Miss Fortune

by Brandi Dougherty

  Zoe sat down on the rug and focused on the events of the last few days. The carnival had been the most fun ever, and Noah totally liked her! And then everything had crash-landed into the worst time of her life. Noah might never speak to her again. Her computer was dead, her film had been ruined, and she had almost been hit by a car.

  Before long, silent tears began to stream down her tired face. Tears were welling up in Mia’s eyes, too, as she handed Zoe the cup to catch the drops. Zoe tipped her head forward and watched the tears splash into the glass. Then she looked at the giant wall clock by her desk. It was 7:05. She had to stop crying now. She had less than three minutes before she needed to start the spell. Zoe took a deep breath and wiped her face. She studied the instructions again. Mia laid each of the ingredients in the order it was needed. Neither of them would touch the necklace — they just pushed it around in the pencil case. Then Zoe lit the candle so the wax would be ready to drip onto the mixture.

  “What if your dad walks in or something?” Mia asked nervously.

  “He won’t,” Zoe replied. “He always knocks. And besides, the baseball game is on, so he’s glued to the TV, anyway.”

  The clock turned to 7:07. Zoe held her breath for what seemed like the longest minute of her life. 7:08. Her stomach dropped. This was it. She exhaled a tired, worried sigh and nodded at Mia. Mia tried to smile but she was so nervous it looked more like a grimace of pain. It was time for Zoe to begin the spell.

  Zoe placed the two raven feathers at the bottom of the bowl, forming an X. Then she dripped ten drops of candle wax over the feathers in a counterclockwise motion. Her hand was surprisingly steady as she moved it over the bowl. Next, she mixed a pinch of dirt and five droplets of water and poured that in the bowl. Then Serafina’s hair was added to the pile. Zoe’s teardrop was the next ingredient. Zoe held the cup over the bowl and let one drop fall on top of the other ingredients.

  The last two ingredients were the necklace and the snake venom. Zoe picked up the necklace from the pencil case and quickly placed it in the bowl before it could grab a hold of her thoughts again. The glow of the red stone began to pulsate wildly as soon as it touched the bowl. Zoe and Mia stared at the jewel with a mixture of horror and fascination. Finally, Zoe picked up the vial of snake venom and carefully removed the stopper. Now came the chant. Zoe had to say the chant in Italian as she spilled five droplets of venom onto the snake eye pendant — this time in a clockwise motion. Luckily, Mack had written out the easiest way to pronounce the Italian words. Mia held the piece of paper out in front of Zoe while Zoe positioned the venom vial over the bowl. Slowly, she pronounced each word as best she could.

  Un serpente, senza una lingua,

  (A snake, without a tongue,)

  Un serpente, senza veleno,

  (A snake, without venom,)

  Un serpente, senza un occhio,

  (A snake, without an eye,)

  La maledizione è rotta.

  (The curse is broken.)

  Zoe let the drops of venom fall gradually into the bowl. She was careful to make sure she added exactly five drops.

  Once the venom was added and the chant was finished, she had to say it again four more times while moving her left hand over the top of the bowl. Each time she finished the chant, Zoe could see the glow of the stone getting fainter and fainter. She started chanting louder and with more confidence. The spell was working! As soon as the chant left Zoe’s lips for the last time, the pendant stopped glowing completely. The stone looked thick and black. She couldn’t see through it at all anymore.

  “It’s working,” Mia whispered, her voice full of awe. “I can’t believe it’s really working!”

  “Shh!” Zoe said gently. “Let’s not jinx anything!”

  The final step of the spell was to destroy the talisman of the curse. Zoe and Mia had decided Zoe should smash the pendant with a hammer and cut the cord of the necklace. Zoe used the edge of a kitchen towel to remove the pendant from the bowl. She didn’t want the necklace to touch her skin ever again. And besides, now it was covered in snake venom and Serafina’s hair. Gross.

  Zoe placed the necklace on the towel and folded the towel over the pendant. She positioned the hammer over the center of the pendant. Then she grinned at Mia and brought the hammer down — hard. She could hear the pendant crack under the blow. Zoe swung the hammer down a few more times for good measure, feeling herself relax a little more with every whack. Then she carefully lifted the towel. The metal pendant was unrecognizable, and the black stone was smashed into hundreds of tiny pieces — like black sand.

  Suddenly, the pieces of stone began to shake and swirl. They formed a mini tornado of black dust hovering slightly above the towel. Zoe and Mia stared at the swirling cloud in disbelief. Without really knowing why, Zoe picked up the half-empty vial of snake venom and removed the stopper again. She brought it down close to the towel. The funnel cloud of stone dust swirled toward the vial and then snaked its way inside. As soon as the last piece of the stone entered the vial, Zoe quickly put the stopper back in. The dust mixed with the venom and turned to a black, gooey tarlike substance.

  Zoe placed the vial on the towel next to the cut leather cord and the scattered pieces of metal. She gathered up the edges of the towel. “Let’s bury it in the yard,” she suggested. “I have a feeling this time it won’t go anywhere.”

  “Good idea,” Mia agreed.

  Zoe added the leftover spell ingredients to the towel. She took the bowl downstairs to wash it and to tell her dad they were going out to the backyard for a minute. He just nodded his head and went back to the game.

  Mia brought the towel down to the kitchen and they went out to the garage to get a shovel.

  “I can’t believe it worked!” Zoe laughed. She felt light and free and happy again for the first time in days. Zoe couldn’t explain it, but she just knew the spell had worked and the curse had been broken. The oppressive cloud that had hung over her for days was gone.

  With a sudden burst of energy, Zoe dug the hole in no time. She made it extra deep so her dad wouldn’t stumble upon the weird mixture of things if he decided to plant anything new in the yard. Mia opened the towel and dumped the bad luck inside. Both girls spit into the hole for good measure, and then Zoe quickly filled in the dirt and stamped it down. The girls ran back inside.

  Zoe’s dad was just getting out plates for dinner. He had made lasagna. Zoe smiled. Suddenly, she realized how starving she was. Lasagna sounded perfect. She gave her dad a hug. “We’re done running around, Dad,” she told him. “And things are going to be totally normal from now on, I promise.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Zoe was just dozing off in her hammock with a book slowly sliding from her fingers when her cell phone rang. She reached into the grass to grab it and squinted at the screen. It was Noah.

  “Hi, Noah,” Zoe answered.

  “Hey,” Noah replied. “So, um … I was wondering if maybe … um, if you’re not busy or anything … but if you are it’s no big deal, we can do it another time, but … do you want to go to the movies tonight?”

  Zoe smiled and wiggled excitedly in the hammock. “Sure, yeah. That sounds fun!”

  “Okay, great!” Noah said enthusiastically.

  Zoe scrunched her eyes closed and felt her face getting hot, even though she was alone in her backyard. Noah and Zoe had been back on speaking terms for about a week, but their phone conversations were still more than a little awkward. Zoe hoped they would feel more comfortable by the time school started next week.

  “So, Zack wants to come, too, and he asked me to ask you to invite Mia,” Noah said.

  Zoe lifted her eyebrows in surprise and then smiled again. Zack liked Mia! She couldn’t wait to tell her. Mia was due to arrive at her house any minute.

  “Totally!” Zoe replied excitedly. “She’s on her way to my house right now, so I’ll ask her and then I’ll call you back.”

  “Okay, bye!” Noah said quickly.

  Zoe gigg
led. “‘Kay, bye.”

  Just then Mia appeared in the kitchen doorway. “Hey!”

  “Oh my gosh, Mia!” Zoe struggled out of the hammock and dashed toward her. “Zack wants to know if you want to go to the movies tonight!”

  “Really?” Mia’s face lit up.

  “Yes! With me and Noah!”

  Zoe and Mia ran back to sit sideways in the hammock and make a plan for their date. Everything had not only returned to normal as soon as they’d performed the spell and destroyed the necklace, but it seemed that things were better than ever. It did take a few days for Noah to come around, though. Zoe had a hard time even getting his number at first — his parents had made him change it because of all her calls, and she had been super-embarrassed the first few times she had called.

  Once Noah was willing to speak to Zoe again, she convinced him to let her and Mia come over to his house and tell him the whole story. They hadn’t told anyone else what had happened. Noah was the first and only person to hear all about the curse. After Noah had heard everything, they made him come with them to the bookstore. They wanted to thank Mack for his help with the spell and show Noah the book with the snake eye symbol on it. Mack was happy to see them and hear that the spell had been successful, but he didn’t have the book anymore. He said the very next day when he opened the shop he looked everywhere for the book and it was nowhere to be found. He told them he’d looked every day since then, and it had never turned up.

  Mack’s story seemed to help Zoe’s case with Noah. He wanted to know all the details of the spell and hear again how Zoe snuck into Serafina’s tent at the carnival.

  Zoe’s computer was fixed, all her wounds were healed, her film was restored, and Professor Meyer had loved her new idea for a short film about a girl who’s been cursed. And now Noah had called to ask her out! Things were definitely looking up.

  “So, I have a little present for you.” Mia reached into her pocket and handed something to Zoe.

  Zoe gasped. “Mia, it’s beautiful!” She held up the delicate silver necklace with one tiny charm dangling from it: a four-leaf clover.

  “I thought you could use a good luck charm to seal your real fortune.” Mia grinned.

  “I love it!” Zoe fastened the necklace around her neck and marveled at how light it felt. “It’s perfect, Mia. Thank you so much.”

  Mia and Zoe swung back and forth in the hammock.

  “I can’t believe we’re going to the movies with Noah and Zack,” Mia said.

  “I know.” Zoe beamed. “I think it’s safe to say my luck has changed.”

  Just then they heard a rustling in the leaves above their heads. Zoe strained to see into the tree.

  “Mia, look!” she whispered. It was a giant black bird, and it seemed to be watching them from the branch right above the hammock. Zoe felt her heart leap into her throat. “It’s the raven again!”

  Mia sprang out of the hammock and peered up into the tree. Then she turned to face Zoe, a huge smile on her face.

  “Why are you smiling?” Zoe asked with wide eyes.

  “Because that’s a crow.” Mia giggled. She fell back into the hammock, and she and Zoe dissolved into a fit of relieved laughter.

  Zoe couldn’t seem to stop laughing. It was a good feeling after all the crazy things that had happened. As she wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes, she quickly glanced at the new pendant around her neck. Zoe held the charm in her palm and vowed silently that she would never take laughter — or good luck — for granted again.

  POISON APPLE BOOKS

  The Dead End by Mimi McCoy

  This Totally Bites!

  by Ruth Ames

  Miss Fortune by Brandi Dougherty

  About the Author

  Brandi Dougherty is also the author of the New York Times–bestselling picture book The Littlest Pilgrim and two middle-grade novels, The Valentine’s Day Disaster and The Friendship Experiment. She lives in San Francisco with her dog, Jerome. Visit her online at www.brandidougherty.com.

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  BITE INTO THE NEXT POISON APPLE, IF YOU DARE….

  HERE’S A

  SPINE-TINGLING SNEAK PEEK!

  Now You See Me . . . by Jane B. Mason and Sarah Hines Stephens

  Abby threw up her hands. “Unbelievable. First the lunch box.” She waved her tin treasure in the air. “Then the skirt, and now this. We are talking serious pay dirt here. I mean, this day could go down in thrift history!”

  While Lena clutched the camera and fidgeted nervously, Abby darted into another room of the old house-turned-store and emerged with the fashionable finds she had stashed in a corner. Trailing neckties, she ambled across the room and plunked everything down on a large rolltop desk. A gray-haired woman wearing a housecoat looked up from a tattered novel.

  “We’re ready to check out,” Abby said cheerfully.

  The woman didn’t return her smile, and didn’t speak. She simply nodded wearily, picked up a pencil, and switched on the register.

  “You first.” Abby nudged Lena forward. “You’ve been waiting a long time for this.”

  Lena stumbled up to the desk and reached up to remove the camera strap from around her neck. The camera felt heavier now, and though she placed the Impulse on the desk, she didn’t let go right away. When she did, she realized that her palms were sweating. She felt as if she were getting a tooth filled or waiting for a shot in the doctor’s office.

  Probably just excitement, she told herself. Was this what it felt like to win the lottery? Maybe it’s adrenaline. Or shock. Finding the camera certainly seemed too good to be true….

  “Where’d you get this?” the woman at the register spoke for the first time, and Lena flinched, wishing she hadn’t. Her voice was loud and harsh. She squinted at Lena and gave the camera a poke with her pen like it was some sort of poisonous insect.

  Lena felt her excitement begin to slip away. “I … I …” she stammered, feeling foolish. She took a step back, bumping into Abby.

  Abby’s arm collided with the pile of loot on the desk, and half of it slid to the floor.

  The woman ignored the fallen items. “Where did you get it?” she screeched. Her steely eyes were narrowed behind her reading glasses and aimed, laserlike, right at Lena.

  Lena pointed toward the shelf in the back room where the Impulse had been waiting. “Right over there,” she replied. She looked nervously from the back room to the camera, and then to the front door. She felt sick. She desperately wanted the camera. What if she didn’t get it?

  The woman’s sharp gaze rested on the camera for several long moments. Then, out of the blue, her face softened. She looked almost … sad. But in a flash, her expression changed again. A gnarled hand reached out with alarming speed. “Well, it’s not for sale!” she growled, snatching the camera and shoving it under the desk.

  Lena felt as though she’d gotten the wind knocked out of her. Finding the Impulse really was too good to be true! She wanted to protest, but couldn’t. Her bubble had burst. She couldn’t speak. Or move. Or do anything. She might have just stood there deflating for the rest of the day if Abby hadn’t piped up behind her.

  As usual, Lena’s best friend had her back … and (in this case) a boatload of potential purchases. “It was on the shelf,” the bolder girl pointed out.

  “Well, that was a mistake,” the woman snapped. She obviously didn’t appreciate being questioned.

  Abby didn’t flinch. “Well, I guess these are mistakes, too,” she replied calmly. With a flourish she whisked the 50s dress, huge square-dance crinoline, suspenders, Boy Scout uniform, ‘NSYNC lunch box, five ties, and the stack of CDs she had amassed off the rolltop and set them on a rickety table nearby. Half a second later she was arranging the dress on a hanger, prepping it to go back on the rack.

  Lena almost smiled. The girl was unflappable. Abby had no intention of leaving her finds behind, Lena knew. And if her stomach wasn’t still in a knot she might have enjoyed the showdown. After all, it appeared
to be a pretty even match. The old woman looked fierce, but Abby was a contender.

  The woman’s steely eyes followed Abby as she started to walk the merchandise back to where she’d found it. Then, with a heavy sigh, she looked around the crowded, dusty shop. Shaking her head with resignation, she reached back into the desk for the camera.

  “You really want this old thing?” she asked. She caught Lena’s eye, and held her gaze. Her voice was gentler now, and Lena noticed laugh lines around her eyes. Maybe the old bat wasn’t always this cranky. Maybe she was just having a bad day.

  “Yes, I really do,” Lena replied with an emphatic nod.

  “Well, all right,” the old woman breathed. “I’ll let you have it for five dollars. Maybe it’ll be good to be rid of it.”

  The woman smoothed a few wild gray hairs toward the knot at the back of her head while Lena dug into her pocket and swallowed a victory cry.

  Five dollars! I guess I’m stealing after all! She handed over a five-dollar bill and bit back a secret smile. She would have gladly emptied her whole wallet for the camera if she had to. But she knew it was never good to let the seller see how much you want something. She should simply consider the five-dollar price tag a bonus and keep her excitement to herself.

  The moment the bill left Lena’s fingers she grabbed the camera and slipped the strap back around her neck. She let the Impulse rest against her side. The weight, though nothing like her digital camera, was at once familiar and comforting. She breathed a sigh of relief. It was hers. The Impulse was finally hers!

  Exhilarated, the girls emerged from the dim shop into the early autumn sun. Lena’s dad was leaning against the hood of the family station wagon, waiting patiently. When he saw the big bags of stuff they were carrying, he shook his head and scuffed through the thin layer of fallen leaves to open the car door.