Rachel Hawkins - Hex Hall Book 1

HEX

HALL

RACHEL HAWKINS

Product Details

Pub. Date: April 2010

Publisher: Disney Book Group

Series: Hex Hall Series , #1

ISBN-13: 9781423143819

ISBN: 1423143817

Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father-an elusive European warlock-only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shape shifters. By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect. As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

Publishers Weekly

Hawkins's proficient and entertaining debut is jam-packed with magical creatures and mystery.

With no training on how to use the powers inherited from her absent warlock father, Sophie Mercer keeps making rookie mistakes that force her mother to move them around the country to avoid attention. But when, at age 16, Sophie makes a very public error with a love spell at the prom, she is sent to Hecate Hall, the premier reformatory institution for Prodigium adolescents

(aka troubled shape-shifters, faeries, and witches like Sophie). She hits it off with her vampire roommate, Jenna, but three gorgeous and powerful witches have declared Sophie an enemy (she nicknames them the Witches of Clinique); she has a wicked crush on someone else's boyfriend; and at least one teacher is out to get her. When attacks on students get pinned on Jenna, Sophie is determined to find the true culprit. Sophie stumbles into answers more than searches them out, but the story is well paced and plotted with tween-friendly humor and well-developed characters, particularly awkward but compassionate Sophie. The ending satisfies while paving the way for future books. Ages 11up.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Felicia Miler was crying in the bathroom. Again.

I knew it was her because in the three months I'd been going to Green Mountain High, I'd already seen Felicia crying in the bathroom twice. She had a realy distinctive sob, high and breathy like a little kid's, even though Felicia was eighteen, two years older than me.

I'd left her alone before, figuring that it was every girl's right to cry in a public bathroom from time to time.

But tonight was prom night, and there was something realy sad about sobbing in formal wear. Besides, I'd developed a soft spot for Felicia. There was a girl just like her at every school I'd ever been to (nineteen and counting). And while I may have been a weirdo, people weren't mean to me; they mostly just ignored me.

Felicia, on the other hand, was the class punching bag. For her, school had been nothing but a constant parade of stolen lunch money and nasty remarks.

I peeked under the stal door and saw a pair of feet in strappy yelow sandals. "Felicia?" I caled, rapping softly on the door. "What's wrong?"

She opened the door and looked up at me with angry, bloodshot eyes. "What's wrong? Wel, let's see, Sophie, it's prom night of my senior year and do you see a date anywhere near me?"

"Um... no. But you are in the ladies' room, so I thought--"

"What?" she asked as she stood up and wiped her nose with a huge wad of toilet paper. "That my date's out there waiting for me?" She snorted. "Please. I lied to my parents and said I had a date. So they bought me this dress"--she slapped at the yelow taffeta like it was a bug she was trying to kil--"and I told them my date was meeting me here, so they dropped me off. I just... I couldn't tel them I didn't get invited to my senior prom. It would have broken their hearts." She roled her eyes. "How pathetic is that?"

"It's not that pathetic," I said. "Lots of girls come to prom alone."

She glared at me. "Do you have a date?"

I did have a date. Sure, it was Ryan Helerman, who might have been the only person at Green Mountain High less popular than I was, but it was stil a date. And my mom had been so excited that someone had asked me. She saw it as my finaly making an attempt at Fitting In.

Fitting In was realy important to my mom.

I watched Felicia standing there in her yelow dress, wiping at her nose, and before I could stop myself, I said something totaly stupid: "I can help."

Felicia looked up at me through puffy eyes. "How?"

I looped my arm through hers, puling her to her feet. "We have to go outside."

We made our way out of the bathroom and through the crowded gym. Felicia seemed wary as I led her through the big double doors and out into the parking lot.

"If this is some sort of prank, I have pepper spray in my purse," she said, holding her little yelow clutch close to her chest.

"Relax." I looked around to make sure the parking lot was deserted.

Even though it was late April, there was stil a chil in the air, and both of us shivered in our dresses. "Okay," I said, turning back to her. "If you could have anyone as your prom date, who would it be?"

"Are you trying to torture me?" she asked.

"Just answer the question."

Staring at her yelow shoes, she mumbled, "Kevin Bridges?"

I wasn't surprised. SGA president, footbal captain, al-around hottie... Kevin Bridges was the guy almost any girl would pick to be her prom date.

"Okay, then. Kevin it is," I muttered, cracking my knuckles.

Lifting my hands to the sky, I closed my eyes and pictured Felicia in Kevin's arms, her in her bright yelow dress, him in a tux. After just a few seconds of focusing on that image, I started to feel a slight tremor under my feet and a feeling like water rushing al the way up to my outspread hands. My hair started to float from my shoulders, and then I heard Felicia gasp.

When I opened my eyes, I saw exactly what I'd hoped.

Overhead, a huge dark cloud was swirling, sparks of purplish light flashing inside of it. I kept concentrating, and as I did, the cloud swirled faster until it was a perfect circle with a hole in the center.

The Magic Doughnut, as I'd dubbed it the first time I'd created one on my twelfth birthday.