by Cassandra
It had been an arduous task, to say the least.
The crazy creature had knocked several items off shelves during its frantic flight, and they’d had to put it all back as best as they could. While they had initially considered using some sort of cleaning spell, they didn’t want to risk it backfiring on them. If the spell left the attic cleaner than before, Debbie’s grandma would undoubtedly notice.
Besides, no one was crazy enough to think three teenaged girls would decide to clean the attic simply for the heck of it. If Debbie could help it, she didn’t want her grandmother to know they’d been up there at all.
“This is your grandma’s attic. Does everything look like it’s back in place to you?” Marie asked.
Debbie swallowed nervously and glanced around. Everything looked fine, but she knew her eye was not as keen as her grandmother’s. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much time to consider it further before a car pulled into the driveway. “She’s here!” Debbie screeched.
Marie swore.
The girls glanced around the attic one last time before they descending the ladder quickly. Debbie climbed down first, then Patricia, and lastly, Marie.
“Hurry up,” Debbie urged.
In an attempt to quicken her pace, Marie stepped wrong and fell off the ladder. She hollered all the way down. “Ouch!”
“Shh!” her friend hissed as her grandmother closed the front door. She was obviously already inside the house.
Her hands shaking, Debbie pushed the ladder up hastily. She ignored Marie squirming on the floor.
“A little help here, please,” Marie whispered.
“Help what? Who’s there?” Gloria McCrow called from downstairs.
Before long, they heard her footsteps.
“Get up!” Debbie urged her.
“But my ankle!”
Patricia grabbed Marie’s hand and helped pull her to her feet.
In that instant, Gloria arrived on the second-floor landing with her hands on her hips. The girls froze under her stare.
Gloria McCrow was a fierce and fancy old lady. She was always impeccably dressed, she kept her hair dyed a deep shade of maroon, and absolutely refused to be called Grandma because it made her feel old. When she had found herself faced with the prospect of becoming a grandmother, she had decided to be called GiGi. She believed it sounded more fashionable.
“What are you young ladies up to?” she demanded and her gaze darted to each girl before it settled on Debbie.
“Nothing, GiGi. We were only hanging out.”
“In the hallway? You girls are a little too old to play on the stairs.”
“We were on our way downstairs,” Patricia explained. “It’s getting late and we are getting ready to leave.”
“It sounded like one of you were hurt.”
“I’m all right. Just clumsy.” Marie forced a smile, although her pale complexion indicated she felt otherwise. On top of that, she stood in a way that favored her right foot.
GiGi briefly paused and inspected the girls. “You girls are pathetic liars. Something is going on here that you don’t want me to know about. What is it? Are you hiding someone? A boy? Is that why you came over here after school instead of going home?”
“No!” Debbie squeaked. “No, I promise that’s not it.”
“Then what is it?”
The girls grew silent and fidgeted uncomfortably. GiGi sighed. “Come on downstairs and let me take a look at your foot before you leave.” She glared at Marie. “Yes, I know something’s wrong by the way you’re standing,” she added when the girl looked at her in shock.
“I only tripped, I swear.”
GiGi chuckled. “Uh huh. I don’t know why you young’ns think you can pull something over on me. Whatever mischief you’re up to, I’ve already been there and done that fifty years ago.”
The girls followed her downstairs and into the dining room.
“Sit,” she ordered Marie and pointed to a chair at the dining room table. Before long, the old woman sat in front of her with a first aid kit full of magical remedies. She poked and prodded at Marie’s ankle and the girl twisted and squirmed. “This looks like a sprain from a fall. What did you jump off?”
“Nothing,” Marie blurted at the precise time that Patricia offered, “In gym class,” and Debbie explained, “She tripped on a shoe.”
GiGi looked at all three of them in turn.
Marie laughed awkwardly. “I tripped on a shoe in gym class, but it’s nothing really.”
“All right, my dear. If that’s your story.” The woman retrieved some sort of ointment from her kit. She twisted the top off and glanced at her granddaughter. “Do your parents know you’re here?”
“No. I’ll call them in a second.”
She nodded and slathered ointment onto the other girl’s foot and ankle.
“Whoa. That feels weird.” Marie stared at her foot, which began to glow slightly. The sensation warmed her skin and then chilled her bones. Seconds later, the pain was gone completely and so were all traces of the ointment. She tested her ankle and moved her foot around in circles. “Wow!”
“Good as new.” GiGi clapped. “Now, I guess you girls should get your things and head on home, unless you’ll stay over with Debbie?”
“No. We’ll be on our way now,” Patricia replied.
Debbie exchanged glances with her. She understood that Patricia was not keen to stay a second longer. She didn’t want to be around if GiGi found out that they’d been up in her attic.
The girl frowned but she couldn’t really blame her friend. She watched quietly as Patricia and Marie grabbed their backpacks and coats. “See you later, Deb,” Patricia called and made her way hurriedly to the front door.
Marie waved and followed closely behind Patricia. “Goodbye! And thank you, Ms. Gloria.”
“No problem, darling,” GiGi beamed and waved goodbye to the girls. Once they were out the door, she turned to her granddaughter. “So?”
Debbie raised her eyebrows. “Yes, GiGi?”
“Do you want to tell me what you girls were really up to?”
She scratched her nose. “Nothing, GiGi. Just hanging out and talking.”
“Deborah Lily McCrow, I was right there in the hospital the day you were born, and I’ve helped your parents raise you every step of the way. You cannot hide anything from me. I can see it all in your face that something is wrong. If you’re in trouble, I’m probably the person best equipped to get you out of it. Now, what is it?”
Debbie grimaced. Like everyone in the universe, she knew she was in trouble whenever her entire name was enunciated crisply.
She cleared her throat, suddenly too nervous to look GiGi in the eyes. Instead, she stared at the tablecloth. “It was only…a little problem I had with a girl in school, that’s all.”
“So you decided to take a trip up into my attic to find something to teach her a lesson, is that it?”
Her eyes bulged from her head. “I… How did you… GiGi, are you psychic?”
Gloria fixed her granddaughter with a stern gaze that lasted several uncomfortable seconds. The girl was just about to shrink back in her seat when a snicker finally seeped through GiGi’s mouth.
“It’s fun to play psychic from time to time. I’ve toyed around with crystal balls in my day, but a true psychic?” She shook her head. “No, I am not.”
“Then how did you know we were in the attic?”
“First of all, the three of you stood right under the attic door. Second, Marie didn’t hurt her ankle that badly from only tripping—that kind of injury comes from a fall at a distance.” She paused and smirked. “And lastly, I have a fingerprint-detecting spell on the attic entrance. It shows whenever anyone’s hands that aren’t mine have touched that door. But I’m the only one who can see it.”
Debbie sighed. She felt so stupid. She should have known her grandmother was too smart not to have protective measures placed around her prized magical collection. Never in her life had she bee
n able to succeed in pulling a fast one over on Gloria McCrow.
“I’m sorry.” She looked at her shoes.
“You might not need to be if you tell me what’s going on,” GiGi replied. “So what is it? Is a girl at your school picking on you?” She narrowed her eyes. “Somehow, that doesn’t seem very likely. You’re too strong for that.”
Debbie pouted. “She’s not picking on me. It’s only that…she has something I want.”
“And what exactly is that?”
She pressed her lips together and wondered if she should confide in GiGi. While her grandmother had always been cool for an old lady, there was no way to be sure how far that coolness extended.
Would she really understand if Debbie admitted that her bout of jealousy and misbehavior was over a boy she had met only hours before?
It sounded silly in her own head, so she knew how ridiculous it would sound if she admitted it out loud to anyone. Especially her grandmother.
“Did this girl take something from you?” GiGi pressed.
Debbie shook her head again. “No, not exactly.”
“Not exactly? How does that work?”
“GiGi… She has this…friend…” Her voice trailed off. She had no idea how to continue. Whatever she said, she wanted her grandmother on her side. She didn’t want the woman to scold her again.
“A friend? Would this friend happen to be a boy?” She leaned in and grabbed Debbie’s chin to force the girl to look into her eyes.
Debbie swallowed. “Yeah.”
GiGi gave an exaggerated nod. “Ahh. All is fair in love and war. Did this l’il hussy steal your boyfriend?”
The girl’s eyebrows shot upward once more, this time purely from shock. GiGi’s reaction wasn’t at all what she had been expecting.
“Well, she didn’t exactly steal him from me.”
“So what happened? Spill it!”
Debbie shifted in her seat and took a deep breath. “Okay. Look, we were in history class, and the new boy sat next to her.”
“By the tone of your voice, I can tell this new boy must be an absolute knockout.”
“He is,” she lamented. “He’s gorgeous. And mature. And…I don’t know—there’s something about him. He’s not like the other boys in our class. There’s something different about him. I’m dying to know him better.”
“All right. So what’s stopping you?”
“She is. Jessica.”
“Jessica,” GiGi repeated the name as if trying to get a feel for it on her tongue. The name was common enough, but something about it stirred something within her that she couldn’t put her finger on. “Jessica what?”
“Huh?”
“What’s her last name?”
“Oh. Palmers. Jessica Palmers.”
GiGi frowned and rubbed her chin.
“What is it?” Debbie asked.
“That name sounds familiar for some reason… Oh, yes… Wait a second… Jessica Palmers. That’s Ethel Libbons’ granddaughter, right?”
“Crazy old cat lady?” Debbie asked.
“Yes.”
“Yep, that’s her then.”
GiGi grimaced. Little did her granddaughter know that she’d just said all she needed to. Ethel Libbons was her archenemy, and it came as no surprise to her that their granddaughters had inherited a dislike for each other.
She hardly cared what had happened between the girls. She already wanted to do whatever she could to help Debbie get back at Jessica.
“GiGi?” Debbie asked.
“Hmph?” Gloria grunted. She was so lost in her thoughts about Ethel that she hadn’t listened to what her granddaughter said.
“You’re not mad at me, are you?”
Of course not, Gloria thought. But she didn’t want to seem so petty. “What happened, again?” she asked.
Debbie stared down at her feet. “Well, I talked to the new boy and he blew me off. But it was because of her. It’s like she’s trying to keep him all to herself or something. I bet she’s bribing him somehow. I’ll get him, though. I’m determined to get him.”
GiGi smiled. “Of course you will, because you’re my granddaughter and women in this family don’t give up until they have what they want.”
She looked at her grandmother and the tension in her melted away.
“What’s this boy’s name?”
“Chad.”
“Well, Mr. Chad doesn’t know any better yet. No boy in their right mind would choose another girl over you.”
“How do I get him to see that, though?” she asked. For an uncomfortable moment, she began to relive the way he had laughed at her when she fell in the parking lot. Her cheeks burned, and she balled her fists in her lap. “I have to have him, GiGi. It’s not fair that she has him.”
“So I take it that you and your friends were in the attic looking for some kind of love potion spell, eh?”
Debbie perked up excitedly. “I hadn’t even thought of that. Would something like that work?”
Her grandmother chuckled. “Only temporarily. I don’t recommend it, though. The results leave a lot to be desired. They don’t really cause love. Only infatuation. And annoying infatuation, I might add.”
She smirked. “It sounds like you know this from experience, GiGi.”
“Because experience is the best teacher.” She sighed. “When I was about your age, the mailman who used to deliver to my parents was so handsome! On one hot day, I invited him into the house for a cold glass of lemonade spiked with a love spell that I’d worked on. Before I knew it, he stood outside my window at all hours of the night serenading me. He followed my every move around town. It got old very quickly.”
“What did you do?”
“I had to give him the antidote when I couldn’t take it anymore. Take it from someone who knows, love potions are to be used with caution. You want the boy to like you, not be obsessed with you.”
Debbie nodded. “Okay. So no love potions.”
“Now, if you weren’t up there looking for a love potion, to begin with, what exactly were you looking for?
Her cheeks flushed a deeper red.
“Honey, don’t play shy now. What did you do?”
“I wanted to scare her, that’s all—scare her so badly that she started talking and acting crazy. I thought then, maybe Chad wouldn’t like her anymore.”
“What did you do?” GiGi asked flatly.
Debbie averted her gaze. “I sent her an imp.”
Her grandmother leapt from her seat and clutched her chest. “Did he destroy my attic?”
Her granddaughter jumped to her feet along with her grandmother. “No! No, I swear. We cleaned everything up.”
“Nothing is broken?” The old woman looked at the ceiling.
“No.”
GiGi relaxed somewhat and exhaled a sigh of relief. “Sorry. It’s only that I know how much havoc those things can cause. Little devils.” Frowning, she studied the ceiling again. “Are you positively sure nothing is broken?”
“Positive.”
“Did Marie hurt her ankle trying to get away from it?”
“No. She fell off the ladder on the way down from the attic. We were in a hurry to get back down when we heard that you were back. We didn’t want—"
“Didn’t want me to know you girls had been up there, obviously.” GiGi shook her head. “Oh, you definitely have your father’s sneaky streak in you, that’s for sure.”
“From the looks of it, he got it from you. So technically—”
GiGi waved her hand. “Yeah, yeah. So, back to this imp.” She tilted her head to the side and surveyed her granddaughter. “You girls were actually able to conjure an imp? It’s not the best form of magic, but I must admit, it’s fairly impressive.”
“Thank you?” Debbie ventured, not sure if she was out of the woods yet.
“So what did you command the imp to do?”
“We sent it to Jessica’s house.”
“You didn’t give it any specific instruct
ions?”
“Well…no,” Her voice faltered. “Were we supposed to?”
The old lady’s expression was one of combined exasperation and amusement. “That’s the general idea. So I guess you girls didn’t fully read the spell?”
“It won’t come back to get us, will it?” the girl asked worriedly.
“No. It will stay loyal to you since you conjured it. However, if it’s still alive, it may return to you at any moment. Usually when you least expect it. Like in the middle of the night when you’re sleeping, or when you’re sitting at the breakfast table. Or when you’re in the shower.”
Debbie shuddered.
“And you’ll have a hell of a time explaining it to your parents. But…”
She stared at her grandmother and waited for her to finish her statement. “But what?” she asked.
GiGi sat once more and drummed her fingers on the dining room table. “My guess is that if this Jessica girl knows about her own grandmother, the imp probably won’t return to you.”
The blood practically drained from Debbie’s face. “Is she… Can she turn it against me? Will she make it switch allegiances to her? Oh, God, GiGi, what am I going to do?”
“I doubt you have to worry about it. I intended to say that if Jessica knows what her grandmother is, she probably went to her for help. Honestly, I don’t think you have to worry about the imp coming back to you. It’s probably dead by now. Ethel is a powerful witch, and it takes a powerful witch to kill an imp.” She looked her granddaughter square in the eyes. “You might want to be a little more careful about messing with Jessica from now on. You don’t want her to be on to you. That might mean trouble with Ethel.”
“Ethel may be powerful, GiGi. But so are you. I’m not worried.”
Gloria McCrow smiled.
Chapter Fourteen
Jessica stared at the sock in her lap. The busy pattern of the fabric almost made her dizzy. The old ladies had insisted on teaching her how to knit, and the sock was the result of their efforts. Granted, it was in much better shape than it had been when she first finished it. Initially, it had been shapeless and barely recognizable as a sock. But when Sharyl and Grandma Ethel put their magical finishing touches on it, the mess of fabric transformed into something that resembled a Christmas stocking.
