Page 9 of Charmed, I'm Sure

Fern is giggling next to him as she takes a bite of her apple cinnamon muffin. Marnie smiles at her warmly as shelooks between the two of them. If I had to take a stab in the dark I would say that Fern knows something that nobody else knows. Especially with that weird, all-knowing twinkle in her eye.

“Of course, our lovely Fern is in charge of all the baked goods that will be there as well as the bake sale that she is hosting. We all look forward to the treats she will present, don’t we?” We all mumble a round of yeses. Clearly, I’m not the only one who would rather be anywhere but here today.

The last person at the table is Cas, or Casper if you don’t know him that well. He’s always a ball of energy looking for a place to explode. There are two topics you don’t want to mention around him unless you intend to spend the rest of your day listening to him go on and on. One of them is anything music-related. I think he knows practically every song invented, the bands, the producers. He is a well of knowledge when it comes to that. The other is anything to do with the witch movies in the regular world. It grinds his gears how the non-magical folk, or as he calls them, durps, portray us magical folk.

“Of course, Cas here will be our sound tech. Providing us with music throughout the day and into the night. He will be sure—” She glares at him for a moment,causing me to almost burst out laughing when his cheeks turn red and he ducks his head. We all remember last year when the mics weren’t plugged in during the duration of the elders’ speech. “—To check that the microphones are wired and ready for this year’s story, all right?” She leans in closer to him as her eyes harden even more.

“Ye—yes,” he stutters out.

“Good,” she says before turning to look at both Miles and I.

Oh shit.

“That brings me to you two. Since you are a last-minute addition to the committee, we had to come up with something for you to do. With Miles being new to town, and you—well, being you—we needed something that wouldboth give you a chance to show him how Samhain works, but also protect our citizens from—well, you.”

Miles nudges me with his elbow as he smirks at me.

“Damn Trouble, what kind of mischief do you get up to that has them worried about the town?”

I can feel my face warming as my anger rises. My dark magic sparks between my fingers, the purple light moving along my skin. As if she couldn’t be bothered with it, Marnie continues as if I’m not five seconds away from hexing her into the new year.

“You both will be in charge of the scavenger hunt for the younglings. Which means that you will have to come up with a list of ten or so items that they have to find around town, place the items around, create the sheet, print it off…You get the idea. How’s that sound?”

“Like a literal living nightmare,” I grumble.

“Like the best time,” Miles says at the same time.

“Good, I look forward to seeing what you two come up with. If there isn’t anything else that you two need then we will continue with the meeting?”

“I need an exit…”

“We’re good…”

Of course the golden boy is excited about a group project. Why am I not surprised? I can already feel the excitement pouring off of him and trying to taint my soul with his positive light. His aura is flashing between white, meaning he’s excited, to a light pink, which means flirtation. Meanwhile, I’m trying to think of any possible way that I can fake a death, maybe come down with malaria?

He nudges me with his elbow again, a bright, blinding smile spread across his face.

“We should exchange numbers. That way we can plan this out together. I know you are busy with the hexing business and your Curios & Curses shop. So, I thought maybe we can do most of the plotting and planning via text message with a few meet ups? How’s that sound?”

How does he know about my shop already? He’s been here, what? Twenty-something hours and he alreadyknows which shop is mine and that I do hexing as a business. I don’t even know more than his first name and that he’s a wolf.

I glare at him; he smiles brighter. Why does it feel like he thinks I’m flirting?

“It sounds like the worst plausible idea besides listening to Cas tell me about a soundtrack to a movie an eon before my time.”

“Hey!” Cas pipes up.

“Sorry, Cas, you know how much I dread those conversations.”

“Yeah, most people do…” He tucks his head to hide from everyone looking at him.

Miles leans into my space, causing me to lean back. His lips lift in a soft smirk as if this is exactly how he thought it would go.

“Come on, Trouble, it won’t be that bad. Plus—” He lifts the scone I didn’t touch. “I’ll bring you more of these if you agree to it.”

“Stop calling me that.”

“What…Trouble?”