Circle of Secrets by Kimberley Griffiths Little Page A

goin’ first?” Ambrose asks.
    “New kid always goes first,” Tara says. “So, Shelby. Tell us something bad you’ve done. And you gotta make it good. I mean bad. Something real good bad.” And then she and Alyson start giggling.

C HAPTER N INE
    I TRY TO THINK OF SOMETHIN’ THEY WANT. “Y OU MEAN LIKE the time I yelled at my grandmother when she made me do the dishes for a month straight?”
    “Why’d you have to do dishes for a whole month?”
    “Talking back about chores and rules, stuff like that.”
    “Not near bad enough,” Tara says. “That happens every day in my family.”
    Alyson’s forehead wrinkles. “Tell us about your swamp witch mamma. Does she have a black cauldron in the backyard?”
    I snort. “No! That’s just stupid.”
    “Hey, watch who you’re calling stupid,” Tara says.
    “Didn’t mean nothin’ by it,” I mutter. My heart ispounding so hard the sound whooshes inside my ears, making me feel dizzy.
    “I know,” Tara says, snapping her finger. “Let’s give her a Dare instead. She has to make a choice. Bring us back her Mamma’s spell box — or jump off the end of the pier.”
    “Hey, Tara,” T-Beau says. “We never made nobody else jump off the pier their first day.”
    Tara looks me up and down and gives me a sweetly sly smile. “But Shelby’s real brave, don’t you think?”
    My hands close into fists and sweat breaks out on my forehead. No way I’m messing with Mirage’s spell box, let alone taking it out of the house. I’d get in trouble for the rest of my life. And no way I’m jumping off that pier into deep water with gators.
    “Seeing a witch’s spell book would be great,” Alyson says. “We could try a potion, turn Ambrose into a frog or somethin’.”
    Ambrose chortles with laughter, and his stomach jumps up and down. “I’ll make you a toad, Alyson,” he shoots back. “Or a cockroach.”
    “I won’t settle for nothin’ less than a frog princess, Ambrose Guidry,” Alyson says, almost like she’s flirting. I wonder if she secretly likes him.
    I don’t make a single peep, hoping they’ll forget about the dare and the truth they’re asking. The charms of the bracelet cluster against my fingers, as though trying to comfort me. I hold them tight against my palm, trying to figure out what to do. That girl Larissa was right. I shouldn’t have come out here. My whole body feels tense, just waiting for something bad to happen.
    “Oh, look,” Tara says, pointing at me. “New girl’s got a charm bracelet. Hey, let me see it.”
    The whopping in my ears goes a hundred miles an hour now. “It’s my mamma’s,” I say weakly, holding my hand against my chest.
    “Even better!” she exclaims, getting up from her wooden plank seat and jumping from the piling back to the bridge. I’m shocked at how easily she does that. Having long legs has advantages.
    “Let me put it on.” She grabs my hand and uncurls my fingers.
    Instantly, Alyson leaps up and back onto the bridge to hold my other arm so I can’t fight off either one of them. Her fingers curled tight around my arm hurt and leave red marks.
    Tara is good. And fast. In two seconds, she unclasps the bracelet and holds it up, fingering each of the little charms,the silver chain dangling dangerously over the water. I think about that bracelet being passed through so many generations, almost two hundred years old, and feel sick through and through.
    “Please give it back,” I plead. “It’s actually an heirloom.”
    “An heirloom? Don’t you sound like a city girl?” Tara laughs and her pretty white teeth sparkle in the sunlight. She seems to take delight in my agony. She couldn’t care less about making friends or my bracelet or me drowning right in front of her eyes.
    Tara tosses the bracelet back and forth between her palms and any minute now I’m gonna hurl. “Please, please, please don’t drop it in the water!”
    I’d taken that bracelet and worn it against Mirage’s orders.