Under a Spell by Amanda Ashby Page A

stinky, unfiled nails into my boyfriend.”
    â€œWhat?” Sophie almost rubbed her ears to make sure she was hearing correctly. “You think I’m trying to steal your boyfriend?”
    â€œ
Trying
being the operative word there.” Melissa gave an inelegant snort. “I mean, I know you’re no threat, but for some stupid reason he thinks that revolting piece of plastic that you insist on wearing around your neck is a lucky charm.”
    â€œYes, but that’s not my fault,” Sophie yelped. “And besides—”
    â€œDo I look like I care what you have to say?” Melissa cut her off before narrowing her eyes (honestly, she must practice in the mirror or something). “I’m just warning you that you’d better stay away from Ben. Oh, and while you’re at it, you can stay away from my brother, too. Do I make myself clear?” Then, without waiting for an answer, she sauntered off to where her look-alike best friends (Harvey liked to call them “the Tait-bots”) were waiting for her.
    Sophie gulped. Out of all the things she had thought Melissa might be annoyed about, she certainly hadn’t guessed that. The only problem was, despite what Jonathan said, she knew that no good could come from Melissa Tait’s trying to wage a vendetta against her. Which meant that if Sophie was going to have a perfect life, she would need to figure out a way to make peace with Jonathan’s (evil) sister. Luckily, she had magic on her side.

6
    A S WELL AS BEING A VERY POSITIVE PERSON, SOPHIE was also a planner. Her dad had often told her that everything was easier when you had a good plan. However, despite spending her last two classes trying to come up with ways to stop Melissa Tait from hating her, she still had nothing. She let out a frustrated sigh, put her blank list into her backpack, and pushed her way to her locker. As she did so she caught sight of Jonathan Tait.
    He was on the other side of the hallway with a sea of kids separating them, but the minute he saw her, he looked up and smiled. Sophie immediately put her hand up to her own so-straight-you-could-rule-lines-with-it hair and made a quick wish so that it suddenly had a bit more bounce and body. Then, once she felt it fluff up under her fingers, she returned his wave.
    He held up a basketball as if to explain that he couldn’t talk to her right now. Sophie gave him a goofy smile and then watched as he disappeared back into the crowd.
    â€œAww, that’s so cute.” Malik suddenly appeared nextto her. “But seriously, can I please go now? Because if I have to stay in this cursed place for one moment longer, then I’m pretty sure my brains will leak out all over the floor into a messy, slippery puddle, and innocent children might get hurt in the process. We must think of their safety.”
    â€œDo you think there’s any chance at all that you might be exaggerating?” Sophie said as she dumped her books off and shut her locker.
    â€œNo.” Malik gave an adamant shake of his head. “I can assure you that I’m underselling the situation, because seriously I had no idea that school could be so boring. So here’s the deal, if you let me leave now, I could probably still catch an early show of
The Wizard of Oz
to listen to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Then when I’ve got my va-va-voom back, we can do some more work on your transcendental conjuring.”
    â€œIs he still trying to leave so that he and Eric can watch a touring production of
The Wizard of Oz
?” Kara asked as she and Harvey joined Sophie at her locker and the three of them headed toward the library. Sophie nodded her head.
    â€œYes, but it’s not going to work since the last time he met up with Eric the Giant, he didn’t come back for three days,” Sophie said as they reached the library and made their way over to the beanbags in the corner. As soon as they got there,