It all started on the new moon. New moons for witches represent new beginnings. And I was sure that was the beginning of a detestation to last a lifetime.

The first new moon of the year. In our family, this meant cleaning. We cleaned EVERYTHING. The floors. The walls. The doors. We dusted the bookshelves, we polished our boots. We even washed the cats. Cats plural. We have several. I normally like new moons. I like organising my books, washing the brooms and cleaning the alcoves around my room. But this time was different. This time SHE was there.

SHE wasn't there the day before. The neighbouring house was empty the day before. Then SHE and her stuck up family decided that they could just move right on in to our lives that were just fine without them. And she had a dumb name too. Stuck up, pretentious, gross. What kind of hippie, millennial parent even thinks about naming their poor child something as weird as Riley?

"Circe! Come and meet the new neighbours with us!" My older brother. Friendly, talkative, and naïve. Of course he wanted to go meet the new neighbours. Heck, he even baked them a cake! And that is a big deal. He can't bake for sh!t.

"I'm busy!"

"No, you're not, you're moping in your room because you can't hang out in the abandoned house anymore!" He probably sympathises with her. He has a weird name too. I don't know what Mum and Dad were thinking when they named him "Christopher". Thankfully, he can shorten his name to "Topher", which is slightly less weird.

So I ended up going with them. Not only does Riley have a weird name, but she dresses weird too. And I'm pretty sure her cauldron was a saucepan. Amateurs.

And you'll never guess what happened next. She asked to hang out with me. So I said yes. As an experiment. It's not like I'm going to be friends with the weird girl anyways.