October 7

Skylar is trying out for the lead in the Moonlight Theater's annual production of The Nutcracker. I remember we had a tryout but I was too shy. Instead back in Sunset Valley they gave the lead role to Brittni Whalen, the mayor's daughter.

I miss Kay something awful, tho. She took early graduation from high school and then joined the national equestrian team.



I met this family in town, the MacDuffs. They're the only family I know of in town with kids our age, and there are four of them, two boys and two girls. The boys are Jules and Joe, and the girls are Felicity and Faith. Two of them are witches and two are not. I was assigned to tutor Jules MacDuff in Simlish class. Simlish is my best subject in school -- other than horses.
The other day I met with Jules in the library. He said he wanted to meet with me secretly to avoid his brother. "Why not?"
"If you haven't noticed," Jules whispered, "Joe and I aren't exactly the best of friends."
Jules and I went over nouns, pronouns, and verbs. "Can't you just cast a spell over this stuff?" I asked.
"I wish I could," he said, "I have limits on how I can use my power. One way I'd like to use it is to get your sister to go out with me."
Sierra???? GULP.

 

In order for me to agree to the move to Moonlight Falls, Mom and I made a deal. I was going to finish out my senior year of high school in Hidden Springs, and then I'd join the rest of the family in Moonlight Falls at night and on the weekends.
I have to admit such a deal wouldn't have been possible awhile ago. There was a point when mom and I weren't even on speaking terms. But, our relationship is, thankfully, much improved, hence the deal being possible. But this also meant that Sierra and the other kids would attend school at Everglow.



This also meant I could continue my position as editor-in-chief of the Alpine Advocate, the student newspaper at Alpine Community School. However, there was one person who was not happy about that. And it wasn't Kay.



Her name was HollyAnn Springwell, and she was the most popular girl at Alpine Community School. Her dad was a doctor at the local hospital and her mother was the principal. And she didn't like me or Kay at all. She was fond of calling us 'outsiders,' which we were, being from Appaloosa Plains and Sunset Valley. "All you outsiders want to take over this town," she liked to say.
Anyway, she hated that I became editor of the paper.
"You're only editor 'cause your mom's a best selling novelist," she said to me one time.
Never mind that I had to write articles and try out just like she did. Her preferred subjects are gossip, gossip, and more gossip.
Just the other day at school we wrangled over the weekly edition. I raised the point that I wanted to see more in the paper than talk about who's dating who.
"Well, what else is there to talk about here?" HollyAnn asked. "After all, Prince Sebastian's reformed his ways and is happily married now."
"Well, we can talk about the debate team's success at district," I suggested.
"Oh, who wants to hear about the geeky debate team?"
"This is the school paper," I said, "it should discuss school events and other things of interest to teens. Maybe some interviews with a couple of students --"
"Who? I can't think of anyone around here the students'll want to read about."
"Ok," I said, "so maybe perhaps we could interview someone from another country? Expand people's horizons a little bit. We have to think outside the box."
Wait a minute... me, out of the box? I'm the most conventional person I know. And my mother is the queen of out-of-the-box thinking. Maybe I'd ask her.