Which Witch Switch by Julie Steimle (comprehension books txt) 📖

watching our house, perhaps waiting for me to take my nightly nocturnal flight. If those women really were witches, then I really didn’t want them to see me.
Lifting off the roof with a silent flap, I took off in the opposite direction, heading towards the mountains. Normally I didn’t fly there because I didn’t want to have anything to do with the vampires that lived in the caves there. And to be quite frank, they didn’t really want to have anything to do with me. I was half vampire. My birth father, I believed, either lived in the mountains nearby or had lived there around the time I was born. I met him only once.
As I flew about with the nocturnal birds, insects and a few bats over the trees, my mind went over and over what I ought to do about those witches. I couldn’t have them harassing my family. And though I had thought about staying home like my mother’s imps suggested, I just didn’t think it felt safe with just her and me with three witches around the corner waiting for a moment to get me alone. At the end of my flight, as I soared back to our house, I resolved to go to school the next morning as planned and ignore the three women as much as possible. I was sure I would be safe in the crowd. If I could last a day and get hold of Rick or Mr. Deacon to find out who they were, I was sure I would be able to fight them off.

*

I woke with the sun, hurried through my breakfast, scarfing down my toast and eggs as fast as I could, then back upstairs dressing and slathering on as much sun block as possible to protect my white skin, grabbed my sunglasses to cover my orange eyes, kissed my father goodbye as he went off to work and then I turned to face Mom with Dawn and Travis hoping that the Deacons had called that morning. She shook her head at me then told me I could check my email. And since it was a special case, I turned on the computer to do just that.
“Wow,” Travis murmured as he followed me over to the family computer. “Mom must be really worried if she tells you to break her no-computer-in-the-morning rule.”
As I logged on, I nodded.
But Rick didn’t email me. And though I had new mail from Michael Toms, it wasn’t about anything important. He was just chatting like he would have with anybody.
Still, I replied to his email, telling him what I had written to Rick the night before, and then I signed off feeling as if my stomach was being twisted up with a power drill.
“Nothing?” Mom asked.
I shook my head, logged off the site then shut off the computer.
Dawn sighed. Her face contorted into an actual concerned frown. Normally Dawn liked to keep aloof from me since I was sort of a usurper of attention as an unusual child. It was mostly sibling rivalry, but here she worried with all the feeling of a sister.
“Alright then,” my mother said. And she walked to the front door, taking out her car keys. “I guess we ought to head off to your school.”
“Can we pick up Jane?” I got up from the chair, scooting it into the computer desk.
My mother smiled and nodded. “Of course. But you had better call her first.”
I nearly skipped to the telephone to do just that.

When we went out to go school I searched the road to see if the women were still there, but the car they had rented was nowhere in sight. Obviously they also needed to sleep. And as we rode along to Jane’s house to pick her up I kept my eyes peeled for their car.
I never saw it.
So when we arrived at school and Mom let all of us out, I listened to the air for strange imp calls or even a sign of weirdness on the campus. Nothing. And for some reason that made me more nervous. It didn’t like not knowing what was coming. It didn’t like it at all.

It was lunch. Jane and I ate in our usual spot in the cafeteria. And though I was still on my guard, I did not see anything unusual going on. Everything was kosher. That is to say, I was not bothered beyond the usual mayhem that happened during our school lunch. Tabby McMahone was sitting really close to Bobby Macawber, their public display of affection leading towards a make-out session. Jill Saunders was gossiping with Melissa Pickles about Laura Sheehan’s questionable status as a ‘ho’. And Dennis Clearly was sneaking something really gross into Peter Daniels’s sandwich. Even Dawn’s Goth friends were plotting with her to do something really mean to Sarah McDonald—something that I normally would put a stop to. But I was distracted by the actual normalness of it. It just didn’t feel right to have things so normal with three witches in town after me.
And the rest of the school day continued on in much the same way. In fact, I stayed after school with Jane at the homecoming dance com-mittee meeting as we discussed decorations with all of our recruits that had signed up the day before. The dance was to have a space theme that year, with a banner saying Out of This World to advertise it. Unfortunately we hadn’t made any of the posters yet so the entire committee stayed behind to do it that afternoon.
“Eve,” Jane, our chairman, said to me as the others fidgeted in their seats, “How much money do we have available in our budget for food?”
I was the treasurer. How that happened was a long story because normally no one would have voted for me for anything. But I think maybe it was because no one would dare steal money I was in charge of and Mr. McDillan recommended me.
I looked at the notebook and nodded. “We have about two thousand dollars we can use for catering.”
“And did you find a band that will play for us?” Jane asked me.
Everyone waited as I cringed with a shrug.
“I found one, but…” I looked over to Martha Patterson. “…I really think Martha ought to recruit them. When I went to check them out, I think I freaked their manager. They’re a local band called Out of Orbit. They play all kinds of music, especially alternative rock though they can do pop if you request it. If Martha goes I’m sure they’ll play for us at a reasonable price.”
Martha blinked at me, surprised that I would give her a com-pliment considering she used to pick on me all the time when we were kids. She then nodded appreciatively. “I’ll do it. You give me their phone number, and I’ll get it done tonight.”
Smiling, I then turned to Jane.
Jane grinned then continued on with our list.
After discussing our funds, the band, the caterer, and the decor-ations, we split up to make the banners, posters, and fliers to put out. We wanted them all ready for the next day. I went with the group inside the gym, helping them paint the large letters for the big banner that would hang above the front entrance. Gwenneth Wrede designed it for us and drew the pencil lines the rest of us followed.
As Troy Meecham brought in snacks with his mother and a few friends, the rest of us chatted, Jane with me and Gwenneth on the other side bringing over the paint for each letter. We were also covering the poster with tons of glitter and luminescent paint. Someone set a bag of chips next to us with a liter of lemon lime soda and some cups. Several of us got drinks and started to eat right away. It was a regular party.
“So, did you see any one of those women around the school to-day?” Jane asked me as she brushed on a deep purple onto the big letter d at the end of the poster.
I shook my head. “Not a one. But I don’t think they’re gone.”
“Do you really think they are witches?” Jane sat back to look at me. “Will was talking like he really thought that they were.”
Gwenneth blinked and leaned closer to listen even as she painted one of the o’s to look like a planet with rings.
Shrugging, I continued to paint the L-shaped rocket ship using silver paint. “I couldn’t tell you. But Travis thinks so. He Googled that company and found out the SRA are after them.”
Jane swallowed, wetting the inside of her mouth as she silently thought. “So, what do you think they want you for?”
Gwenneth nearly fell over. She knocked over the liter bottle of soda, and cap wasn’t on.
As it dumped out onto the floor, all of us sprang up to salvage the poster before it got wet. Someone else ran to get paper towels or the janitor to mop up the floor as Jane righted the bottle. And though the others working on the poster moaned, all of us lifted it off the ground then took it five paces away to set it down again.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Gwenneth apologized to everyone. “If it’s ruined, I’ll do it again all by myself.”
But we didn’t care. The poster wasn’t actually damaged though our corner had a couple damp spots.
Troy came back with the mop then cleaned up the mess himself. He then put the cap back onto the bottle of soda and set it next to Jane, casting Gwenneth a chiding look.
I plucked up the liter bottle, took the cap right off again, and poured myself a cup from the remaining soda. It was about half full by then. As I drank, Jane slipped closer to me and asked the question once more. “What do you think they want you for?”
I shrugged then opened up the liter bottle again to pour myself another cup. I was feeling very thirsty. “I don’t know exactly. But I can guess.”
“Then guess,” Jane said as I downed that cupful.
Pouring myself yet another cup, I took a breath and whispered. “I don’t think it is a good idea to say it here with everybody else listening in. That’s why Gwenneth knocked over the soda.”
As I said that, Gwenneth set her hand to her head. Both of us looked at her wondering what was wrong. Martha actually leaned over and asked.
Gwenneth shook her head. I heard her mumble something though it was not clear. The next minute, Gwenneth fainted.
Everyone jumped up.
“What happened? Is she all right?”
“I don’t know.”
“She just passed out!”
“What’s