Clove wasn’t shy. Or at least, she wasn’t willing to admit that she was shy. She was just avoiding people. Certain people. Specific people. All people.

She felt that any interaction she had with anybody she saw was sure to go badly, was certain to end up with her being disqualified from the August Witch trials.

So Clove figured she would just run in the other direction whenever she saw anyone. She would just bide her time until she became an August Witch. Then, she couldn’t ruin her chances. Then, no one could take the title of August Witch away from her.

When Clove saw the dean of Afterglow Academy, she ran in the opposite direction. She could feel her heart beating abnormally fast, as it had been constantly for the past month or so.

“Clove,” the dean called out.

Clove used a book to cover up her face as she walked away. She pretended that she couldn’t hear the dean.

“Do I need to call you to my office over the speaker?” the dean asked.

Clove froze. She felt her stomach tighten. She did not want to be called out over the speaker. She could only imagine the number of people who would stare at her and take notice if her name were announced.

Clove turned around and walked back to the dean.

“Very good,” the dean said. “Clove, it’s your turn to be an August Witch for the day.”

“I already did that,” Clove protested. “On my first day of school, I was August Witch.”

The dean sighed. “Yes,” she said. “You were August Witch for the day at school. But this time, you will be an actual August Witch. Tomorrow, you will wake up in the body of an August Witch. But don’t be fooled. This is a test. We will be watching to see how you handle the position and what you do. Fail, and you will be disqualified.”

The next morning, Clove woke up. And just as the dean had said, she was in the body of an August Witch. But she was in the body of Wisteria Putnam, both an August Witch and a reality TV star.

Clove looked around the room for cameras and saw a camera man pointing a camera at her face.

Wisteria Putnam’s channel was always on in Afire. She was watched constantly.

Clove was going to have a hard time hiding and biding her time.

If Clove messed up, the dean would know. The dean would see it on TV.

“Wisteria, baby,” the camera man mouthed inaudibly. “Why don’t you give us a nice smile and tell us good morning?”

Clove attempted to smile.

The camera man winced.

“Good morning,” Clove said flatly.

The camera man almost dropped his camera in alarm. “Are you sick?” he mouthed.

Clove shook her head.

The camera man groaned quite audibly and then cursed.

The rest of the day did not go much better for Clove.

Clove felt that it was exceedingly challenging to be Wisteria and hoped that it was not this challenging to be an August Witch if you weren’t also trying to be someone else.

Clove did not like the cameras or the calls to pose. She did not want to talk to people. She felt like exploding whenever she saw anyone, so she avoided eye contact and kept her mouth tightly closed.

People were worried about Wisteria Putnam.

Clove was handed several sheets of paper with hidden messages.

They asked her if she was alright. They asked her what was wrong. They asked her if she was upset about something. They threatened her that if she didn’t get her act together then her channel might be cancelled.

Clove couldn’t wait for the end of this nightmare of a day. She hoped that she hadn’t failed the August Witch Trials. Clove felt it was all that she could do to just hold her tongue and keep from saying something nasty to Wisteria Putnam’s people.

Then, things got even worse.

A girl appeared on TV and accused Wisteria and another woman named Holly of lying.

Clove, as Wisteria, was expected to say that she did not lie. After much prompting, Clove complied. “I did not lie. I truly believed what I said.”

This did not appease Wisteria’s people at first, but later they lavished her with praise when the public believed her, and she was off the hook.

Holly also put out a statement that she did not lie.

But no one believed Holly because she wasn’t an August Witch. Everyone believed Wisteria because she was one. The public even blamed Holly for Wisteria’s lies, saying that Holly must have lied to Wisteria.

Clove didn’t know why, in the midst of everything going on, she became obsessed with Holly. She found out that Holly was a sealant witch like Clove. And Holly was predicted to lose her business, a small bakery, over this ‘lie.’ Clove felt horrified.

Clove wanted, even more, to become an August Witch so that what happened to Holly would never happen to her. She wanted to hide and bide her time.

But at the same time, she felt so strongly for Holly.

The next day, when Clove was Clove again, she stopped by Holly’s bakery and bought a cookie. She even made eye contact with Holly, smiled, and said, “Good morning.”