Spellbound

Chapter 1

It’s always embarrassing to have someone take you to school. Your dad, your mom, anyone with her hair in rollers.

But for my first day as a junior at my new school—a ridiculously expensive private school on New York’s Upper East Side—I was being walked to school by my baby cousin. A freshman.

It really wasn’t that terrible. Even though we grew up apart, Ashley and I were email buddies. She was a sweetheart, there was no doubt of that, but if my knowledge of the inner workings of my familiar old New Jersey public school, Keansburg High, meant anything, I knew that juniors did not hang out with the lower classes. It was like hanging out with a bunch of vegetarians and wearing a bacon necklace.

Talk about unwelcome.

But it was important to my aunt Christine that I got to school early and she was afraid I’d get lost. My great-aunt had taken me in over the summer, and I’d learned quickly that when she got an idea into her head, you were better off just going along with it. I didn’t want to argue with her—I owed her everything. My life, really. She’d been asking me to live with her ever since my mom died a year and a half ago, leaving me with Henry, my stepfather whose blood-alcohol content hovered somewhere between wasted and how is he even alive? But after he nearly killed me last June with his particular style of driving (i.e., blasted), I stopped resisting Christine’s offer.

Going from my aunt’s place at Park and Sixty-eighth Street to the school at Park and Eighty-sixth Street is fairly basic: walk eighteen blocks left. But since she had been pretty cool about everything—stepping in, giving me a place to stay and leaving me with a You’ll talk to me if you need to instead of hovering over me—I didn’t press it.

Ashley was a bundle of excitement as soon as she stepped inside the door of Christine’s three-bedroom co-op, her pink cheeks flushed, red curls pushed back by a black-ribbon headband. She’s several inches shorter than me—I wouldn’t put her past five feet. And that’s giving a generous allowance to her curls.

Hi Emma! Yay, first day! Are you excited? Do you like your uniform? I smiled back. Her joy was infectious. You couldn’t help but like Ashley—the girl never said a mean thing in all of her fourteen years. Then a black thought crept its way in: What if no one did like Ashley, and that was why she was so happy to have an ally? What kind of evil place was Vincent Academy, where someone could dislike a sweet little munchkin like Ashley? Calm down, Emma, you’re going to give yourself a panic attack.

My smile got weaker, and I smoothed out my long-sleeved white Oxford shirt and black, blue and green Scotch plaid skirt that mirrored her outfit.

You tell me, how do I look? I asked her.

You look fine, she chirped. But why the long sleeves? It’s soooo hot out. It’s going to be like, seventy billion degrees today! Don’t you have any short slee—

Ashley looked at the ground and blushed, her red cheeks now matching her flame-colored hair.

Sorry, I forgot about the scar.

The blazing scar from the car accident had made wearing short sleeves an impossibility. Thanks, Henry. You’re a champ.

It’s okay. I’m okay, I reassured her. "Don’t worry about it. Really! "I added when I saw the expression in her eyes.

She had always looked up to me, even though she lived in the city and I lived in the country, so to speak. Being two years older had its advantages.

And now the city mouse was taking the country mouse under its paw.

After Aunt Christine had slipped me a twenty-dollar bill for emergencies and sent us on our way, I drew in Ashley conspiratorially and asked, "So what’s the real deal on this school? I know the basic stuff, like how practically everyone goes Ivy League after graduation. But what’s this place really like?"

How I hoped, prayed, that it was like all those shows about rich, fashion-obsessed, drama-crazy New York teens who dressed like they were twenty-five. All the easier to stay in the background. I just wanted to get through the next two years and disappear to college. Preferably somewhere far away. Maybe Siberia.

They like to say it’s exclusive but that’s just a nice word for it being expensive. Ashley giggled, toying with her oversize hoop earring. It’s the most expensive coed school in the city. There’s a few girls-only or boys-only schools that cost more. So we’re like our own little, I don’t know, island, in the middle of it all. Everyone at Vince A more or less stays together.

Oh. I tried to not sound disappointed.

In my head, I began rehearsing what I would say about the reason behind my move. Ashley didn’t understand why I didn’t just say I moved from Keansburg, but then I told her how my high school paper insisted on doing a story on the dangers of drinking and driving, pegged to the incident with Henry. The editor was hoping to use her hard-hitting story as her one-way ticket into the journalism program at Columbia. I figured it doubled as her ticket to Hell. Those who hadn’t heard about Henry through the gossip mill read about it, front and center in the Keansburg Mirror.

Google me. Google Keansburg. Guess what your first hit is?

Alcohol Turns Home Life Tragic and Ride Home Dangerous for Sophomore Emma Connor.

So moving from Philly was the story.

Ashley gave me a cursory rundown of the school and some of the things I’d come to expect from high school. The principal wore horrible suits. The uniforms were itchy in warmer weather. The cafeteria food was comically terrible, but you were allowed out at lunchtime once you were a junior.

We crossed Eighty-fifth Street, racing against the yellow light and slowing our walk as we headed to the entrance.

Here we are! Ashley announced, throwing her arms open with a flourish.

I regarded the gray building in front of me. It was an old mansion that had been converted into a high school, and it sure looked the part, with cool stone walls and windows hugged by lavishly scrolled molding. Vincent Academy wasn’t too tall—just five floors, no taller than the stately, old-fashioned brick-and-marble buildings on either side—but to me, it seemed massive and imposing, like it was some bully crushing his way through a crowd of old ladies.

I was suddenly very, very nervous. Maybe the devil I knew was better than the devil I didn’t know? Should I have stayed in Keansburg?

We were early—frozen in an ornate entrance hall where, off to the right, was the office I was supposed to check into as a new student. There were a few kids around—students who looked like they were posing for the Vincent Academy brochure. Girls strewn about here and there, draped over high-backed chairs while they studied from thick textbooks. There were a few boys too, in dark pants, white shirts and mostly undone ties, lounging on a wooden staircase with a scrolled banister, or carrying a basketball and pushing open the double doors in the rear to what looked like a fairly large quad.

Vincent Academy was one of the only coed private schools in Manhattan, a fact, as I looked around, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be happy about or terrified of. As I looked more closely at the girls, I saw that they matched their pristine uniforms with heels and expensive-looking boots. I looked down at my black tights and scuffed Mary Janes through my overgrown bangs—which were cursed with a cowlick—and grimaced. Big diamonds glittered in the ears of a long-haired, fake-tanned blonde, who was scrutinizing a calculus textbook and managing to look glamorous while doing so. In my ears? A row of three tiny imitation-silver hoops that I got at Hot Topic. On sale.

I decided to be happy. I wasn’t looking for a boyfriend, since they tend to do pesky things like asking about your life and all that. I just wanted to be anonymous. And if this chick was any indication of what my classmates looked like, I was zero competition for any of these girls, who probably spent their morning putting on makeup and arriving at school in chauffeur-driven cars.

Ashley walked with me through the palatial hall to the office, her eyes eager to see a little bit of the hero she used to worship when we were kids. I smiled weakly and made a lame slit across my throat with my index finger. She laughed and I headed inside.

You must be Miss Connor. The woman sitting behind the tall wood counter regarded me with iron-gray eyes. They matched her gray hair, pulled into a tight, no-nonsense bun at the nape of her neck. She was even wearing a gray cardigan. I glanced at the nameplate on her desk.

No. Way. Ms. Gray? I blinked and looked again. Mrs. Gary. Close enough! I bet she was wearing gray granny panties, too.

Yes, um, yes, I stammered. I’m Emma Connor. How did she know who I was? How did—did you know that?

She smiled, and a very faint hint of warmth crept into those steely eyes.

You’re the only student I don’t know, and there’s only one new student due today. She smiled. Let me get your schedule for you.

I groaned internally. I had forgotten how small Vincent Academy was. Keansburg High had 650 students. How could I hide in a school that barely had 200?

Here you are, dear, the gray lady said, handing me my schedule. Your first class today is on the third floor.

But my locker, well, my locker was in the basement, in a row of old lockers so out of the way, they were always the last to be assigned, falling to latecomers like me and unlucky freshmen.

Stay there and smile, the gray lady instructed as I stood in the same spot, scrutinizing my schedule. Miss Connor, she snapped, her voice sharp.

Huh? I looked up, and she was standing behind some large beige contraption. Suddenly there was a flash. It surprised me—it was too bright, and I saw spots everywhere.

You can pick up your ID after lunch. In the meantime, please fill these out. Oh, great, that’s going to be an awesome picture. So sexy.

The gray lady handed me several small yellow forms, telling me to give them to each teacher as I walked into the room. I realized there was no way I was going to avoid the awkward Hey, kids, we have a new student here nightmare.

Please, oh, please, don’t make me have to introduce myself. Don’t make me tell them something about myself.

Hi, I’m Emma. I’m basically an orphan and my life sounds like a Lifetime Original Movie. My dad left when I was six. My twin brother died when I was fourteen. My mom got sick soon after that, and died when I was fifteen. I lose everyone I love. And this past June, my stepfather wrapped a car around a telephone pole with us in it. So now, I live with my aunt, I have no friends except for my cousin anymore, thanks to my jerk stepfather, and I still keep a journal with all my hopes and fears in it. Also, my favorite color is purple and I think baby animals are cute.

I finished signing my forms and returned to my cousin, who snatched the schedule from my hands, scrutinizing my teachers.

Your Monday through Wednesday schedule is almost the same. You have Mr. D for chemistry. He has people call him Mr. D because his name is so long. That’s good. He’s supposed to be fair, she mused. Ugh, Mrs. Dell. She suuucks, Ashley said, drawing it out dramatically. Sorry about that. But hey, we’ll be in the same class!

I looked to see which subject she was talking about. Latin. Wait, Latin?

I realized I had been put in freshman Latin.

I never really paid much attention to which classes I’d actually be taking. Christine was on the board at Vincent Academy and pulled some strings to allow me to take the placement exams late—which was why I was starting three weeks after the school year had already begun. I forgot that the Vincent Academy required students to take two years of Latin. All I knew about Latin was E Pluribus Unum.

I looked down at Ashley and tried to be optimistic about it. Well, at least I have a friend in class!

She smiled her billion-dollar smile and showed me to my locker, in a narrow hallway next to the chemistry lab and boiler room. I felt like some goblin, tucked away in the basement dungeon. I would not have been surprised if Freddy Krueger stored his books next to me.

"Okay, now I have to go to my locker. She smiled again, giving me an apologetic look. It’s on the second floor. I won’t see you until Latin, which is the last class."

After lunch, I replied woodenly. Oh, crap! I moaned.

What? Ashley looked alarmed.

I realized I couldn’t tell her that I didn’t want to go to lunch alone—and here, each grade took a separate lunch period because the cafeteria was kind of small.

Nothing, I said, throwing on my brightest fake smile. I thought I forgot to bring something.

Oh. Okay, well, I’ll see you in Latin. You’ll hate it, she promised, then added, but Mrs. Dell has a moustache so it’s kind of funny to watch it move as she says anything that ends in ‘-ibus.’ It truly … flutters in the breeze, she added dramatically.

I giggled, and gave her a hug.

Thank you, I said into her mess of curls, and gave her a bigger squeeze so she knew how much I really did appreciate it.

She bounced back to the stairwell and turned back to face me, looking older than the fourteen years I knew her to be.

You’ll be fine. Ashley looked at me solemnly with her giant blue eyes before skipping up the stairs, her overstuffed backpack bouncing up and down on her hip.

I eyed the emergency fire exit door and considered making a break for it.

Don’t be stupid, Emma, I whispered to myself. Just two more years of high school. It can’t be worse than living with Henry.

I shoved my notebooks into my locker and slammed the metal door defiantly.

Here we go.

Getting to school a little early was a good plan. My first class was still empty, so I was able to discreetly slip the form the gray lady gave me to my first teacher, Mrs. Urbealis, who greeted me warmly and said, Sit anywhere.

She looked sharp and clever. I figured I could ask.

"Anywhere? Come on, where should I really sit?" Back in Keansburg, I always had the third seat in the second row. In every single class. Enough of a breeze if the window was open, and if it was cold out, the first row got the brunt of the chill. Great seat. Sonny, the funniest guy in class, always sat in the front … Cyndi, our class president sat behind him. I stared at the desks, knowing that they had been unofficially assigned since the first week of freshman year.

Mrs. Urbealis broke into a knowing smile.

Okay, Emma. I would say, take that seat. She gestured to the last seat in the seventh row. The last seat in the classroom. If this were a chessboard, I’d just be a rook. Appropriate, since I felt like a rookie.

I smiled gratefully and sat down, pulling out my notebook and absentmindedly doodling on the green cover. I usually drew circles or loops … nothing meaningful. I got lost in my doodles, and started daydreaming. Maybe New York wouldn’t be so bad. This is the city that people spend their entire lives trying to get to, right? There were enough distractions … it wouldn’t be like home, where I knew everyone and was still so utterly alone.

I looked down at my green notebook cover and realized I’d just drawn a bunch of eyes. I shuddered at the ominous artwork and flipped the cover open, checking out the other students who had started to file in. They were all a little … glossy. I had wondered where everyone was right before the bell rang, then realized that all the girls must have been polishing their looks in the bathroom. Lips perfectly shiny. Hair brushed and freshly flat-ironed, or arranged in carefully messy curls. I self-consciously reached up to my cowlick, making sure it was behaving and staying in place, relieved to find it in line with the rest of my hair.

Good little soldier, I thought, patting my hair.

The bell rang, and Mrs. Urbealis called the class to attention.

Okay guys, you know where we left off. Let’s continue with Tammany Hall and the political machine. Please open your books to page 106.

I ran my hand over my history textbook, then turned the cover back. A large snap rang through the mostly quiet room as I broke the spine on my brand-new book. I could feel the eyes of every student in that room staring at me through my wall of hair, which was doing nothing to protect me.

Class, we do have a new student. Miss Emma Connor. She paused.

Please, oh, please, do not make me come up there and tell you a little something about myself.

Let’s make her feel welcome, shall we? Show her the Vincent Academy way?

She gave me a warm smile and I felt better, hoping, deep down, that the Vincent Academy way would be a good thing.

It turned out that my next class, math, was in the same room, so I just sat in the same desk, as did the girl in front of me. She turned around with a big smile.

Hi, I’m Jenn, she said with a big smile. Jenn Hynes. How’s your first day? She seemed friendly enough, the kind of girl I would have hung out with back in Keansburg. All those friends ditched me because they either were afraid of Henry, or were afraid of how it looked to be friends with me, the poster child for tragedy. I stopped getting invited anywhere, since I wasn’t considered fun at parties anymore. When I did bother to show up, I turned into the designated-driving police and was deemed a total buzzkill.

Oh, it’s okay so far. I tried to match her bright smile. So far so good.

Where are you from?

Philadelphia. I readied myself to churn out the performance of a lifetime. My parents—well, my mom, actually— Why not make it my mom who got the job? Yay, female empowerment! —got a job transfer. They needed her in Tokyo, and I didn’t want to go, so I moved to live with my aunt Christine.

Jenn seemed to believe my story, so I continued prattling on.

Yeah, my family decided to move, but I don’t speak Japanese, and sure, they have schools that are English-speaking, but I—I didn’t really want to go…. I trailed off and realized that she was staring at my necklace.

Hey, what’s that? she asked, pointing at the silver charm, which hung on a box-link silver necklace. Round and slightly tarnished, the charm was etched with a medieval-looking crest. It was a little larger than a quarter—a statement piece, my aunt had called it once—but I loved it. My hands instinctively went up to the necklace.

Oh, it’s a charm my brother, Ethan, gave me years ago, I said, toying with the disc. He said he thought it would bring me good luck. I just think it looks cool.

It is cool, Jenn agreed. Different. She brushed her pin-straight honey-brown hair back, and I noticed the Tiffany necklace glistening at her throat. Of course.

I took that as a cue to compliment her jewelry, which went over really well. Jenn seemed to decide I was acceptable enough, and asked if I wanted to sit with her friends at lunch.

The teacher, Mr. Agneta, called the class to attention, and called on me—a lot. I wasn’t sure where all my aunt’s tuition money was going, but it sure wasn’t into the math program. A lot of this stuff just felt like I had covered it sophomore year. I got every answer right, and felt a little satisfied with myself. Maybe today wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Jenn and I had the next class together—but she disappeared somewhere before I could find out where I was going. I flattened myself against a wall to avoid the crowd of students in the narrow hallway, scrutinizing my schedule and trying to figure out where to go.

Hey, newbie, need help? a deep voice to my left asked. I looked up … and up some more … into the blue eyes of an extremely tall blond guy.

Um, yeah, thanks, I mumbled. Do you know where room 201 is?

I’m headed there myself. I’ll walk you. He smoothed out his red tie. Anything for a beautiful damsel in distress.

Uh, thanks? I tried to keep the confusion out of my voice and failed miserably. Who talks like that? I fell in step beside him as we walked to the staircase.

I’m Emma, by the way.

"It’s very nice to meet you, Emma," he purred, a sly smile on his face. Blondo was attractive in that soap-opera way—tall, blond, definitely built—but something about the way he smiled reminded me of those National Geographic documentaries about animals in the African wild. He looked like a lion about to pounce. I felt very caribou-esque all of a sudden.

And you are …? I asked as we shuffled down the steps. It almost strained my neck to look up at him.

Don’t you know who I am? Blondy McBlonderson snapped, the smile replaced with a smug smirk.

Should I? I asked blankly.

I guess you’re not from around here, he purred, putting his palm on the small of my back. I quickened my step and he dropped his hand.

No, I’m from Philadelphia, I mumbled.

That explains it. Because if you were from New York, you would make it your business to know who I am. And I would definitely have remembered you.

The slick smile was back on his face as James Blond spoke directly to my shirt’s third button. Great. My first day and I attract the attention of the biggest manwhore I’ve ever met. I started thanking whatever lucky stars I had that we had reached the English classroom.

Uh yeah, well, thanks for showing me to class, I muttered, eager to get away from him. This guy had more lines than loose-leaf.

Oh, it was all my pleasure, Legally Bland said, leering at me. I’d always heard the phrase mentally undressing someone with your eyes but never had I actually seen it in action. This dude’s eyes could perform a freakin’ CAT scan, they were so thorough.

I spied Jenn and was thankful to see she had saved me a seat next to her, in the last row of the class. I practically ran over to her, and she introduced me to her friends Kristin Thorn, whom I’d recognized as the highlighted, tanned blonde I’d seen earlier, and Francisco Fernandez, a guy with a friendly smile whom I liked immediately.

Kristin looked me up and down as if I were dressed in a chicken suit, and not in the same exact outfit she was wearing.

So, like, you’re the new girl. It was an accusation, not a question. She tossed her long hair and glared at me.

Yes, hi, I’m Emma. I flashed an awkward smile.

So, like, why did you decide to leave … where is it you’re from? She sniffed, tossing her hair again and glaring at me like I had monkeys crawling out of my nostrils. I reached up and smoothed my cowlick, wondering if it was sticking out and flipping her off, based on the look on her face.

Philadelphia, Jenn broke in, giving Kristin a wary look.

So, like, did your family, like, throw you out? she sneered, punctuating it with another toss of her white-streaked hair and crossing her red-soled shoes. Of course she wore Christian Louboutin heels. My cheeks got hot.

So, like, do you have some kind of OCD that makes you toss your hair all the time? I mimicked her, meeting her ice-blue glare. Are you going to start counting things, and knocking on wood, too? I’m just concerned for you. I tried to make my voice sound sweet and convincing, like I really did have genuine worry over this glossy princess who had, for some reason, deemed me the enemy. But after my skeezy encounter with Blondo, my patience was wearing thin—and my sarcasm was evident.

I heard a snicker from the black-haired guy who’d just sat down in front of me, and I knew that our conversation had been overheard.

Great. So much for staying anonymous. Is it too late to transfer again?

"No, I’m fine. Don’t you even try to think about me." She bared a row of perfectly straight, bleached-white teeth that stood out in her fake-tanned face. White and orange, orange and white. This girl looked like a Creamsicle.

Kristin continued her nasty tirade. "I just think your arrival is … off. Why would you transfer out in the middle of September? Why not wait until the end of the semester? You don’t make sense. Why are you here now?"

"Well, you see, my mom got a new job. In Tokyo. So I decided to stay in the States with my aunt Christine. Christine Considine." I emphasized my aunt’s last name—she had some serious pull at that school and if Blondo can pull the Don’t you know why I am? move, why couldn’t I?

A slight look of surprise replaced her scowl, but she kept up with her inquisition.

So where are you actually from, though? she asked me, Emma the cockroach.

Philadelphia. Did she not hear Jenn say it?

Hmm. She pursed her shiny lips. My brother is at boarding school outside of Philadelphia. What school was it?

Oh, it wasn’t a boarding school … you wouldn’t know it. I stalled. Crap. Crappity crap crap! Why hadn’t I decided to pick a fake alma mater? Knowing my luck, it would be her brother’s high school. She would own the high school. It would have a wing named after her family. The Creamsicle Wing.

Well, come on, Emma. The way she said my name was as if she was spitting out sour milk. Was it Delbarton? Pingry? Which one?

My mind raced, flipping through everything I knew of Philadelphia. What was there? The Liberty Bell? The Phillies? Cream cheese? Oh, yeah, Cream Cheese High School. Brilliant, Emma.

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