CHAPTER 23

The Witch

Ava loved witches. So for Halloween, she dressed up as one. Then Classroom 13’s cursed candy turned her into a real witch—only not a very good one.

Upon realizing she was a witch, Ava screamed with glee. She pulled out her wand and said, “What should I do first?”

Preeya and Mark were arguing over who was more royal. “You’re both royal pains in the logs, so why don’t you turn into a couple of frogs!”

The wand zapped them. Only they didn’t turn into frogs. They turned into butterflies. The two fluttered around the room for a bit and then turned back into a prince and a princess—except with big colorful wings.

“Okay, well, I’ll try again,” Ava said. She looked around the room. Teo had always reminded her of her little brother, so she decided to cast a spell on him. “Teo the Reaper smells like feets, so let him transform into a bag of dog treats!”

Once again, the spell went wrong and instead turned Teo into a big ice cube. When he eventually melted, he was going to be mad. Ava was worried. “I should probably get out of here before the grim reaper gets me. At least I have a broom.”

But when Ava tried to fly, her broom acted like a wild bronco at a bull-riding competition. It bucked and it bucked until it threw her off. It would have been easier to ride a two-headed horse.

“Being a witch is hard!” Ava said.

It’s true. Being a witch is hard. Emma (who was an actual witch) could have told her that, but Emma wasn’t herself today. She was—well, we’ll get to her soon enough.…

You see, a person can’t just wake up one day and be a magic-using witch. They have to go to school to learn spells and charms and how to ride a broom. They have to take algebra and biology and practice, practice, practice. It takes years! Now that I think about it, a witch school is just like a real school. Only harder. Witches don’t even have weekends off.

But Ava wasn’t the type to give up. She was a hard worker, and she didn’t mind practicing, even if she got things wrong the first few times.

“Abracabadbra, Alec-Azam, and Fitchety-Switch! If I’m going to have magic, make me a powerful witch!”

The wand spell flew out, zipped around, and struck Ava. Suddenly she was powerful—and green?! “No, no, no!” she said, running to look at herself in the mirror. Her skin had turned green, her ears had become pointy, and her nose had grown long and covered in warts. “Aww, darn it. My life is a fart,” she said.

Her wand made her fart.

“Hey! That wasn’t even a spell!” she shouted. She broke her wand in half and vowed to never do magic again.

I guess someone should have warned her—be careful what you witch for.