Book Excerpt: W.i.t.c.h.: Finding Meridian - Book #3

The following is an excerpt from the book W.i.t.c.h.: Finding Meridian -
Book #3. I thought readers of this newsgroup might find it of some interest.



One

I wonder if I'll ever get used to this? Will thought.

She felt the familiar quickening of her heartbeat.
Thump-thump-thumpity-thump.

Then her mouth got dry. Her palms got wet. And finally, Will's vision went
blurry. But when she blinked the haze away, she found that she was still
witnessing the same incredible scene. Her friend, Hay Lin, had just snapped
a huge cement pillar in two. The chunk of rock must have weighed five
hundred pounds!

How had skinny little Hay Lin done it?

Simple -- magic.

Yup, Will thought. She gazed at all four of her friends, scattered around
the abandoned construction site. We're all magic -- every one of us. I still
can't quite wrap my brain around it.

Judging from her friends' expressions, they were a bit weirded-out as well.
Taranee was gripping her pink satchel with clenched fists. It was white
knuckles, trembling fingers time, all the way.

Irma was Taranee's complete opposite. She was giggling so hard that her
shaggy, honey-colored pigtails were practically dancing.

Hay Lin's almond-shaped eyes were twinkling with a mixture of mischief and
sheer determination.

And Cornelia was sticking out her bottom lip -- she was all skepticism and
sulkiness.

That about sums it up, Will thought, as she took in her friends' wild range
of emotions. These magical powers are both fabulous and awful, thrilling and
scary. They're dividing us, but they're also bringing us together.

Magic was what Will and her friends were all about these days. When they'd
planned to hang out today, for instance, it hadn't been to lounge around a
coffeehouse, chowing down on scones and gossiping about the cutest boys at
their school, the Sheffield Institute.

No, instead, they were hiding behind this construction site's tall, wooden
fence, practicing their magic.

It was clear that Hay Lin, at least, was getting pretty good at it! Not only
had she just cracked that chunk of cement off its base as if she were
plucking a leaf from a tree, she'd also whipped the huge, craggy block into
the sky on a mystical swirl of air. Finally, she'd plunked the block down
onto a slab of stone with a tremendous crunch.

Then Cornelia had stepped in. She'd stared at the block, her arms
outstretched and her blue eyes steely.

With waves of power that were almost palpable, Cornelia had cracked the
stone slab on which the cement block rested. It splintered like a thin sheet
of ice. Ropy vines poked through the cracks like mischievous green snakes.
In the blink of an eye, they coiled their way completely around the block.

Then Cornelia's eyes got even squintier. Her mouth twisted into a stiff
smile. She concentrated so hard her long, silky, blond hair stood on end.
And then -- skrump! The ropy vines squeezed the cement block into
smithereens! Shards of rock flew in every direction.

Taranee jumped, her round spectacles going askew on her nose. Hay Lin
scowled. Cornelia had totally one-upped her. And Irma, who was always
clashing with Cornelia, simply rolled her eyes and pretended to be bored.

Meanwhile, Cornelia just folded her slender arms across her chest and
smirked.

"I bet you can't do that," she said to her friends.

Will shuddered at the memory.

The crazy thing, she thought, is that we can all do that. Or something like
it.

Will looked around at her new friends. She'd only known them for a little
while. She'd met them on her first day at the Sheffield Institute, right
after she and her Mom had moved to this breezy seaside city called
Heatherfield. The girls' friendship had started normally enough. They'd
gabbed about crushes, complained about history homework, and commiserated
about pain-in-the-butt siblings. But it hadn't been long before the five
girls had discovered that they were anything but normal.

Cornelia could control the earth (as was obvious from the shattered cement
block). Hay Lin -- who was so tiny she looked as if the wind could carry her
away -- had the powers of air. Wishy-washy Irma was all about water. And
Taranee could hold fire in the palm of her hand.

And me, Will thought with a shrug, well, that's the craziest part. I somehow
ended up as the leader of our whole crew -- Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia,
Hay Lin. Otherwise known as W.i.t.c.h.

She glanced with irritation at the heavens. That's where she imagined the
mystical beings who'd given them their powers resided.

Nice work, Will thought. I can't believe you made me -- awkward,
frog-collecting Will Vandom -- the leader of these girls.

But before Will could get too deep into an angstfest, Irma interrupted her
thoughts. She was offering her opinion on Cornelia's feat of shattering the
pillar.

"Oh, that's just amazing, Cornelia," she said sarcastically. "Actually, I've
never seen anything so silly in my entire life."

Cornelia sniffed and turned her back on Irma.

Then Irma sniffed and turned her back on Cornelia.

Copyright © 2004 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

(Excerpted from the book W.i.t.c.h.: Finding Meridian - Book #3; Adapted by
Elizabeth Lenhard; Published by Volo; April 2004; $4.99US/$6.99CAN;
0-7868-1730-5)

For more information, please visit the W.i.t.c.h. Web site,
www.clubwitch.com or www.writtenvoices.com.