Believe: The Complete Channie Series (6 page)

Channie waited a few minutes for Abby to calm down then said, “It’s an interesting name.”

“It’s Spanish.”

That explained the trips’ exotic good looks and dark coloring.

Abby picked a loose thread off the blanket. “Not much chance of you forgetting a name like that, huh?”

“No, but I already promised I wouldn’t tell anyone so quit worrying about it. What happened next?“

“He bought me a Coke-a-Cola.”

“Come on, Abby. You know what I mean. How’d you and Diego fall in love?”

Abby smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I went back to the bus as soon as I finished my drink, even though it was hotter than the gates of hell, and waited for Momma. I didn’t think I’d ever see Diego again, but the very next time we went to Walmart—there he was. I intentionally pissed Momma off so she’d send me back to the bus. As soon as I walked outside, Diego invited me to go to McDonald’s.”

“Wow. What’d he say when you told him you didn’t have any money?”

“He acted all insulted and said he’d never ask a girl out on a date and then expect her to pay.”

“So, what’d you get?” Channie had never eaten at a restaurant before.

“Cheeseburger, french-fried potatoes and a chocolate milkshake.”

“Was it good?”

“Oh man, Channie, you have no idea. If you ever get the chance to eat at McDonald’s, be sure you order those fried potatoes. You ain’t never tasted nothing so good in all your life.”

“So...How’d you get pregnant?”

Abby shrugged her shoulders. “Same as anybody else.”

“No, I mean you didn’t just...you know...do it right there in the parking lot. Did you?”

Abby laughed and shook her head. “No, silly. Of course not, and we didn’t do much more than kiss for the first couple of months anyway. But when the weather cooled off enough that the heat wouldn’t roast us like Thanksgiving turkeys, Diego borrowed his cousin’s pick-up and camper. Oh lordy, but we had fun in the back of that old truck.”

“In broad daylight?”

“We taped newspapers over the windows. Nobody knew what we were doing in there.”

Channie was willing to bet that Diego’s friends knew exactly what they were doing in there.

“What’s it like?” Heat spread from the base of Channie’s neck all the way to the top of her head. She dropped her gaze to the floor and watched a granddaddy longlegs slow progress as it crawled across the top of her left shoe.

Abby shrugged. “It’s not much fun the first couple of times, and the very first time hurts like a son-of-a-bitch. But it gets better with practice—a whole lot better.”

“Do you ever wish you would have waited? Until you were married?”

“Every day of my life. Don’t get me wrong, I love my boys and I can’t imagine life without ‘em. But it’s hard being somebody’s Momma when you’re only fifteen. Hell, it’s still hard, even at nineteen—especially with three of ‘em—but even if I hadn’t of gotten pregnant, I’d still regret it.”

“Because of the shame?”

“No. I ain’t ashamed of lovin’ Diego. But when you lie with a man, it creates a bond as strong as any binding spell. It links your hearts together so tight that any separation feels like you’re being torn in half.” Abby folded her arms under her breasts and rocked forward.

Channie said, “Do you think you’ll ever get married?”

Abby sniffed and dabbed at her eyes with the edge of a blanket. “I don’t know. I don’t want to marry nobody but Diego.”

“But, you’re such a flirt.”

“It’s just an act. If everybody thinks I’m a good-for-nothing, boy-crazy whore, it protects Diego. But if I moped around all the time and acted like a love-sick innocent kid they’d never stop trying to find out who ruined me.”

Abby was a lot smarter than she acted.

“How come you and Diego didn’t just run off together?” That’s what Channie would have done.

“Diego’s daddy ran off with another woman two months before we met. The lazy skunk left his family high and dry with no way to support themselves. Diego dropped out of school and started working two jobs just to make ends meet. He can’t desert his momma and little brothers and sisters. They depend on him.”

“That sucks.”

“It sure does. Diego ain’t never gonna get to hold his babies or tell ‘em he’s their daddy or nothing. I wish to high heaven I would have had the courage to tell Momma and Daddy to just go to hell and stayed with Diego.”

“You’re an adult. Why didn’t you?”

“On account of the boys. Diego and I can’t support ourselves and three kids. Not while he’s also taking care of his Momma and little brothers and sisters.” Abby swiped the tears off her cheeks. “Everyone says listen to your heart, but that’s easy. You can’t help but listen to your heart—the damn thing won’t shut up until you do. I had to choose between the only man I’ll ever love and my babies. It was a hard choice, Channie. A damned hard choice.”

Joshua

A
FTER
A
BBY
LEFT
, C
HANNIE
COULDN
’
T
fall asleep. It had nothing to do with sleeping on the floor or worrying about Abby's sad situation, or even the trauma of a new power name...and everything to do with kissing that tall, skinny boy in the park. She didn’t even know his name.

Her heart raced just thinking about that damn kiss. She tried to convince herself she was just worried about him telling the other kids at school. It was a legitimate concern. The past ten years at Wisdom Academy of Magic and Modern Living had taught her just how fast a juicy rumor could spread. The Academy was a private school for mages but there was nothing private about it. She doubted the gossip mill at a public school would be any less efficient.

So, Channie began her first day at Monarch High School with her heart in her throat and her stomach tied in knots. She did not want to start school with a bad reputation on top of everything else. And what would she say if she ran into the boy? Maybe he didn’t even go to this school. It would save her a considerable amount of embarrassment if she never saw him again, but she couldn’t deny the disappointment she felt when she considered that possibility.

The bike rack near the back door of the school was nearly empty. Two obviously expensive bicycles were stripped of front wheels and seats and locked up tight with metal bars that secured the frames to the rack. The only other bicycle looked like it was made out of scavenged parts from Pappy’s junk yard. Nothing matched and it was so small it looked like it belonged to a fourth-grader. It was also locked. Not that it mattered. No one was going to steal that piece of crap.

Channie didn’t have a lock for her bicycle. She considered pushing it into the bushes and casting a hands-off spell on the living plants to guard it, but Momma and Daddy had told her not to use magic at school. The chances of discovery were so low it was ridiculous. They had moved here specifically because there were no other mages in the area. Even if there were, they would have to discover Channie’s spell, trace it back to her, figure out Daddy was a wanted mage, and even then, they’d have to be an extraordinarily despicable character to rat him out.

Channie removed the seat and put it in her backpack then went inside.

Channie noticed several cute boys in the halls, but most of them already had girls hanging all over them. Daddy was right about one thing. If it weren’t for loose morals, Empties wouldn’t have any morals at all. One couple even walked by with their hands in each other’s back pockets.

The first bell rang just as the woman behind the counter in the administration office handed Channie an admissions packet along with a map of the school and a yellow strip of paper with “Locker number A-27 Combination 35-17-32” typed at a slight angle along the top edge.

Channie peeked inside her packet and bit back a groan. She was dismayed, but not surprised, to see her name listed as Chastity Belks. The spell Momma and Daddy used to change her name, magically changed it on every one of their new documents as well.

The woman said, “Hang on a sec. I’ll write you a pass,” then pulled a small pad of blue paper out of a drawer, signed the top sheet and handed it to Channie. It was an excuse for tardiness. The only good thing about her family’s move was that it had happened before the fall semester started. Channie didn’t want to be late on the first day and wind up sitting on the front row for the whole year. She wanted to sit in the back where she could keep an eye on everyone else.

So—she used an itty-bitty little seeking spell to find her classroom. The spell was so weak all traces of it would be gone before lunch.

Channie tried smiling at a couple of girls on her way to class, but they were too busy talking to each other to notice her. She had a little better luck with the boys, but when they did notice her, it activated Chastity’s energy. She didn’t want to curse anyone so she avoided eye-contact and hugged the wall on her way to class.

The teacher was already seated behind her desk when Channie walked in. The woman looked to be about a hundred years old. Channie handed the enrollment packet to her, tossed the pass into the trash and took a seat near the back of the room just as the second bell rang. The teacher pursed her lips, pushed her half-moon granny glasses higher up the bridge of her nose and opened the attendance book.

Oh lordy, here it comes
. Channie took a deep breath and stared at an ink stain on top of her desk, tracing it with a fingertip.

“Abrim, Joshua?” The teacher spit out each syllable as if the boy’s name left a bitter taste in her mouth.

“Yo.”

Channie glanced over her left shoulder and nearly fell out of her chair. Her eyes felt as if they were going to pop out of her head. Joshua Abrim was none other than the boy she’d kissed last night in the park.

He looked up and caught Channie staring at him. She whipped her head around so fast it shot a needle of pain down the side of her neck.

She didn’t need magic to know that Joshua was still staring at her. She read his energy field to find out how angry he was, but all she found was lust, anxiety and guilt. She was not surprised by the lust, he was a boy after all. She’d cursed him when they kissed so she understood his anxiety. But why on earth was he so full of guilt and remorse?

The teacher cleared her throat and said, “I expect my students to respond to roll call with ‘present,’ but if any of you find the pronunciation of more than one syllable at a time beyond your capabilities, you may simply say, ‘here.’ This is an advanced placement English Literature course. Surely, you have a basic grasp of the language or you wouldn’t be in my classroom.”

Channie was willing to bet her miserable life that this dried up old prune would insist on calling her by the name printed on her records every day for the rest of the year.

Sure enough. The teacher looked right at her. The wrinkled corners of her mouth twitched as she stabbed Channie’s enrollment papers with the tip of her fountain pen. She sniffed twice, wrinkling her nose like a nervous rabbit. “Belks, Chastity?”

The old biddy completely ignored the snorts, giggles and fake coughs that filled the room. She didn’t even flinch when some jackass shouted, “No way!”

Channie gritted her teeth. “Please, ma’am, just call me Channie.”

“I’m sorry, Chastity, but I do not allow slang of any type in my classroom and that includes nicknames.”

Humiliation and anger raised Chastity’s energy to dangerous levels. Channie focused all her attention on controlling her powers. If she let anything slip, there was no telling what might happen to the old crone. But once she calmed down to a safe level, she zinged her tormentor with a tiny little curse. She didn’t give Old Prune Face hemorrhoids. She just inflamed the ones she already had. 

As
soon as the bell rang, Joshua bolted. He was the first one out of the classroom.

Channie hung back and waited for everyone else to leave before slinking into the hall. She was glad that Joshua had chosen to avoid her rather than confront her, but she couldn’t deny the sting of yet another rejection.

She studied the numbers on the lockers, searching for hers, and almost ran into Joshua. She froze. Were the fates aligned against her? Had someone cursed her? What were the odds that his locker would be right next to hers?At least he was preoccupied with his combination and didn’t notice her.

Channie took two steps back, then spun around and ducked into the girls’ bathroom. The sound of girlish laughter followed her so she fled into one of the stalls. She flinched when the door swung open and hit the wall with a bang. Her stomach clenched when she realized they were talking about her.

“She has the most hickified, red-necked, southern accent I’ve ever heard. And get this…her name is Chastity.”

Channie squeezed her eyes shut.

“No way!”

“Yes, way. But you are not going to believe this…Her last name is
Belks!
”

Channie waited for the girl to burst into laughter, but there was only silence.

“I don’t get it.”

“Ug! You are so dense. Chastity
Belks
...?” More silence. “Come on! You have to know what a chastity belt is!”

“Sorry, Kassie, I never heard of it.”

“You are so naive! A chastity belt is an old-fashioned device men used to put on their wives to be sure they didn’t cheat on them when they went off to war.”

“Well, why didn’t the women just take them off after the men left?”

“Because they
couldn’t
. The belts were made out of iron and had locks on them.”

“That’s horrible!”

“Ya think?”

“And this new girl? You’re not just making this up? Her name, really-truly, is Chastity Belks?”

“Yeah, but she goes by Channie. She even asked Old Lady Windsor to call her that. I wish you could have heard her. She sounded like Oliver Twist, only instead of ‘Please sir, may I have some more?’ She said, ‘Please ma’am, just call me Channie.’ And instead of a cute English accent, she sounded like an inbred hillbilly.”

Chastity’s magic clawed at Channie’s stomach, desperately wanting to curse both girls. She wanted to crawl out a window and run all the way home to Arkansas, or at least to her new house by the park, but there were no windows and the girls weren’t done talking about her.

“So, did Old Lady Windsor agree to use her nick-name?”

“Ha! You know better than that. I thought Chastity was going to break down and cry when she refused.”

“I would have!”

Kassie said, “Of course you would have. You’re such a baby. But Chastity seems pretty tough. She’s probably used to people making fun of her by now.”

“Who in their right mind would name their own kid something like that?”

“Inbred hillbillies.”

The girls left, but Channie could still hear their laughter echoing through the halls, even after the door swung shut behind them.

She spent all of second period locked inside the tiny stall; crying silently and wishing with all her heart she was back home with her friends and family where everybody talked the same way she did and nobody made fun of her or talked about her behind her back.

The only half-way nice thing Kassie had said about Channie was a lie. She wasn’t tough, not at all, but if she wanted to get through the rest of the day, much less the rest of the year—she’d better change. Enchantment wasn’t tough, but Chastity sure as hell would be.

She blotted her tears with toilet paper then splashed cold water on her face until all traces of her emotional breakdown were gone. She looked at her reflection in the mirror, dropped the pretentious speech patterns drilled into her at Wisdom Academy and said, “Screw ‘em. They ain’t nothing but ignorant Empties anyways,” then stomped out of the bathroom with her spine straight, shoulders back and her head held high.

Her newfound confidence didn’t last five seconds in the crowded hall. Whispered comments and low murmuring voices followed her everywhere.

“Hey. There’s that new girl, Chastity Belt.”