Page 16 of Isabella and the Slipper

Isabella sat on the edge of her bed and stared at the floor. She didn’t want to mislead him, but she didn’t want to tell him the whole truth, either. “Yeah.”

“Man, she really is a witch, isn’t she? What does your dad say?”

Her throat felt tight, and she had to force the words out. “He died when I was twelve.”

“Aw, man, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

His voice sounded so remorseful that she wanted to console him. “It’s okay.”

She heard rustling noises on the other end of the line. “What are you doing?”

“Just stretching out on my bed.”

She laid back on her pillows. “Me, too.”

“Thanks for listening to me, Five.”

A warm feeling started in her chest and moved through her. “Sure.”

“Talk to you tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Tomorrow. Bye.”

“Bye, Five.”

He hung up, and she set her phone on her nightstand, her emotions running wild. Chase actually called her and talked to her on the phone. Chase Hawkins. Talked to her. He said she was easy to talk to. She clutched her fists to her chest, her heart beating hard against her ribs. She was going to float through her school day tomorrow, waiting for the next time she would talk to him.

Chapter 5

Chase dropped his books on his desk and sat down. The last period of the day. He actually liked the class. Physics with Mr.Morgan. He liked learning about force, power, and motion. It made sense to him. The tests were easy, and Mr.Morgan made the lectures fun.

But today he couldn’t get rid of the anxious feeling he had. He wanted to call Five. His mother had set up another audition for the weekend, and he wanted to talk to her about it. Plus, he wanted to thank her. He’d been a little worried when he came to school that morning, but Five had kept her word. She apparently hadn’t told anyone about what he’d shared with her.

Mr.Morgan walked in the classroom and grinned. “Beginning-of-class joke. A neutron walked into a bar and asked how much a beer was. The bartender said, ‘For you, no charge.’”

A few students laughed, a few groaned, and Mr.Morgan clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “We’re at that point in the year, folks. It’s time to start working on our science projects.”

More groans came. Mr.Morgan shook his head. “Now, it’s not that bad. Our projects are going to be fun.” He picked up a stack of papers. “I’m passing out some ideas for you. We’ll be pairing up for this, so students in the front row, you’ll partner with the student behind you. We’ll continue this down the rows.”

Chase took the stack of papers and pulled the top one off, then handed them down the line. Mr.Morgan made a motion with his hand. “Go ahead and turn your desks around. I want you to spend the rest of the class collaborating. This project will be worth one-quarter of your grade, so take it seriously.”

Scraping noises filled the classroom as the students obeyed. Chase lifted his desk and turned it to face his partner—a girl with long, brown hair and owl-like glasses. Her eyes were wide, like she was in shock. Sometimes people were a bit intimidated by him, so he gave her a smile to put her at ease.

“Hi.”

She nodded but didn’t say anything.

He tried again. “I’m Chase. Guess we’ll be working together on this one.”

Her face drained of color and she looked like she was going to faint.

The poor girl.

She nodded again, then cleared her throat. “Hi.”

“What’s your name?”

She swallowed hard, staring at him with big, brown eyes. “Isabella,” she said, in almost a whisper.

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