Bewitchling

A Girl Named Katherine Orcen(1)

CHAPTER 1: A Girl Named Katherine Orcen

The wind howled outside the window of Katherine Orcen's bedroom. She looked outside for just a second, glancing at the circle of trees in her yard, then she turned her focus back to the problem at hand, her history homework. She desperately searched through the text for the answers, as she had been for hours.

"My offer to help still stands... if you are willing to accept it." Katherine looked up at her only friend, a pale girl with jet black hair and hazy blue-grey eyes, who also happened to be dead.

"I still don't want your help! I can pass... or fail on my own, Claire." Katherine grumbled, with her focus still on her text book.

Claire smiled coldly, "Lady Katherine, I won't let you fail-" Katherine stopped her before she could say anything else "And I won't let you possess my teacher, AGAIN! And for the hundredth time, call me Kat!"

Claire rolled her eyes, "Please don't yell, your parents will think you are schizophrenic or delusional."

Kat ignored her friend and continued with her work. Claire sat on rug, now silent, and started drawing some kind of comic. Once Kat had triumphed over her terrible load she looked at Claire's work. There were two girls sitting on a rug, both were pale, but one had mid length black hair and the other had really long blonde hair. It took Kat a second to realize it was a comic of the conversation Claire and Kat had had moments ago. Kat stared at it for seconds more.

"Do you like it?" Claire asked, "Perhaps you should show it to your parents as an explanation for your loudness."

Kat glared at Claire, "Oh of course I will, I'll just tell them I was yelling at my imaginary friend who wants to help me with my homework! That'll make me seem very sane." Kat yelled.

"It won't help if you keep yelling at me." Claire said after a small moment of silence.

"KAT! COULD YOU KEEP IT DOWN YOU'RE TERRIFYING YOUR MOTHER AGAIN!" called the masculine voice of Kat's father. Kat's father was an athletic, tranquil man who only would shout when his meek wife got nervous, which was a lot.

Claire stuck her head out of Kat's door, she sat quiet for a minute then she finally said, "Looks like you're going to have spaghetti for dinner, but it appears to have been burned..." Claire turned to face Kat who was mumbling to herself, "Only my mother can find a way to burn spaghetti... At least I finished my homework for the weekend."

Once Kat was done putting away her homework, she pulled up a few of the floor boards under her bed, hidden under was a large leather book with a pentagram on the cover. Claire smiled, "So are you going to read tonight?" she was already beginning to fade. "Hmm, depends if you ditch me." Kat snapped. Claire giggled. "Well, I just don't want to have to answer any questions." Claire chimed. Kat was getting pretty angry now, "Maybe that's why I'm not learning anything!" Kat yelled.

"KAT IF YOU YELL ONE MORE TIME I'M GOING TO TAKE AWAY ALL PHONE PRIVLEGES FOR A MONTH!" yelled her father.

"Kat, you aren't normally this angry, or loud. What's wrong?" Claire said quietly. Kat stared at her deathly pale teacher, protector, and friend. She had no answer, she didn't know what was wrong.

"I'm going to take a shower, that'll calm me down." Kat said. She walked into the bathroom and closed the door. She caught her reflection on the mirror on the back of her door. She saw a pale and skinny looking girl with long golden blonde hair and midnight blue eyes. Kat had always loved her eyes, they were her favorite feature about herself. She sighed deeply and waved good bye to her reflection.

After Kat had showered she bolted downstairs to find her twig like mother shivering next to a cooking pot of darkness filled with a substance that was supposed to be dinner. Kat's mother looked nervously towards her daughter, Kat knew that her mother thought she had some serious mental problem, but Kat smiled gently to try to reassure her meek mother.