“No, thanks,” I say. I’m more of a chocolate person, but mostly I want her to get back to the story.

She pops the jelly beans into her mouth, closes the box, and puts it back in her pocket. “Wait, I guess for all of this to make sense, we have to take it back to Greek mythology. Okay, there were these three weaving goddesses called the Fates, right.”

I nod.

“I forget their names, but one spun the thread of human fate, one gave it out, and one cut the thread, basically deciding when people died. Talk about girl power. Doesn’t get more powerful than deciding people’s destinies. Even their daddy Zeus couldn’t tell them what to do,” she says, smacking and then swallows.

“Anyway, the three sisters had that staying power, too. They kept going strong through Roman mythology, with name changes here and there, and then made it all the way to Holinshed’s Chronicles as the Weird Sisters. Holinshed was ones of the guys in charge of writing this book about the UK’s history back in the sixteenth century. Apparently Shakespeare, like a lot of writers of his day, was really into the Chronicles and used it a lot in his plays.”

She pauses, shifts her bottom jaw to the right, and slides her tongue back and forth under her cheek. Must be some jelly bean stuck to her teeth. Don’t ask me why but seeing her trying to get it out is making her look cuter than ever.

“Got it?” I ask, smiling.

“Yeah,” she says, and looks down for a second, like she’s embarrassed.

“Continue . . . continue.”

“Okay, so where was I?”

“Holinshed’s Chronicles. Shakespeare liked using it for his plays.”

“That’s right,” she says, tilting her head back and to the side.

“Don’t act surprised. I told you I was interested.”

“All right, then,” she says, smiling. “So, when Holinshed and his people wrote about the Weird Sisters, they described them as these beautiful nymphs and fairies, right? As these goddesses of destiny. But when Shakespeare wrote about the three sisters—well, remember the Weird Sisters in Macbeth?”

“No,” I answer, feeling stupid. We just read that play in English last year, but I have no idea. And I thought I was smart. I mean, your boy has gotten straight As since the first grade. But Carli’s more than good-grades smart. She’s that nonrequired-reading kind of smart.

“No? Okay, well, they were these strange-looking witches with beards who foretold Macbeth was gonna murder that dude Duncan. Anyway, Shakespeare knew exactly what he was doing by making the sisters witches. At the time people were losing their minds over witchcraft. Blaming it for everything bad. So by turning the Weird Sisters into these strange witches, Shakespeare gave his play that extra hype. Got everybody all scared and fascinated and whatnot. And basically changed the word weird forever.”