Chapter 7

Laurel didn’t usually risk a visit with Alison in the greenhouse when her dad was home, but she was too excited. It would be different if her mother were home, of course. She’d had to be very careful with her secret lessons at the start, but now that Clover was in Portugal for her festival or conference or whatever they called it, Laurel could get away with more.

Despite the chill in the late night air, Laurel snuck to the greenhouse in her bathing suit and turned on the misters. As usual, a lovely woman’s face appeared in the mist to talk with her.

“How was the dance?” Alison asked. The smile on Laurel’s face didn’t leave much question.

“So many boys wanted to dance with me, I can’t believe it!” Laurel said. “I barely had time to sit down and talk with my friends! Well, I mean, sometimes they’d ask and I’d say not right now, but then they always came back again later. Once, Cory and Brett asked me at the same time, and I thought they might get in a fight!”

“I’m so glad you had a good time,” Alison said. “Any special sparks with any of these guys?”

Laurel blushed and smiled slyly. “Artie put his hand on my butt while we were dancing,” she said. “Like, the whole time. Some of the other guys touched it - like by accident or whatever - but Artie pulled me in tight for a slow dance and that’s just where his hand was. It was weird being that close to him: I could smell his soap.

“And what do we think about this Artie?” Alison asked.

“He’s cute - kinda rebellious,” Laurel explained. “I’ve thought about, you know, being with him. But he’s not the one I really want. Matt is. We danced once, but Matt spent most of the time talking with his friends.”

“I told you you’d be fitting in in no time,” Alison said.

“Thanks to you,” Laurel said.

After a pause, Laurel spoke again. “How hard would it be to fix a deformity?” She asked.

“Really hard,” Alison answered. “A dozen witches as advanced as your mother could maybe do it, over a year. Plastic surgery is definitely the easier route. Why do you ask?”

“It’s Tasha - my friend Tasha?” Laurel began. “She’s so sweet and funny and nice, but life is so hard for her. Her face - one side of it is sort of droopy. It’s from when she was a baby, some kind of sickness. They didn’t have good doctors in the country she grew up in, so everyone calls her ugly and makes fun of her face and her accent.”

Laurel sighed. “Even when they’re not teasing her, they’re still mean. I talked her into coming to the dance tonight. I promised her that some of the guys would want to dance with her, but nobody asked her. So then I convinced her that she should ask them to dance. She’s super-shy, but she tried. I watched her walking toward where Noah was sitting with his friends. He saw her - I know he did! And he got up and left right before she got there. The same thing happened with Stephen.”