by Anne Ursu
After homeroom was over, Charlotte headed toward math class by herself. As she was walking through the hallway, she heard someone loudly calling her name. Maddy was at the other end of the hall, waving frantically at her.
In moments she was at Charlotte’s side, grabbing her arm and pulling her off into a corner.
“What? What is it?” Charlotte breathed, staring at her friend in wonder. Maddy’s face was flushed and she was bouncing slightly on her feet, making her long, brown ponytail bob up and down.
A tremendous grin spread across Maddy’s face. “It’s Zee,” she whispered, eyes like supernovas.
“Zee?” Charlotte repeated dumbly. She knew something about Zee? Had he said something about Mr. Metos to Maddy? But why would he—
“He asked me out!”
Charlotte blinked. “Out where?”
“Not out somewhere. Out out!” Charlotte looked at her, not comprehending. “We’re going out! Me and Zee!”
Everything seemed to go strangely quiet in Charlotte’s brain for a moment, as if someone had turned off the volume in the world and all that was left was some distant static, like a radio waiting to receive a signal. She felt her eyelids drop and open again—once, twice, three, four, five times—and each time they opened, Maddy was still in front of her, beaming at her.
“Can you believe it?” Maddy gasped. “He was waiting for me before school! We missed homeroom talking about it. I’m already becoming a delinquent!” She giggled wildly. “Char, he kissed me!”
Charlotte squinted at Maddy and slowly tilted her head to the side like a bemused cocker spaniel. “Are you sure?”
Maddy started. “What do you mean, am I sure?”
“I mean, are you sure? Did you misunderstand?” The fuzzy noise was back in her head, growing louder and louder, making it very hard to focus on the world around her.
“What,” Maddy said, crossing her arms, “you don’t think Zee could like me?”
Suddenly Charlotte could hear perfectly. “No! That’s not it!”
“Really? Do you think I’m not good enough for your cousin?”
Charlotte shook her head frantically. “No!”
“Well, what? Are you jealous or something?” Maddy said, icicles hanging off her words. “Can’t you just be happy for me?”
“No! I mean, yes! Wait…”
“Well, I don’t know what your problem is,” Maddy said with a sniff. “But whatever it is, I hope you get over it soon.” And with that, she turned on her heel and stalked off.
It took Charlotte some time to remove herself from her position in the hallway. Students passed her by, talking and laughing, as if everything in the world was as it should be, as if they still existed in the same universe as this morning—then gradually, the stream of them slowed, and then stopped, and Charlotte was still in the hallway blinking toward the place where she had last seen Maddy.
Three full minutes later, Charlotte let out a long, strained exhale, shook her head, then headed toward math again. Maybe she would see Zee there and he would explain what was going on.
Of course she was late—there was that whole sojourn in the hallway, then as she’d tried to move again she’d discovered someone had replaced the air with some strange translucent goo, and that takes some time to walk through. Mr. Crapf glared at her when she walked in the door.
“Charlotte, do you have a note?”
“No,” she said flatly.
“I’ll have to mark you as tardy, then.”
“Fine,” she muttered.
As Charlotte sat down, she noticed that Zee’s desk was empty—apparently he was still off reveling in his newfound love. Was that what he’d wanted to tell her when he called last night? Charlotte, I’ve miraculously grown a backbone! Catch you on the flip side!
Finally, a few minutes after Charlotte had sat down, Zee appeared in the doorway, gave the room a quick survey, and then strolled to his desk, a row behind Charlotte.
“Zachary?” Mr. Crapf turned around and eyed Zee. “Do you have a note?”
“No!” Zee replied cheerfully.
“I’ll have to mark you as tardy.”
“Brilliant!”
Huh? Charlotte spun around in her seat to stare at Zee, who grinned at her and said quite loudly, “Hi!”
“Charlotte!” snapped Mr. Crapf. “Turn around.”
Oh, sure, she should get in trouble. Charlotte turned back around dutifully in her chair, but as soon as Mr. Crapf turned his attention back to the blackboard, she swiveled her head back toward Zee.
He didn’t look like he’d suffered a massive blow to the head. In fact, he seemed quite cheerful as he took his notes. At least that hadn’t changed—Zee was studiously copying down everything Mr. Crapf was writing on the board.
Except—Charlotte raised herself in her seat to peer at the notebook on his desk—those didn’t look like notes. Was he…doodling?
Zee felt her gaze and looked up questioningly. “What?” he whispered.
Charlotte raised her eyebrows, shook her head at him slowly, and turned back around in her chair.
After class, Charlotte stood by the door, arms folded, waiting for her cousin. He bounced up to her and exclaimed, “Hey, Char! How are you?”
She stared at him. “I’m fine. How are you?”
“I’m great!”
“You are?”
“Yeah!” Zee turned his head and hollered down the hallway, “Oh, hey, Charlie! Be there in a sec!”
“I saw Maddy this morning,” Charlotte said, her voice thin and high.
Zee’s face lit up. “Yeah! We’re going out! Isn’t it brilliant? She’s so pretty.”
“Okay. Um, I’m just…surprised. I mean, usually you don’t really talk to girls.” There, there was that fuzzy noise in her head again. She really should have that looked at.
Zee blinked at her. “Sure I do!”
“No,” Charlotte said. “No, you don’t.”
“Well, that’s ridiculous! Why wouldn’t I talk to girls?” He shook his head. “You know, Char, sometimes you just got to seize the day, you know? Go get ’em, tiger, and all that? You know?”
“Sure,” she said, folding her arms more tightly.
“I just woke up this morning and felt so terrific,” he continued, shaking his head in wonderment. “It’s just so great to be alive!”
“Uh-huh,” Charlotte said, eyeing him. “Okay. Hey, listen, what did you want to talk to me about?”
He blinked dumbly at her.
“You called last night? My dad didn’t give me the message until this morning.”
“Oh, yeah,” he said, giving a dismissive wave. “It’s nothing.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” he said, with a happy smile. “Positive.”
All through the day, Charlotte studied her cousin, trying to figure out what in the world had gotten into him. He looked different. His shoulders had lost their slump, his face was bright and open. Gone was the heavy shroud of Zee-ness that he always seemed to wear, replaced by this aura of sunshine and daffodils and a whole lot of other things Charlotte couldn’t parse.
Was it just love? Was that all it was going to take, this whole time, to fix whatever it was that ailed Zee? As he bounded through the hallways, enthusiastically greeting everyone in his path, as his voice boomed through halls and classrooms, Charlotte thought it seemed her cousin didn’t have a care in the world, which was pretty impressive for someone who’d almost caused the eternal suffering of humankind.
As for Maddy, she was ignoring Charlotte. As soon as Charlotte walked into the locker room for gym, Maddy stalked off to change somewhere else. During gym, she kept a distance of at least ten feet between the two of them, as assiduously as if Charlotte had taken out a restraining order.
Meanwhile, the whole school was buzzing about Jason Hart. His presence had affected the school in much the same way Zee’s had six months earlier. Wherever Charlotte went, pockets of girls were huddled together, whispering
about the cute new boy. Charlotte kept her eyes open for him, thinking she would casually try to find out what he’d meant last night. If he was trying to tell her he knew, he’d certainly try again.
Plus, she really wouldn’t mind seeing him again.
When Charlotte finally saw Jason at lunch, she was surprised to see he had changed too. When she’d seen him the day before, he’d been outgoing, cheerful—now he slumped in his chair with narrowed eyes and an aura akin to a black hole.
“Hi,” Charlotte said warily.
“Oh!” Jason turned around. When he saw Charlotte, something passed through his green eyes—a flicker of something very like excitement, and suddenly he was the same old Jason again. Despite herself, Charlotte’s heart leaped. “How are you?” he asked.
Fine now. “Okay, um…You okay?”
“Sure,” Jason said, shrugging dismissively. He looked around and then leaned toward Charlotte and whispered, “So, have you seen Zee today?”
Unfortunately. “Yeah…”
He tilted his head questioningly. “Does he seem weird to you?”
A wave of relief passed over Charlotte. It felt good just to hear someone else say it. “You noticed it too? I don’t understand it. He’s just…changed.”
Jason let out something between a laugh and a grunt. “He sure has…. Do you have any idea why?”
Charlotte threw up her hands. “No, but if you figure it out, please tell me.” She shook her head. “You know he’s going out with Maddy?”
“Yeah, I know. Gross, right?”
“Well—” That wasn’t quite the word she would use. “It’s just—”
Jason opened his mouth as if to say something, but just then Ms. Bristol-Lee came by and shooed Charlotte toward her seat.
When lunch was over, Charlotte walked out of the lunchroom talking with Julie and Kelly from the gymnastics team about the meet that Charlotte had missed the night before. Someone from the opposing team had face-planted on a handspring and split her lip open. Charlotte was always surprised when things like that happened to people besides her.
When they entered the hallway she saw Zee and Jason talking heatedly in a doorway. Zee had his arms folded and was shaking his head, while Jason was whispering something angrily, surrounded once again by the black hole aura. Charlotte stopped in her tracks. She couldn’t believe her eyes; she’d never seen Zee fight with anyone before who didn’t have demon blood. Jason’s voice rose through the crowd. “I can’t believe you would do that!” Then he stalked off, while Zee threw his hands up in the air.
The three girls exchanged a look.
“What’s with them?” Julie asked, wide-eyed.
“No idea,” Charlotte said, shaking her head slowly.
She couldn’t figure it out. Did Jason like Maddy? Was that why he was being so nice to her? It would make sense. He noticed Maddy doing her routine and then he saw Zee watching her and got jealous. And he decided to be nice to Charlotte in hopes of winning Maddy—really, he was so cute there had to be an ulterior motive. But she sure couldn’t ask Maddy, given Maddy wasn’t speaking to her. Which Charlotte needed to do something about, and quickly.
She accosted her friend after English. “Look, Mad,” she said, eyes wide with sincerity, “I was just surprised, okay? I’m sorry.”
Maddy folded her arms. “Really?” she asked coldly. “Why did it surprise you so much?”
“It’s just…Zee has always been really shy around girls.”
“Well, he’s never been shy with me,” Maddy said flatly.
Except yesterday, Charlotte thought. “I just wasn’t expecting it, that’s all.”
Maddy straightened. “Well, Zee doesn’t tell you everything, you know.”
Charlotte blinked. “He doesn’t?”
“No. You think you know him so well, but you don’t.”
“Wha—”
“He said so.”
“He…what?”
As Charlotte gaped, Zee appeared at Maddy’s side. “Hi, Char!” he said brightly, then looked to her friend with moonstruck eyes and sighed, “Hi, Maddy.”
Beaming, Maddy turned to him, and Zee took her hand and led her down the hallway, while Charlotte stood dumbly and watched them go.
When school was over, Charlotte walked to her mother’s car lugubriously and flopped heavily into the passenger seat.
“Are you okay?” Mrs. Mielswetzski asked.
“Weird day,” Charlotte muttered.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
She had never even considered what might happen if Zee and Maddy went out. Maddy was her best friend, and Zee was—well, Zee was beyond that, he was her brother-in-arms, her confidant, swimming worthless laps with her in the great fishbowl of life, and he was the only thing that kept her from being smooshed by the terrible burden that had been placed on them both.
Charlotte exhaled loudly and sank deeper in her seat.
“You sure you don’t want to talk about it?” Mrs. Mielswetzski asked.
Charlotte nodded.
“All right,” her mother said softly. “Let’s get you home.”
Ten minutes later Charlotte was lying on her bed scratching Mew on the head. “Well,” she murmured to the cat, “Zee has completely lost his mind.”
“Meow,” said Mew.
“What does he mean I think I know him so well but I don’t?” said Charlotte.
“Meow,” said Mew.
“I mean, after all we went through,” said Charlotte. “Can you believe it?”
“Meow,” said Mew.
“And I did technically save him from a lifetime of Philonecron mind control. That ought to be worth something.”
“Meow,” said Mew.
“Who’s Philonecron?”
Charlotte started so violently she nearly fell out of bed. Her father had appeared in the doorway and was looking at her with an intrigued expression.
“Oh,” said Charlotte tightly. “Nobody. Just something I read….”
“That’s an interesting name,” he mused. “It’s Greek. Phil is the Greek root for love and necron is the root for death. So this Philonecron chap’s name means love or lover of death.”
“Huh,” said Charlotte.
“So I imagine he’s not a very nice fellow!”
“No, I guess not,” Charlotte said. “Um, did you want something?”
“Oh, yes! I was wondering if you have the Hartnett directory? I can’t find mine.”
“Oh, yeah, one sec.” Charlotte pulled herself out of bed, careful not to meet her father’s eye.
When he was gone, Charlotte plopped down in her desk chair and swiveled around to look at Mew.
“That was close,” she whispered.
“Meow,” said Mew.
A few minutes later Mr. Mielswetzski gave the school directory back to Charlotte. She had the desk drawer open and was about to put it away when she stopped short. She looked down at the directory in her hands and then quickly opened it and flipped to the faculty section.
Oh, she’d been so stupid! All she wanted was a way to contact Mr. Metos—well, she might not have his new address, but she certainly had his old one, right there in the school directory. Surely he’d be forwarding his mail, because that’s just the sort of thing grown-ups did.
Charlotte sat down at her desk, got out a pen and paper, and began to write.
Dear Mr. Metos,
We haven’t heard anything from you and we’re worried.
Is everything okay? Zee and I want to know what’s going on. It isn’t fair to leave us in the dark like this. We’re scared. Please write.
Charlotte
There. Short, sweet, to the point. The “scared” thing was maybe a little much, but adults ate that stuff up. Whatever it took to get him to write her. And then she’d have a letter from him and could tell Zee and everything could be back to normal.
CHAPTER 6
Totally Lulu
THAT WEEKEND IT PR
OVED DIFFICULT FOR CHARLOTTE to focus on anything. She knew Mr. Metos wouldn’t even get her letter until later in the week, and a reply would come, at the earliest, the following week while they were sailing the eastern seaboard exploring the wonderful world of American history. But she couldn’t help but be impatient. As a result, she was on edge even more than usual and got in several fights with her mother and one with her father, who was disappointed that she hadn’t read Thomas Jefferson Unplugged yet.
And then, of course, there was the matter of Zee and Maddy. Maddy still hadn’t forgiven her—and while Charlotte was pretty sure that she had, in fact, already apologized, and while the whole affair made her slightly annoyed with her friend, she was going to use her extensive anger management skills gleaned from five months of weekly therapy to bite her tongue and apologize again. Because Maddy was her best friend in all the world, for her—and only for her—Charlotte was willing to swallow a little pride. Any residual anger she felt she could just take out on her parents.
And she’d have to figure out what was going on with Zee. He was just not normal. Both of them had been walking around feeling as if they’d been bound up extremely tightly in very thick rope since they’d come back from the Underworld, and suddenly overnight he was skipping around like Lulu the Sunshine Girl. Didn’t he care anymore? Had he forgotten about the Dead? How could he have? If she’d started going out with Jason Hart and been really happy and all the other girls got jealous because he was so cute and she was going out with him and they weren’t, she wouldn’t have forgotten. She would never forget.
So Charlotte was irritable all weekend, though for some reason her parents didn’t notice anything was amiss. They themselves were quite busy making preparations for the cruise—or at least talking about making preparations for the cruise. Every dinner was filled with talk of the tasks ahead: They needed to stop the newspaper, find someone to pick up the mail and water the plants, her mother needed to reschedule all her patients, her father needed to put in for a substitute for the Monday after break, and everyone needed new raincoats. (Some people, Charlotte would like to point out, went on cruises where you didn’t need raincoats.) It seemed to Charlotte that some wars had been launched with less planning than this. Sometimes while they talked, she liked to close her eyes and pretend they were actually taking her someplace fun.
