Twinkle

Katelyn opened her eyes to find a new emptiness in the depths of her heart. Today was another day of school. She felt a sense of foreboding, but she got dressed and stepped into the main hall of Naji’s apartment.

“Good morning,” a woman with dark brown hair spoke from a chair next to Naji. The woman had pale skin and dark eyes like Katelyn. She wore a black shirt with sheer sleeves and blue skinny jeans. “Do you remember me? I am your aunt, Twinkle Valedette.”

Naji sipped tea from her cup. Her silver chandelier earrings dangled against her dark skin. Katelyn could feel Naji’s sadness that Katelyn and her aunt did not know each other very well. Katelyn found it odd since Naji did not seem to have that close of a relationship with her own brother, but perhaps Katelyn just did not know either Naji or her brother well either. Naji had warned Katelyn that her aunt was coming, but Katelyn had not thought it would be so early in the morning. Katelyn felt tense.

She wanted to run away. She felt trapped, unable to escape her fate. Katelyn did not know her aunt. Now, she would have to stay with this woman. What had Katelyn been thinking in turning her parents in? They had killed Victoria. Katelyn tries to remind herself of this, but all she feels is emptiness, as if she cannot truly feel Victoria’s absence. Surely, Victoria is still out there somewhere and will return someday to smile back at her. The murder had been too peaceful. Real murders are not like that. It was surely just all in her head.

She closed her eyes. She was driving herself crazy with these thoughts.

“Have some breakfast, Katelyn,” Naji whispered.

Katelyn poured cereal into a bowl with some milk and quietly nibbled on it. Katelyn was sure that Twinkle said something, but she blotted it out and stared into the bowl. She did not like these changes. It was not that she was averse to change. She would have loved some kind of change that actually helped her somehow, but so far everything had gotten worse. Her parents were on trial. Her mentor was gone. Her friends probably hated her, even they ever were friends to begin with. Most people did more with their friends. Katelyn just used hers. They were nice people, and she never did anything nice for them. She was just a burden.

“Let’s go,” Twinkle instructed Katelyn calmly. Confusion filled Katelyn. Go where? She followed her aunt anyway.

Her aunt had an ordinary white car. Katelyn sat in the passenger’s seat and closed her eyes. “I’ll see you after school,” Twinkle assured Katelyn.

Katelyn opened her eyes. She was in front of her school. Right, she thought. It’s Friday. She got out of the car and walked into the school. Charlotte and her friends were talking outside Miss Corinne’s office. Katelyn felt a stab of jealousy.

Miss Corinne, who was standing near them glanced at Katelyn. “Katelyn, have you decided whether you will be Carrie?” she asked.

Katelyn paled and glanced across Charlotte and her friends. Great, she had to ask in front of them. Do I really want to be in this play with everything going on with my parents, the election, and witches? She closed her eyes. “Yes, I will.” She spoke on instant, without much consideration, but she knew in her soul that this was what she wanted. She opened her eyes.

“Good,” Miss Corinne responded, and she went back into her office. Katelyn walked to class as the regret began building in her heart. She should not have presumed that she could do so much. Everyone would criticize her, and she would never be able to do it. There was so much pressure, so much hatred of witches, and she would just be showing the entire viewing audience how much sympathy she held for witches if she did not show them that she was a witch. The only positive would be if all those people that hated witches did not show up, because they did not like Miss Corinne, but Katelyn also wanted people to see her and appreciate her.

Katelyn barely paid attention in class. Ki was nowhere in sight, and Hanna seemed to be avoiding Katelyn. At lunch, Hanna was laughing with her lab partner. Katelyn felt an ache. Her ‘friends’ were not loyal to her. They would find other friends and drift away. She turned away from Hanna and went outside as the tears streamed down her face. Hanna deserved better than Katelyn. Katelyn should let her do as she wanted and be friends with whoever she wanted, even love whoever she wanted, but it still hurt. How could she be understanding when everyone around her was leaving her?

The play could be different. It could be her big opportunity to get to something else, but she felt like it could not be all she imagined it to be. Nothing ever changed except for the worse. Everyone hated Carrie, and everyone would hate her. They might hide it and like her on the surface sometimes, but inside they did not care about her or where she was. Her existence was a nuisance to them. She would always be a nuisance to them. Today, would be another boring day, and it would go nowhere, and she would get nowhere. She could join as many extracurricular activities as she wanted, but she would ever get anywhere. She did not deserve Carrie.

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Katelyn burst into tears from the weight of the harsh words she was drilling into her head. She rested her head on the desk to hide her tears from her classmates. She did not want to appear weak and pathetic. The day flew by in a flurry of those tears, as she tried to forget that by not paying attention in class she would only be falling more behind.

Somehow, she found herself stumbling into the rehearsal area below Miss Corinne’s office. The other actors did not even look up when she walked in. They were all sitting on benches around the perimeter of the room reading their scripts as they waited for Miss Corinne to return from wherever she had gone. Katelyn felt out of place with no script when these other actors had spent so long preparing already. It was like a twisted joke that Katelyn could be there pretending to be there pretending to be anywhere near as good as them.

“Students, we have found our Carrie!” Miss Corinne announced entering the room behind Katelyn and laying her hands on Katelyn’s shoulders. All the actors looked up at the sound of their teacher’s voice and then they glanced over Katelyn. Katelyn felt a flash of nervousness, but the other actors’ gazes quickly returned to their scripts, and a wave of disappointment swept over her. Did they really not even care? She thought she had finally accomplished something, and it still meant nothing to them, because none of them wanted the role anyway. Katelyn did not even know why.

Miss Corinne handed Katelyn a script. Despite herself, Katelyn felt almost excited to see what adaptations Miss Corinne had actually made to the novel to make it interesting as a play that would make everyone so apprehensive about the role. Mrs. Frélein’s complaint could amount to nothing, as that teacher could be offended over the original story, but for no one else to have wanted the role, there must actually be something going on with the role. Katelyn probably should not have taken it. People would criticize her.

“Students, do you realize how great it will be to have someone with powers,” Miss Corinne continued. The colour drained from Katelyn’s face. Surely, she would not have to use her witch magic in public for the play. That would be illegal, wouldn’t it? The students grumbled in disagreement. Meleena gave Katelyn a sharp glance, and Katelyn suddenly saw a flash of herself shoving Meleena across the bus with her magic. “Of course, we will use special effects, but it will be good to have some real telekinesis.”

“Careful how much you promote that stuff unless you want to get in trouble,” Meleena muttered under her breath. Charlotte, who was sitting next to Meleena, turned her gaze towards the ground.

“Oh, nonsense,” Miss Corinne responded. “People are becoming more understanding with the trial and everything.” She glanced cautiously at Katelyn. “Anyway, we will have to run Katelyn through the scenes and get her up to speed for the performance.”

Miss Corinne crossed to the other side of the room. Charlotte gestured for Katelyn to sit with her and Meleena, probably noticing how awkward she looked standing near the door. The play was close enough to the book that Katelyn caught on fairly quickly, but she spoke her lines dispassionately, her mind elsewhere. What would her parents think of her now, practicing this play? What would her mysterious Aunt Twinkle think?

Katelyn left the practice after they ran through lines without action. She knew they would focus on specific scenes for the next few days, and the other students would not always have to attend. Meleena and Charlotte would still be important, though, as Chris and Sue. Katelyn knew the adaptation was commenting on the state of witches, because Carrie was a witch in this adaptation. It would start in the same manner, with Carrie having her period in the shower room and the other girls bullying her. It would be unpleasant to act that scene. The telekinesis, however, would be modelled on Katelyn’s own telekinetic powers using the symbols that distinguished witches—the red colour of her magic and the way it lit up her features when she used it. Somehow, Miss Corinne had acquired permission to use Katelyn’s powers in the play. It was going to be dangerous, but she did not want to focus on it just yet. She would look through the script on her own later.

Katelyn’s Aunt Twinkle waited outside by her car. “Joined the school play, have you?” Aunt Twinkle commented.

“How did you…?” Katelyn questioned.

Aunt Twinkle sighed. “It is gaining popularity. Apparently, Miss Corinne has radical ideas. Besides, waiting that long to pick an actress, she clearly wanted you.”

Katelyn got in Aunt Twinkle’s car without commenting, even as she felt a sense of dread since Miss Corinne had clearly wanted Katelyn for the role because she was a witch with telekinetic powers. Katelyn leant her head against the window and closed her eyes. What had she agreed to? And, why of all situations to allow witch magic did the government think a play would be appropriate? They were not okay with it being used for healing, but they were perfectly fine with it being used for entertainment. It was probably gaining popularity, because the deeply conservative region strongly disapproved of it. Clearly, Meleena was less anti-witch than the majority. Unless there was something else going on in which case Katelyn was most definitely in danger.