by Amanda Ashby
“I told you, Algeria is a genius, so of course it will work,” Candice insisted. “By the way, have you seen what Mrs. Taylor is wearing today? What is it with that dress?”
“Oh, I know.” Mia was instantly distracted as she craned her head a bit farther up to get another look at their eccentric IT teacher. As she did so, Chase Miller, who was standing right at the back of the assembly, suddenly glanced over in their direction. Crap. Mia grabbed Candice’s arm and tugged her back below the bleachers.
“What was that for?” her friend complained. “You know I bruise easily.”
“Sorry.” Mia cautiously peered up again and was relieved to see that he was no longer looking their way. “I just thought someone saw us. I had no idea doing a love spell would be so stressful.”
“Well, it’ll be over soon. Anyway, I don’t know what you’re so worried about. What could possibly go wrong?” Candice said.
Mia paused, but before she could respond, her friend pointed in the direction of the stage.
“Look, the football team is lining up to get their awards. It’s time to get chanting.”
three
“Like seriously, you are so dead,” Grace said later that afternoon. Mia, who had been in the middle of looking out her bedroom window at Samantha’s house, turned around to where her younger sister was standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips in a ridiculous and highly exaggerated pose. “I heard you cut school this afternoon, and Mom’s going to flip when she finds out.”
“Of course I didn’t cut school, and can you get out of my room?” Mia crossed her fingers, since no good could come from Grace knowing what she and Candice had been up to. She returned her attention to the window. It was now almost five in the afternoon and there was no sign of Rob’s SUV outside Samantha’s house, which had to be a sure sign the spell she’d done earlier had really worked. Right?
“Oh, really, well that’s not what I heard. And do I smell smoke?” Grace persisted as she walked into the room, her perfect nose wrinkled as if trying to search out a phantom cigarette. All Mia could guess was that the sickly incense from Algeria’s store was still clinging to her clothes. She’d better change before dinner, or else her mom would really flip and give them the “Your grandfather died of lung cancer at the age of sixty-one” lecture. Again.
“I’m surprised you can smell anything with all that perfume you’re wearing,” she shot back, but Grace was undeterred as she continued to prowl around Mia’s room looking distaste-fully at the large David Boreanaz poster on the wall. “Besides, don’t you have a huge math test tomorrow that you should be studying for?”
“Oh, that.” Grace shrugged her slim shoulders. “I have a feeling I’m going to be sick tomorrow.”
“There’s nothing wrong with you.”
“Of course there is,” Grace assured her before doing an Oscar-winning cough, and Mia rolled her eyes. Her sister had probably spent longer perfecting the cough than it would’ve taken to just study for the test. And even worse was the fact their mom would not just let her off school but probably get a couple of tubs of low-cal Ben and Jerry’s just to make sure she was comfortable. Mia blamed the divorce. She had been eight at the time, but Grace had only been six and had cried for weeks for their dad to come home. Their mom was obviously still trying to compensate. None of which improved Mia’s mood.
“Just go away, Grace.”
“Fine.” Her sister shrugged. “I just need to get your laptop first.”
“Not likely,” Mia retorted as she reluctantly dragged her gaze away from the window. “Use your own computer.”
“Mine doesn’t have video software on it.”
“Since when do you need video software?” Mia widened her eyes in surprise.
“Don’t worry, geek-head. I don’t have any plans to make up Buffy and Angel collages and post them on YouTube with stupid emo songs playing in the background.” Grace gave a dismissive wave of her hand as she strutted over to where Mia’s laptop was sitting. “I just need to do some homework.”
“I don’t think so.” Mia glared. And there was nothing wrong with her collages. One of them had over ten thousand hits already.
“Oh, come on. It’s not like you’re going to need it tonight, anyway, since you’ll be too busy moping.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mia blinked, since even for her sister that was pretty random.
“You know. Samantha and Rob hooked up. She was talking about it at cheerleading practice,” Grace informed her, and Mia felt her stomach plummet to the floor. So much for her spell. It had all been for nothing. “I guess it takes five dates with you to let a guy really see what he wants in a girlfriend. Like it’s any surprise?” Grace gave a dismissive glance at Mia’s outfit.
“Six dates if you count football practice, and besides, there’s nothing wrong with what I’m wearing.” Mia’s disappointment turned to annoyance. “Just because I like to cover my legs and not flash my butt does not make me a loser.”
“Yeah, right.” Grace rolled her baby blues as if Mia was wearing some sort of mismatched outfit instead of her boyfriend-cut jeans, a cute apple-green T-shirt, and her favorite patterned Converse. “Anyway, I can’t begin to imagine how humiliating it must feel to have Rob Ziggerman publicly dump you.”
“He hasn’t dumped me.” Yet. “And why does it bother you so much? Worried that some guys might actually want to date girls who have more brains than bounce?”
“Do I look worried?” Grace said as she pushed her chest forward again. Mia sighed. Sometimes it was impossible to believe they were related. Actually, scrap the “sometimes.”
“No, but only because you know that if you frown, your face might start to wrinkle,” Mia retorted in what was probably the lamest comeback ever, and unsurprisingly, Grace ignored it.
“Whatever. Besides, if Rob really is still taking you to the prom, then why did I just see him go into Samantha’s house?” Grace shot her a sickly smile and Mia felt her stomach drop again as she turned back to the window just to confirm that Rob’s SUV was indeed parked in the driveway, the late-afternoon sun reflecting off the fender.
How could he?
More importantly, why on earth had she thought that using a stupid love spell would actually work? She must’ve been suffering some sort of temporary insanity.
“I’m sorry.” Grace smirked. “I didn’t quite catch your answer to why he’s over there.”
“He’s probably just helping her with homework. Mr. Haves gave us loads of biology stuff to do,” Mia said with more confidence than she felt.
“Oh, right. Homework.” Grace sneered in a totally annoying way, and Mia felt the last of her hope flee the room, since homework wasn’t exactly Rob’s specialty.
“But I don’t even understand why she’s interested in Rob in the first place.” Mia groaned. “They’ve all been in the same clique for years, so why hasn’t she tried to date him sooner?”
“God, you are so clueless.” Grace folded her arms. “If you didn’t spend so much time watching TV and hanging out with your weirdo friends, then you might actually realize what’s going on.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mia looked at her sister blankly.
“Okay, fine. So last month Rob was only a prom-king outsider. I mean, he’s a football player and he’s cute and all, but these days that’s not enough. However, with Trent getting busted for drugs, Owen Little coming down with mono, and Jed Mayer losing his scholarship for next year and getting suspended, suddenly Rob has gone from outsider to sure thing.”
“But that’s insane,” Mia spluttered. “Samantha Griffin wants to ruin my life just so that she can date a guy who she thinks might be prom king?”
“The only insane thing was that he asked you out in the first place. It goes against the laws of nature. Rob is popular and hot and you’re, well . . . not.” Grace shrugged as she sauntered over, grabbed the laptop, and left the room. Then, as the reality of what her sister said started to sin
k in, Mia pulled her curtains and flicked on her television. When the going got tough, the tough watched Buffy Season Two DVDs.
“He what?” Candice squealed the next morning as they both stood at Mia’s locker. “But that doesn’t make sense. What about the spell?”
“I think we can safely assume it didn’t work,” Mia said in a low voice as she grabbed her books. She didn’t even bother to touch her Supernatural poster for luck, since not even the gorgeous Winchester brothers could help her now. “Rob’s SUV was parked outside Samantha’s house for over three hours.”
“Man. That sucks.” Candice shook her red hair in annoyance as they both headed toward their biology class. “You know, if Algeria wasn’t so great at making vitamin infusions, I would totally boycott her on your behalf.”
“I guess I was dumb for thinking it would work in the first place. Maybe I really do watch too much TV? I mean, a normal person wouldn’t really believe something like that could work.”
“I was on this medical Web site the other day, and apparently there is no such thing as a normal person, so quit being so hard on yourself,” Candice commanded as they both sat down at a lab bench and Candice systematically lined up the numerous dark brown vitamin bottles she always carried with her. “Now, let’s see. Cod liver for my bones. Bach flower remedy for my stress levels, and finally my placebo tablets.”
“You do realize what placebo means, don’t you?” Mia pointed out.
“Of course, but I just like to cover all my bases.” Candice shrugged. Mia shook her head in amazement while she watched Candice finish taking her pills and put the bottles away just before Mr. Haves walked in and smiled at them all.
“Right, class. So if you enjoyed yesterday’s lesson about the cockroach and the jewel wasp, you’re going to like this one. It’s all about parasites that do the same thing to their host. In particular, there is a hairworm that lives in a grasshopper, and when it wants to get out and into water, it gets the grasshopper to jump into ponds and pools, despite the fact that in doing so, the grasshopper will drown.”
Ew. Mia shuddered.
“But before we start, let’s do a roll call.” Mr. Haves opened up a book and started to call out names, but when he got to Chase Miller’s name, there was no answer. He stopped and looked around. “Chase Miller?” he repeated. “Has anyone seen Chase?”
“Seen him? I’ve never even heard of him,” Samantha called out, and a few people started to laugh.
“He’s that new guy,” someone else informed her.
“Oh, right. I thought his name was Chance.” Samantha wrinkled her nose for a minute and then shrugged.
“That’s probably not the best way to get him to vote you in as prom queen,” Candice retorted, but before Samantha could reply, Mr. Haves clapped his hands.
“That’s enough. So no Chase.” He made a mark and continued calling out names before again frowning as he got to the end of the list. “And finally, Rob Ziggerman?”
“He’s not here—” Samantha started to say in a territorial sort of way, but before she could finish, Rob appeared in the doorway looking all kinds of gorgeous in an Abercrombie & Fitch sweatshirt that really brought out the blue in his eyes.
“Hey, Mr. H, sorry I’m late. Coach wanted to talk to me.”
“Fine, Rob. Why don’t you take a seat and we can get started.”
“Sure.” Rob gave him a cheery smile and then started to head over toward . . . her and Candice?
“Oh my God,” Mia said out of the side of her mouth. “Am I seeing things, or is he actually coming over here?”
“Well, judging by the invisible daggers Samantha seems to be throwing at you, I’m going to say yes.” Candice started to grin, and Mia felt her mouth drop open in surprise.
“Hey, Mia.” Rob came to a halt and nodded at the empty chair next to her. “So is anyone sitting there?”
“Er, n-no,” Mia managed to stammer as she felt her heart rate increase. It had worked. It had really worked. Results! And props to Algeria. It seemed the old woman really did know her stuff. She would never judge a person by their warts and facial hair again.
“Cool.” He gave her an easy smile and sat down next to her, while Mr. Haves fiddled with his laptop at the front of the class. “By the way, I’m sorry I didn’t sit next to you yesterday. Samantha said she was having some major freak-out over her biology notes and wanted me to help her. I even had to go around there yesterday afternoon, but she still couldn’t get it. I told her we should just go across the street and see you because you’re a total whiz at bio, but she didn’t seem to like the idea.”
“I bet,” Candice muttered under her breath from Mia’s other side.
“So you really were helping her with homework?” She ignored her friend as she stared at Rob’s sincere face.
“Yeah, though between you and me, I don’t think she was really trying very hard. Anyway, before I forget, I got you these.” He slipped a packet of Ho Hos over to her as Mr. Haves continued to talk about suicidal grasshoppers. “I just saw them and thought of you. Oh, and by the way, you still haven’t told me what color your dress is. I want to make sure I get the corsage just right.”
Mia stared at the small cakes before peering back up at Rob. Then she started to grin. Was this just turning into the best day ever?
By the end of the day, Mia still felt like she was floating about ten feet off the ground as she continued to clutch at the Ho Hos. They might’ve only been on six dates, but she knew enough about Rob Ziggerman to realize the importance of the cream-filled chocolate cakes, because apart from his hair and his football, Rob loved his food. Especially anything that had Hostess on the package.
She arrived at her locker and was just about to dial her combination when the door swung open. Well, that was weird. She put her head in and stared at the neatly stacked books that were piled up in alphabetical order. Okay, that was even weirder. She didn’t bother to keep her beloved DVDs in order; she was hardly going to start doing it to her locker. Besides, as she often told her mom, it wasn’t a mess, it was just organized chaos. There was a difference. Anyway, it had obviously gotten to Candice, and for some strange reason she must’ve decided to clean up.
She shut the door and walked out to the parking lot where she was meeting Candice, but when there was no sign of her distinctive VW, Mia pulled out her cell phone and called her.
“Hey, you forgot to shut the door on my locker today,” she said the minute Candice answered.
“I wasn’t in your locker.”
“You weren’t?” Mia said in surprise.
“No, remember you changed your combination after I left my homeopathic flu powder in there. You were worried Principal Keegan would think you were dealing drugs.”
“Oh, yeah.” Mia frowned. “Well it just seems like someone has been in there.”
“Did they take anything?”
“I don’t think so. Though for some strange reason they cleaned it up.” Not that she was really too concerned since it was so easy to break into the lockers that she never kept anything important in there.
“That’s not strange, that’s madness,” Candice retorted. “I’ve seen inside your locker and it’s not pretty.”
“Yeah, well it is now. Anyway, where are you? I thought we were meeting here.”
“Sorry, I decided to skip sixth period and go to the mall.”
“Oh, is this part of the great earring debate? I still like the silver ones best. Especially if you’re going to have your hair up. Actually, you should’ve told me—I would’ve skipped with you. IT was totally boring, and besides, I’m still too excited about the fact the spell worked. Can you believe . . . ugh, what is that chewing noise?”
“Oh, that’s me,” Candice apologized. “I’m just finishing off my beef jerky.”
“Beef jerky?” Mia blinked as she tried to ignore the loud masticating sound coming from the other end of the phone.
“That’s right,” Candice agreed. “It’s medicinal.
I’ve been thinking my iron levels are getting a bit low, and you know I have to be careful not to become anemic.”
“Yes, but you don’t eat red meat,” Mia reminded her before frowning. “Anyway, can’t you just take pills for that?”
“Jeez Mia, what’s with the twenty questions?”
“Sorry,” she said in surprise, since normally there was nothing Candice liked more than to talk about her ongoing preventative health regime. “Anyway, should I meet you at the mall? I still need shoes.”
“No, I’m just about to leave for my acupuncture appointment, but we could go check them out tomorrow. Okay? I gotta go. Bye,” Candice said before ending the call.
Mia closed her phone and was just contemplating whether to call her mom and see if she could wrangle a lift—or else face the school bus—when someone coughed behind her. She spun around to see Chase Miller looking at her intently.
“Uh, hi?” she said in surprise as she tried to figure out if there was a particular reason he was standing there. Then she recalled that he hadn’t been in class that morning. Perhaps he wanted her notes? Which could be a problem since all she had written down was a series of love hearts with the initials RZ in the middle of them. “Can I help you with something?”
“Yeah, Mia—look, I know we haven’t really talked before, but this is kind of important,” he said as he awkwardly rocked from one foot to another and appeared to be chewing his lip. Then she let out an inward groan as she remembered Mr. Haves’s suggestion to help her get back on track for the next biology test. Chase had obviously been roped in to do the honors.
“Is this about the tutoring? Because I told Mr. Haves that those last two tests were just accidents and I’m fine. Anyway, thanks. It was nice of you to offer.”
He shook his head, confused. “That’s not why I’m here.”
“Oh, it’s not?” She studied his face to try and get a clue about what he wanted, but his pale green eyes weren’t giving much away.
