Something was off with the music of the universe the last week. Athena Devries could taste it in the air, some force was at work in Lakeview and the would be witch was definitely on edge. It didn't help that her best friend was being so weird; Zoe had just been strange over the last couple of days. She still wore predominantly black like the rest of the Goths, but it was almost like the girl was trying to pick the most normal outfit out of her existing wardrobe. She'd even worn an old blue tank top Athena hadn't seen her wear in years yesterday! More than that, she'd stopped wearing the dark makeup their little coven favored, and stopped wearing her nose ring all together! (Sure it wasn't a real nose ring, because Zoe's mom would never let her get her nose pierced, but it was the spirit of the thing.
It wasn't like Athena was suddenly going to turn her back on her friend just because she was being less Goth, but the change just felt so sudden. There had been something weird going on with Zoe's brother too, but for the life of her Athena couldn't remember. She'd been really worked up about it but the whole thing went fuzzy after that stupid school assembly. Why the school needed to hire an outside cleaner and why on earth that cleaner needed to address the student body, Athena would never know. In any event the woman's words had gone in one ear and out the other.
Athena took a calming breath as she lit the last candle at the fifth point of the pentagram she sat in. If she'd read her grandfather's book correctly, the magic circle she'd drawn on her bedroom floor, coupled with the candles burning at each point of the star, should protect her from whatever was happening in Lakeview. She was probably over reacting, but you couldn't be too careful.
Biff was pissed. The quarterback was currently packing as much of his stuff as he could into his suitcase and duffel as he prepared to vacate his house for the next two weeks. His parents had decided to hire a new cleaner, and five minutes after she got started, the lady found asbestos. Now the whole Meadows family had to leave their house for a fortnight while specialists came in to remove the dangerous substance, which seriously put a cramp in Biff's plans to host a rager that weekend when his parents were out at the lakehouse.
If their Lakehouse was close enough, they'd have just gone there, but they needed to stay close enough for Biff to attend school and his parents to go to work. Luckily, the cleaner service had a program that would set them up with a hotel room for the duration. Unluckily, it only covered one of them. So, Biff's dad Teddy was going to be staying free of charge at the Holiday Inn, while Biff and his mom had decidedly less exciting accommodations.
"Biffy, hurry up, we need to get going!" Biff turned to see his mother, Gwen Meadows, waiting impatiently in the doorway. Gwen was a short woman, standing only 5 feet tall, and almost always wore heels to compensate. Gwen was an attractive woman, with honey blonde shoulder length hair, and a perfectly made up face, which fit her role as an executive at Vanderfield Cosmetics. Today she was wearing a pale blue sundress and 4 inch wedge sandals, a pair of ray-bans perched on he forehead.
Gwen and Teddy had both been heavily into greek life at college, and gotten married just after their senior year. The plan had been for them both to work for awhile, but for Gwen to eventually become a homemaker after they had their first child. However, Teddy ended up stuck in a dead-end job at the local sports equipment retailer, constantly getting passed over for promotions. Meanwhile Gwen had rocketed up the corporate ladder at Vanderfield, leading to her becoming the major breadwinner of the family. Ted, who tended to subscribe to traditional gender roles, had some resentment over this and arguably pushed Biff heavily in football as compensation.
"Jeez, coming mom. Sorry I'm not exactly looking forward to bunking with dweeby Gibson," Biff shot back. Apparently the Gibsons were also clients of Ms. Fine and had offered up their home to let him and his mom stay with them while their house was being cleaned. "Now Biffy, be nice," Gwen chided, "The Gibsons are being nice enough to open their home to us. We should do our best to be gracious guests; besides it's only for a few weeks, what's the worst that could happen?"
