Spells Like Teen Spirit

by Kate M. Williams

“Totally,” Ji-A said, and I swear I could see a hint of amusement on her face.

  “So a place that combines the two, and I am in heaven,” Amirah continued. “I mean, have you tried their Bolognese egg rolls? To die for. Literally. Like, I might be dead now. Wait,” she said, stopping her five-star review of Panda Sub to point at the van. “What is that?”

  “It’s your ride,” Cassandra said, tugging open the sliding door.

  “Oh,” Amirah said. “Cute.” And then she threw her suitcase in. I’d never seen her in such a good mood. Ji-A followed suit, and Janis and I climbed in after them.

  “This is cool,” Ji-A said. “I’ve never been in a van without seats before.” She stopped and thought for a minute. “I don’t even know if I’ve been in a van before.”

  “Me either,” Amirah said. “Unless a limo counts?”

  “It does not,” I said.

  Amirah dug into her purse, and then held something out. “You want a mint?” she asked. “They’re the same ones I always have. You know, those seaweed ones from Japan? But now these have THC.”

  “Uh, no thanks,” I said. If I remembered correctly, Amirah’s mints tasted like the underside of a toad, and I was willing to bet that the amount of THC they contained meant that a lightweight like me could probably get high just by looking at them.

  “Suit yourself,” Amirah said. She shook three into her hand and then popped them into her mouth.

  Cassandra stayed outside, leaning against the van, and out of the corner of my eye, I watched her for a second. I couldn’t see her legs, but I was sure her foot was bouncing, and she was chewing the heck out of her thumbnail, two classic signs that Cassandra was nervous. I guessed I would be too if my IRL reunion with the person I’d been texting with nonstop was going to happen in the presence of basically everyone I knew.

  All of our phones dinged at the same time. “Looks like they just landed,” Ji-A said. Outside the van, Cassandra stood up straighter and took her hand out of her mouth.

  Another ding. “They’re off the plane,” Janis read.

  Ding. “Stopping so Ruby can pee,” Amirah said.

  Ding. “Oh no,” I said. “Mallory’s starving, so they’re stopping at Panda Sub to grab a snack.”

  “Should I ask her to bring me something for later?” Amirah asked.

  “There are Panda Subs everywhere,” I assured her.

  “Oh good,” she said.

  Ding. “Ruby left her phone on the plane,” Janis read.

  Two minutes passed and another ding. “She got it,” Ji-A said.

  Two more minutes. Ding. “I guess Mallory checked her laptop and it hasn’t shown up yet?” Amirah read.

  Ding. “Never mind,” I said. “Laptop was in her carry-on.”

  “Checked bag still not here,” Ji-A read. A few beats, then another ding.

  “Bags are here,” Janis read. Jeez. This was shaping up to be the most anticipated arrival in Spring River since that time Britney Spears’s private plane ran out of gas and had to do an emergency landing.

  Then, no more dings, and there they were, coming out of the revolving doors with smiles on their faces and Panda Sub cups in their hands. Janis, Amirah, Ji-A, and I tumbled back out of the van and surrounded Mallory. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cassandra step toward Ruby kind of awkwardly, and I turned away, wanting to give them as much privacy as possible, and climbed into the van.

  “So,” I asked Mallory as we all climbed back in and tried to get comfortable on the floor, “did you find anything you liked at Panda Sub?” Mallory was an insanely picky eater whose tastes ran toward bland and breakfast, but to my surprise, she nodded and grinned.

  “Oh my God, it’s so good!” she said. “That broccoli-parm rangoon with the sweet-and-sour dipping sauce? Like, it may be my new favorite food.”

  “Ooh,” Amirah said, nodding in agreement. “I’ll have to try that next time. Esme assures me that Panda Sub is everywhere in Spring River.”

  “Yay, what a relief,” Mallory said, “because I was just thinking that it would be super silly to come all the way back to the airport just to get breakfast, but I was totally down to do it.”

  “It’s Spring River,” I said, “so ‘all the way back to the airport’ is, like, a five-minute drive, but there’s one that’s even closer to my house. So, how was your flight?”

  “Flights,” Mallory said. “We flew from Miami to Memphis to St. Louis, and then here, but they were all fine. Ruby got a little freaked out on that last flight, and said she didn’t want to go down like Aaliyah.”

  “No joke,” Ji-A said. “Those planes are almost as small as flying private, but way scarier.”

  “Did it not remind you of that one we took in Saint-Tropez?” Amirah said to Ji-A. “I mean, except for the fact that that flight was over turquoise crystal waters and this one was over…” She turned to me. “So, what do you call this kind of landscape anyway?” she asked. “Is there a word for when something is all brown and flat with nothing on it?”

  “The plains,” I said. “It’s called the plains.”

  “That makes sense,” Amirah said, looking very serious as she nodded.

  Ruby and Cassandra must have finished getting reacquainted, at least for now, because the next thing I knew, Ruby was screaming “Helllooo” and launching herself into the back of the van, tossing the rest of us into a dog pile. There was another round of hugs and squeals, and then Ruby climbed back up into the passenger seat. Even when she wasn’t flying, Ruby’s look was very “pop star on a coffee run,” and it was equal parts comfy and glam. Today she had on a cream-colored Adidas tracksuit with a cropped tank top underneath, and then everything else about her was gold, from her hoop earrings to her layered necklaces, her backpack, her high-shine lip gloss, and the highlighter dusted across her cheeks. She looked like human sunshine, and I realized she must really be into Cassandra to come here, where the only beach was at a man-made lake and riddled with copperheads.

  “Wait,” I said as she took a sip from a cup. “What did you get at Panda Sub?” Ruby was the healthiest eater I’d ever met. She even ate fruit for dessert.

  “Water with lemon,” she said, and took a sip, then looked around. “Cass, I like this van.”

  “Yeah, it’s real incognito,” Cassandra said as she pushed it into gear and started to drive away. “We blend right in with all the pervs and weirdos.”

  “So, what are we doing this weekend?” Mallory asked.

  “Right now I’m going to take everyone to drop your stuff off, and change or whatever,” Cassandra said, and I was super impressed that she was acknowledging the fact that sometimes people had to change their clothes. Janis gave everyone a rundown on brunch at Brian’s—“Cute,” squealed Amirah, which was apparently how she described everything these days, and Ruby asked if he needed us to bring anything—and then said that we would go thrifting in the afternoon.

  “So, ‘thrifting,’ ” Ruby started. “You mean, like, buying dead people’s clothes?”

  “They’re not all from dead people—” I started, but Cassandra interrupted.

  “The great thing about thrifting is that you can buy a pair of used jeans, and only maybe someone died in them, but they definitely farted in them,” she said.

  “Don’t listen to her,” I assured Amirah. “I’ve found Halston on the racks before.”

  “We can always skip out and go to the gym,” Cassandra assured Ruby.

  “That sounds like a great idea!” I said enthusiastically. I’d taken Cassandra thrifting before, and it had not been pretty. She managed to break a VCR, and I will never forget her screams when she happened to find some pornographic Polaroids wedged into a copy of a Mother Goose book. Plus, she was obsessed with the fact that someone might have (okay, probably had) farted in the pants.

  “Then, tomorrow night, there
’s a school dance,” Janis said. “And Esme booked the band.”

  “Wait,” Mallory said, “what are we doing Sitter-wise? I mean, the last time we were here, we pretty much helped overthrow the government, and Cassandra’s also the only Sitter I’ve ever known who went to the Negative after summoning the Portal in an abandoned mall. You two are like the most epic Sitters in the whole Sitterhood right now. I didn’t come all this way just to eat brunch and go shopping.”

  I watched Mallory, and my jaw almost dropped. The Mallory I had met two months before had been a meek little thing who’d lived off protein bars. This Mallory was dipping broccoli-parm rangoon and looking to stir up trouble. I certainly wasn’t the only one who noticed a change, because everyone else went quiet as well, and then Ruby’s laughter broke in from the front seat.

  “Have you met the new Mal?” she asked. “She’s quite assertive.”

  I looked back at Mallory, who smiled and shrugged. “I started listening to these empowerment podcasts,” she said, “and I realized a couple of things. One, I am definitely a feminist, and two, I’m really tired of doing stuff I don’t want to do.”

  “Heck yeah,” Amirah said, reaching over to give her a fist bump.

  “But anyway,” Janis continued. “The school dance is Sitter stuff. Esme, tell them about Jump the Shark.”

  “Is that like cow tipping?” Ruby asked. “I think that sounds mean.” I shook my head, and started at the beginning. It turned out that Cassandra had already told Ruby about the break-in, our main suspects, the band, and the possibility that her mom was being held captive in their house. Cass just hadn’t mentioned the band’s name because she couldn’t keep up with what it was. So now Janis and I filled everyone else in.

  “Tomorrow night we’ll split up,” I finished. “Half of us will go to the dance, and the other half will do a little B and E, I guess.”

  “Team B and E,” Ruby called out, shooting her hand into the air.

  “Good,” I said. “Their house is dripping in spells, so it might not be as easy as breaking a window.”

  “Or kicking down a door,” Cassandra said.

  “Yeah, uh, that either,” I said.

  “Maybe we could go tonight and do some recon?” Ruby said, turning to Cassandra. “We might need to gather some stuff to break the spells we run into.”

  Cassandra nodded.

  “I can go with you tomorrow night,” Mallory said. “If Cassandra’s mom is there—and I hope it doesn’t come to this—she might need my help.” Mallory had a healing kinesis, which had come in very handy the last time she’d been here, when so many Sitters had gotten hurt at the Summit. Cassandra nodded again, and from where I was sitting, I could see her jaw tighten.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “So we’re team dance, then,” Ji-A said. “I’m cool with that. Maybe I can find something to wear when we go thrifting?”

  “Sounds good,” I said, and then sat back in awe. It seemed nuts, but we had reinforcements and a plan. Maybe this would work out after all?

  As Cassandra drove, everyone chattered, catching up on everything that had happened in the past two months. Ruby and Mallory had been dealing with a rash of Cloak demons at the beach, which were tricky things, able to take on the guise of whatever was around them. “It’s crazy,” Ruby said. “They’ll just look like sand, or a beach towel, or sometimes even just people in the distance, so if we’re not careful, people walk right into a Cloak and don’t even know what’s hit them.”

  “I’ve actually had to use my powers a lot lately,” Mallory said. “So I end up telling people that they were stung by a jellyfish and that my dad’s a marine biologist, and I know just what to do.”

  “And people buy that?” Janis asked, and Mallory nodded vigorously.

  “They don’t ask a ton of questions,” she said. “They’re just happy they’re not getting peed on.”

  “In New York, we’ve had problems with the subways,” Ji-A said. “Have you guys ever heard of a Noxious demon?”

  Mallory and I shook our heads.

  “It literally has no form,” she continued. “It’s just like a cloud of bad smell. Which on the subway, that could be anything, you know? It’s wasted so much of our time these past few weeks. Last Tuesday, Amirah and I spent almost an hour tracking what turned out to be just a tub of sauerkraut on someone’s long commute. It’s very frustrating.”

  “Wait,” I said. “So if you guys are here, who’s watching the subways and beaches while you’re gone?”

  “It’s V-Day weekend, remember?” Mallory said. “Demons hate romance, so at most, they’ll cause a couple of fights or eat all the good ones out of a box of chocolate, but nothing that would prevent us from having this much needed vacay.”

  Ji-A nodded in agreement, and I sat back, kind of amazed. Almost four months of Sitting and one Summit under my belt, and I still had so much to learn.

  “Wait!” Amirah said, leaning over and slapping my knee. “Tell us about Pig!”

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “She just came back? It’s crazy.”

  “You’re sure it’s the same dog?” Ji-A asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “It’s definitely her, except…” I trailed off.

  “Is she okay?” Mallory asked. “Was she hurt?”

  “She seems fine,” I said. “She’s skinny, and limping a little, and hungrier than normal, but she’s very happy to be back.”

  “I can’t wait to see her!” Amirah said.

  “Where do you think she was?” Ji-A asked.

  “We have no idea,” I said. “It seems like maybe someone else was taking care of her?”

  Ruby nodded. “My grandma had a cat that came back once after eight months,” she said. “It turns out, some other family thought they had adopted him.”

  I nodded. “Maybe…” As always, though, whenever I thought about Pig, nothing added up. But we were about to see her in a minute, because Cassandra had pulled up in front of my house. “This is us,” I said to Mallory, and grabbed her bags to help her with them.

  “Hang at my house later?” Cassandra called as we climbed out of the van.

  “We’ll pick you up in a couple of hours,” Janis yelled, before I could answer, and then Ruby slammed the door shut and they drove off.

  Looking up at my house, I felt insanely grateful for my van full of friends, and for the fact that Mallory was staying with me this weekend. Pig might have been back, but the house was still going to feel very empty with Mom gone, and it would be nice to have someone there as a distraction.

  Mallory dropped her stuff off in my room, and I tried—bravely and valiantly—to clean it up while she showered. Pig was close at my heels the whole time, and definitely grunted some disapproval as I picked up the piles of clothes from the floor. I managed to make some space where Mallory could keep her suitcase, and cleared off the back of my chair in case she wanted to hang up some of her clothes. I found a clean towel for her, which was too late for this shower but might come in handy in the morning, and sheets to make up a bed on the couch.

  I realized I hadn’t told Dad that I would be having anyone over tonight, but when I texted him, he responded with a thumbs-up. It turned out he was still at Mom’s facility getting things settled there, but he seemed happy that I was hanging out with “friends” and doing “normal” things for the night.

  After the shower, Mallory blow-dried her hair and got dressed, and we hung out in my room. I hadn’t gotten to know her that well at the Summit—because I hadn’t gotten to know anyone that well—but I liked Mallory. She was funny, into books, and a sharp observer. She was also besotted with Pig, and I told her the whole story, about how Pig had just appeared to us one day like a vision in a parking lot and had never left.

  “She’s helped in rituals before too,” I said. “And she was really good at i
t, because she knows how to sit and stay. But Brian did some research, and hasn’t been able to find any other examples of when a ritual worked with an animal. So…” Pig scratched an ear, and then chewed an itch. “It’s almost like she’s not a dog?”

  “Yeah, weird,” Mallory said, getting up and moving over toward her, and Pig looked up as Mallory raised her hands. Mallory started at Pig’s ears, and then slowly moved her hands down, staying just a few inches away. Pig whimpered a few times, and when Mallory stepped back, she had a puzzled look on her face.

  “What?” I asked her.

  “She had a few fractures that were almost healed,” Mallory said, “so I helped those along. And she’s still really hungry, but other than that, she’s in pretty good shape.” Mallory looked at Pig again. “I mean, I’m no veterinarian, but I’d say she’s in excellent shape for a dog that flew off a building just two months ago.” Pig lay down with a contented sigh.

  “I know,” I agreed. “It’s a miracle.”

  “It sure is,” Mallory said, still looking at Pig. Even without her saying anything, I knew what she was thinking, because I was thinking it too. In the Sitterverse, much like coincidences, miracles didn’t exist. Mallory held her hands out again, and frowned.

  “There is one weird thing, though,” she said. “How old is Pig?”

  “We’re not sure,” I said, “but probably seven or eight.”

  “The only thing I’m picking up is that she’s much older.”

  “Like, ten?”

  Mallory shook her head. “Like, seventies?”

  “Dog years, maybe?”

  “I guess,” Mallory said as Pig settled down with a snort.

  Soon Janis was texting from outside; she’d come to pick us up to hang out at Cassandra’s. I fed Pig, giving her so much food that it spilled out the top of the bowl and onto the floor, and then we left. As we climbed into the car, my phone dinged, and I checked it to see a text from Brian for me and Cassandra. As was to be totally expected, he was spinning out about brunch, and wanted to know what we thought about a “build-your-own-bagel bar.” The text was to Cassandra and me, but I figured that she probably wouldn’t respond.