Witch Is When Life Got Complicated Read Online Free PDF Page B

shelf of her bookcase to make way for the beanies.
    “Look, Auntie Jill. I’ve got five already.”
    “Wow! Aren’t you doing well?”
    It totally didn’t matter that they weren’t displayed in the correct order. I could live with it—probably.
    “Who bought you all of these?”
    “I bought this one with my pocket money, and Mummy and Daddy bought me the rest.”
    “I think this bear might like to go at the other end of the row,” I suggested.
    “Jill!” Kathy made me jump. I hadn’t heard her walk into the bedroom. “What are you doing?”
    “Nothing. Lizzie was just showing me her beanies.”
    “I like him where he is,” Lizzie said, after giving the matter careful consideration.
    “So do I,” Kathy said. “He looks just fine there.” She gave me that big sister look of hers. “Doesn’t he, Auntie Jill?”
    “Fine. I guess.”
    “Lizzie, why don’t you go and see if Daddy needs any help?”
    “Okay.” Lizzie dashed out of the bedroom.
    “Don’t you dare!” Kathy said.
    “What?”
    “You know what. She doesn’t want to alphabetise or catalogue them.”
    “I just thought—”
    “I know what you thought. They’re just toys.” She grabbed the beanies off the shelf, tossed them into the air, then gathered them up in random order and put them back on the shelf. “See! It doesn’t matter what order they’re in. Okay? Got it?”
    “Okay, okay. I get it.” That was so wrong.
    “So, when does Lizzie get to see your collection of beanies?”
    “I told you, I don’t have them. Why don’t you believe me?”
    “Because you’re a terrible liar. You always have been.” She turned and walked out of the bedroom. “And a horrible aunt.”
    Ouch. That stung.
     
    Once again, it seemed I was the odd one out. Everyone else appeared to be enjoying the barbecue. The smoke was making my eyes run, and I couldn’t face the charcoaled food, even though I was starving. To top it off, the council had chosen that day to cut down the tree that stood on the other side of the fence.
    “Why are they cutting it down?” I shouted over the noise of the saw.
    “We asked them to,” Kathy said. “It’s so old, and has grown so tall, it’s become dangerous. Every time there’s a strong wind I’m terrified it’ll come crashing down onto our house.”
    “I’m going inside until they’re done.” I gestured towards the house. “That saw is giving me a migraine.”
    I needed a snack, so began to rummage through the cupboards. How did they ever find anything in this house? I’d have killed for a couple of custard creams, but the only ones Kathy had were in the biscuit barrel mixed in with the digestives and wafer biscuits. Yuk. I had to make do with a packet of crisps.
     
    I watched Kathy, Peter and the kids as they played, talked and laughed together. Even though they were my family, I still sometimes felt like an outsider. I always had. Until recently I’d put it down to having been adopted, and maybe that was a part of it. But now I knew there was something much more fundamental that divided us. Kathy and her family were human; I was a sup. Discovering that I was a witch had, for the most part, helped me to see my life more clearly, but in some ways it had made things even more complicated. For example, if I was to marry a human, I’d be forced to live a lie because I’d never be able to tell my husband that I was a witch. I could marry another sup, but I hadn’t yet come to terms with the idea of marrying a wizard, werewolf or vampire.
     
    A cracking noise caught my attention. The road had been cordoned off so the tree could fall onto it without causing any damage to property. The workmen were screaming at one another—I could hear the panic in their voices. The tree had begun to lean, but not towards the road.
    I had never cast two spells at the same time before, but I was going to need them both now. The ‘faster’ spell kicked in, and I was outside and headed towards the kids who were in