Aba Kadaba

"Susie smells like a fart, make her leave and break her heart!" Little Jessie shrieked the spell at the top of her lungs. Her arms were out wide, and she tilted her head back with all the dramatic flair of a Muppet. Susie, the pigtailed girl in front of her, gasped.

"What?" She cried, wiping at wet cheeks with her long, fuzzy sleeves. "Jessy, how cud you? I wuv you, sissy!"

"Be gone, witch! You're banished from our table!" Jessie doubled down, ignoring the concerned glances from the surrounding girls.

Susie spun away with a sob, running down the hill and toward the back of the playground where she could hide in peace. Despite the fact she was used to her older sister being mean to her, it still hurt - especially in front of all their friends.

"That was a little harsh, Jess." Tilly's words were sharp, but her lips still played a smile. She rested her hands out on the wooden picnic table top, turning her palms over. The other girls followed suit, reaching out and grabbing hold of small hands until they had a circled chain.

"What do we think?" Becca raised an eyebrow. She was the calm one, the smartest, the most reasonable. She got the best score on the math test last week, so it was her turn to be the judge. "Do we let Susie back in if she returns?"

Jessie immediately pulled her hands away and shoved them down in her lap. A firm 'no'. She didn't want her sister hanging around her friends in the first place, but Susie's adorable demeanor had likened her to the group.

"She's such a little baby sweetie-pie though, Jessie Bear." Emma begged her friend. She was the one who had tied up little Susie's hair into those cute pigtails. Her home was full of gross brothers who didn't like having their hair messed with. She liked having Susie around to dote on - the young child went along with everything.

"She's annoying! And it's true, she smells like farts." Jess retorted, rolling her dark eyes. She folded her arms across her chest, an even harsher, more steadfast 'no' now.

Gasps rang out when Amelia followed suit and removed her hands from the group circle. "She's right, y'all. The girl does smell a tad like a toot."

In the midst of all the stink-talk, the other girls missed a silent conversation between Emma and her closest friend, Shyla. The pair nodded at each other and abruptly stood from the table, breaking the circle.

"How can you all go along with this?" Shyla began her speech, puffing her chest and holding tightly to Emma's outstretched hand for support. "When we started the Cuddly Cutie Coven, we promised to help others and be nice. To keep order on the playground and turn meanies into toads! But now you're just as bad as those, ew, boys over there!"

The group followed her pointing finger and swiveled to cast nasty glares toward a climbing structure across the field. A troop of boys swung around madly like monkeys in a treetop. Their archnemeses.

"Take that back," Jessie shot up from the bench, her sharp gaze holding all the steely edge of a butter knife. A little blonde girl was standing near the ape-boys while watching the coven. Was that Susie?

"No." Emma argued. "Maybe this decision is turning out to be ‘bout the wrong sister!" Her eyes were as fiery as her orange hair.

Jess gulped, backpedaling. But it might have been too late. Shyla backed up her friend, "Yeah, maybe we should replace you with Susie as a witch-level member instead of just being a familiar. She could finally hex you like she's been dreaming about."

"No," Jessie's eyes welled with tears, and her hands crumpled the hem of her My Little Pony shirt. "You wouldn't, I..." She glanced at the other girls, her oldest friends. They were unreadable. "I was one of the founding girls."

"Times change," Becca whispered. Her face was surprisingly solemn for a second grader. "We have a new vote, witches. Is Jess in or out?"

Shyla and Emma returned to their seats at the picnic table. Jessie remained rooted in the grass. Her tears were boiling over and falling down her cheeks now. Maybe she had been cruel to her little sister.

The girls of the Cuddly Cutie Coven all joined hands for the final vote. Jess' heart ached when four of her friends pulled their hands from the circle. They really wanted her gone?

It wasn't a majority in any case, but there were rules. They'd decided long ago that if at least three witch-level members voted out, that would be the verdict. Becca sighed, calming herself before lifting her blue eyes up to her old friend.

"Jessica Bree Milne," the wise child began, "you are hereby bani--"

"ABA KADABA!" A scream roared up the hill, sending more than one of the coven girls flying off their seats in shock. Two little curly blonde pigtails appeared over the grassy crest, followed by the precious, determined, tiny face of Susie Milne.

"ALAZAM!" Her shrieked spell was echoed by the small army of boys as the whole infantry rushed the coven. Emma screamed, falling over Shyla as they tripped their way back to hide behind the picnic table.

"Frog!" Becca yelled, snapping her arm toward a first grade boy with messy black curls. He froze and dropped to a crouch, letting out a low ribbit.

The chaos of Susie's charge overwhelmed the older girls, as many frogs as they made, there were more reinforcements that appeared over the hill. She must have galvanized every single boy in her grade!

"LAZER!" "SLICE!" "WHAM!" The boys began demolishing the coven with their own physical fighting styles. "ELBOW OF JUSTICE!"

Tilly shrieked when the tall boy she'd just frog-ified hopped to her and continued to wield his sword. "Jess! Help!"

She caught the attention of most of the children, which only gave the aimless frog-comrades the idea to continue their fight for reptile kind. Jess rushed to Tilly's side, fighting with her back to back, casting hexes and toad spells left and right.

But the boys were unstoppable, every spell the coven threw at them, they seemed to counteract as if it were all make-believe.

"ENOUGH!" The armies skidded to quivering halts, and all of their little wide-eyed faces turned up toward the exasperated expression of Mr. Rey.

The recess monitor had been tending to a skinned knee across the grounds when the cacophony of girly shrieks and ridiculous ribbits finally became too much. He adjusted his glasses and glared down at the jumbled mess of children.

"Who started all this chaos?" He scanned over the troops, expecting an answer from Becca.

But all the boys immediately pointed toward someone hidden behind a clump of girls. Mr. Rey stalked forward and a few witches scattered to reveal that doe-eyed face of little Susie.

"Miss Milne, care to explain yourself?"

The girl shook, her bottom lip quivering "It wus Jessy, Mistur. She, she need help so I got all dem to help my sissy." Hey eyes shone with unshed tears, feeling the gaze of all the students eating into her.

"Susie, I'm sorry!" Jess ran over and wrapped her sister in a hug. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I hurt you."

"Jess," Mr. Rey looked down at the siblings clutching each other for dear life, amused disappointment behind his glasses. "I'm glad that you have apologized. You took responsibility for your actions. But, still, you know what the punishment for being mean is, right?"

It was the older girl's turn to shake. Detention? No lunch? Calling mom?

Mr. Rey stepped forward and aimed his finger toward Jessie's face.

"FROG!" He yelled, and bellowed with laughter as the chaos of joyful children rumbled around him.