Chapter 9 - Autumn Breezes and Tween Crazes

 

Rhea looked around her room, feeling slightly put off by everything. She’d been talking to Chanel that day about how difficult things were at the moment, with the trends changing all the time in the classroom. Crazes were sweeping through her grade one after the other like wildfire, and rather than them being steady, they were as volatile as a bad spell. The WARD palette was the only one that seemed to be going strong after its announcement.

Previously there had been beads, slotted onto safety pins, which had lasted two weeks before Alyse had brought in a new craze of charm bracelets. Everyone needed a charm bracelet, and luckily Rhea had one that her grandmother had given her. Charm bracelets evolved into friendship bracelets, where you had to wear the same colour as your friends, until it all dissolved because people were taking off their bracelets to show who they were and weren’t friends with. Currently, the WARD palette and Calliope Ward were running trends. Alyse had a scrapbook of articles and cut outs from any magazine Calliope was in, whereas Rhea was using her pocket money to buy Teen Dream every week just in case it had Calliope in it. Her drawers were becoming stuffed with the magazines freebies.

Chanel had shaken her head. “I just think it’s a waste of time.” She’d made special friendship bracelets for herself and Rhea, in green and gold, that Rhea loved, and as she spoke she ran her finger around hers. “These crazes come and go all the time, and it’s impossible to keep up.”

Rhea knew what she meant, but looking at all her Voidcritter decals and her poster, she’d felt a twinge of sadness. Voidcritters had been dependable up until this year. Everyone was desperate to be a teenager, and there were so many things you had to know and do.

The next day, an autumn chill was in the air, and she and Maranda went outside to play, clad in warm clothes to keep out the cold. In years gone by, their games would have been of princesses and dragons, or of having real life Voidcritters, but this time, Maranda and Rhea were playing at being students at Brookefield High, the fictional high school from the last series that Calliope Ward had been in. Her character, Lake, was so cool, but not as cool as Calliope herself.

"So we're part of the Brookefield Witches," Rhea told Maranda. "We're best friends with Lake, and we're going to cast a spell to make Hugh fall in love with her." 

"Love spells are bad, Rhea..." Maranda said, hesitantly. Rhea patted her arm. 

"It's just for the story! That's what witches do on TV. Anyway, we're going to help our best friend Lake, but we've got to make a secret hideout first."

Maranda perked up. "A secret hideout?"

"Yeah! We've got to have a place to make our potion where no one can find us! And we have to make it really special, because if we make it wrong he'll hate Lake forever." 

"Um, okay!" Maranda giggled. 

They took off running, in the direction of a stone bench they usually played on.

"Now, we must find the perfect ingredients for Lake's potion! She asked us especially, because we're such good friends, and she knows that we're as good at casting spells as she is." Rhea giggled and leaned in close. "And because she loves Hugh!"

"Does Hugh like her?"

"Oh, definitely. He's going to ask her to the Pumpkin Parade for sure, even if Lacey Jenkins is the head cheerleader!" Rhea crossed her arms. "How could he not like her?" 

"Because...Lacey Jenkins is going to use a love potion on him first!" Maranda said, smiling brightly. "She's going to make him fall in love with her, because she hates Lake!"

"Um...okay? Then we have to hex...Lacey Jenkins..." Rhea's voice trailed off. "Maranda, what do you mean? Lacey isn't a witch."

Maranda blinked, and looked down. "Sorry. It just...came out. I know she isn't a witch, but I just...felt like that was...right?"

"Lacey can't be a witch. She's the head cheerleader and a...a cow." Rhea waved her hand. "Besides, it would be awful even for her to do that."

"Well, let's make a love potion." Maranda seemed nervous. "I mean, how should we do it?"

Rhea started to labour on about the ingredients they would need, all the while trying not to think about what Maranda had said. There was no way, right?

Chapter 8 - Calliope Enters

It seemed to Emilia as though it was going to be a tough time for everyone, this year. Rhea had begun to be more sensitive about the difference between babyish and grown up (at her age, too!) and they'd spent a lot of money last winter extending the house to create a new room for her. 

And while there was still a Voidcritter poster above her bed, the rest of the room looked, well...fit for a teenager. That was what Rhea was becoming, faster and faster. Marcus might have been her twin, but...somehow, she seemed older than he was. Gone were the days where she was happy with anything. Somehow, she was turning towards teenagerdom faster than Emilia had ever been prepared for.

Once, Rhea had been focused on Voidcritters and her magical preparation lessons. Now, that had changed, and she was talking about teenager things, like friends falling out and new friends and who was talking to who, who liked who, all in a blur that Emilia didn't quite understand. A name that cropped up a lot was 'Calliope Ward', which, over time, was revealed to be a celebrity's daughter. Calliope Ward was almost an obsession for Rhea and her friends. 

And in fact, Emilia could see why. Calliope's mother Judith was a very famous actress, while Calliope herself was an influencer, actress, model, and all round celebrity baby. Rhea was a proper preteen these days, complete with begging her mother for expensive things because Calliope was promoting them. 

"Mum, please, I really want the new WARD palette!" she said, one evening. She still looked like the same Rhea, but it was somehow different. Something in her stance had changed. "Alyse says that she's getting it when they send it out from pre-orders and--"

"Rhea, please. You can have something for your birthday, but I've seen that makeup online and it's extremely expensive." Thanks to a little research, Emilia was armed and ready for any conversation about Calliope Ward. "I'm not buying you makeup when you already have a little bit."

"Alyse is getting it!" Rhea said, plaintively. "She said!"

"Well, what about your other friends?" She raised an eyebrow. "Is Chanel getting a WARD palette?"

"It's...her dad said no..." Rhea mumbled, coming to sit down next to Emilia. Luckily, mentioning her best friend had the desired effect. Rhea, despite all these new ideas and fads, still was quite protective of her best friend, and conscious of not making her feel left out. 

"Then I'm also going to say no. Not just because it would be terrible if the two of you fell out over some makeup, but because I don't think it's the sort of thing you should be getting just yet."

"It's Calliope Ward's first ever eye shadow palette, though. I really want it." Rhea sighed. "I mean..."

"Well, if Alyse gets it, maybe she'll share it with you the next time you go over to her house." Emilia privately thought that Alyse was either exaggerating or quite spoiled, if her parents really did get her every latest thing she wanted, but that wasn't something she would say in front of Rhea. 

"Yeah!" Rhea perked up. "I mean, yeah, cool."

That was new, too, this correcting of her enthusiasm. Emilia tried not to feel put out by it. Alyse, in her opinion, was almost as bad an influence as Calliope herself, but that was also something she'd never voice in front of Rhea - or at all. 

Still, going into Maranda's room to check everything was neat and tidy, she couldn't help but think on it. Rhea was usually a little wiser, but these days she seemed to be flattered by the more glamorous sides to life Alyse had introduced her to. Not that Emilia hadn't once gone through that phase, but she had no idea how she should handle it. She didn't really blame Alyse entirely for it, because you couldn't blame young girls for this sort of thing, but Alyse lived a norm that Rhea seemed to want to emulate.

Sighing, Emilia tried not to think about it. 





In Del Sol Valley, a young woman was trying to ignore her mother's ongoing phone call. Blah, blah, agent, blah blah, fired, blah, blah, whatever. Calliope was at an age where she loathed and loved the silver spoon in her mouth in equal measure. She loved that people adored her simply for who she was, but the price she had to pay was living with her mother.

"Walter, darling, it's Judith. The script is magnificent, but my agent read it over and he's simply not happy with whoever wrote in the scene where I'm left at the restaurant. Carol is an icon for many women, and frankly I feel it's just bland for her to be stood up by a man. She's chic, rich, desirable..." Her mother went up the stairs, trying to get out of another scene she didn't like. God help the poor writer who'd penned that one. Carol was one of her longest standing roles and one with practically no character development these days, thanks to Judith. The agent hadn't been unhappy at all, he'd simply been the one to break it to Mom. 

Calliope's own agent was one Judith had picked out, and the brand she was presenting - a legacy of talent and a fresh face to the Ward family - had taken off beyond what they'd expected. A makeup line had launched, along with her small time acting gigs that Judith managed ("You won't be wanting to end up like a dreary small time actress, let them come to you,"), and she was always busy. 

An interview about her recent role in a minor series had been scheduled - she'd played opposite another legacy boy, Justin, and Judith had been very into the idea, thinking that she could hint at some 'on set drama'. The agent, on the other hand, had told her that she needed to be stoic about anything she was asked. Be polite, say what a great experience it was, exit. So boring.

Some people had it so much easier. She wished that she had a different mother a lot of the time. One who didn't have the diva reputation, one who didn't cause misery everywhere she went. One who didn't push Calliope into something she hated.