The first thing that Sam did when she stepped into her Gramm's mansion was head straight for the backyard to take a glimpse at the garden.
It. Was. Tragic.
The trees were fine because, well, they're trees. But everything else- the vegetable garden, flowers, shrubs, everything was dying (or dead.) The poor pond dried up with no life in sight. The cobblestone path that weaved through the garden was horribly withered and the chains on the garden swing looked ready to snap at any moment. The one saving grace of this garden was the space. She had room to put a whole greenhouse!
"I'm a little embarrassed to let you see this, Button," her Gramm said with a sheepish smile.
Sam sighed and stood defeatedly on the veranda. "Geez, Gramm, no offense, but it looks like a plague of locusts hit this place. What happened?"
Sure, it's been a while since she's been to her Gramm's house, but surely it wasn't long enough for a flourishing garden to look this bad.
"I'm getting on in years, Button, and these old legs of mine can only take so much," Gramm chuckled.
Sam felt guilt in her bones for not realizing this fact. However, she looked over her shoulder through the glass door to see that boy, Danny, awkwardly trying to carry in the bags without tripping over his own feet. Nyx was currently leering at him from her perch on one of the armchairs in the living room.
Sam rolled her eyes. "Isn't that what you have him for?"
Gramm looked back the clumsy boy in her house. "Danny? Hah! The boy doesn't exactly have a green thumb, Button."
"I see," Sam hummed as she smirked at Danny. The poor boy was still struggling with the bags. Due to his big feet, his movements were hopelessly klutzy. Something told her he was still growing, though, even at 6'2.
Not that she was looking too deeply at him, of course.
"Just another reason to have you here with me! You have free range, button, it's all yours!" her Gramm exclaimed with a twinkle in her frosty blue eyes.
Sam's violet gaze just stayed locked on her grandmother in shock for the longest time.
Soon, for the first time in weeks, Sam felt her cheeks grow sore from the large smile that stretched across her face. Without a word, she bent to give her sweet grandmother a desperate hug.
Neither of them noticed the smile on Danny's face as he watched them.
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Do you always trust
Your first initial feeling?
Special knowledge holds true,
Bears believing.
I turned around,
And the water,
Was closing, all around.
Like a glove, like a love
That had finally, finally found me.
Sam sat alone in her new room, singing lowly to herself along with the song that played from her speakers. She had settled in quite well. Her room was exactly how she liked it, dark, quiet and soothing. The scent of her lavender incense filled the room. It was quite a large room with dark plum-colored walls. She had a queen-sized bed all to herself and beautiful mahogany furniture including a wardrobe, dressers, a desk, and a large bookshelf. She had already filled said bookshelf with endless amounts of books, candles, oils, and even some potions and charms that she was determined to leave untouched.
Sam was currently laying on her bed flipping through the scrapbook that she and her coven sisters had filled throughout the years with memories. Pictures of the five girls littered the pages; some were even accompanied by scrapbooking odds and ends that the girls had found from their trips to the various voodoo shops of their hometown. Some of the pages even held loose sheets of paper with their spur of the moment spells. Said spells had been formally transferred to in The Grimoire, of course.
One photo, in particular, caught Sam's eye; it was the five of them sitting on a seawall. She scanned over every face of her sisters. For she knew there was very little chance she'd see any of them, except Barb, ever again.
On the far left, sipping on a blue and red slushie, was Hayley. Her icy blond hair was held up in its usual ponytail, her red highlights glistening in the setting sun. She wore a letterman's jacket similar to Sam's, except her the main color for her jacket decor was red. She had the same mischievous glint in her eyes as she always did.
Next to her was Selene. Like Sam, Selene preferred to dress in rather dark colors, however, she always liked to add a bit of bling to her dark attire, silver earrings, silver necklace, silver anything. Selene just really liked silver. In fact in the picture, she wore said silver necklace with a teardrop onyx jewel; the glistening silver accentuated her olive tone skin. Selene gave the camera a sultry smile with her dark eyes, making sure to keep her matching, equally dark hair out of the way.
Zoey sat next to her in the very center, dressed in blue, her own Circle of Five jacket covered in blue, jeans, and a blue tank top, like always. She had the same confident smile that Sam remembered. Her stick-straight black hair was out of the way and appeared to be swaying in whatever wind was blowing that day.
Sitting next to her was Sam. She was the only one out of all of them that wasn't smiling. She never smiled in pictures. She was dressed in her favorite dark green crochet slouch sweater, black shorts, purple stockings, and black combat boots.
And last, at the very end, was Barbra. She cradled her head in her hands where she had her nails painted a stunning tone of gold. Her auburn hair was pulled back to keep the curly locks out of her face, a common issue she has.
Vital memories come from that wall. In fact, that was where Sam had first met Zoey and Barbra.
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It was autumn and dusk had been drawing near. At the age of 12, Sam had been sitting alone on the seawall for almost an hour trying to figure out what had happened; what she had done, or at least what she was pretty sure she had done.
Was that her? Did she do that? No, that wasn't possible.
The wind picked up some of the loose leaves and was tossing them around on the ground when a voice pierced Sam's thoughts.
"Hey, Poison Ivy." It called. It was followed by another voice, muffled and low.
"Z, she probably doesn't know who you're talking to."
"Fine," It was the first voice again. "Hey! Missy! You in the purple!."
Sam turned her head to look at the two girls; the first had jet-black hair that hung loosely around her shoulders and blue jeans and a denim jacket over a light blue top. The second girl had her light red hair up in a ponytail and black jeans and a matching skivvy with a strange yellow and black symbol, which looked like a bat silhouette across the front.
The girl in blue spoke up. "So, Poison Ivy girl, that was some pretty cool manip you did back there."
Sam blinked; what was this girl talking about?
"What are you talking about, and why do you keep calling me Poison Ivy?"
Sam waited for her to reply. Looking the girls over, she noticed the black-haired girl wore a strange looking compass attached to her jeans belt loop.
"Because, Poison Ivy, unless I'm mistaken the vines you used to stop those bulldozers were poison ivy, am I wrong?" The girl dressed in blue blinked innocently at Sam.
"It was Athosian poison ivy, and what makes you think I had anything to do with it?" Sam sent the girls a rather suspicious glance.
"Name's Zoey, friends call me Zantana, and what you did falls under the category of really cool paranormal stuff, which makes it my specialty."
"And I'm Barbra, just in case you were wondering," said the girl with auburn hair.
"But I call her Batgirl." Zoey smiled and Barbra rolled her eyes at her friend.
"Batgirl?" Sam asked.
"There was an incident," Barbra admitted. "With bats, hence 'Batgirl.'"
"So Ivy, what's the difference, between that Athosy Ivy and normal poison ivy?" Zoey asked out of the blue, as she plopped herself next to Sam. Barbra also sat on the opposite side of sam.
"Athosian. It's the only type of ivy with flowers, they're small and purple. Now you tell me, what makes you think that what I did back there was 'really cool paranormal stuff'? And where did you get the name 'Zantana' from anyway?" Sam looked between the two girls.
"Because Ivy, we're witches. No! Seriously! And we have powers too - just not exactly like yours, tho - and we'd like to help. Okay, we have to help. As for the name, it belonged to one of my ancestors; she worked as a magician's assistant and, well considering the circumstances I was under when I first used my powers, I thought it was appropriate." Zoey explained with a casual wave of her hand.
"So...when you say you wanna help," Sam asked cautiously. "What exactly do you mean?"
"Don't worry, hun, we're new to this whole magic thing too," Barbra said cutting Zoey off before she could speak. "And we thought it might be better if we didn't learn alone; if we all learn together it might be easier, and Z's artifact led us to you."
"Her artifact? What is an artifact?" Sam asked as she slid off the short wall.
"See the compass I'm wearing? It is an artifact; an object of great power - this one helps me find direction, and leads me where I need to go if I can't find my way." Zoey detached the compass from her jeans and held it so Sam could see it better.
"So, when you say learn, you mean..." Sam trailed away letting her question hang.
"We mean research, and trial and error, with a team to help when one of us gets it wrong," Barbra said.
"So what do you think, Ivy?" Zoey asked as she held out her hand in offering.
"My name is Sam." Sam took Zoey's hand as she spoke.
"Welcome to the team, Ivy."
"It's Sam."
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it."
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Over the next month, the girls had met Hayley, whom had been working as a clown at a carnival when her powers had first shown. There had been an "incident" with some balloons and being under the stress of self-entitled parents, instantly earning herself the nickname of 'Harlequin.'
Selene had first met Sam when she broke into Sam's house - Zoey had later given her the name 'Catwoman' for her cat-burglar habits when the girls met Selene a second time after her powers revealed themselves.
After two months of working together, all of the girls had found and earned an artifact. They had some shaky starts, but they'd always managed to fix any mistakes they made, and then, they received the Grimoire. While the artifacts were independent of the girl's powers and had no effect on them, the Grimoire had been different.
The girls had gathered in their usual meeting spot- an old mansion owned but never used by Barbra's parents. She had asked her parents if she could have it and they had no objections. They were never really that close.
The girls had sat in a circle for their meditation when a quiet hum filled the air. A beam of light began to glow at the circle's center, and as quickly as it had started, the humming stopped, the light faded and all that remained was the Grimoire. Within it they had found pages and pages on different demonic and angelic beings, spells and descriptions of artifacts long since lost and, more importantly, the spell which had bound them together and increased their powers. They didn't know where it came from or why they got it, but etched on the first page was a message.
"Proceed with perfect love and perfect trust, Circle Five."
Thus, they were given their moniker: Circle Five.
With the Grimoire, came the responsibility of protecting people.
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Sam shut her photo album and placed it carefully in the drawer next to her bed. She looked up and stared at her own Circle Five jacket that hung lifelessly on her desk chair. She remembered when Selene had designed one for all of them. She always had a knack for sewing. The jackets were symbols of unity and their sisterhood. A sisterhood that was now broken.
As for the Grimoire, Sam still had it. It was currently wrapped in a silky sheet under her bed. And that was where it was going to stay. Untouched.
She sighed, tiredly; the past could wait to be remembered. In the here and now, her grandmother was calling her for tea.