with sparks of electricity skittering through the air. As they made their way down Magnolia Street, a pale drizzle had already begun to drip from the overcast sky. By the time they reached the park, buckets were falling. The girls were so drenched that when Franny wrung out her long hair, the water streamed out red. That’s when she knew they had made a mistake.
    The boys were making a mad dash through the park. Even the swans were huddled beneath the shrubbery. A clap of thunder sounded.
    â€œOh, no,” Jet said, overwhelmed by the turn fate was taking.
    The sisters signaled for the boys to run back to safety, but it was now impossible to see through the sheets of rain and the boys raced onward. The sisters were at the edge of the pond when lightning struck, but even before the incandescent bolts illuminated the sky, Franny could smell sulfur. The boys were hit in an instant. They stumbled as if shot, then fell shuddering to the ground. Blue smoke rose from their fallen bodies.
    Franny pulled Jet along with her, for an alarm had been sounded and patrol cars already raced toward the green. If the sisters were present, they would surely be suspected of wrongdoing. They were Owens girls, after all, the first to be blamed for any disaster.
    They fled to Magnolia Street, then flew through the door