Sersi's cookies

Sersi was a reluctant witch. She wanted nothing to do with magic. She had no wand, no broomstick, no grimoire into which to write her spells or potion recipes, and even refused to acknowledge the family black cat, Helios.
It wasn't a dislike of magic that made her feel that way, she just didn't believe in it. However, Sersi had been born into a long lineage of white witches. Her mother, Selene, was the local coven's High Priestess, and her sister Hekate, was well on the way to following in her mother's footsteps. Escape was futile.
Sersi's attitude was the source of many arguments that created an ever widening rift between her and her practising mother and sister, but Sersi was as staunch in her belief as her mother was in hers. Neither side were willing to accept the other's point of view, or make concessions. But Sersi was far from happy. Her school life was as tumultuous as her home life. The pupils generally considered she was a bit weird. They weren't to blame for thinking that as Sersi knew herself it was all her own doing. She was the one who avoided everyone, she was the one that decided she didn't want or need friends, she was the one that showed no interest in sports or boys or shopping or music or any of the school clubs. All she was interested in was writing. She wrote night and day: in the school yard, in class, in her bedroom, on the bus, anywhere and everywhere. But as she got older the solitude became tiresome and she longed for friends. She tried on numerous occasions to strike up a conversation with some of the girls in her class but as she approached them she found she had nothing to say. Her aloofness just added weight to the nickname the pupils had given her: 'psycho'. Part of Sersi though blamed her mother, her family for the distance between her and the rest of the kids at school. She was sure they knew her family were witches, and although her kind were no longer burned at the stake for their activities she knew the mere mention of the word 'witch' sent shivers down the backs of ordinary folk.
The feeling of helplessness and hopelessness led Sersi to do something she never thought she'd do.
On the night before the school dance Sersi crept into her sister's bedroom, stole her grimoire, mixed up a popularity potion her sister had been experimenting with and poured it onto the batch of cookies she made.
The next night she got dressed up in her navy blue dress with the small red flowers on it-her favourite-and strolled down to the school hall with her batch of poisoned cookies . Fearing that nobody would eat them if they knew she had baked them, Sersi conveniently forgot to put her name on the box, she just left them on the table of other donated offerings and waited. As the night wore on and dances were danced and games were played Sersi approached the food table and noticed that all of her cookies had been eaten. It didn't take long for the effects of her potion to work, but not in the way Sersi expected. All she wanted was for someone to talk to her but instead she found she was suddenly surrounded by kids all vying for her attention. Some were commenting on how nice she looked tonight, how interesting they thought she was, how pretty her eyes were, and asking her all sorts of questions like which movies she'd seen recently or which boy she fancied in Maths class. It was all a bit overwhelming. Sersi felt like she couldn't breathe as she was hemmed in on all sides by intoxicated kids. But as she pushed her way through the crowd they followed her. Sersi, in a bid to escape, ran down the linoleum hallways with boys and girls of all ages chasing her like blood crazed zombies, and cursed herself for going against her principles and tinkering with sorcery. Although it did prove one thing, that magic does indeed work, that didn't excuse, in her eyes, the fact that she gave into weakness. She rounded a corner and tucked herself away between two vending machines and held her breath as the throng passed her by. As the last one disappeared into the school quadrangle Sersi breathed a sigh of relief. But she wasn't alone. A lone boy was sat directly opposite her on one of the benches. Sersi made to escape but he held out a hand as though to calm her.
"Your Sersi, aren't you?"
Sersi held her breath and said not a word.
"Have you eaten one of those chocolate chip cookies?" she asked.
"No. I'm allergic to chocolate, and most other food stuffs," he said awkwardly. "I've seen you round school before. I...wanted to speak to you but you always seemed like you were deep in thought and stuff."
Sersi gave him a weak smile, unsure what to say or do. "I suppose I probably was."
"I'm Mike," he said. "Mike Reynolds. I'm in your English class."
Sersi nodded unsure whether his attention was genuine or not, especially given nobody had ever approached her before.
"You look very pretty tonight," he said as he looked down at his feet. "I wanted to say it before but, well, you know."
Sersi sensed he was just as apprehensive as she was about making connections with people and although he did appear a little awkward she was comforted by it. He was the mirror image of her. In that moment she realised that she didn't need potions or spells to make people like her, all she needed was a little confidence and patience.
Feeling invigorated she stood tall, smoothed down her dress and her hair and calmly said to Mike, "Fancy a dance!"