And believe me, there were a lot of whacked out things going on. A few kids were climbing up the walls. Jaydin among them. Miss Simmons’s feet turned into wheels and she sped out the front door, and to who knows where. This kid from homeroom flew around the room, flicking people on the head as he passed over them. When he got Courtney, she grew taller until her head almost touched the ceiling. She grabbed him and pinned him to the wall. “No one touches my hair,” she screamed, her booming voice filling the whole room. “Understand?” When he nodded, she released him and shrunk back down to her normal size.
A regular-sized Courtney was bad enough; I definitely didn’t need a supersized version. This needed fixing.
“Let me go, Max,” I said, moving away and running over to Gabi. “Thank God, you’re normal.” I said when I reached her.
“Why wouldn’t you be normal?” Cole asked Gabi, transforming from a balloon hanging above us back to his human form. I must say, even though it was kind of beautiful to see him float down and change into himself, I did not like seeing him as an inanimate object. He was way too cute to go around turning into random things. Not to mention that the idea of him sneaking up on me wasn’t very appealing, either. What if he heard or saw something he wasn’t supposed to? Although it was exciting to think that maybe he was spying on me!
“Probably because she’s not normal,” Gabi answered. Only she didn’t speak the words. They were written out in a thought bubble over her head!
I put my finger in it and popped it. Glaring at her, I whispered, “Cut it out.”
“I’m not doing it on purpose,” the words formed in her next bubble. “It just happened.”
“How is she not normal?” Cole asked, pressing Gabi for the scoop.
“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” I said quickly, swatting the air above Gabi’s head to make sure no more thoughts could appear there.
“That’s not true.” The bubble formed higher than before, way above my reach, so I couldn’t get rid of it—and so that everyone could see. “Angel is the daughter of the devil.”
“YOU’RE WHAT?!!” Courtney grew ten feet in size.
“It’s a joke,” I said. “Funny, right?”
The words hovering above changed to, “No joke. It’s the truth.” Then, “Sorry. I can’t control it.”
My cover was blown. My best friend had just ratted me out to the world.
“I always knew she was evil,” Courtney said, pushing me backward with her huge pointer finger.
“Me? What about you. Don’t you think it’s weird that you suddenly have freaky growth spurts? Maybe you’re the evil one,” I said.
“How dare you!” Her eyes turned into slits. “I have one of the greatest gifts you can be born with.”
“In what universe?”
“Okay, devil girl,” she spat. “Maybe you don’t know the workings of the real world because you were too busy soaking up the flames of Hades, but people in Goode are special.”
I couldn’t believe it. They thought all the madness around them was normal, but when it came to me and my secret—that they thought was messed up. Figured, my spell or whatever you wanted to call it backfired on me.
Courtney kept hold of me so I couldn’t move and turned her head to face the crowd. “We better do something with her before she tries to convert us to evil.”
“We should tie her up,” Reid said.
“These should work,” Jaydin said, crawling up the wall behind me carrying a bunch of jump ropes.
A whole slew of people moved in on me. “Yeah, don’t let her get away,” one yelled. “Cover her eyes so she doesn’t shoot flames out,” another said. “I think we should take her to Miss Simmons’s class and dissect her,” Lana added. “See what makes her work.”
“Wait,” I yelled, as two guys flew in from above to help Jaydin tie me up. “Stay away or I will make you sign over your souls.” I tried to sound scary and devilish.
“Like we’d ever sign anything that you gave us,” Courtney answered.
“Forget the signature, I can just say a chant and your soul is mine.”
Courtney backed up a step.
“That’s right,” I said. “All of you move away or Lucifer’s spawn will destroy you all with her evil, evil spell.”
It was working. People moved back from me—that is until Gabi’s thought bubble popped up in the air. “She’s making all that up. She doesn’t know a soul-stealing chant.”
“How do you know?” Cole asked.
“She’s my best friend. She tells me everything,” Gabi’s bubble said.
“And thought bubbles never lie,” Lana nodded knowingly. “They’re programmed to only display the truth.”
How would she know? This was a made-up world. “You’re wrong,” I cried out. No one listened. Courtney reached for a cupcake with her free hand. “We’ve heard enough from you devil girl.” She smashed the dessert right into my mouth, then lifted me above her head.
“Let’s take her to Principal Stanton, he can probe her brain.”
Probe my brain?!!I didn’t care what kind of crazy new world I was living in now. There was no way I was having someone mess around in my head. Let alone the principal. “Stop,” I shrieked, spitting frosting everywhere. “Stop now!”
Everything went still, and there I was stuck in the air in giant Courtney’s clutches.
chapter 43
There was no way down. Not without risking serious bodily harm. I was going to be stuck in Courtney’s arms forever—or until someone wandered in and saw the crazy scenario and had me sent to NASA for testing.
I only had one choice. “Lou,” I called quietly. Usually he appeared before I even finished saying his name, but this time there was no sign of him. “Lou,” I said a little louder. Still nothing. I counted to thirty. Maybe he was busy or in the underworld and out of earshot. “Lou!” Where was he?I’ll admit it, I was starting to panic. What if he didn’t come? What would I do? “Lou, I need you. Please!”
“Ahh,” he said, appearing on the ground below me. “There are your manners.”
He was giving me an etiquette lesson now? “I really messed up,” I said.
“I can see that.” He folded his arms across his chest.
“Will you help? Turn everything back to before the dance started?” I needed him to do it quick. My sides were starting to hurt. Courtney’s nails were stabbing me.
He shook his head. “No can do.”
“What do you mean? You did it before when I caused all those problems at the musical. Just do that again.”
“Sorry. I warned you. No advanced magic.” He gestured to my dress, half of his mouth curling up into a smile. “And I’ll hazard a guess that you didn’t buy that outfit you have on there. You disobeyed my rules again, and now you’re going to have to deal with the fallout.”
“But the fallout is me perched in the sky and everyone I know frozen. You can’t leave them that way. Please. Punish me, but fix them,” I pleaded.
“There are consequences to your actions,” he lectured.
“I know, I know, but you have to fix this.”
Lou snapped his fingers, and I was instantly standing next to him. “Thank you,” I said, rubbing my sides. They were probably black and blue. “Now just send us back in time.”
“I already told you—no.”
“But—”
He cut me off. “You need to take responsibility for what you’ve done. I’m not going to come in and fix all of your mess-ups, especially the ones that blatantly disobeyed my orders.”
My eyes dropped to my shoes and I started chewing on my thumbnail. “So my classmates are going to be stuck like this forever? You’re really not going to help them?”
“No. You are.” He put his fingers under my chin and lifted my head up. “Remember your last lesson?”
“Yeah, moving the pencil backward and sending it wherever I wanted.”
“Exactly, and that’s what you’re going to do here.”
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That wasn’t going to work. I never mastered that one. “I can’t do it,” I confessed. “I don’t know how.”
“Sure you do.” Lou took my hand. “Just like with the pencil lessons, you need to concentrate on sending it backward. Only this time, you’re going to focus on rewinding time. But,” he warned, squeezing my hand, “you never, ever try this without me. Otherwise you could send your friends back too far, and then there’s no retrieving them.”
There wasn’t even a hint of playfulness in his voice. He was serious. If I did this wrong, I could make them disappear forever. I definitely would not be trying this on my own.
“Got it?” he asked.
I nodded my head so much, I looked like one of those bobblehead dolls. “Yes.”
“Okay, then,” he said. “You’re going to send everything back in reverse.”
Focusing all of my energy, I was able to move the crowd. They slowly backed up to the wall where they had me pinned. Everyone was doing exactly what they had done before, as if I was still there (only this time it was in reverse). Gabi’s thought bubbles telling everyone I couldn’t take their souls showed up, then they all tried to figure out what to do with me, Jaydin and her jump ropes went back down the wall, Courtney reverted to normal size . . . It was a crazy sight. Like watching a movie on rewind, only it wasn’t a movie—it was real. And it was tiring. Using this much concentrated power was draining.
I undid Gabi giving away my secret, saw Cole turn back into a balloon, people crawling down from the wall, Max’s rubber arm that had extended out to me earlier shooting back to his body, Miss Simmons zooming back into the gym, and so on. By the time everyone, except for Lana and Reid, turned back to stone, I was exhausted.
“I can’t do it anymore,” I told Lou, and plopped myself down on the ground. “It stopped working. Please finish it for me.”
“Powers are hard work. Doing something this big can zap your energy if you’re not properly trained,” he explained.
“Who’s he?” Reid asked, moving toward us.
Uh-oh. “What’s going on?” I whispered to Lou. “How come he’s going forward in time?”
“Because you stopped rewinding. It set everything back in motion,” Lou said. “If I were you, I’d hurry up. Otherwise your problems are going to start all over again.”
Lou put out his hand and helped me up from the floor. I forced my mind to focus, and I concentrated with all my might on reversing time. I even moved my arms in a counterclockwise motion. As I did, Reid slowly reversed his steps back to his position beside Lana. I mustered up enough power for them to walk out of the gym.
I was completely zapped.
“Just a little more,” Lou said, giving my shoulder a squeeze.
I closed my eyes and concentrated with all my might.
“Angel?” a voice called out. I opened my eyes and looked around. Lou was gone, but everyone else was back. To their normal, human selves, that was.
“Yes!”
“Angel?” It was Max. “Uh, how’d you get over there?”
Shoot. I was supposed to be dancing with him. Even though, I was really tired, I walked over to Max. “Sorry,” I said. “Thought I dropped something.”
He gave me a weird look, but he didn’t question my excuse. Instead he just seemed excited to have me back. “Thanks for dancing with me.”
“Sure,” I answered, getting a slight case of déjà vu.
“This dance rocks,” he gushed.
“Yeah, it really roc—” I stopped myself.
This time, I was keeping my mouth shut!
chapter 44
While I finished my dance with Max, I couldn’t help but watch Cole and Jaydin. They looked so intense. I wished I had enough power and energy to send us back two and a half weeks, before I messed things up with him, or at the very least to before the dance and where I created a fashion faux pas that would make every designer on the planet cry.
But it was probably for the best. Lou was right. I needed to take responsibility for my actions. And if that meant losing Cole to mean old Jaydin or wearing a nightmare, I was going to have to live with it.
“All right, everyone,” Miss Simmons called out. “It’s time to name our dance king and queen.”
Courtney grabbed D.L. and dragged him right to the front of the room. She was positive she was going to be crowned. I was, too.
“This was a close one,” Miss Simmons said. “The king of the dance, by one vote, is . . .” She paused for dramatic effect. “D.L. Helper.”
Ha! That was my vote. I didn’t care that Courtney was probably beaming, because she got what she wanted and her boyfriend won. At least she wouldn’t get to have her arms around my Cole. Well, Jaydin’s Cole. But still . . .
“And the winner of queen, by a landslide . . .” Courtney reached out for the crown as Miss Simmons spoke “. . . is Angel Garrett.”
“What?!” both Courtney and I shouted at the same time. People in the crowd seemed upset by it, too. “How could she win?” I heard one ask. “Who voted for her?” Then there were the chorus of snickers and people saying, “Look at Courtney.” Boy was she fuming.
“Come on up here, Angel,” Miss Simmons said, talking over the students. But I didn’t budge.
Courtney stomped her foot. “This. Is. Not. Possible. No one would vote for her. She cheated.”
“I supervised the voting myself,” Miss Simmons said. “It was fair and square. Now come on up, Angel.”
I cautiously made my way to the front, careful to avoid Courtney. She wanted to pulverize me. The whole thing was messed up. I had to agree with Courtney on this one—there had to be a mistake.
“Here you go.” Miss Simmons handed me the crown.
Then everything made sense. Resting in one of the curves of the crown like he was lying on a hammock—was Lou. I turned and blocked the crown with my body so no one would be able to see.
“Congratulations,” he said.
I raised an eyebrow at him.
“What?” he questioned. “You’re my princess. Why shouldn’t you be everyone’s queen?”
So that was it. Lou rigged the vote. “I don’t want to be queen,” I whispered, but apparently not softly enough.
“No one else wants you to be, either,” Courtney said.
I flicked Lou off the crown, turned back to Courtney and handed her the prize. “Then take it.” Technically, it was hers, anyway.
She grabbed it greedily.
“Come on, girls,” Miss Simmons said. She took the crown and placed it on my head. “Let’s not fight. It’s just a contest.”
“Yeah, my contest,” Courtney whined. “I should—” She cut herself off when she heard someone say “pathetic.” As much as she didn’t want to lose, she didn’t want to be made fun of for making a huge stink over it. “Whatevs,” she said. “This is obviously a big practical joke. People think it’s funny to see a loser win.”
“Excuse me?” D.L. said.
“Well, not you,” she said, trying to set things right with him. “Obviously. They think it’s funny to have a loser dance with one of the popular guys.”
“And speaking of dancing,” Miss Simmons said, her voice trying to block out Courtney’s rudeness. “It’s time for our king and queen to have their spotlight number.”
Uck.
Why hadn’t I voted for Cole?
chapter 45
D.L. put his arms around me. “Now don’t get too excited, Garrett. I know you’ve been dreaming about this since you met me.” He was such a jerk.
“I’m not any happier about this than you are,” I said, refusing to look directly at him. It was bad enough I was pressed up against him.
“Right,” he said. “Everyone knows you’re crushing on me.”
“That’s so not true.” I had no choice but to look him straight in the eyes, otherwise he’d come up with some lame reason as to why I couldn’t—like staring at him would make me confess my secret, undying love for him. As if. My heart b
elonged to Cole, even though he kept trying to return it. “And you better not try anything,” I warned D.L. in case he got any funny ideas.
“Please, like I’d want to. Besides, I’m sure your father would kill me.”
My arms dropped from his neck, and I backed up a step. “What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“What. Did. You. Say?” My hands covered my face, and I thought I was going to hyperventilate. Did D.L. see my father on the crown? Did he know my secret?
D.L. spoke under his breath. “People are staring.”
“Just tell me what you said.”
“I don’t know. That your father would kill me,” he said, his arms still around me. “Stop flipping out.”
But I couldn’t—this was serious. How did he know who my father was? “When did you meet my dad?” I asked, trying to get myself calm.
“Huh?”
“You heard me,” I said. I began to dance again, so Miss Simmons wouldn’t come up and see what was going on. I needed to know exactly what D.L. knew. “When did you meet my dad?”
“I didn’t,” he said, rather condescendingly.
“Then when did you see him?” Why did he have to be so nitpicky? I was not in the mood.
“Okay, Garrett. You’re acting like a freak. I don’t know your dad, I never saw your dad, I’ve never heard of your dad. I was making a joke. Aren’t all dads overprotective of their daughters? Jeez.”
“Oh.” Maybe I had overreacted just a tad. Since there wasn’t really anything else I could say, I just kept dancing.
That is until someone tapped D.L. on the shoulder, and asked, “Can I cut in?”
And guess what?!
It wasn’t Max. Cole Daniels wanted to dance with me!
chapter 46
D.L. seemed pretty relieved to be done with me, and I was more than happy to switch partners. Okay, that was the understatement of millennium. I was psyched and more than slightly baffled. I was about to dance with Cole! He actually asked me!
My whole body got goose bumps when I put my arms around his neck. I didn’t know what to say or where to look. Did I just stare at his neck, my hands, his face? I mean, why was he there with me? It wasn’t like we were exactly on speaking terms.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Dress Page 13
