I hurried to school, avoiding puddles. I had worn my good tennis shoes and I was trying to not get them wet.

I half-expected to see dead spiders floating in the puddles, but everything was normal. Normal mud puddles in front of normal houses on a normal sidewalk. I passed a yard with a little dog in it. A normal dog who didn't talk to me, even when I said hello.

I pushed aside my worries about being crazy. Today was going to be a stellar, normal day, I could feel it! I would keep my head down, do my schoolwork, avoid talking to other kids—especially Hazel—and basically try to fit in until I could make some friends. No big deal.

I was feeling pretty good about all this normal-ness, and not really paying attention to where I was going, when at the edge of the schoolyard I almost bumped smack into Hazel. She was wearing knee high rainbow-striped rain boots, a black dress, and was jumping through a series of puddles on the blacktop.

"Hey! You almost splashed me," I said.

She stopped. "What've you got against splashing?" she asked. "It's fun."

For Kindergarteners maybe. "I don't want my clothes all dirty." That was all I needed, for Elspeth and Natalia to see me in clothes with muddy water stains. They'd probably say it was toilet poop-water or something.

She shrugged, but stopped splashing. We started walking together which was kind of unavoidable because we were going to the same place. Maybe I should ask her about the spider-rain, or if she really had cast a spell on Natalia in the lunchroom.

"So," she said, skipping unnecessarily, but avoiding puddles at least. "How was the first night after your first day at a new school?"

I decided to just go for it and see what she said. I could just pretend I was joking.

"It rained spiders on my house."

Hazel just kept hopping, and looked up in the air like she was thinking. Then she said, "Hm. That's kinda weird."

We had almost crossed the basketball court area by now, even though Hazel's hopping was making us extra slow. "Ya think?"

She didn't seem to react to sarcasm. "Why'd you make that happen?"

"I didn't!" I exclaimed, totally shocked. "Did you? You're the witch, supposedly."

We stopped by the side door of the school. "What makes you say that?"

Seriously?

A group of boys ran by, shoving each other and laughing. "Hey!" one of them said too-loudly on purpose. "There's the witchy witch and her new pilgrim friend!"

Great. Word of my new nickname had apparently spread.

"Point taken," Hazel said, twirling one of her dark braids and smirking. It didn't seem to bother her to be called names either. "Even if I am a witch," she said, leaning against the building and pulling out a pack of gum, "why would I make it rain spiders on your house? I like you."

I noticed she didn't actually deny being a witch, but I couldn't tell if she was admitting it either. She held out a stick of gum to me. I said no, thank you.

"I thought it was a little mean, though," she continued, "when you made Natalia fall in the cafeteria. But I guess she kinda had it coming." She shrugged.

What? I glanced around to make sure no one else was nearby listening. The other kids were all pouring off the buses and crowding toward the front door. "I didn't make her fall!" I said. "I wasn't even near her." What was Hazel's problem? "You're the one who cast a spell on her!"

Hazel took the piece of gum out of her mouth, and put it inside the empty wrapper. "I tried," she said, "but you beat me to it. I was just gonna make her creamed corn turn rancid." She put the saved gum in her pocket. "You went all out. You should be careful, though, using your magic like that."

The first bell rang. Ack, I didn't want to be late on my second day of school, but-- "What are you talking about? I don't have magic!"

Hazel's eyes grew big and she clapped her hands excitedly. "O-M-G!" she shrieked. "You don't even know." She grabbed my hands and jumped up and down. "You're new--a baby witch! This is sooooo amazing! Congratulations!"

I pulled my hands away. "I'm not a witch!" I said.

Some boy in a skeleton hoodie glanced at us as he walked by. The wind suddenly picked up and made me cold. I put up my own hood.

"Oh you totally are," Hazel said, nodding her head.

No. This was wacky and the complete opposite of normal! We weren't doing this.

"Listen," I said, loudly enough that hopefully some other kids could hear, "you're a freak." The wind picked up some fallen leaves and they spun around us in the air. "I'm not your friend and I'm not a witch," I hissed. "Leave me alone!"

I opened the door and stormed off down the hall. "You aren't supposed to come in that door," a teacher said, but I didn't even turn around. "Front door only," she said lamely as I stomped my way around the corner to fourth grade.

----------

By lunchtime, I was feeling pretty crappy.

I had avoided eye contact with Hazel all morning. I did my work, I didn't raise my hand, and I gave one-word answers when Mrs. Knowles asked me questions, which wasn't very often.

Elspeth and Natalia were way near the front of the lunch line of course. Hazel was probably at the end. I had managed to get in the middle because isn't there where normal kids should be? In the middle, unnoticed (I hoped).

While I was waiting I had time to think about my old therapist, Ms. Rodriguez. She said it was okay to just call her by her first name, Rachel, but I always felt weird about that. Anyway, she would've said that feeling crappy is pretty normal when something bad happens, especially when you're the one who did the bad thing.

I also knew she'd say I needed to own up to it and try to make things right with Hazel.

The lunch line inched forward. It was so loud in the cafeteria, I almost couldn't stand it. I had been happy to learn that we were allowed to go outside and eat on the grass next to the playground (as long as we didn't litter and brought our trays in).

Anyway, one thing I liked about Ms. Rodriguez is that she didn't pretend that everything would work out okay. Like, when I had my outbursts at my old school. I apologized to my friends and classmates, but even though most of them said they forgave me and it was no big deal, they treated me differently after that. Even Stacie, my best friend. Ms. Rodriguez had warned me that might happen.

I wondered if Hazel would forgive me for being mean to her. Had I just (alienated) the only person who'd been nice to me here?

Finally, the lunch lady slapped down some mashed potatoes and an eggroll on my tray. "Extra jello, please," I said. I hate jello. I felt like punishing myself.

I carried my tray outside and looked around for a place to sit by myself and sulk. Then I saw Hazel already out there, sitting under a big tree with a brown paper bag lunch.

My stomach flip-flopped. I wanted to text Ms. Rodriguez for moral support, but they made us keep our phones in our lockers.

I headed slowly toward Hazel. No one else was around her.

I stood there awkwardly.

"Hey," I said. Also awkwardly. "Um, I, um..."

She looked at me and I couldn't tell if she was mad or what. Then she kept spinning the apple around in her hand.

"I'm sorry I was a jerk to you," I blurted. I felt like an idiot standing there. "I say things sometimes when I get upset. I don't mean to. I just—" 

"You wanna sit down?" she said.

As I did, I said, "You brought your lunch today."

She made a face. "I prefer school lunch," she said, "but you brought your lunch yesterday so I thought maybe we could both skip the line and hang out." She looked at my tray.

"My mom thought it might be good for me to at least try the school lunches here," I said, rolling my eyes.

"I guess you really like jello too, huh?"

It was my turn to make a face. "I hate it actually."

I looked across the schoolyard. Natalia and Elspeth were sitting with a group of other girls, watching some of the boys play basketball. They were smiling and laughing.

"Then why'd you get so much?"

"It's complicated," I said. "Do you want it?"

Her eyes got big. "Heck, yeah!" She grabbed a big chunk of jello off my tray with her hand and started munching on it. Yuck.

"I guess I shouldn't have told you you're a witch," she said with her mouth full. "It prolly wasn't my place to tell you, since you didn't know. I was just super excited for you."

I sighed. "I'm sorry to tell you, but I'm not a witch. That might even be kinda cool." I glanced again at Elspeth and her gang. I wondered what it was like to feel normal, and happy and have lots of friends. I couldn't remember. "I just want to be normal," I said.

"Why?" Hazel asked, as if I'd said I wanted to have two heads or something.

I didn't really know how to answer that question, so I asked, "Where are your fly friends today?"

Hazel sighed and grabbed another piece of jello, while I worked on the mashed potatoes. They were okay. "I loved them," she said, "so I had to let them go. They don't do well in captivity for very long." She looked off into the distance. "I hope they do okay out there.

"I like all bugs," she went on, "but it's almost the end of the bug collecting season. The butterflies are almost all gone, too. I haven't seen any in a week."

Okay, so she was definitely a little weird, but she was kind-hearted. And my first new friend, I realized. I wished she could see a bunch more butterflies before winter.

Suddenly, and I swear I'm not making this up, a group of seven or eight orange butterflies with black spots fluttered around us. I didn't see where they came from.

"Question marks!" Hazel exclaimed. The butterflies dipped and flapped around us.

"What?"

"That's what they're called," she said, grabbing my plastic knife and cutting her apple into some chunks. She set the pieces on the ground an arm's length away. "They're my favorite butterflies. Sit still. They might come and eat. They like fruit."

Sure enough, a few of the butterflies settled down on the apple pieces. Their bodies were brown and looked kind of furry. I'd never really looked at butterflies so closely before. Hazel was beside herself with joy, and that made me happy, too.

"You did this!" she said. "See, you are a witch!" 

I didn't really believe it, but... well, I had just been thinking I wished she could see more butterflies and then—poof—there they were. Could she be right? Could magic be real?

"Do you like cats, too?" I asked. "I just got a new cat. Maybe you could come over after school and meet him."