Stirring Up Trouble

by Juli Alexander

  “Oh, sorry.” She actually sounded sincere. “Have you seen Milo? I thought he came out this way.”

  “No,” Jake answered, then leaned in to kiss my cheek.

  Anya stomped off.

  With Jake’s lips on mine once more, I had a sense that someone was watching. I opened an eye unwilling to stop the kiss. Jake hadn’t noticed anything.

  Across the yard, I saw Milo creeping stealthily toward the other end of the house. He’d avoided Anya for now. I fought a grin.

  I really should save him, but first I was going to spend a little more time in Jake’s arms.

  Milo would understand.

  Probably.

  Dad poked his head out the kitchen door to tell me Mom had arrived. Jake and I jumped apart, but not quickly enough. Dad pretended not to notice.

  “Be right there,” I said.

  “Come in and say goodbye to my mother,” Jake said.

  He opened the door for me, and I walked inside. I turned to thank Jake, but something caught my eye. Something black was flying toward us at top speed. I screeched as the bat cleared Jake and continued toward me, aiming right for my face. I jumped back, tripping over something and crashing backward into the nachos table. One of Milo’s bats had come back for revenge. It did a fly by, grazing the side of my cheek, as I landed on the floor. The nachos table had tilted and nachos rained down around me. Bowls of guacamole, chili, cheese sauce, and salsa crashed to the floor and formed an ever-growing puddle of mess. I stared in horror as the red mixed with orange and green. Mixing liquids.

  My mother and father had rushed toward me. Mom’s eyes met mine, reflecting the fear, the certainty, the inevitability of the impending disaster.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Dad and Jake each grabbed one of my arms and hoisted me up. I was a mess. The entire room was looking at me. Clumsy. Party wrecker. And the worse hadn’t even happened yet.

  Milo’s bats. My vortex. Bile rose in my throat as I waited for the newest disaster.

  Then, it came. Frogs. Big frogs. Lots and lots of them. They were suddenly everywhere.

  A scream I recognized as Anya’s caught my attention and I turned to see her climbing on the kitchen counter. Milo ran in from the back deck, took one look at me, and paled.

  “It’s bad, Zoe. They’re outside too.”

  Oh my God! What had I done?

  “Get her home,” my dad said to my mom. “I’ll help Sheree with this mess. I should be home before the Council shows up.”

  Sheree walked over to my dad.

  “This was not me, Sheree. Promise,” he said.

  “Zoe,” Milo said, grabbing my arm and pulling. “The car.”

  We stumbled through the chaos to the front door. More frogs on the front porch. I stepped around frogs on the sidewalk and climbed into Mom’s car.

  She put the car into drive and started down the street. As she drove, I heard an occasional splat as we ran over one of the amphibians.

  My mother clutched the wheel, looking sick.

  Milo finally spoke from the back seat. “It’s probably not that bad, Zoe. Maybe just the neighborhood.”

  Splat.

  Mom flinched.

  “Okay. My mom says it’s the whole city,” he said, reading a text on his phone. “But it is Halloween, and besides, frogs are no big deal.”

  “Stop trying to cheer me up, Milo. It isn’t going to work.” The Council was going to lock me away and throw away the key.

  “My parents are going to meet us at your house,” Milo said. “My mother thinks it will help with the Council.”

  “Tell her thank you,” my mother said.

  Sploit.

  Splat.

  Splup.

  “How many are there?” I screeched. “There must be thousands!”

  “A few less now,” Milo muttered.

  “We’re almost there,” my mother said before I could tell Milo to keep his thoughts to himself.

  We pulled into the driveway. She hadn’t closed the garage door when she left so she pulled in. “I really wish I’d closed that,” she said as we got out of the car and stepped around the frogs that had hopped in.

  A moment later, we were in the kitchen. The three of us stood around the peninsula, shell-shocked, weary, and trying to regroup.

  “I have to call the Council.” My mother reached for the cordless phone. “They must know by now.”

  “Don’t forget the toad slime substitution,” Milo called after her. “It might help.”

  Then he looked at me. “Toad slime.”

  “That explains why my Halloween Hiccup is frogs.”

  “Poetic,” Milo said. Then he laughed. Not a normal laugh, but the half-crazy laugh of somebody who was about to come unglued.

  “Seriously!” I poked him in the chest. “You’re freaking out on me. You aren’t the one whose life is over. You aren’t the one who unleashed an amphibian plague! You have no right to break down.” I was struggling to get air into my lungs.

  He grabbed my hand to keep me from bruising his chest. “You’re fine. It’s going to be okay. You are brilliant. You of all people can get away with this.”

  As he spoke, I started to breathe again. “More,” I said. “Say more good stuff.”

  “They need you, Zoe. You’re going to make a huge difference in the world. They aren’t going to take your powers or lock you up or do anything to keep you from the progress you’re making.”

  Whoa. Lock me up. Take my powers. “Stop.” I was thinking boarding school, or community service, or a giant fine my parents couldn’t pay. “Lock me up?”

  “I said they weren’t going to lock you up,” he said, slowly and carefully as if talking to a child.

  “They might lock me up. Frogs are dying all over the city. Jake thinks I’m a clumsy loser.”

  Milo sighed. “You’re worried about what Jake thinks? Zoe, you have bigger problems.”

  I had trashed Sheree’s kitchen. I couldn’t even imagine the mess. The cheese, the nachos, the frogs.

  My mother came back into the kitchen and placed the phone on the charger. “We have an hour,” she said. “Zoe, go change. I doubt the Council would appreciate the witch outfit.” She turned to Milo. “John mentioned your bats. Considering what we’re all dealing with tonight, it’s probably best if you speak as little as possible.”

  “Mom!”

  Milo nodded. “Right. Good idea.”

  “We can’t afford an accidental rhyme, Zoe. Not with the Council here.”

  Milo pressed his lips together and made a zipping gesture.

  Talking to Milo had been helping. I doubted that Mime-boy was going to do me any good.

  With an exaggerated sigh, I left the kitchen and headed to my room. I traded the black dress for a demure sweater set and matching skirt that my mother had picked up last week. She thought the pale blue flattered my complexion. I thought the outfit made me look younger. Hopefully, the Council would get a “sweet and innocent” message.

  Mom nodded her approval when I came downstairs.

  Milo’s parents had arrived. His dad was busy on his iPad while his mother talked quietly with mine.

  Dad came in through the kitchen a few minutes later.

  I ran over and hugged him. “I’m so sorry. Did you get Jake’s house cleaned up.”

  My dad nodded. “All but a couple of frogs. Some of the kids are still there. Their parents aren’t willing to brave the frogs yet.”

  I grimaced. “Was Sheree mad?”

  “Not at you,” my father said.

  “John,” my mother called. “Come over and help. We’re on damage control.”

  Milo’s dad looked up from his iPad. “Looks like the frogs are all over the Southeastern U.S.”

  I swayed and Dad steadied me. “Hang in there, Champ. We’ll be okay.”

  The whole Southeastern United States! I thought the city-wide infestation was bad.

  Milo had come up beside us. “We probably needed the frogs. Like when
we finally get rain after a drought.”

  “You aren’t supposed to talk,” I snapped.

  “Uh oh,” Milo’s dad said.

  “What?” I asked tersely.

  His dad glanced at my mother. “I’m not sure I should—”

  Mom sighed. “She may as well know.”

  Milo’s dad turned to me. “It’s worldwide.”

  The emissaries from the Council rang the doorbell soon after. My mother led them into the living room. Three of them wore long black, judge’s robes—a middle-aged man with a large hook nose, a middle-aged woman with short red hair, and an elderly African-American gentleman with sunken eyes. A younger person in a suit trailed behind each of the distinguished Council members. Each of these twenty to thirty-year-olds carried two leather-bound books the size of pizza boxes, and they kept their heads down and did not make eye contact with us. I had no idea who they were, and I made a mental note to learn more about the Council as soon as I could.

  “I am so sorry about this,” my mother said. “We can meet in the dining room if you’d like.”

  The three Council members just nodded and everyone followed my mother into the other room.

  They sat along the far side of the dining room table. Then they motioned for the rest of us to sit. The younger three took chairs along the side of the room. Mom, Milo’s mother, Dad, and I sat side-by-side. I wanted to crawl under the table, but I sat up straight in my chair because I knew that was what my mother wanted. The three in black loomed like grim reapers, seeming to suck the oxygen right out of the room. I struggled to breathe in shallow, rapid inhalations.

  “Miss Miller,” the man with the hook nose said. “I’m Lionel Shannon. Bob Kavanagh and Midge Torbett complete our panel this evening.” Having dispensed with the introductions, he folded his hands on the table in front of him. “Miss Miller. Do you fully appreciate the gravity of this situation?”

  I nodded, and tried to slow my breathing.

  “Tonight’s incident was a serious breach of our Code of Conduct,” Judge Torbett said. “We have hundreds of containment officers working alongside local first responders. You could easily have compromised our secrecy provisions, and your Halloween Hiccup could still have catastrophic consequences. You should never have been in a situation where you could mix so many ingredients by accident.”

  “Zoe understands that,” my mom said, giving me a look I’d long ago learned meant ‘sit still and keep your mouth shut.’

  “The issue, I’m afraid, is whether Zoe’s conduct was reckless. A young witch. One with Zoe’s talent. And we cannot overlook the fact that you delayed in informing us of her toad slime substitution.” He gave my mother a hard look. “I don’t think there is any question that Zoe’s conduct was, in fact, reckless.”

  This was not going well.

  “Your honor,” Mom said. “I’m so sorry that this has happened, but there must be a way to punish Zoe without suspending her magic. She’s worked so hard. And she has such potential.”

  “We’re well aware of Zoe’s talent, but we fail to see sufficient extenuating circumstances to excuse this behavior. I’m afraid that Zoe must lose her magic,” the female judge said. “We have been quite tolerant in light of the family history.”

  Lose my magic? Family history? What were they talking about? I tried to catch my mother’s eye but she was focusing on the Council members.

  “Of course there is the option we’ve been discussing with you over the last few years. Zoe could apprentice in Greenland with Dr. Macmillan.”

  I was doomed. Greenland? That’s the one with all the ice.

  Milo’s mother finally got up the nerve to speak. “Would you consider having someone tutor her here? Perhaps Dr. Finnegan? I was reading about his, er, predicament.”

  Dr. Finnegan was legendary, but I didn’t know anything about a predicament. What had I missed?

  Judge Torbett shot her a cold look. Dad shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

  Judge Kavanagh finally spoke. “Not a bad idea.”

  “I do like solving two problems at once,” Judge Shannon said.

  “We’ll consider it,” Judge Torbett announced. “In the meantime, the girl’s magic will be suspended.”

  My parents led them to the door.

  Two hours later, Milo’s mother said, “We should go too. We’ll call in the morning.”

  “They think they got all the cane toads,” Milo’s dad said, glancing up from his iPad.

  “Aren’t those poisonous?” my dad asked.

  “Oh, yeah. Especially to pets.”

  Yikes.

  “The Council has worked fast. They reduced their natural populations to a bare minimum while they were at it. Maybe some good will come of this.”

  I tried to smile but didn’t manage.

  Mom finally sent me up to bed.

  I couldn’t sleep. Instead, I kept logging on and checking for news about the toads and frogs. Stories had started popping up on the national news sites. I couldn’t find anything locally, but the croaking outside the windows of our house was unbelievably loud. At around three, I was starting to wonder if they were going to come after me for revenge.

  Mom popped her head in, and I voiced my concern.

  She hugged me. “You’re getting paranoid because you’re sleep deprived. Plus, the frogs wouldn’t be mad at you, Zoe. They’d be grateful. You’re saving them from captivity. I really doubt they enjoy having their slime harvested.”

  True. “But aren’t the ones from the Halloween Hiccup in danger?”

  Her voice was a little too upbeat as she said, “Your actions created them, Zoe. They’re just as likely to be happy. Plus, the Council is working to get them contained.”

  “There must be millions.”

  Mom’s smile faltered. “Just be glad your Halloween Hiccup didn’t involve zombies.”

  I guessed that millions was a serious underestimate.

  “Go to sleep, Zoe. We’ll get an update in the morning.”

  My cell rang and woke me at nine. Jake!

  “Zoe! Did you hear about the frogs? It’s crazy!”

  “Yeah,” I said, propping myself on my elbows. “I did.”

  “I caught thirty-seven in our house after the party.”

  “You didn’t kill them, did you?”

  “No,” he said, sounding offended. “I took them outside. You just disappeared last night. Your dad said you went with your mother.”

  “Yeah. Sorry, I didn’t get to say goodbye. Once those frogs showed up,” the ones that I’d conjured, “Mom dragged me out of there. What’s going on with the frogs now?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t see any outside anymore.”

  “Jake, I’m so sorry about the mess at the party. Your mother is probably furious with me.”

  “For what? The nachos? Good grief, Zoe, between the bats, the frogs, and the vortex, she barely noticed. She’s a little ticked at your dad though for going so overboard with the Halloween thing. And with Kent. He kept tossing frogs into the vortex, and they… Never mind. You don’t want to know.”

  Poor Dad. Poor frogs.

  “Can you hang out later today?” he asked.

  He wanted to see me despite my clumsiness. Hurray! I grinned at my pillow. Only, there was no way. “I don’t think today will work,” I admitted. “We’ve got a lot going on around here.”

  Mom was still cooking breakfast when Milo and his parents came back over.

  “They got about three-fourths of the frogs rounded up,” his dad said. “They’ve removed all frogs and toads from climates where they would perish. Some of the areas had a serious decrease in the frog populations of late, so those creatures were allowed to stay. They decided to sterilize half of the world’s frog population, since we had difficulty identifying the invaders from the long-time residents.”

  “What about the world’s ecosystems?” Mom asked. “Will this devastate them?”

  “Our scientists are predicting a decrease in mosquito-bor
ne disease, a significant decrease in the roach population, and of course, an increase in a rather unusual source of food for humans.”

  “That’s all good.”

  “Yes, but we predict a huge increase in the rodent population, particularly rats, with such a convenient new food source. We’ve taken measures to ‘vaccinate’ the rats in order to prevent the propagation of new disease. In a few months, we’ll wipe out half the rat population. We’ll keep monitoring it in order to prevent a situation with the rats. No one wants to see them roaming the streets in droves.”

  Ewww. Frogs were so much better than rats.

  “The Council estimates a million man hours plus a huge portion of the budget for the next decade will go to what they are now terming the Frog Fiasco.”

  “They aren’t billing us for it, are they?” Mom asked.

  “Don’t be silly,” Milo’s mom answered. “They wouldn’t do that.”

  Camille and Anya were texting me like crazy.

  Anya swore she wasn’t leaving her house until the epidemic was over.

  Two hours later she texted that she was headed over to Brad’s to play games. So much for that resolution.

  Camille texted me that she was adopting several of the frogs. Her dad was allergic to fur, so these proved to be the perfect pets. She had found a couple of websites explaining how to care for the frogs. She texted me again to let me know she was going to have to actually raise bugs as their food. Oops.

  News updates kept flashing on the television. Despite the Council’s hard work, the world had experienced a ridiculous boom in the toad and frog population. The scientific community expressed concern. Doctors and veterinarians were warning people to avoid contact due to the threat of salmonella. They were finding quite a few species of frogs on the wrong sides of the planet, and there was fear of an outbreak of illness among the frogs. The non-magic world hadn’t figured out the rat stuff yet. Luckily, the Council was on top of it. The news channels also talked about a scarcity of insects. I’d have to make sure the Council had a plan for the bugs.