by Amanda Ashby
“Everything’s fine. I’ve just been a bit stressed. It’s no big gie,” she said.
“Are you sure?” Mr. Haves wrinkled his eyes together and looked concerned. “Because I noticed Rob is now lab partners with Samantha. Does that have something to do with it?”
What? Why? What had he heard?
“No, of course not,” she said instead as the blood started to pound in her ears. If Mr. Haves knew about it, then there was a fair chance that the rest of the school did, as well. “And I’m sorry about the tests. I, er, had food poisoning last week.”
“What sort?”
“Excuse me?”
“What sort of food poisoning?”
“The poison sort. Anyway, if that’s everything, I’d better get going.”
“Of course, but remember Mia, if you ever have any problems, you can talk to me. You’re a bright student and that’s the way we want things to stay. Actually, if you’d like, I could arrange for another student to tutor you before the next test. Just to get you back on track.”
“Honestly, Mr. Haves, it’s fine. I’ve got everything completely under control.” Mia managed to shoot him a faint smile before she walked out of the classroom. She was about to become the laughingstock of the entire school, and she was fairly certain talking to a teacher or getting some tutoring wasn’t going to change that.
“So how bad?” Candice demanded the minute Mia stepped into the hallway and shut the door behind her.
“Bad,” she said with a shudder. “Not only did I fail the last two tests, but even Mr. Haves has noticed that Rob and Samantha are getting close. This is serious, Candice. I think we’re going to need more than a push-up bra to fix it.”
two
“So what’s the new plan?” Candice asked as she fired up the brand-new VW Bug that her parents had bought her for her birthday and carefully reversed out of the school parking lot. All Mia got for hers was the promise she could drive her mom’s more modest Ford Focus on the weekends. It wasn’t quite the same thing.
“I have no idea, so all suggestions will be gratefully received,” she said as Candice headed into the Twilight Zone’s afternoon traffic and toward the mall. Actually, the town was officially called Newbury, but since nearly all the streets had been named after solar and lunar occurrences, it had long ago been dubbed the “Twilight Zone” as a joke, since nothing much ever happened there.
“Well, we’ll think of something. The important thing is not to panic, because it’s totally counterproductive. This one time I thought I had this weird lung disease that you can only get when you’re ninety. I can’t tell you how much I freaked out.”
“Right now I’d rather be ninety than stuck with this problem.” Mia leaned forward and put some music on, which Candice immediately turned down. She claimed that loud music didn’t go with road safety, and with her limited life expectancy, she couldn’t afford to take any chances. “How did this even happen to me?”
“It’s because you got sick of living in the shadow of your younger sister and when Rob asked you out, the urge to be popular momentarily killed off all of your other brain cells,” Candice bluntly informed her, while slowing the car to a snail’s pace as they came up to a red light. “It’s definitely a character flaw.”
“I know. What was I thinking?” Mia slumped back into the plush upholstery and groaned. Candice was right. She had made a cardinal error. Most of the time she was content to live in Fringeland—doing okay at school, staying off the radar, and watching a little bit too much television. She liked Fringeland. She was happy there. But then when Rob had borrowed some biology notes and randomly decided to ask her out (on an American Idol night), she had lost all sense of reason and let herself get caught up in the idea of dating one of the most popular guys in school. And had she mentioned how gorgeous he was? Even thinking about him made her face start to flush.
“I think we’ve just established that you weren’t thinking,” Candice reminded her.
“God, Grace is never going to let me live this one down. Not that she really believed Rob had asked me in the first place. She said he only did it as a dare.”
“That’s because Grace is an idiot. I think it’s all the hair dye she uses. I read this article the other day, and apparently the chemicals can leak into your brain and make you go crazy. Would explain a lot.”
“Yes, but after six dates with me, Rob wants to move on to Samantha, so maybe she’s right?”
“Oh, please. Since when is Grace right? Anyway, this is a matter of principle. He asked you to the prom first and he should stick to his decision,” Candice declared as she pulled up to the Newbury Mall. It had been built five years ago and was a huge sprawling creation, flanked by palm trees and settled smack-bang in the middle of the Twilight Zone. It was also the place where Mia had finally found her prom dress last week.
She and Candice had spent the entire day trying on clothes and were just about to go home and recover in front of Supernatural repeats when she had spotted the most amazing nip-waisted black dress. Candice called it “Goth prom.” Mia called it “perfect,” and they both agreed that it was worth every cent of the jaw-dropping price. Perhaps Mia should check if the store did refunds?
“So any other ideas besides a push-up bra?” Mia asked as her friend slowed down at the first parking spot, but after studying it for a minute, she obviously thought it looked too difficult to reverse into and kept driving.
“Some slutty shoes?”
“I think it’s going to take more than that.” Mia frowned. “The way Samantha was operating on him, nothing short of a lobotomy will stop him from falling under her spell. She’s like one of those gross wasps that Mr. Haves was talking about. The ones who inject venom into someone’s brain and make them become a mindless slave.”
“That’s it.” Candice suddenly put her foot on the brake as the car behind them started to honk. “A spell. We get a spell and make him fall in love with you. Perfect.”
“Brilliant idea!” Mia said with a hint of sarcasm. “And if only we went to Hogwarts, then maybe we could figure out how to rustle one up. Seriously, we need to think of something real that will work—”
“Actually.” Her friend coughed as she started to slowly drive toward the parking-lot exit. “I think I know what we need. . . . ”
“Okay, if this is some sort of joke, it’s not funny,” Mia said fifteen minutes later as Candice pulled to a stop outside a questionable strip mall that had seen better days not to mention better tenants.
“Of course it’s not a joke.” Candice sounded offended as she hopped out of the car.
“So what could we possibly find in a liquor store or a seedy video store to help my situation?” Mia demanded as she glanced around at the run-down buildings in front of her.
“This is where we can get a love spell.” Candice nodded for her to follow her past an overflowing Dumpster and around the corner to an alley that was wedged in between a greasy-looking pizza place and a loan shark with blacked-out windows and a kicked-in door.
She had to be kidding.
Mia stared at her friend for a minute, but Candice just hurried on, carefully stepping over the puddles of water that were blocking the way, until she came to a halt outside an unassuming paint-chipped red door.
“Enough.” Mia folded her arms in annoyance. “Candice Bailey, this isn’t funny, and if you think for one minute that I’m stepping into that place, you’re very much mistaken. I thought you were trying to help me, not freak me out.”
“I am trying to help.” Candice pushed the door open and gripped Mia’s wrist.
“What? By taking me to a store that happens to be down a dank, dark alley,” Mia snapped as she found herself being dragged into a low-lit room. Through the thick fog of incense that caught in her nose, she could just make out shelf after shelf of bottles and books. And was that a cauldron over in the corner?
“Anyway, you’re the one who can practically quote Buffy and Supernatural by heart,” Candic
e reminded her. “You should feel right at home here.”
“No, I feel at home in my bedroom when I’m watching those shows on television. There is a big difference,” Mia corrected, and was just about to turn around and head out the door when there was a noise. She glanced over to the counter, where an ancient woman with wild silver hair was waving with arthritic fingers.
“Candice, you’re back. I’ll just go get your latest order,” the old woman said as she awkwardly got to her feet and hobbled away.
“Thanks, Algeria.” Candice beamed as she tugged Mia over to the counter.
“Excuse me, but why exactly are you on a first-name basis with a five-hundred-year-old witch?” Mia hissed in a low voice the minute the other woman had disappeared behind a beaded curtain with a picture of Elvis on it. “What’s going on?”
“Okay, fine.” Candice let out an exaggerated sigh. “So sometimes orthodox medicine is incapable of dealing with all of my medical problems and I need to look outside the box for cures.”
“And by ‘outside the box,’ you mean in a weird shop that’s run by an old woman who looks like she was shipped over on the Mayflower?” Mia said as she glanced around the place and shuddered.
“You see, now that’s exactly the reason I didn’t mention it to you before, in case you went all judgmental,” Candice retorted. “Besides, I’ll have you know that Algeria is a gifted herbalist—and so what if she’s a little bit on the wrinkled side? The important thing is that she understands how to heal people with delicate constitutions such as my own.”
“How did you even find a place like this?” But before Candice could answer, Algeria shuffled back into the room with a brown paper bag. Up close and personal she was even older and more shriveled than Mia had first realized, and her blue eyes were so pale they were almost transparent.
“Here you go, dear,” the old woman rattled. “These are the seaweed and squid supplements you ordered. With your discount that’s eighty-five dollars.”
Mia’s eyes nearly bulged at the price, but Candice didn’t even blink as she handed over her platinum credit card. “Actually,” she said at the same time, “there was one other thing I was hoping you could help me with. I don’t suppose you have any love spells, do you?”
“Love spells?” Algeria narrowed her watery eyes before glancing around to check that the shop was empty (which, unsurprisingly it was, since who in their right mind would go in there except for them?). Then she leaned forward and lowered her voice, “Who told you about that?”
“No one,” Candice quickly assured her. “It’s just, when I was in here the other day looking for something for my asthma, I overheard a woman asking for a spell to help her win the lottery. I just figured lottery, love, it’s sort of the same thing. So do you do them?”
Mia glared at her friend. A lottery spell? She had to be joking, but before she could say anything Algeria leaned even closer.
“Love spells aren’t something that you play around with.” The old woman shook her head, and her wild hair seemed to stick out even more. While Mia wasn’t quite as appearance-obsessed as Grace or Samantha, what would be the harm in Algeria getting a bit of product to tame that frizz down? “Why do you want one?”
“Actually, it’s for my friend. Prom-date problems,” Candice added in a knowing whisper.
“Always is this time of year.” The old woman nodded sagely before turning to Mia. “So, girlie, is this something you really want?”
Mia paused for a moment and shot Candice a hesitant look. Did she really want it? Then the humiliation of seeing Rob so easily transfer his affections marched into her mind and started to dance around in a multicolored blur.
Oh, yes, she wanted it, all right.
“Look,” she finally answered. “I know it’s a pathetic, sexist, lame tradition that I won’t care about in ten years, but when Rob asked me to the prom, there was a part of me that wanted to be that girl. Just for one night. You know, the girl who gets the guy. The one who buys the great dress to wear, worries about whether her shoes match her purse. I was even going to let my mom fuss with my hair and take some photos.” As she stopped talking, she couldn’t believe she was actually buying into this love-spell thing.
“Okay.” Algeria seemed convinced. “So what sort of spell would you like? We could give him boils. Or make his ears grow every time he tries to make the hanky-panky with anyone else. That’s a good one.” The old woman chortled in amusement.
“I’ll say.” Candice gave Mia an excited nudge. “I told you she was amazing.”
Mia stared at Algeria in alarm. “No, nothing like that. Look, he asked me to the prom and now this horrible girl is sniffing around trying to get him to change his mind. All I want is to make sure he doesn’t listen to her.”
“Oh.” For a moment the old woman looked a bit disappointed. “Are you sure?”
“Definitely,” Mia assured her.
“Fine, one run-of-the-mill love spell coming up,” Algeria muttered as she pulled out a small black velvet book with Elvis on the front. Then she flicked it open and, after studying it for a moment, started to pull a variety of bottles out from under the counter and lined them up.
As Mia watched her, she tried to ignore the fact that this had to be the weirdest thing she and Candice had ever done (and considering they’d met in seventh grade when they’d been relegated to playing the front and back end of a horse in the school play, that was really saying something). But then again, if it worked, it would all be worthwhile, and if it didn’t, well, there was always the push-up-bra idea to fall back on.
“Isn’t this great?” Candice grinned next to her as Algeria suddenly looked up and pointed a bony finger at them.
“I need a rose quartz. You, girlie, go over and get me one. It’s on the top shelf. There is a stepladder in the corner.”
“What?” Mia glanced up in alarm at the shelf Algeria was pointing to and felt her heart start to pound in panic. No one had mentioned anything about climbing.
“Oh, Mia doesn’t do heights,” Candice interrupted as she casually walked over and stood on the small ladder so she could reach up to the top shelf, while Mia tried to resist the urge to sit down on the ground and put her head between her legs to stop the dizzy feeling from overtaking her. “Here you go. One rose quartz crystal.”
“Don’t do heights, eh?” Algeria looked up with interest.
“It’s no big deal,” Mia assured her as she willed her heartbeat to return to normal. Besides, it was sort of true, since, as long as she wasn’t up somewhere high, she was totally fine. According to her mom, she had been like that even as a baby, and while she had no idea what had caused it, she had a healthy respect for the fact that when she was too far up in the air, her heart rate went through the roof, her palms went sweaty, and nausea would normally follow not long after.
“Well, if you ever want something for it, you come back and see me,” Algeria said as she started to pour everything into a small wooden bowl. Then after several minutes of singing and arm waving (And ew, did she just spit in it?), she poured the liquid into a brown vial and passed it over to Mia before packing several crystals, a silver amulet, and a bag of sand into a large brown paper bag.
“One love spell. Now remember, the trick is to get as close to him as possible when you’re doing this.”
“Oh.” Mia took the vial and gave it a dubious look. “I thought I’d just be able to throw some powder into the air and make a wish.”
Algeria put down the pencil she had been using to write out instructions and fixed Mia with a serious glare. “Look, girlie, if you don’t want to do this properly, then it’s no good in me even selling it to you. You need to be close to him. Do you hear?”
“Of course she does,” Candice butted in. “So what if we do it outside his house? Is that close enough?”
“No good, too many walls in between. Closer.”
“But I don’t know how to get—” Mia started.
“What about the senior
class awards assembly?” Candice suddenly blurted. “It’s during last period and if we hurry, we can get back there in time to do it while Rob goes up to get his football award. Oh, but will it be a problem that everyone else will be there?”
For a moment Algeria paused as she rubbed her chin. Then she shot them a toothless grin. “No, I don’t think that will be a problem at all. Oh, and by the way, the spell costs one hundred dollars.”
“One hundred dollars?” Mia yelped in outrage and was almost tempted to turn and leave. The only thing stopping her from doing so was the image of Rob humiliating her and the fact that Candice had suddenly grabbed her by the elbow with a cast-iron grip.
“We’ll take it,” her friend assured the ancient woman before nudging Mia to get her wallet out.
“Fine.” Mia reluctantly handed over her entire savings and tried not to mind that she would no longer be buying patent-red stilettos to go with her dress. The things she did for love.
“So, do I have the best ideas or what?” Candice announced half an hour later as they both peered out from behind the bleachers. Principal Keegan was droning on about how important it was to get the prom queen and king nominations in by tomorrow afternoon because the ballot papers would be passed out on Wednesday.
“Let me get back to you on that once I know if it works or not,” Mia retorted as she tapped her fingers and waited for the speech to finish so that Rob could go up and collect his award and she could start her chanting. They’d managed to sneak undetected into the gym just before the assembly had started, which was lucky, because setting the whole thing up had taken longer than she had imagined.
They’d had to find a wooden bowl, pour in the liquid (which did not smell at all nice), sprinkle sand into a circle, and lay out crystals and amulets in some sort of pentagram pattern. Not to mention the three pages of Algeria’s messy handwriting to read once Rob was close enough to them. These sorts of things definitely looked easier on television.
