Chapter 2

-Canta's POV-

"You seriously tried to kiss her?" Loche, my best friend, laughed. He brushed his black hair out of his black eyes as he threw his head back. "That's pathetic."

"You don't need to remind me," I said with a groan. I was currently lying on his bed because I would be saying goodbye to life if a demon was found in my house. We met on the first day of year seven, when he threatened to poke my eyes out with his pencil and turn them into marbles, we've been friends ever since.

"She knew that you were a witch too. Damn." He knew more than he was letting on, he always did. It was something that he and his mother shared. They were both extremely good at getting dirt on people, which made me wonder how she ended up with an angel once she split with Loche's father. "I wonder what she is."

"You know very well what she is," I snapped. I had my English book open in front of me, but I couldn't concentrate on any of the words. I really could've done with Juniper's help before the exams which are coming up.

"I know that giving her the invitation that you gave is very much taboo, and that she would've taken it in a heartbeat if it wasn't." He swung in his office chair, turning back to his IT work.

"Wait, so getting with someone is taboo?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. I rolled over so that I was staring at the patterned ceiling. "So, she's either a werewolf or an angel."

Loche hummed in confirmation.

"Canta?" Loche's mother's head peaked around the doorframe. "Are you staying for tea? We're making lasagne."

I sat up and shook my head. "No thank you Mrs.Arch. I think I should get home a little earlier today." I didn't know why I had to go home, I'd be met with an empty fridge and a freezer full of ready meals, but I should try to clear my head. I could probably do some alternative studying as well, to figure out why this girl irritated me so much.

"Okay dear," Mrs.Arch said as she moved away and headed back downstairs.

Loche let out a relieved sigh.

"Still don't get on?" I asked, even though I knew the answer. All I had to do was step into the house for me to feel the negative relationship that Loche had with his stepfather.

"We're not going to get on," he grumbled. "We're just not meant to get along and it's fine."

I bit my lip, beginning to get my stuff together. "Your mother's a demon too, you know? She managed to find something with him."

Loche scoffed. "She found more than something with him." His fingers tapping became the only sound in the room as I put my coat on and grabbed my bag. "I'll come to yours in the morning?"

"Yeah, think I'm going to head in early. Fifteen minutes earlier?" I asked. I don't know why I felt sheepish when it came to going in early. Maybe it was the reason why I was going in? To start putting my plans into action, to rid myself of the nagging feeling in my stomach.

Loche looked at me with the beginnings of a smirk. "Sure. I'll see if I can get any info on how to get her off you before the next full moon."

I opened my mouth to argue, but he quickly stood up and pushed me out of his room.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he called after me. "Good luck in English."

I turned to go back into his room and ask him what he knew, but my opportunity for answers escaped. He wouldn't tell me anything else. He was stubborn, and one of the most hated people at school. He was a bully and caused trouble any chance he got. But I knew that he cared, he was just after having some fun.

The sky was grey and gloomy like it always was in England. The walk to my house was just as it always was, long and uneventful, with a lingering annoyance due to my playlist not fitting my mood.

My parents weren't home by the time I got there, which wasn't anything unusual for five pm on a weekday. I went straight to my room, which looked like cupid decorated it themself. Everything about my room annoyed me. The bright pink walls, and the pink curtains, and the pink bedding, all of it was pink. Pink was a wonderful and useful colour for a love witch. It had to be my least favourite colour.

I got my camping stove out of my cupboard and put a pot on it, rushing around my room to gather the other ingredients I needed. I got Rose Quartz, Lavender, rosemary, and various other things that I could think of from the top of my head, and just threw them into bubbling rose water one by one.

"I am loved. I am cherished. I am worthy. I am valuable. I am the one you're looking for," I chanted as I stirred the mixture. It wasn't necessary, but I liked to say what I wanted to get out of the spell. I didn't want to risk any miscommunication.

It wasn't until I was finished did, I actually consult the books that I had hidden under the floorboards. I kept them hidden from my parents because I didn't want them to know that I actually continued practising magic after the age of ten, when I had a fight with them about how I was my own person, and didn't want to be forced to do magic anymore.

Magic in the community is something that many people had, but the sub-classes and abilities varied from person-to-person. My parents drilled it into me from a young age that they wanted me to be a powerful love witch, because they wanted me to get good enough that I would be able to charm a very powerful and rich person, so that I could make them powerful and rich. They had been researching this person for as long as I could remember, but I knew that they would likely be the most vile person on the planet.

I poured it into an unassuming Lucozade bottle so that nobody could see the liquid that was inside. I had seen Juniper drink this sometimes, mainly before her football practice. #Juniper Berry wasn't just some girl who had recently caught my attention because she wouldn't let me kiss her. I'd been interested in her since we started school, but it was nothing more than curiosity up until now.

I wanted to know how she was so good at sports, why she liked reading so much. I wanted to see her smile and stand up to the bullies which I knew existed. I tried my best to distract them, but they always went back to bugging her a little. I wanted to know what it was about her which drew me in so much.

Then this afternoon, she denied me.

I felt the love and admiration she felt. Her eyes always followed me when I passed her in the hallways. I knew that there was no chance I could be casual with her, because she didn't seem the type to partake in anything like that. I couldn't get into a serious relationship with her, because then my parents would sweep in like a tornado and ruin everything.

I held the potion tightly. I was determined to make sure that this worked.

The next morning came painfully slow, for me. I nearly forgot my tie at home, but my mother's shriek reminded me. I met Loche at my front gate and we headed to school, me practically dragging him behind me.

"Okay, spill," Loche said as we reached the school's green gate. "What are you planning?"

I held up the bottle in response, letting him figure out what it meant.

"That's a terrible idea," he declared. "It won't work, and she'll know it's you. She'll hate you for wanting to manipulate her."

I should've listened to him, because he was a very loud voice of reason. He was rational and was the bluntest person I knew.

But his words wouldn't penetrate my mind, as I put my plan into action.

I went to Juniper's locker and got out a key which I snagged from the office. There was always a master key kept in the office, just in case a student lost their key. I put the bottle into her locker and shut the door, pressing the key into Loche's hand.

"What do I want this for?" he asked with confusion.

"I don't know, you could take it back, or do something with that boy you have a crush on." I smirked and turned away from him, heading to my own locker.

Loche gasped dramatically. "I do not have a crush," he defended. "Especially not on a-"

I interrupted him, "don't think that you can lie to me. I know every crush and emotion in this school." I gestured around us. "He currently thinks that you're the biggest bully to ever exist, by the way."

"Wh-he does?" It was one of the rare occasions that I could get a glimpse of Loche's true self. Which was a rather insecure teen who hid his nerves behind a mask of violence and rudeness. "Not that there is a boy."

I laughed and shook my head, crossing my arms. "I told you; I know everything." I lifted my head high.

"And if you know everything, you know that it won't work." His voice became hard as stone. He then began to walk back towards the office.

"You know it's possible," I yelled after him. I was ignored, but his footsteps increased in page.

I sighed. Loche had a crush on an angel called Kavi, he was a close friend to Juniper. That's all I knew about him. Yet, every time I looked at Juniper, I noticed Loche looking in the same direction, It wasn't like the others, who I gave 'the eye' to. Loche would relentlessly complain that I was being stupid and idiotic, wasting time by staring at others. He had nothing to complain about when I looked at Juniper, because he had someone to look at.

Not anymore, this was me making a move. It doesn't matter how ridiculous of a move it is. It will work.