Marti Dumas - Wildseed Witch

PUBLISHERS NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the authors imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and may be obtained from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-1-4197-5561-3
eISBN 9781647003692

Text 2022 Marti Dumas

: image courtesy Pavel Talashov/Shutterstock.com

Book design by Hana Anouk Nakamura and Deena Fleming

Published in 2022 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved.

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To all the people who have ever loved meknow that I have felt it and needed the strength of it, and know that I love you, too

The first time I did magic was the third day of summer vacation. I hadnt seen my dad in forever, and everyone I hang out with had already left town. But I didnt mind. With everybody gone, I had time to make more videos for my YouTube channel, MakeupontheCheapCheap. At that point, I had only one video a dollar store makeup haul I did over spring breakbut my channel was already up to 18 subscribers anyway, and, thanks to my favorite YouTuber, AnyaDo0dle, I had a plan to make it to 100 before school started.

Dont get me wrong. I got inspiration from lots of YouTubers. Nobody did contouring better than JeffServesFace, and I wouldnt have known anything about eye shadow at all if it werent for TheRealCorinaSparkles, but AnyaDo0dle, a goddess among mere mortals, had posted a video called Love Them and They Will Come: 6 Ways to Grow Your Channel, and you better believe I took notes. Lots of notes. The checklist I made out of them filled up most of my whiteboard.

Camera, Stand, and Lighting

Backdrop

Edit Intro

Plan Your Content

Post Daily

Love Your Subscribers

The main ones I had left to do were Post Daily and Love Your Subscribers, which was kind of the same thing. AnyaDo0dle said loving your subscribers meant three things: make promises, keep promises, and show them the real you.

I was always the real me, so that part was easy. Id already made my first promise, too: posting a new video every day all summer. Now all I had to do was keep it.

Filming and editing a video every day would be a lot of work, but I was actually excited for it. I had already recorded myself doing a $3 Lavender Look for Summer and Makeup Removal Hacks So Your Mom Wont Freak out about Her Sheets, and even though it took a long time to get an hour of video down to seven minutes, cutting stuff out and speeding stuff up was weirdly satisfying, like the moment when you finally get the piece of popcorn out of your teeth. I had a plan and, even if the plan didnt work, at least it kept me from thinking about the suitcase staring at me from the corner.

It was just a regular suitcase. My suitcase. The one I packed the last time my dad was supposed to come pick me up. He didnt show, just like he hadnt the three times before. My mom said he was going through some things and that I should be patient. I shoved the suitcase in a corner and left it there to remind me how mad at him I was.

But when he finally did show up in his new car, I wasnt as mad as I thought I would be, so I clicked Publish on my first summer video, grabbed the suitcase that I had never unpacked, and hopped into the car.

It was a convertible, but the way it got quiet but kept driving meant it was also electric, like my moms.

You got an electric car? I said, adjusting the air to blow on my face. Mom would be so excited when she found out.

A hybrid plug-in, my dad said. Best of both worlds.

Then he pulled a latch and pressed a button and the top went down. It would have been cool, too, if it werent so hot. New Orleans in the summer is no joke, but I was too excited to be mad about the heat. My mom was going to freak over this car. It was basically the exact one she had been dreaming up for forever. She loved having the sun on her, even in the summer.

I didnt know they made cars like this, I said.

They dont. Its custom, my dad winked. I know a guy.

Yeah, right, I smiled, pulling out my phone to check my You-Tube. This was the part of the car ride when, if my dad wasnt grilling me about whether Mom had made any friends, we would settle into quiet. His new house was across town. Plenty of time for quiet. Except my dad wasnt quiet.

YouTube, huh? he said, glancing at my phone as he slowed to stop at a red light.

Thats when I noticed him smiling. Big. Really big. Too big. I tried to ignore it, but once I thought about it, I realized he had been smiling like that the whole time. Weird.

Yeah, I said, refreshing my profile page. Still 18 followers, but the video view minutes were up by three. I smiled to myself.

Sandy is big on social media, too.

Whos Sandy? I said, refreshing the page again. The video view minutes were up by four. Someone was watching my video right at that very moment. If I could have, I would have reached through the Internet and hugged them. I hoped they left a comment so I could tell them so. I had already favorited the perfect GIF.

Sandy is my good friend. YouTubes not her big one, though. Her big one is Instagram. Look her up. Sandyandfree83. He was still smiling with all his teeth. I hadnt seen him in more than a month, and it was like he had spent that whole time turning into a cartoon version of himself. Everything he said sounded extra.

I refreshed the page one more timeseven minutes, they had totally watched the whole videobefore opening IG. I never posted on Instagram, but my friends were always posting funny animal pictures that I loved, especially the ones with puppies wearing hats or puppies that looked like a box of fried chicken. When Sandyandfree83s page loaded, I blinked and turned the phone so my dad could see.

Her? I asked.

Yep! my dad said, smiling even bigger, if that was possible. Thats my Sandy.

When my dad said friend, I was expecting somebody parent-ish. Sandy did not look like a parent. She had curly blondish hair and 374,000 followers, about one for every shot of her in a bikini or making a kissy face at the camera.

Her?? I asked again, showing a picture of Sandyandfree83 tossing her hat into a sea breeze. He must have said the wrong one.

My dad nodded. Its a play on words. Sandy loves the beach. I cant wait for you to meet her. The two of you have a lot in common. Youll like her.