Read Online So Mote it Be by Isobel Bird - Free Book Online Page A

looked over at Tara, hoping she at least would be happy for her. Instead, her friend looked like she was about to start crying.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” Kate asked.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” Tara said quietly so that Miss Blackwood wouldn’t hear. “Don’t you get it? I failed the exam. That means I have a failing grade in the class. I’m going to be on academic probation, which means I can’t play in any games for the next two weeks.”
    Kate had forgotten about Tara’s academic troubles. She wasn’t the best student, and she was having a really hard time this year. Her grades in math and chemistry were borderline failing, and she’d been told that unless she improved them she would have to sit out two weeks’ worth of games. The chemistry midterm had been her last hope, and now she’d failed.
    â€œI studied so hard!” Tara wailed. “And I would have passed . . .”
    â€œIf it weren’t for me,” Kate said, finishing her sentence.
    Tara looked at her and didn’t say anything.
    â€œI’m really sorry,” Kate said. “I didn’t mean to do it.”
    â€œI even asked you to study with me,” Tara said quietly.
    â€œI said I was sorry,” Kate tried again.
    Tara didn’t say anything, but Kate knew she had done something awful. For the rest of the class, she sat staring at her test paper. The spell she’d done had given her a good grade, all right, but she had made a lot of other people fail in the process. Was it worth it? If things were supposed to be working out the way she wanted, why did she feel so terrible?
    After class Tara left without waiting for Kate. But several other people made sure they spoke to her, and what they had to say wasn’t particularly nice.
    â€œThanks a lot,” Robert said as he passed her on the way out. “Next time you plan on ruining the curve, make sure you let us in on it.”
    â€œWay to go,” said another girl, and Kate knew it wasn’t a compliment.
    â€œI got a failing grade thanks to you,” said Alan Folger. “But I’ll forgive you if you go out with me this weekend.”
    Kate ignored him and brushed past the other students waiting to insult her, and made her getaway. She was beginning to feel like there was no place in the school she could go where someone wasn’t angry with her. Even the sight of Scott walking toward her didn’t cheer her up.
    â€œHey,” he said. “What’s wrong? You look upset.”
    â€œI aced my chem test,” she said.
    â€œAnd that’s a problem?” Scott asked. “I’ve never dated anyone who was mad about being smart.”
    Scott put his arm around her and steered her down the hall. Having him next to her, Kate felt a little better. She felt protected and safe. With Scott there, it didn’t matter if people were angry at her. She was proud of having done well on the test. It wasn’t her fault the other students hadn’t done well. It wasn’t her fault that she was able to make a spell work.
    By the time she and Scott reached the end of the hall, she felt a lot better. When he said good-bye and went into his next class, she walked to her own class thinking that things would be okay after all. Her friends couldn’t stay mad at her forever, and people would eventually forget about the test. She did feel bad that Tara would have to miss out on basketball for two weeks, but she would find some way to make it up to her. Maybe she could even do a spell to help out.
    She was so busy thinking about all the things that were going on that she wasn’t watching where she was going. When she bumped into someone and dropped her books, she barely noticed.
    â€œI’m sorry,” she began, picking up her fallen books. “I wasn’t looking and—”
    â€œI bet you weren’t,” a girl said. Kate looked up. Terri Fletcher was standing in front