Oh God. It's happening again. This isn't the first time Raven's decided to pick on us.

Hi. My name is Angelina, but people call me Angie for short. I'm 13 and in the 8th grade. I see that I didn't quite finish explaining myself earlier. Raven is a witch... Literally.

She can control people with a flick of her wrist. She can warp their words before they're even spoken. She was the first person I met when I transferred to school. What she's doing now isn't any different than what she usually does. Now, back to the moment at hand. She's making me steal a notebook from a classmate. I don't have any power over it. She's controlling my mind. She is overpowering me. She's also making my friend Cole make a mess of other kids stuff. She never gets in trouble!!

"Stop!", Cole says.

"Why?", Raven says back. She always has this punk-ass aura around her and she uses it to rule over everyone.

"Because I asked you to." Cole can be so stupid at times. He's new, so he didn't know that you shouldn't ask Raven to stop if you value your existence in life!!! It depends on what mood she's in. If she's in a good mood, at most you'll get a death glare and the occasional bucket of water dumped on your head. If she's in a bad mood... well, I'll just say that she breaths fire and shoots daggers from her eyes. Right now I'd say she's getting to have a fairly annoyed mood.

"Give me one good reason why. Why I shouldn't make you walk over to the window, break it and make you jump out of it?", she hissed. I was wrong. She's super mad. I look around at the mess we'd caused due to Raven's overpowering actions. This is what she does. She uses people to do her dirty work.

"Angelina, anything to say to him, before I make him jump out?" She walked over to Cole and pushed him towards the window. Raven is looking very murderous. I can see the fire burning in her eyes. This means she isn't bluffing. She will push him, out of the window, from the 2nd story of our school building. That is such a scary thing to think about. I feel bad for him.

"Raven, please don't. Cole, hang on one more second longer." I turn to leave, but then I feel myself turning back to face them. It's Raven. She is the one that made me turn back to see them.

"Think about what you're doing if you set foot out of this room. Hm? Is it worth the risk? You're basically trying to kill him. Now how would your clean, pretty soul handle that? Knowing that you killed this poor innocent boy. You know, your best friend." she fake empathizes. I know if I leave, she'll just make him jump. If I don't leave, she'll make him jump and find some other way of getting rid of me. It's a lose-lose situation. Crap. How will I be able to save him? Why does this always happen to me? I'm pulled out of all my questioning by Cole.

"Angie, what were you going to do?"

"I was going to go get help but now that's out of the ballpark. What do I do now? What can I do?"

"If you go get help, she'll make me jump. So, I guess nothing else." Cole is on the verge of tears, I can hear it in his shaking voice, I can see it in his watery brown eyes. Oh, I'd miss him if Raven did this.

"Don't think I won't do this, Angelina.", she smiles. Oh what to do, what to do.

"Take your time. It's just, the longer you wait, the less time he has to live.", she says in an ice cold voice that sends chills up my spine.

I'm saved by the bell that calls all kids back from lunch. Cole and I are both relieved. At least we're safe. For now, I guess. Raven shoots us the death glare and snaps her fingers, and the mess cleans itself up.

"See you around, losers." She cackles and then leaves the classroom. I squeeze Cole tight. As class starts, I think of how the kids would have been so scared if they had come in to see Raven in the bad mood that she was currently in. The teacher comes to the front of the room.

"Take out your textbooks and turn to page 37." As everyone turns their textbook pages, I see a note fall out of a page in the back of my book. I read it. "Meet me in the parking lot after dismissal." I'm being fairly stupid by going to this, but if I didn't, God knows what Raven would do to us tomorrow. I show Cole the note. He nods, as if he was agreeing to come with me.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Dismissal came as time had passed. I see Raven and her friend, Serena, walking towards us. God, their smirks makes me sick. I wonder if they're dating though, they're always together...

"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in. I think they need some help.", Serena sneered. Raven looks us up and down and shrugs.

"Well, and all the same to you.", Cole replied.

"I see I'm in the presence of a smart, geeky nerd who needs to be taught a lesson or two. But then you would have the advantage, you see.", she says back. Cole starts at her, but I hold him back.

"Not worth it...", I mutter to him.

My mind is basically saying, at this point, "Cole, stop being an idiot and keep your mouth shut, or I swear, I will duct tape and superglue your mouth shut for you." Oh, I think I sounded a bit like Raven there. Great. Now I'm making threats like Raven. But right now, more important, I see Raven's hands glowing green, which is always a sign she's going to cast a spell. A deadly one, possibly, her ice blue eyes piercing mine.

"There's a reason it's called an unkindness of ravens. Say bye to lover boy, honey.", she says to me, her eyes now green as well, her black hair blowing slightly to her left. She's scaring the living daylights out of me, and probably scaring Cole as well because he's shaking like an 8.5 magnitude earthquake. She turns to Cole. "Any last words?"

The next few seconds are in slow motion. Raven fires her spell at Cole, but I feel it hit me. I realize I had stepped in front of him. The Curse of A Raven. Feels as bad as it sounds. I feel really dizzy from Raven's spell. I feel myself fall over, but Cole catches me and lays me gently on the ground. I can see him, but barely. I can hear him, but softly.

I want to yell to him, but I just can't speak to him. Then pain hits every nerve in my body, leaving me unable to move, speak, or feel, and I realize I am paralyzed, as takes all my remaining strength to close my eyes. I have to leave. I have to let go. I wish him good luck for the oncoming storm about to hit him. The last thing I hear Cole say is, "What have you done!?"

----------------------------------------------------

Oh jeez, my head hurts. Imagine the worst hangover you've ever had, and multiply it by 10 trillion. There's a loud ringing in my ears, so that's not helping my headache. I know I'm conscious, but I'm also not conscious. Like I'm living in my head right now.

Hello... Oh great. There's good acoustics in here. Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do. I run through our choir songs for what feels like an hour, before I feel jostled, like someone's carrying me. They walk for a while before stopping and then start again. I'm starting to regain some feeling. I'm set down and feel something cover me.

When I finally do wake up, I find I'm in my bed, covered by my favorite blanket. I look at my alarm clock. 8:30. There's a glass of water on my bed stand next to my clock and Cole is sitting in the corner reading Harry Potter out loud. I stay quiet for awhile and listen to him read, because he's reading my favorite book of the series, Half-Blood Prince. When he does notice I'm awake, he puts down the book and moves his chair to my bedside.

"Oh thank God, you're finally awake. I started reading Harry Potter with the first book.", he says. Wow. For him to start with the first book, and now be on the sixth... that's a long time. As if he reads my mind, he says, "We got here at 3:30."

Five hours. Well, I had to write a horoscope for the school newspaper, but that's out... Or not...

"Can you help me write the horoscope for the newspaper? I want to do a funny one."

"Sure.", he says, moving his chair next to my bed and grabbing my lap desk and some paper.

"Aries. Let's start.", I say. We eventually end up with:

'Aries - Your itchy nose will go away after you suffer a week in agonizing hell locked in a pepper cupboard in a straight-jacket.'

'Taurus - Seek comfort in clothing today. Something terrible will happen to someone you hate. You may feel joyous.

'Gemini - The partner of your dreams will realize you are unworthy of their attention today, so stock up on junk food. And the rest of us are capable of sleeping without peeing ourselves.'

'Cancer - A lot of your work will be undone today as someone evil sets about making your life less nice. And yes, everyone is secretly laughing at your silly haircut.'

'Leo - The hospital may become a familiar place to you within the next two weeks, for reasons unknown. Any amount of feelings you have won't save you from utter failure today.'

'Virgo - Your aim to drink 10-15 liters of water today may come down on you when you're stuck in traffic. Your subconscious may rebel against you, forcing you to remember everything you blocked out.'

'Libra - Avoid questions whenever possible today and TIE YOUR DAMN SHOES!'

'Scorpio - You will find you are very like David Bowie and your magic fingers may be called into practice today. The government will not allow you to do what you want.'

'Sagittarius - Metal objects will interest you and your lucky drink for today is Coke.'

'Capricorn - A small chihuahua will find it's way into your garden and poop all over your favorite plants. It is recommended to set up webcams all over your house so you can catch all of your accidents on tape. In biscuits, one can find sweet, sweet redemption.'

'Aquarius - Lots of different shades of grey help you know that metal objects are 3D. Don't listen to haters- they're charlatans who'd as soon kill your firstborn as spit in your eye.'

'Pisces - 'Neptune goes retrograde after the tea harvest in Afghanistan fails. No one knows what this means and someone named Dave is going to contact you in the next couple of days.'

"I think this is pretty good.", Cole says, reading over what we wrote down. I agree.

"Yeah. Can you hand me my laptop so I can start typing?", I ask. He hands it to me and I start typing. "Did you get your article done?"

"Yes. I wrote it on what student council is doing for the months of October, November, and December."

I finish typing the horoscope and send it to the teacher who is in charge of the newspaper. I think this is one of the best horoscopes I've done in the time I've worked on the newspaper. The way it's set up is that there are 3 articles and then the announcement section and puzzles, followed by the comics, and on the back, there's the horoscope.

"Want to stay for dinner? It's chicken parmesan, and then you can help with math and I can help with social studies.", I ask. He nods and texts his mom while I get out my homework for math and my social studies book. He gets out his social studies work and we end up working until dinner, which my mom bring two servings of chicken parmesan on a tray and two cups of soda into my room for us.

"See, if I have the value of angle E, I can figure out angles F, G, H, I, J, K, and L, because of alternate interior, alternate exterior, corresponding, and vertical angles.", he explains after looking at one of the problems. I pause mid-bite of chicken.

"What? I have no clue what you just said.", I say, looking at him.

"Either that, or we work on functions."

"Ok then, angles it is." I put down my plate. He flips to a page in his math book and proceeds to explain how we can figure out 27 different angle measures from having 5 starting measurements.

After a while, I finally understand the angles, and he understands how the Federalist and Republican parties formed and on what issues they disagreed on.

"Dang. Hamilton and Jefferson... Wow.", he says.

"Yep. And see, even though George Washington didn't run under any political parties, he favored the Federalists over the Republicans, which made Jefferson upset. He tried to get Jefferson and Hamilton to work out their differences, but eventually Jefferson resigned. Hamilton also resigned not long after him."

"So... the Democratic-Republicans... became today's Democrats?"

"Yep. Today's Republican party originated in 1854.", I say. After another 2 hours, I fall asleep. I feel Cole lay me down and turn to leave, but I grab his hand and look at him. "Stay?"

He smiles and nods, turning off the light and climbs in next to me. I immediately cuddle up to him as soon as he's under the blankets. I hear him chuckle.

"You're adorable."

I fake pout. "No I'm not."

"Yes you are.", he says, pressing a kiss to my forehead. I giggle.

"You are so much better than him.", I say, referring to my ex.

"Urgh, don't remind me of him. I'm surprised Raven doesn't pick on him more... He deserves it more than we do.", he groans. I go quiet and it takes a moment for him to realize. "Sorry. I didn't mean to bring up a sore topic."

"It's ok...", I say, snuggling closer to him. After that, we fall asleep.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the middle of the night, I wake up to Cole running his hand through my hair.

"Nightmare?", he asks. I nod, wiping my eyes. "About."

"Raven.", I whimper. "She made you jump and then did all these horrible things to your body and..."

"Sh...", he says, pulling me into a hug as I sob into his chest. "It's all right. I won't let her do anything to you."

I eventually fall back asleep, holding onto Cole. I'm scared to let go. As if Raven's going to get me if I do.