Read Online Parties & Potions #4 by Sarah Mlynowski - Free Book Online

her that having a Samsorta would make me feel so much closer to her! I am so happy,” she says. “You are the best sister in the whole world!”
    “I know.” I kick off my shoes. “Is Mom home?”
    “No, she went to dinner with Lex. She left us pizza money. Oh, and I got you black-and-white cookies. Your fa-vorite. Do you want one?”
    “Thank you!” Boy, it’s nice to be appreciated. I dump my bag on the floor near the closet and head into the kitchen.
    “I am just so excited. It’s going to be so much fun! I’ll meet so many people! I’ll get a great overview of magic! It’ll perfectly top off my training.” She carries over a plate of cookies and a steaming cup of cocoa. It’s always fun when Mom goes out with Lex. Miri and I get to have dessert before dinner. “Hey,” Miri says. “I’ve been meaning to ask you. How’s your training going?”
    “My what?”
    “Your witch training? With Mom? You know how she made me do it last year, and how I’m almost done with it? You didn’t think she’d let you get away without it, did you?”
    “Oh. Right. Training. Well, we haven’t started it exactly.” I bite into the deliciousness. Yum. I can’t imagine what my mom could possibly teach me; I feel like I know more about magic than she does. “Maybe soon.”
    “I think she mentioned something about starting next week.”
    “Seriously?” I take a sip of the hot chocolate. Yum! Miri added mini-marshmallows!
    “Yup. Lots of bonding with Mom.”
    I roll my eyes.
    “It doesn’t take too much time,” Miri says. “Only like three hours.”
    I dig in to cookie number two. “Three hours a week isn’t bad.”
    “No,” she says forcefully. “Three hours a day.”
    Eeks. Did Miri spend that much time on her training last year? That doesn’t sound like fun. “I’m sure she’ll do an accelerated version with me.” I am smarter. Or at least older.
    “Maybe. Hey! You know what?”
    I take another bite of cookie. “What?”
    “Samsorta training is only once a week. If you did it, I bet Mom would consider it good enough.”
    “But then wouldn’t I have to have a Samsorta?”
    “Well, once you were doing the training …”
    Wait a sec! The cookies, the you’re-the-best-sister routine, the clever intellectual reasoning, the threat of parental bonding … I thump my fists on the kitchen table. “You’re using my manipulation techniques! On me!”
    She covers her face with her arm. “Mom said I could only do it if you do too!”
    “Miri!”
    “Please, Rachel? Pretty please? She said she doesn’t want to worry about me going on my own. She thinks you’ll keep an eye on me, and keep me from getting mixed up with the wrong crowd. Apparently, I’m not always the best judge of character.”
    She did get me body-snatched over the summer. But still. “I don’t know, Miri….”
    “Puhlease?” She opens her eyes all wide and sad-looking. “I just want to have people to hang out with. You went to Tammy’s after school. Mom went out with Lex. I stayed home by myself and watched television. Alone. Again.”
    “Gimme a break.”
    “I just wish I had people to talk to,” she says in her extra-squeaky voice, “when you go out with your friends and desert me.”
    I groan. “If you don’t stop, I’m going to make you eat this cookie in the bathroom.”
    “Please? How can you say no to me after all the stuff I did for you? The megels, the dancing spell, the love potion spell, the—”
    “Guilt trip?”
    “Puh-lease? Puh-leeeease?”
    I know I’m going to regret this, but… I guess I do owe her. “Fiiiiine, Miri. If it’s that important to you, we’ll have a Samsorta.”
    “Yes!” She pumps the air in victory. “It’s going to be so much fun!”
    Wild and crazy Rafless cemetery fun. Wahoo. “What do I have to do?”
    “Nothing,” she says happily. “Mom is calling Charm School tomorrow and signing us both up. That’s where Wendaline’s going too.”
    “You just knew I’d say