Astrid's POV

"Hey! Hey!" shrieks Lottie, her blue eyes wide and fearful in her green face. The shadows are whispering and swirling in the corners of the room. God, I've got to do something. I read on. "hsinab stirips."

The whispering stops and the shadows seem to melt away. Gabi's pounding on the door, wanting to know what Lottie was shrieking about. I stuff the book away and Lottie lets her in. They sit on the bed and Lottie puts her arms around her. "We're being witches," she tells her. "But I'm not enjoying it. I've been turned into a frog lady and want to turn back."

"Play something else with me then."

Lottie and Gabi go downstairs to play Hocus Pocus – blobby tetris with witch characters – on the Playstation. I read through the spell book on my own. Hmm Necromancery is seriously complicated. I look for healing spells. Maybe I can cure cancer or AIDS now? As it happens, I can't find any spell like that, but I find a spell to cure boils. Worth knowing. OK, better not be too ambitious, given I'm a raw rookie witch. Don't wanna make anything dreadful happen.

Perhaps I can practice basic spells until my magic improves? I find out how to conjure rainbow lights. I make sparkly lights appear around my green fingers and flick. A rainbow appears above me and then fades away. That's pretty, but not much use. There's an animation spell that looks like it's just another simple trick. I memorise it. The word 'Sanima.'

Next I read about how to fight without hurting anyone. I like that idea. I read how to cast a sneezing charm. Then there's a chapter called Heart's Desire. It's about love potions and stuff like that, but this kind of thing is a no-no. And I do hope Lottie's not going to pursue her silly fantasies about teachers.

I find a chapter on Voice Magic. I try a simple spell, to throw my voice, but it doesn't work. Figures. A witch is supposed to be able to mimic different voices too. I'd like to be able to do that. I'm looking through the chapter when Mum comes back. Her voice carries up the stairs. "Lottie? Why are you dressed like this?"

"We're being sponsored to dress as witches over Halloween, Astrid and I."

Why did Lottie lie? Because the truth would be harder for Mum to handle? Or is it in case I fail to get Dad back, and she doesn't want to get hopes up? I don't like lying, but I'll let it go for now.

Mum shakes her head when she sees me. "Oh Astrid, look at you."

"It's for a good cause, Mum." Well that's the truth.

In the bathroom, Lottie and I lock ourselves in and take a look at our bodies. I have garish green arms and legs, like I'm a giant frog. I think I'm about half-way between being the colour of grass and the colour of Chartreux. My fingernails are a darker green … I'm just green all over. Lottie's exactly the same and now she's in the bath. She's getting angsty, trying to wash the green off her.

"Don't hurt yourself," I urge when she scrubs at her skin. "It'll take magic to turn you back. To get good enough at magic, we'll have to practice. If we can make simple spells work, that's a start."

She turns to me. Her long blond hair is sopping wet and hangs limp, framing her dazzling green face. The electric light shines off her nose and cheeks. "Yeah? What can spells do, exactly? Can I make Jason… or any hot guy… love me by using a spell or potion?"

I fold my arms. "Absolutely not. Can't you see how creepy the idea of love potions is? We're going to focus on changing you back. And we're not going to be wicked witches."

She sticks out her dark green tongue at me. "Wicked witches…? I wish you could hear how pompous you sound."

"Shuttup and look at this." I pick up a plastic bathtoy – a green frog. "Samina!" The frog wriggles out of my green fingers and jumps into Lottie's hair.

"Hey? What ya do that for?" She complains, running her fingers through her hair and grabbing the frog. She drops it onto the bathroom floor and it jumps up again. This time I catch it. It feels weird… like there's energy ticking inside it.

"Sorry about that. I was trying out an animation spell. The frog was almost like a real frog for a sec." I think about this. "You want to turn back, but I wanna train and be a proper witch. I need a familiar. Hmm."

Lottie wrinkles her shiny green nose. "I get it. You want a frog, because we look like frog people."

"Not a frog. I was thinking maybe an owl, like Harry Potter had."

She flicks her wet hair away from her face. "That's just a story. Harry Potter wasn't a real witch like us, cos he only had a little scar, and everyone loves him."

Is she ever going to give it a rest, this constant complaining about her green skin?

I stroke my cheek in thought. "Or a cat. I love Pebbles, our friend Katie's cat."

Lottie sniggers. "You should tell Katie that you're going to take Pebbles and fly away on your broomstick. See what she does."

I pull a face at her, sticking out my green tongue as far as it'll go.

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00O00

My sisters and I are crowded into my room. I had the idea to study more magic, but Lottie and Gabi are playing. They're wrestling on the floor while I'm on the bed.

Gabi pins Lottie down and Lottie lets her. Gabi's giggling madly. "I'll get ya, witch!"

Yeah, Lottie has told Gabi that we are both real witches now and that our greenness ain't really makeup. Gabi seems fine with it. What d'ya know?

Lottie overpowers Gabi and starts to tickle her. Gabi screams with laughter and kicks her legs. Lottie cackles theatrically. "Surrender, or I'll turn your skin green so that we'll look like sisters again!"

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Gabi's pink with laughing so much. "I surrender. Gerroff!"

"Alright then." Lottie kisses her on the forehead.

I don't want to interrupt them. I'm just glad Lottie's finally being positive about things and Gabi still adores her just the same as before. I know that neither of my sisters loves me the way they love each other. I was Daddy's girl… I stare at the ceiling and think of him. You broke my heart when you died, Daddy. You left me with just memories and our special song that I sing alone now. But I'm going to get you back and then I'll never let you go. I'll never take things for granted again. I'll use magic, so I can hold your ghost tight. I dream of reaching through the ether and grabbing you with my green hands and then you tell me that everything's alright…

"Astrid's a sleepy witch!" Gabi's voice goes through my head like an alarm clock and I jerk awake.

I sit up, blinking. "Sorry. Yeah… I dozed off. Here, let me show you a simple spell." I've made a paper bird and hold it up so they can see. "Samina!" A warmth spreads though my fingers into the paper and my little bird flutters across the room.

Gabi claps and whoops.

"You try now, Lottie. This spell's nice and easy to start out with."

Lottie picks up Gabi's teddy bear. "Look, Sis. I can bring Mr Groofles to life. Samina!"

Mr Groofles moves his stubby limbs and turns his head. Lottie speaks in a gruff voice. "I'm Mr Groofles and I want to hug Gabi." Lottie puts the moving teddy into Gabi's arms and it tries to hug her with its little arms.

Gabi squeals. "You're the coolest, Big Sis. When're you going to kidnap a Princess and lock her in a tower?"

I stick out my dark green tongue at her. "That's stereotyping, Gabi."

Lottie rubs her shiny green nose. "When'll I kidnap a Princess? How about… Now!" Lottie grabs her. "Gotcha, my pretty. You weren't that alert. You're still in your Princess Pajamas." Gabi is wearing Disney Princess themed pyjamas (Anna from Frozen). My sisters giggle madly and rub their noses together. Awww.

Lottie isn't all that enthusiastic about studying spells tonight. She'd rather play than study. But when the grandfather clock chimes the stroke of midnight, I'm still awake, learning a new spell. This one is 'Ocseglana.' It's to take pain away. It's the simplest healing spell there is. Just a bit of pain relief. If I can do all the basic spells, I know I can then get started as a necromancer. I don't like having to wait, but I still don't wanna rush things… I read on until I fall asleep without realising and wake up at seven, the spell book open beside me.

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00O00

Great. Time for our first day showing up at highschool looking like frog princesses. Lottie's nervous – she's breathing hard as we step in the school gates and I give her hand a reassuring squeeze.

A knot of girls nearby gawp at us. "What're you like, doing? You can't come into school looking like that."

"I was the prettiest girl in the entire school," mutters Lottie through clenched teeth. In the locker area everyone's pointing and staring.

"It'll be alright." I hope I sound reassuring enough. I kiss her on the cheek and now I have to get a move on to make first period in the science block across the site.

I try to tune out all the pointing and muttering as I walk briskly across the quadrangle: "She looks seasick" … "so green around the gills" … "what's she thinking, dressing up as a witch" … "great costume…"

Suddenly I hear a group of boys taunting someone else. They're bothering Ralph, a kid with really bad acne. "You look like you have leprosy!"

"Moon face! You have craters like the Moon!"

I whirl round. "Hey! Leave him alone."

One of the idiots points at me. "The artichoke is steamed!"

I glare round at them. Too bad I don't know any hexes. "Really witty. Stop bothering Ralph and mind your own business."

"Alright. Don't put a spell on us."

They can't know I'm a real witch. Or at least I hope they don't. I think that they think that I have some skin condition and are acting stupid the same way they do around Ralph. Ralph sniffles all of a sudden. I lead him away and peer into his face. "Are you alright?" I think he might wanna cry. I'm going to comfort him. We sit on a bench and I take a chocolate and marshmallow bar from my bag and offer him half. "Here."

"Oh it's alright really…" he says feebly.

"Don't be stupid," I snap. He takes the candy.

I'd like to be able to help him with the acne, but I shouldn't try any acne cure until I really know what I'm doing. If I got it wrong, he might end up looking like me.

At that moment, some idiots kicking a ball around send it flying and it hits Ralph in the head.

"Watch what you're doing!" I yell at them. They stare at me, wide-eyed, but don't answer.

I turn to Ralph and put my green hands to his temples. "Ocseglana." I feel my hands glow. "There. That better?"

"Yes. It feels fine now."

"Good." I pat him on the arm. "We'd better get to class."

"You're a great girl Astrid," he mumbles.

"I hope so." My mind jumps to how I want Daddy to be proud of me when I get him back. Thinking about Daddy brings a lump to my throat.

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00O00

Lottie's POV

Oh God… I'm not looking forward to this. I've gone from being beautiful, to looking like a freak. Brittany and a group of her hangers on are lounging around the door of the English classroom.

Brittany sneers at me. "What are you doing, Lottie? You look so freaky." The others giggle.

Oh – My – God… that hurts. And I thought I'd mentally prepared myself for stuff like this. My bottom lip's quivering. And now Jason's coming down the corridor. Gotta pull myself together…

"Do you have some disease?" Says Britanny, pointing at me.

Jason hears and glares. "Don't you dare pick on Lottie," he says sternly. "And never make fun of illness. Do you understand?"

My heart melts and turns to jelly. Jason's sticking up for me. Such a hero. I blink back tears and smile at him. He touches my arm in reassurance, but I really want him to hug me…

The book in class today is Jane Eyre. The topic is the Madwoman in the Attic. Rochester's poor mad wife, Bertha.

At the end, I hang back.

Jason smiles at me and gestures to the seat by the desk for me to sit. "You have a question, Lottie? Or is anything wrong? I was sorry to see Brittany picking on you earlier. She's completely out of order."

Does he think I really have a disease? Well, what else should he think? I don't want him to know I'm a witch.

I touch my green cheek. "Yeah. I have a condition." I love that he cares. Emotions well up in me and … Oh God, I'm crying. The tears are rolling down my cheeks.

"There, there." He stands touches my shoulder and I stand and hug him fiercely and sob on his shoulder, my tears wetting his jacket. He feels so strong… so warm… His scent is pure, warm and herbal. I don't wanna let go.

He awkwardly puts his arms around me. I wish he'd hug me real tight. "No one who loves you will care about the condition, Lottie. And if anyone taunts you, then they're the sort of person whose opinion doesn't matter."

He's so right. Gabi loves me exactly the same… Could Jason possibly come to love me?

We walk together down the corridor. It's deserted. Someone's been putting up Halloween decorations. Paper cobwebs, rubber spiders, even model skeletons. I'm feeling a whole lot better. I talk to Jason about the Madwoman in the Attic from Jane Eyre, the character we were talking about in class. "It's so sad that we don't know Bertha's real story. I mean, we only hear about her from Rochester, and he was biased."

Jason nods. "Absolutely right. But she's not entirely powerless, Bertha. She looms over the novel, and over Jane, like a dark sister, like the demon the good girl has inside her, acting out her dark and secret desires..."

At that point, Ms King, the drama teacher comes up to us and actually flutters her eyelashes at Jason! I feel a flash of indignation. Weirdly, she takes no more notice of me than if I were some silly Halloween decoration, like the model skeleton...!

"So Jason, have you thought any more about our dinner date." She grabs his arm with her hands with badly painted fingernails that look like painted red talons.

I feel a spark of anger in me at her grabbing him. I touch the skeleton and whisper: "Samina."

The skeleton moves and its bony hands reach for Ms King who screams…