Chapter 10- Wicked Forest

It was dinner time by the time she saw Drake and his friends. Crystal stood in the line to choose her lunch when he tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to see who had interrupted her and she instantly blushed remembering the night before.
However, he gave her a bright smile. “Join us for lunch,” he pointed to the table in which he and his friends were sitting.
At a loss for words, she nodded and grabbed herself some pasta and juice. Drake placed his hands on the small of her back as they maneuverer through the crowds of students. The warmth from his hand seeped through her clothes and made her slightly shudder. He took her tray from her hands and placed it beside his own on the table.
Sitting down, Crystal couldn’t help the smile that crept onto her face. She was sitting at the popular kid’s table. Not once had she wanted to be popular but sitting there with them, she couldn’t help but smile. It felt good. She couldn’t deny that.
She had finally been accepted; her face dropped as her mind played tricks with her heart. They don’t know the real you, it whispered, darkening her mood.
“So, what was with those guys last night?” Drake asked her. There it was. The questions she would rather avoid.
“You know just my overprotective brother and his idiot friend,” she waved her hand like her mother often did to dismiss the conversation. Lies, they had started. One of the reasons she didn’t want friends in the first place. Lies weaved webs of deceit. She didn’t want to be that person.
“Wow didn’t know you had a brother,” Drake responded. Crystal shrugged. Soon the conversation steered away from her, and to that she was grateful.
Drake walked Crystal to her next class and gave her a wink as he left to go to his lesson, her stomach felt like butterflies were dancing inside. She walked into English with a smile on her face. Sitting by the window she watched the birds fly around the football field. Drake still wanted to take her to the dance. Even after the embarrassing display of her being hauled out of the café, her mother wouldn’t stop her.
She couldn’t wait to dance with him, just the two of them lost within the music. She would be free if only for a moment.
***
When Crystal got home, she decided she would please her mother, by attending the evening coven meeting. She wanted to stay in her mother’s good books, well she needed too. Soon she would need to ask her permission to attend the Halloween dance. She knew that it would be a definite no, but still she held hope. What else did she have left?
The meeting as usual was boring. Crystal listened to nothing her mother said. She daydreamed about being in Drakes arms and dancing. Staring into his brown eyes, and….
“Crystal?” her mother’s voice shrieked. “Are you going to sit there all day?” when she looked around, she noticed the meeting hall was empty. She got to her feet and followed her mother out. Crystal was about to head home when her mother grabbed her shoulders and turned her in the opposite directions. She gritted her teeth together as she followed her mother to the clearing in which they practiced magic.
The coven stood within three large circles. Within each circle they held hands. Jeannette stood in the middle.
“As everyone by now is aware, my daughter Crystal will soon be wed to Levi Carmichael. Now today I want us to all channel our power to help protect our daughter from any lingering darkness the Carmichael’s may have.”
All the witches began to chant. Crystal tried to pull her hands out of two of the elder’s one at either side of her. But it was no use they held an iron grip.
She didn’t want any kind of protection from them. Inside she was seething with her mother. She could have asked her first. Instead, she had stood before the entire coven and made her look like a fool who needed protecting.
When the chanting ended Crystal stormed off. Giving her mother a glare as she passed, her father gripped her arm.
“Come with me,” with her head bowed she followed him to the forest. They entered the woodland but didn’t go deep within. They stayed on the outskirts under the cover of the first line of trees.
“Your mother is doing what she thinks is best. The only thing she knows how to do. You know she was once like you.”
Crystal scoffed at her father’s words.
“Crystal, in life sacrifices needs to be made.”
“Why me, there are so many other young women in our coven.”
Her father sighed and looked deeper into the woods. “The other women are scared of these parts. They don’t enter the woods, like you. We know Crystal. Even against all the warnings. Still, you made your way through these trees, time after time. Now the Carmichaels want you.”
Crystal stopped walking and looked up into her father’s eyes. Was he trying to say she had brought it on herself?
“Levi Carmichael requested your hand in marriage. If not given, then our coven….”
“Will die,” Crystal finished.
“Marrying him is the only way to prevent a war.”
“It is my own fault. Isn’t it?”
“I’m afraid so. Crystal, these woods are out of bounds for a reason. Now that a Carmichael has seen you,” he shrugged his shoulders while Crystal’s mind flashed with the figure she saw hidden behind the tree. She had no doubt now that the person was Levi.
“Father?”
“Yes?”
“Do you ever wish you married for love, instead of an arranged marriage?” It was a question that had been burning in her mind for a long time.
“No, I love your mother. You grow to love the person chosen for you. It is our fate. Our paths have already been laid out. All we have to do is follow them. If you stop fighting your destiny and embrace it, life could be so much simpler. Not only for you, but for all of us.”