Chapter 11: Girl At Home

*Three Years Earlier*

"You have paint in your hair again," Kate pointed out the purple stripe in Jess's auburn hair.

Jess ran a hand through her messy hair. She had put it in a messy bun that was close to giving up. "I swear I'm going to shave off my head someday. My hair keeps getting in the way."

Her cousin frequently got paint on herself when she was working on big canvases. If it wasn't paint, it was charcoal or ink. Kate learned how to get paint off furniture and clothes as Jess's creative messiness started young.

"Or you could put on a shower cap."

"I hate those things."

"Well, purple is a good color on you," Kate joked before she murmured a cleaning spell and the purple streak disappeared from Jess's hair. "You're welcome."

"Thanks, Mom," Jess quipped. "Enough about me. Have you and Theo talked since Samhain?"

"We talked once this week."

"And?"

"We both agreed that this bond is weird and we have no choice but to live with it."