Rhymes With Witches Read Online Free

me funny, then strode from the carrel. My body went limp. They wanted me—maybe—to be one of them. They wanted me to be a Bitch.

    â€œRae!” Alicia called. She rapped hard on the bathroom door to be heard over the shower. “Jane’s here. We want to talk to you.”
    â€œWhat?” Rae said.
    â€œWe need to talk to you!” Alicia said.
    â€œI’m in the shower! I’m doing a mayonnaise rinse!”
    Alicia scowled. “Come on,” she said to me, marching down the hall. In her room, she flopped onto her bed, leaving me the option of the floor or the padded stool pushed under her vanity. I chose the floor.
    â€œSo … how was cheerleading practice?” I asked.
    â€œTerrible,” she said. “My voice cracked in the middle of ‘Our Team Is Red Hot.’”
    â€œOh. Well, I bet no one noticed.”
    â€œYeah, right. If you’d been there at lunch, you could have helped me practice—”
    â€œIn the cafeteria? With everyone watching?”
    â€œâ€”but noooo, you had to pull one of your stupid disappearing tricks because you were being a pouty-pants. I really could have used your support, you know. You’re the only person who knows how important this is to me.”
    I was. It was true. Under Alicia’s grouchy demeanor was a great ache of need, and I felt bad for letting her down.
    â€œAnyway, one day you’re going to be so busted,” she said. “You’re not supposed to have food in the library.”
    I sighed. A Nutrigrain bar here and there was not going to ruin civilization.
    â€œOr maybe you were off being cool with MB,” she accused. “Were you?”
    â€œNo,” I said. “Although if you would hush for a minute, I’ll tell you what did happen.”
    â€œOkay, tell me.”
    â€œTell you what?” Rae asked, strolling into the room. She wore a T-shirt and panties, the front of which was damp from her pubic hair. I quickly raised my eyes to her face, which was just as startling, but in a different way. Rae was a permanent makeup artist, and as part of her training, she’d had permanent makeup applied to herself so she’d know what it felt like. And because she’d wanted it. So now, even though she’d just stepped out of the shower, her face looked perfectly made up.
    Well, not
perfectly
. That was the startling part. The trainer who’d done the initial application had been too conservative for Rae’s taste, so Rae had waited until she had her certificate and then she’d given herself a touch-up. Now her eyeliner was dark and thick, extending past her lids like catwoman. And she’d always thought her lips were too thin, so she’d gone back with the tattoo gun to make them look fuller. Now her lips were super-sized. And very, very red.
    â€œWe’re talking about the Bitches,” Alicia said to Rae. “Tell Jane what you told me.”
    Rae turned and took me in. It was like being sized up by a damp mannequin. “You don’t know?”
    â€œKnow
what
?” I said.
    Rae walked across the floor and sat down with her back against Alicia’s bed. She flipped her wet hair over her shoulders. “Well,” she began, “they’ve been at Crestview for freaking ever. Not Keisha and Triscuit or whoever—”
    â€œBitsy,” Alicia corrected. “And Mary Bryan Richardson.”
    â€œâ€”but other girls. Other Bitches. One from each grade, four total. And always the most popular girls in school.”
    Inwardly, I groaned. She was acting as if this were privileged information, when anyone at school could have told me the same thing.
    â€œWhen I was a freshman, the Bitch in my grade was Jennifer Mayfield,” Rae said. “We all wanted to be her. We were so jealouswe could spit.
Although
…” She paused dramatically. First she eyed Alicia, then she eyed me. “
We never did.
Spit, that is, or