Three Little Witches

Olivia Scheetz

World Lit. Honors Period 6

Ms. Bennett

23 April 2015

Three Little Witches

I dove out of view, between the bush and the building. I sat, pressing myself against the wall, trying to see if it was possible for a person to dissolve into their jacket. I wasn’t dissolving, but I was trying; I had already buried my face into the neckline, stretching the worn threading of the hood.  The branches of the bush cradled me tight, and in the rustling of her leaves, I heard her tell me that everything was going to be okay.

I could hear their laughter, deceptively sweet, mocking me. I thought they were my friends, because they were the ones who I told my secrets to, the ones who I laughed along with. I told all three of them who I liked, what I didn’t, and I should have realized that they didn’t approve of me, because not once did they tell me something in return. Our fictitious friendship didn’t last long. They started running away and hiding from me, and I just didn’t get it, because it never occurred to me that people I considered friends wouldn’t want to play with me. They continued running away and hiding until I got the hint, and suddenly the places were reversed. Now I was the one who was avoiding them.

I had endured so much betrayal. My heart rate sped up and I felt an angry red flush spread across my cheeks. Their insincere words and smiles were like knives, slashing through my chest. I gave them my heart, and they threw it in their cauldron, as they had with all the other hopefuls before me. What did they want? For me to go run and cry? To get some kind of crazy reaction? Well, I was stronger than they were. Or so I hoped.

As they got closer to the shrub that was protecting me I heard one of them call out, “I see her over there! Behind the bush!”

No, no, no, why can’t you leave me alone? You were avoiding me anyway! GO AWAY! They skipped up and she stuck her face uncomfortably close to mine. I cringed away, hoping that the three of them would get the message and leave.

“I’m-we’re-sorry,” she breathed into my face, as if she just remembered that she wasn’t the only culprit, her sour breath only making me want to escape even more. I had a hard time believing her, because her friends were snickering and teasingly poking each other behind her. I could feel my frustration bubbling up, red hot and ready to erupt, right along with my tears. I was trapped, with my back against the wall, and them blocking the only exit.

I couldn’t think, only let the chaos of emotions crash over me like a rogue wave, pulling me out to sea until I could barely breath. I was drowning in fear and fury. This isn’t right. I don’t deserve this. I was nice to you! Why are you doing this to me? I’ve been a good friend to you… Haven’t I? I was suddenly second guessing myself. What if I actually deserved this? Had I done something wrong? Why were these girls so cruel?

And it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but I reacted blindly, not seeing how badly things were going to go after this, how suddenly I was going to become the bad guy. My brain was telling me to do multiple things at once: run, hide, stand up for myself. In an instant, I lunged out like a wild animal, my hand connecting with her cheek.

I heard her cry of shock, of disbelief that I could ever do something like that to her. But I was out from under her enchantment. I didn’t care what she thought of me anymore.

I darted past the other two, making my mad dash for freedom. I could see out of the corner of my eye that one of them was trying to kill me with her glare, but I was so caught up in sprinting as fast as I could, that I didn’t see the other run for a faculty member.

A yard duty quickly caught up with me, and held my shoulder too tight with her big, grown-up hands. The girls cast smug looks at me, and big, innocent eyes at the yard duty. The person who was supposed to be on my side, or at least not be biased, looked at me and asked me why I hit the other girl, her face unsympathetic. But I could tell that she didn’t really care what I had to say. They had already cast a spell on her.

I burst into tears, sobbing out that it was all their fault because they were the ones being mean to me in the first place, they were the ones who left when I wasn’t paying attention, the ones who stopped talking when I walked up. I had opened myself up to them, and they took advantage of my adoration, and I just wanted to be left alone with my humility and shame. But they had to come and rub it in my face that I would still be a nobody, and although they had tormented me so much, they would find a way to make sure that they were never seen as anything less than perfect. In the end, they would still be flying high in the clouds, on their broomsticks.

Her face indifferent, the yard duty told me coldly, “Well, we’ll just have to see what your teachers have to say,” and led us, them, the three little witches, and me, off to the classrooms, where the teachers sat like apathetic judges, uncaring of my pleas.