Poppy's Garden by Holly Webb

stood still for a moment, with her eyes closed and her lips moving. They couldn’t tell what she was saying, which just made it all the more weird. Then she opened her eyes, smiled at Poppy and started to rub the figure out with the toe of her shoe, very slowly, very deliberately, watching Poppy the whole time. A small, interested audience had gathered, mostly girls from their class, pointing, and whispering.
    “That’s
horrible
,” Maya spat out disgustedly. “Poppy, come on.” She grabbed Poppy’s other arm, and she and Izzy hauled her back towards the classroom.
    “That was another spell then,” Poppy whispered as they sat down. “What do you think it was supposed to do?”
    “Nothing!” Izzy snapped. “Don’t even think about it.”
    “It was like she was rubbing
me
out,” Poppy said.
    Izzy kicked her under the table, but not very hard.“Smile. Now. Look as though you don’t care. They’re coming.”
    Ali and Lucy and Elspeth hurried in, huddled in a giggling group and followed by the other girls from the class who’d been watching.
Everyone
stared at Poppy.
    Poppy folded her arms and smiled as convincingly as she could. She had a feeling she looked really strange, but at least she was there, and she wasn’t falling over, or fainting, or whatever a rubbed-out person was supposed to do.
It doesn’t mean anything
, she told herself.
It’s stupid. It’s all rubbish.
    She noticed that Ali looked slightly disappointed, which was good. She felt pleased about that, but only in a vague, distant sort of way. Most of her was just desperate to go home and spend the weekend hiding under her duvet.

    “Guess who I saw on Saturday!” Maya came racing up to Poppy and Izzy on Monday morning, with Emily hurrying behind her.
    Poppy shrugged, and then felt a bit guilty and tried to look interested. She’d spent the whole weekend trying to forget about Ali’s stupid spells, and then suddenly remembering them and feeling awful allover again. On Friday night she’d even dreamed about that strange shadow figure. Ali had rubbed it out, but it had been the real Poppy who disappeared instead. Then the chalk figure had got up and walked into the classroom and sat down in Poppy’s place, and no one had noticed.
    She’d woken up crying, and her dad had come up to see what was wrong. He’d hugged her and made her a cup of hot chocolate. She’d been so upset he’d let her go downstairs with him to make it, even though it was about midnight. Then he’d sat on the end of her bed for ages, while she tried to get back to sleep.
    “Who?” Poppy asked.
    “The Wicked Witch of the West,” Maya murmured, leaning close. “And the other two. I can’t think of any more witch names… Anyway. They were in the bookshop.”
    “Exciting!” Emily twitched her eyebrows up and down, and Poppy actually laughed. It felt better being back with her friends, people who knew what was going on. She’d almost told Dad on Friday night, but she’d been so tired and jumpy and just plain scared that she hadn’t wanted to talk about it.
    “Shut up!” Maya sighed. “I went in with my dad,and they were there. You know Elspeth’s weird laugh?”
    The others nodded. Elspeth sounded as though she had the hiccups when she was laughing; it was unmistakable.
    “I heard her, so I went to see what they were doing. They were in the bit with all the health books – the section on healing and all the stuff that you like, Poppy. And guess what’s next to all the books about remedies?”
    “Gardening?” Poppy asked vaguely, trying to remember. Most of her books had come from the shop that sold the essential oils, not the bookshop.
    “Nope. Occult.” Maya looked at them all impatiently. “That means witchy stuff. And they were looking at books from both, Poppy. They’re right next to each other. That’s why they’re doing it! They think you’re into spells too. She said she was going to get you back in your own way, didn’t