Scent of Magic Read Free Page A

didn't have ulterior motives for being in Prosperity and most likely weren't a threat.
    Prosperity had one mom and pop grocery store. Droste's prices were higher than supermarkets in bigger cities. One time, the citizens got wind of a chain grocery wanting to build in town, and everyone shut that idea down in a hurry.
    Outside companies might bring more crime and undesirables into town. Not to mention what it would do to traffic. In the end, the chain store decided on its own that the location for the new branch wouldn't work, and no one spoke of it again.
    Of course, that annoyed the good people of Prosperity. Why wasn't their town good enough for the grocery store? They took it as a personal insult. The population of Prosperity had pitched a fit about the possibility of an outside business moving in, but they wanted the decision to be on their terms, not the other way around.
    There was one church in town and every citizen of Prosperity belonged to that church. Everyone got married or buried there. Pastor Sullivan Byrd was worse than Santa Claus when it came to knowing who was naughty and who was nice, and you could bet if you missed Sunday service, he'd stop by your house later to find out just what disease you were suffering from that had kept you from attending church that morning.
    Pastor Byrd was thick. Thick around his middle. Thick hair, thick mustache, Coke-bottle-thick glasses, and more thick-headed than one man ought to be. No wonder his wife Donna was seen more often than heard. Donna always stood around wringing her hands and staring at her feet whenever Sullivan was near.
    The name Byrd suited them both. She was as nervous as a little sparrow, afraid she might land on the wrong branch, and he was a big bully vulture with eagle-eye vision, watching and waiting for some no account heathen to step out of line. Sullivan Byrd carried a lot of weight in the town of Prosperity. In more ways than one.
    Sullivan and Donna Byrd had one child. Seventeen-year-old Beau Byrd could do no wrong, and he was always right. Even when he was wrong. All the girls loved Beau Byrd and all the boys wanted to be like him. If you didn't believe that, just ask Beau.
    Other than the solitary grocery store and church, there wasn't much more to Prosperity. A greasy spoon diner, a bank, one gas station, a flower shop, a health clinic that was only open three days a week, a dentist office, and a veterinary. There was also a school. Three separate brick buildings housed all of the students from kindergarten through twelfth grade.
    Of all the places on the United States map for Francesca to stick her pin, Juliette and Starley had serious reservations as to whether or not she'd made a monumental boo-boo when she declared Prosperity their new home.

OPPOSITES ATTRACT
     
    School began on the last Wednesday in August. Starley wasn't exactly thrilled to be going back to school for a number of reasons. Being able to see things that no one else could see made making friends awkward. Starley thought it had been easier getting to know someone when she hadn't been able to see them as they truly were.
    The first day of school in a new town always sucked. No matter how many times she'd gone through it in the past, it never got any easier for her. She might be outspoken at home, sarcastic even, but when it came to meeting new people, Starley was painfully shy.
    Starley slid into an unoccupied desk in the back corner of the room for her first class. She kept her head down and only glanced up when the teacher entered. He was tall and thin and Starley did a double take when she saw horns growing from the top of his head. She rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times before the horns finally disappeared.
    "You see them too, don't you," a tiny voice asked.
    Starley froze for a second before turning to look at the girl who had spoken to her. "I don't know what you're talking about," she lied.
    "Stop it. Mr. Peterson is the devil incarnate, and you saw his horns just