Dark Spell Read Online Free Page B

saw a girl walking towards him. She had short, spiky brown hair and wore cut-off denim shorts, a t-shirt that was far too big for her and flip-flops. It was a few seconds before he realised it was Callie. He’d been expecting jeans and wellies and a long brown braid like last summer.
    She sat down beside him and smiled at the expression on his face.
    “Hello,” she said.
    “Hello. Wow. You look… different.”
    She ruffled her hair. “Yeah. Well… Thought I’d try something new.”
    “It’s… actually, it’s okay. It suits you.”
    “Beach?” Callie jumped up, and looked Josh up and down as he got to his feet, taking in his board shorts and Superdry tee. “Your hair’s longer.”
    He pushed it out of his eyes. “Mum’s always on at me to get it cut.”
    “My mum’s on at me to grow mine again.”
    Parents
. Josh and Callie grinned at each other, the ice broken, and began to meander down to the beach.
    When they got there, they found the little car park above the dunes crowded with cars, and an ice-cream van parked at a precarious angle on the grass verge. They bought 99s then looked for a place away fromsticky, squabbling children on the sand. Josh gave a family with an Alsatian a wide berth and he and Callie settled themselves against a hummock of red rock.
    “I’d forgotten you’re scared of dogs,” Callie teased.
    “Not
scared
. Just… cautious. They’re all still wolves, I reckon, just waiting for their chance.”
    Josh watched the waves running in.
    “I’ve got a body board with me, but the waves aren’t really big enough,” he said.
    “They will be when the wind goes round to the east. It’ll change in a couple of days. It’s really good then – cold, though, even when the weather’s like this.”
    “Do you want to give it a go tomorrow?”
    “It’ll be too calm. The next day should be better. We could go into St Andrews instead, or have you got plans?”
    “No plans. It’s supposed to be a holiday, but Mum’s brought her laptop.”
    “Another book?”
    Josh nodded. “Some art thing she’s editing.” He wondered now why he’d been nervous of seeing Callie again. Shuffling himself away from the rock, he lay down with a groan of pleasure. “I love it when it’s hot. I’ll have to go and live in Spain or Greece or somewhere when I leave school.”
    He squinted up at Callie. “Why did you cut your hair?”
    She shrugged. “Fancied a change. And I thought I should give everyone at school something new to talk about.” She couldn’t quite keep the bleakness out of her voice.
    “Ah. So you haven’t suddenly got interested in thestupid stuff that everyone else likes and made loads of friends then?”
    Callie snorted. “As if.” She twisted round to lie on her stomach, staring at Josh, who had his eyes closed. “If I was at school with you in Edinburgh, you’d think I was weird too. You wouldn’t talk to me.”
    Josh opened his eyes and his mouth quickly, then stopped to think before he spoke, uncomfortably aware that there was some truth in what she had said.
    “You’re right. I probably wouldn’t. Sorry. Back home – in school – I’d be one of the idiots who’s interested in stupid stuff, and tries to look cool. It’s just easier that way. Or at least, it’s hard to stop once you start.” He grimaced. “You probably wouldn’t want to speak to me there anyway. But I don’t have to worry about all that stuff here. I’m on holiday from trying to be cool. I can just be me, and you,” he smiled, “you’re always… you.”
    “You’re not weird anyway,” he added hastily. “You just know weird stuff. You’re okay. And you fit here really well. You’re part of the place.” He shook his head, laughing at himself. “That sounds really stupid.”
    Callie was staring at him intently.
    “What?” he asked.
    “What if I’m weirder than you think?” Her heart was beating faster as she said it, and she felt the familiar tingling in her palms. She tried