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

Tam.”
    “Yum, I love Chinese food.” I also love talking about Chinese food, if it keeps the conversation off Wendaline. “My favorite is General Tso. Delicious. I should have ordered that for dinner last night, instead of pizza.” I look down at the two slices I brought from home. Keep talking, Rachel. Don’t stop. “I eat way too much pizza. I’m going to turn into a pizza.”
    “You’d be an adorable pizza,” Raf says. “Pepperoni eyes and tomato lips. I’ll switch with you as a precaution.”
    “Really?” So romantic. He hands me his container of chicken and I hand him my pizza—as well as my heart.
    Yeah, I know that was cheesy (wink, wink), and I don’t care.
    “Hey, Raf,” Tammy says. “I was just asking Rachel for more info on her family friend. The one who says she’s a witch?”
    Tammy! Get over it already! “Wendaline is a big joker.” I wave my hand. “Trust me. She was kidding. She kids around a lot.” Ha-ha.
    “She didn’t sound like she was kidding,” Raf says, unwrapping my pizza. “She sounded like she thought she was a witch.”
    “She was a hundred percent kidding.” My heart pounds extra-loudly If we weren’t in the noisiest place in the world, they would one hundred percent hear it.
    “Maybe she is a witch.” Tammy shrugs, as though this entire discussion is no big deal, and not the scariest conversation of my existence.
    Raf laughs. “Sure. And I’m a vampire.”
    Ha-ha. Ha.
    “You don’t believe in witches?” Tammy asks.
    My heart fully stops. It is no longer beating. I’m pretty sure I am now dead, or at the very least, in a coma.
    “Are you joking?” Raf asks, making a face. “You do?”
    Stop, stop, this entire conversation must stop immediately. I’m going to pass out.
    “I don’t know,” Tammy continues. “Maybe. Why not? Just because I don’t know it’s there doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, right?”
    Raf takes a whopping bite of the slice. “I’m more of a what-you-see-is-what-you-get type of person.”
    “Seriously?” Tammy asks. “Not me. I think there’s lots going on that we just don’t know about. Like in the water. When you go for a dive, you see an entire world that you had no idea existed from the surface. Sea horses! Cuttlefish! Blue devils! Barracudas! It’s overwhelming. One minute you’re on the boat, and the next you’re eye to eye with a hammerhead.”
    “Yeah, I think I’ll stay above the surface,” Raf says, laughing. “Not sure I’m ready to take on a shark.”
    Am I being compared to a shark? I’m mildly con-fused but relieved we’ve moved on to another subject. Kind of.
    “They don’t bite,” Tammy says. “Not much. Any-way, my point is that you never know. If she says she’s a witch—”
    Oh, come on, Tammy! We’ve moved on! Hammer-heads, give me more hammerheads!
    “—then maybe she is.”
    Wendaline is now done with the line and moving toward our table. She cannot sit here. No. It’s too risky. Blood rushes to my head. What if she tells them again that she’s a witch? No, what if she zaps something and shows them she’s a witch? What if she tells them I’m a witch too? What if they’re scared of me? What if they think I’m going to bite?
    Wendaline needs to find her own friends and stay away from mine.
    “Rachel,” Raf says, patting my knee. “What do you think? Do you believe in magic?”
    Blood. Rushing. “I—I—I—” I think I’d better cut Wendaline off before she catches the tail end of this conversation and ruins my life. I bolt out of my seat. “I’m going to buy a bag of chips.”
    I catch Wendaline and her lunch tray at the midway point. I take a deep breath to calm myself down. “Hey. Wendaline.”
    “Hi, Rachel! Thanks so much for saving me. I haven’t kissed the floor in the last hour, thanks to you.”
    “Oh, no problem,” I say wearily.
    “It’s been the worst day ever. I forgot about that whole bathroom rule again, and Mr. Stein yelled at me!”
    Great, now