School was finally over, once Carter dropped me off at home I raced up to my room to grab my Grimoire. It is big, black, and bound by leather. Most of the pages are falling apart, but this is the only book that I have that can teach me what I need to learn.
I look at the table of contents and see,
Uses of Magic..................07
I go to page seven and briefly skim a few pages. Use magic responsibly, blah blah blah. To help oneself and others, whatever.
Nothing here, so I go back to the table of contents.
I look through almost half the book and nothing. Nothing at all. I close the book in frustration, why couldn't there just be a hand book for this stuff.
I decided to forget about Jagger and focus on my levetating. I managed to get my jeans up, then a necklace, then my bedside clock.
I continued up to 6 items, they were all floating slowly in a circle around me. I could control them all at once as long as they all went in the same direction.
I was so focused that I didn't hear my dad come up the stairs, "Tempest!" He called from the hall. I quickly dropped all the items onto the floor with a crash. I threw the book under my covers right before he came in.
"Hi Dad!" I said smiling.
"I'm not even going to ask." He said looking around my room. He was good that way, staying out of my business and letting me do my own thing.
"Well anyways we got invited over for dinner." He said.
"Oh wow that's 3 times in a row for Mrs. Tate." I said walking out of my room making sure to close the door behind me.
"Actaully we got invited by the Moore's, you know that new family." He said.
I spun around on him, "What!"
"Did you meet their kids at school?" He asked.
"Yea, they're bad news, plus they creep me out." I said in all honesty. It did creep me out how I couldn't read Jagger.
"Well monkey I can't cancel now, I already said yes."
"You can go and I can stay home." I said in a sweet innocent voice.
"Nice try," He said laughing while heading downstairs.
He didn't like leaving me home alone to much by myself because his crazy work schedual always had me staying home alone, he said he felt like a bad parent when he did that. I understand that he's trying his best and that raising a kid all by yourself can be hard, so I try not to make it to bad for him.
There are some things that I will not do and that I will put my foot down for, and this is one of those times.
"Please dad don't make me go." I pleaded.
"Tempest you will go to this diner weather you want to or not." He had taken on his stern father voice, and there was no arguing when he was like this.
I slumped my shoulders, "Fine."
15 minutes later and I was standing in the living room ready to go. I was wearing a grey and pink stripped dress with an off the shoulder t-shirt that I had cut into a crop top. And to finish it off I wore hot pink ballet flats with my mahogany hair in a loose pony tail.
"Why can't you be like every other girl and wear a nice dress, why all the baggy clothes?" Dad teased ruffing up my hair. He knew that I wasn't normal like everyone else and enjoyed teasing me about it.
We had been driving through the woods for awhile and I'm pretty sure we were lost.
"Just turn around and we'll call them and say we got lost." I said for the umptenth time.
"We are almost there, patience."
Just then we turned a corner and the house came into view. It was huge! There was a big yard with chairs all over and fire lit to light the way up the driveway.
"Woah, I knew it, they are rich." I said.
I suspected they may be rich with mr. Abercrombie & Fitch model as a son. We both sat in the car staring at the house for a few moments.
"Let''s not keep them waiting." Dad said stepping out of the car. I sadly followed him up to the front door. We rang the doorbell and waited, I could hear footsteps inside.
The door swung open and there stood a women maybe in her late 40's with chestnut coloured hair and bright red lip stick. She was wearing a very formal purple dress that went down to her knees.
"Hello, welcome to our home!" She said cheerily holding the door open for us to walk in.
I took in our surrondings, there were paintings on the wall, the place looked very warm with lots of lights and red accent walls. There was a giant chandelier above us, it looked very expensive.
"Hello I'm Coraline, and this is my lovely husband Darian." She said.
"Nice to meet you I'm Greg the town cheriff, and this is my daughter Tempest." Dad said introducing us.
"Tempest, that's an odd name what does it means?" A girl who looked to be in about grade six asked coming out of a room behind us.
She had blonde hair, almost white and was very skinny. She was wearing a dark skirt with a white button up blouse.
"Cleo, manners." Coraline scolded.
"No it's fine," I gave Coraline a reassuring smile before adressing Cleo, "It means storm in old French."
"I like it, usaully people like you have weird names like Shadow or Zara."
"People like me?" I questioned not sure if I should take offense to that.
"Haha," Coraline laughed nervously. "Darian why don't you go speak with Cleo somewhere else,"
"Kids come down and meet our guests!" Coraline called as Darian ushered Cleo out of the room.
"A boy probably in grade 8 or 9 came running downstairs in a polo golf shirt and jeans. "Keller," He said.
"I'm Greg and this is my daughter Tempest." Dad said once again, he should probably just wait until all the kids came down.
I saw a girl that only looked a year older than me come down, she was a spitting image of her mother Coraline.
"Anox," She said shaking both our hands
"Jagger come down to meet Greg and Tempest!" Anox yelled upstairs. She could probably just leave him up there and I wouldn't miss him.
Sure enough Jagger came waltzing down stairs with a swagger like no other, he was still buttoning up his dress shirt and I saw a hint of his chest. Dear Lord did he have a chest.
"Hey," He said said and bypassed us going into the next room.
"Why don't we all go into the living room until the food is ready," Coraline sudjested.
We sat down in a stylish couch while everyone took a seat around us. Cleo came back into the room with her father behind her. She came over and sat beside me.
"Cleo honey, why don't you come sit beside me?" Coraline asked, probably to get her away from me.
"No, I like Tempest." She simply said.
"Thankyou," I said smiling down at her.
I attempted to read Cleo and even she was closed. Everyone that I had shaken hands with was not readable.
"So how are you folks enjoying Green Lake?" Dad asked.
"Good. The kids have already made new friends," Coraline said.
"How do you enjoy school?" Darian asked me.
"It's fine." I said plastering on a fake smile.
We heard a ding and Coraline excused herself to go prep the food. We lapsed into an awkward silence, I felt like everyone was staring at me.
"So Greg, did you watch the game last night?" Darian asked dad, and that's where the conversation went from awkward to boring.
"I love your sense of style," Avon gushed trying to engage me into conversation. That was so not happening. Not only were they rich, but they were snobs, especially Jagger. He was sitting there on his fancy phone playing who knows what while I have to indulge in this terrible conversation.
"Thanks I think I got this dress from the Thrift Store 2 towns over." I said flatly. That was where I got most of my clothes. I didn't like designer labels, and every other store sucks.
"So your a thrift shopper, very vintage." Avon said, I could tell she was using fake enthusiasm. She seemed like a total bitch, probably didn't want to be here just as much as me. At least she had the decency to hide it.
"Diner!" Coraline called. We all got up and made our way to the dining room.
"Caroline are you trying to fatten me up?" Dad joked when we walked in. He wasn't kidding, the table was overflowing with pasta's, fish, chicken, eggs, veggies, fruits, everything from breakfast to lunch to diner.
"I wasn't sure what you liked, so I just made all of it." Caroline said gleefully. There was no way she'd made all this, not all in one day, but it was all steaming hot.
Dad and I normally ordered chinese food or pizza. He hardly ever cooked. I sat down and stared at the food trying to decide what I'd have first.
Keller started to reach for a bowl of something on the table but Darian smacked his hand away. "Guests first."
"I don't even know where to start," I said honestly when they looked at us expectantly.
I grabbed a bowl of mashed potatoes, careful not to take to much because I wanted to taste all of the food. I next grabbed some chicken, peas, carrots, asperagus, chili, and poured gravy over all of it.
I dug my fork in and moaned when it hit my taste buds. "Good?" Coraline asked. My mouth was to full to talk so I just nodded my head, she smiled.
An hour later:
I was full to the point where I felt like my stomach would explode. Us kids were in the living room while the adults were in the kitchen.
"Did you enjoy the meal?" Keller asked. There was something about him that made my insides coil. He was nice, but in a creepy way, like a phycopath would be creepily nice to his victims.
"Yes," I said. I had officially given up trying to read them, I don't know what was wrong, but I had a feeling it was me.
They all stare at me, it feels so uncomfortable to have all these sets of eyes on me. I shift into the couch, hoping it swallows me whole. Even Jagger had looked up from his game.
I stared right back at him, I hadn't noticed how his hair curled slightly at the ends, or how he had pale freckles around his nose. He seemed to be studying me too, there was nothing much to see pale skin, dark hair, brown eyes. Nothing out of the ordinary and nothing different.
I got up, uncomfortable with all the scrutiny, and made my way into the kitchen where my dad was laughing with other adults. He doesn't have many friends his own age, I really didn't want to ruin this for him.
I wasn't going back in there though. I walked into the kitchen, "Oh Tempest, how are you?" Coraline asked.
"I'm fine." I said, the smile on my face felt like it was painted on.
"You are such a beautiful girl," She said putting her fingers on my face, they were freezing. I tried not to be rude but the coldness made me flinch away from her.
"Sorry dear," she said with a nervous smile.
I looked towards my dad silently pleaing that we should leave. I stared at the back of his head, drilling holes with my eyes, please leave please leave. I chanted over and over again.
"Did you say something?" Dad asked turning around. Did he hear me?
"Uh no..." I said nervously. By this time all of the kids had migrated to the kitchen, great I have an audience for when I mess up.
"I swear I heard your voice," he said studying me.
Everyone had went quiet and was now staring at me. "The girl was just talking to me, weren't you Tempest."
"Yes, I was." I said startled that she covered for me.
"Anyways, I think it's time we headed home." Dad said.
"Really? You were having so much fun?" I asked not believing for a second that this was him, he'd never leave early, from anything.
"I don't know Tempest, I just feel we should leave now."
I wasn't going to pass up this, even if it was out of character. Dad went ahead down the hall towards the front door with me right behind him, I turned around to see everyone sharing some sort of silent conversation.
I hurried up and passed dad, totally done with this family. "Well I thought you might want some left overs," Coraline said popping up out of nowhere. My dads hand flew to his chest in surprise.
"Thankyou for your hospitality." Dad said. Coraline brought him in for a slight hug, and Darian gave him a handshake.
Coraline came over to me and gave me a hug, "Careful Tempest, your powers are greater than you know." she whispered into my ear.
I pulled back with a strange look on my face, she was just smiling as she backed up to be with her family, it was like they were posing for a picture.
Avon elbowed Jagger and he said, "See you at school tomorrow." with an annoyed glare.
"Sure..." I said, totally out of character for him.
Suddenly Keller was at the door opening it for us, "We hope to see you again."
Again, that creepiness factor seeped through my skin to make my bones quiver. I raced ahead of dad to the car.
"I think that went well," dad said driving down the same twisting road we'd came on.
"Yup," I lied through my teeth. Had I really used my powers to control my dad.