And that’s when she was hit with a vivid memory—
She was eight years old in the art studio with her class. She was rushing to finish painting her flamingo. She had told the whole class she could do it. But she was running out of time. In a moment of panic, she knocked the flamingo off the table. It fell to the ground, and its awkward bulbous head snapped off its dainty neck. She was so ashamed that without even thinking, she blamed the whole thing on Shane. He just happened to be sitting next to her at the time. It had been her fault all along.
Jaclyn realized that hiding her imperfections was what had caused all this in the first place. If she hadn’t been so desperate to seem perfect, she wouldn’t have made the potion. She wouldn’t have created Jackie. This wasn’t Jackie’s fault. It was hers. Jaclyn had spent her whole life stuffing her mistakes into boxes and hoping no one would ever see. Now, she was done hiding.
The world has to know, Jaclyn thought.
“Know what?” said Jackie, moving toward the cardboard boxes, the match flickering in her hand.
That I’m not perfect! I’ve never been perfect! I’ll never be perfect!
With that, Jaclyn felt a surge of strength. She stopped Jackie in her tracks.
Jackie’s eyes bulged. She tried to take a step forward, but it was like her feet were glued to the floor.
I’m in charge now, thought Jaclyn.
“In your dreams!” Jackie hissed. She tried to throw the lit match at the boxes. But Jaclyn used all her strength to hold back Jackie’s hand.
“Stop it! Stop it!” Jackie snarled, trying to wrest control of her own arm. But it was no use. The fortress walls around Jaclyn were crumbling. Jackie let out one final ear-splitting shriek, and then Jaclyn blew out the flame.
Jaclyn collapsed with relief. She looked at her spindly arms and ran her knobby hands through her frayed pigtails. Though she was still physically Jackie, Jaclyn was in control. She reached over and grabbed the nearest box. It was time to take it out of the shed, out into the open. As she picked it up, she heard a rustle behind the stack.
“Huh?”
She cleared away all the boxes. Deep in the corner was an old bag of wood chips. A hole had been gnawed in the plastic. Sitting next to the bag in a makeshift burrow was Charles.
“Charles! You came home!” Jaclyn cried, scooping him up into her arms. “I missed you so much! I’m sorry I lost you. Can you ever forgive me?”
Charles wiggled his nose. He nuzzled his soft fur into her neck.
A tear of joy ran down her cheek. “I’m pretty sure that’s a yes.”
Chapter Seventeen
We’re All Bad
Jaclyn’s parents were very surprised when they answered the back door and found a green-eyed goblin girl on the step, holding a cardboard box and a rabbit. But when they realized that it was Jaclyn, Mom let her inside and Dad stopped screaming.
Jaclyn put the box and Charles down on the kitchen table and said, “I need help.”
She explained everything. Enfield Manor. The Perfection Potion. Losing Charles.
Dad interrupted, “But I saw Charles in his cage this morning!”
“That was a rolled-up ball of socks,” Jaclyn admitted.
“I thought he looked a little lumpy,” said Dad.
Jaclyn opened the box and showed her parents how she had spent years trying to hide her imperfections.
Mom sank down into a chair. There was a long silence. Jaclyn didn’t know what was going to come next. Was she going to be in more trouble than she was in already?
“Jaclyn . . . ,” Mom said, “I’m so sorry.”
Jaclyn sat down next to her. “You are?”
“I didn’t realize how much pressure we were putting on you. I just wanted you to live up to your potential. I’ve always known you could do great things. But growing up isn’t about hiding your mistakes, it’s about learning from them.”
Dad joined them at the table. “I’m sorry, too, Jaclyn. I know I didn’t do a good job of showing it, but I’m not proud of you because you’re perfect. I’m proud of you because you’re you.”
Jaclyn threw her arms around both her parents in a big hug. Her hands felt like sandpaper and she smelled like a rotten apple, but they didn’t mind at all.
“Now how are we going to get you back to your old self?” said Mom.
“Not that we don’t love your . . . new self,” Dad said, eyeing her clawlike nails.
“Well,” said Jaclyn, “if I could take one more dose of the—oh no.” Jaclyn looked at the clock. She had only now realized how much time had passed since she left school.
“What is it?” said Mom.
“I need you to drive me to school now!”
The car peeled into the school parking lot. Jaclyn leaped out, desperate to make it before the hot apple cider was served. Her parents followed close behind. She sprinted down the hall and pushed open the cafeteria doors. It was too late. The cafeteria tables were littered with empty crinkled paper cups. The entire school had already drunk the cider. The teachers and students chatted and nibbled at their lunches, totally oblivious to what was about to happen.
Paige and Fatima spotted Jaclyn in the doorway—but she still looked like Jackie. They jumped up from their seats and ran over to her.
“You!” Fatima sneered.
“Stay away!” Paige shouted, jabbing a plastic fork at her.
Jaclyn put her hands up. “I know I look like Jackie but it’s me. I promise!”
“It’s true,” said Mom.
Dad added, “It’s our Jaclyn, even though she looks absolutely terrifying. No offense, sweetie.”
Jaclyn looked anxiously at Paige and Fatima. “You didn’t drink the cider, did you?”
“No, we never drink the cider,” said Fatima. Then her eyes grew wide. “Why?”
Before Jaclyn could explain, the sound of a thousand joints cracking filled the room. Everyone around them began to transform. Their faces contorted into surly grimaces. Their nails sharpened and their eyes glowed green.
“What’s happening?” Paige squeaked.
As Fatima saw her teachers and classmates morph into their fiendish alter egos, she figured it out. “Jackie put the Perfection Potion in the cider, didn’t she?”
Jaclyn gulped. “Uh-huh. And it looks like they got a much stronger dose than I did.”
The friendly chatter from moments before was replaced with shouts and snarls. Everyone’s worst impulses were unleashed. Their deepest desires were pushed to the surface. And they would stop at nothing to get what they wanted.
Zeke was now twice his normal size, his muscles bulging from his too-tight turtleneck like he was the Hulk. He flipped an entire cafeteria table over with a thunderous crash and bellowed, “Who’s the pip-squeak now?!”
Marina leaped on top of a table and started tap-dancing, kicking over milk cartons and stomping on baskets of french fries. She sang at the top of her lungs, but her once-melodic voice had transformed into a nightmarish screech.
Ryan Knowles darted around, collecting every ketchup and mustard bottle he could find. Then he turned the room into a giant canvas, squirting sauces across the wall in broad strokes and splattering anyone who got in his way. “Bow down to my masterpiece,” he shouted.
Jaclyn put face in her hands. “This is even worse than I thought.”
“Look!” said Paige, pointing across the room. There was one last cup of cider on the edge of the counter by the cash register.
“It must be your cider, Jaclyn,” said Fatima. “Paige gave hers to Marina. And I gave mine to Mr. Collins.”
Mr. Collins, wearing the head of the moose costume, plowed into a cluster of teachers with his antlers.
“I wish I hadn’t.”
“Come on, let’s get it,” said Jaclyn.
The girls pushed their way through the fray. They were about to reach the counter when Tanya leaped out from the kitchen, brandishing a metal pan. A vein bulged above her eye. “Who’s going to serve me lunch?!
” she screamed, smashing the pan onto the tub of green beans. She made her way down the counter, flipping over trays of food. She swung the pan wildly, shattering the sneeze guard, and nearly crashed into the cup of cider, but Jaclyn got there just in time. She grabbed the cup and ducked underneath a table. Paige and Fatima crouched down next to her.
“Drink it!” said Paige.
Jaclyn looked down at the cider. This was her chance to go back to her old self for good. But she couldn’t do it.
“Come on!” said Fatima. “Get rid of Jackie once and for all!”
“But then what will happen to everyone else?” said Jaclyn. “This is my fault. I have to fix it.”
“How?” said Fatima. “There’s only one cup left.”
Jaclyn didn’t know what to say.
“Wait—” said Paige. “Where are your mom and dad?”
Jaclyn looked around the cafeteria and gasped. “Mr. Collins got them!”
Mr. Collins was using an extension cord to tie Jaclyn’s parents down to the bench in front of the table where Marina was performing. Once they were secured to the seat, Mr. Collins hopped up onto the table, too. Marina and Mr. Collins broke into a duet that sounded like shards of glass going through a meat grinder. Around them, everyone was getting more and more out of control.
Jaclyn could barely hear herself think. But she had to think of something. She put her hands on her head and looked at the chaos, an expression of utter terror on her face. “What a disaster!”
“Wow,” said Fatima. “You look exactly like one of the figurines I painted at the base of Mount Vesuvius.”
Jaclyn gasped. “That’s it! The volcano!”
Paige cocked her head. “Huh?”
“We can mix this last cup of cider in with the lava, set off the eruption, and it’ll splatter all over everyone in the cafeteria!”
Fatima’s jaw dropped. “You’re a genius. We’ve got to get to the science lab.”
“Fast,” Paige added. “Or else somebody’s going to get hurt. Probably Mr. Hanh.”
Mr. Hanh had stolen a box of brownies from the kitchen. He was shoveling them into his mouth while Tanya chased him around, trying to hit him in the head with the pan.
As the girls crawled out from under the table, the doors to the cafeteria burst open with such force, they nearly broke off their hinges. Miss Carver stood in the doorway. It looked like her head was going to explode. “What is going on here?!”
Shane climbed onto a chair and grinned. His teeth had warped and sharpened so that the wires of his braces snapped. “We’re bad,” he declared. “We’re all bad!” He picked up a handful of french fries and chucked them at her head.
Miss Carver chased after Shane, but she was sidetracked when she saw Todd and Davis rampaging around, ripping open every backpack in sight and stealing whatever lunch money they found inside.
“I’m going to buy an ostrich!” Todd shouted.
“I’m going to buy a whole chicken farm!” Davis screeched.
Miss Carver banged on the table and bellowed, “Stop it! Stop it this instant!” but no one paid any attention. She stomped around, berating every student in sight. “I’ve said it from day one! You’re all bad apples! This is my school! Do you know how this makes me look? I’ve never been so humiliated in my life!” Then she saw the back wall. It was coated from floor to ceiling in ketchup and mustard. Ryan stood proudly in front of it, admiring his work. Miss Carver shrieked at the top of her lungs.
“Now’s our chance,” said Jaclyn.
The girls snuck out of the cafeteria.
Chapter Eighteen
An Onion Sandwich
As Jaclyn, Paige, and Fatima ran through the empty halls, they could hear the muffled chaos coming from the cafeteria. They reached the science lab and found their volcano against the back wall. Jaclyn opened the cabinet with the chemistry supplies and got to work. She had never moved so fast in her life. Her hands flew between beakers and test tubes, concocting her proprietary lava formula. When she’d first made it, she’d thought it was a total failure, but not anymore. A massive explosion was exactly what she needed.
“I sure hope I can repeat my mistake.”
“You can do it, Jaclyn,” Paige grunted as she and Fatima lifted the volcano onto a supply cart.
Fatima’s knees almost buckled. “Why is this thing so heavy? I thought it was papier-mâché.”
“Mostly . . . ,” said Jaclyn. “But I may have added some volcanic rocks to the base.”
Fatima and Paige stared at her.
“What? I wanted to make it realistic!”
Jaclyn finished making the lava. She combined it with the cup of apple cider in a beaker, then plugged it closed. Then she poured a tablespoon of baking soda into the volcano and said, “Let’s go.”
Together, they rolled the volcano toward the cafeteria. As they got closer, they could hear the wild shouts coming from inside, even louder than before. Paige grabbed the door handles and pulled. But the doors wouldn’t budge. Frantically, she tried again, but still nothing. “It’s locked!” she said.
“Oh no . . .” Jaclyn pushed her face up against the crack between the double doors. She peered down and saw a padlock keeping them shut from the inside.
Miss Carver was standing at the center of the pandemonium. “You see what you’ve made me do?” she yelled. “You animals don’t deserve to be in a school, you deserve to be in a zoo! That’s exactly why I’ve locked you in here! Until you stop this madness, I’m not unlocking that door for anything!”
Jaclyn banged on the doors. “Miss Carver, let us in!”
But no one inside could hear her.
They kept banging until a voice from down the hall got their attention. “There you are!” Shane was walking toward them with a devilish smile. The frayed wires of his braces looked like the whiskers of an unhinged cat. He was holding a can of Caffeine-Free Diet Blue in his hand.
“Trying to show off your science fair project?” He slipped into his Jaclyn impression. “I’m Jaclyn Hyde. I’m going to win the science fair.” He shook up the can. “I don’t think so.”
He hurled the soda straight at the volcano.
“Look out!” said Paige.
The girls leaped to the side. The can hit the top of Mount Vesuvius, chipping off the edge, then exploded against the wall.
“What are you doing? You almost broke it,” Jaclyn cried.
“Next time it won’t be almost.” He flung open the door to the custodian’s closet. He pulled out a gallon jug of hand soap and chucked it at the volcano. Paige smacked it out of the air, and it hit the floor, spilling everywhere.
Shane wasn’t deterred. He reached back into the closet and this time, he pulled out a heavy snow shovel. He moved toward the volcano, swinging the shovel like baseball bat.
“Don’t even think about it, you sack of worm eggs,” said Fatima.
Fatima and Jaclyn grabbed the cart and rolled the volcano backward as quickly as they could. Paige ran at Shane, but she slipped in the liquid soap and fell.
Shane laughed hysterically.
Fatima ran over to help Paige up, and Shane ran past them, swinging the shovel wildly.
Jaclyn stood in front of the volcano and held out her arms. “Shane, stop!”
“Shane’s not here right now,” he spat, his eyes glowing green.
“I know he’s in there somewhere, and I need to say something to him—something I should have said a long, long time ago.”
He raised the shovel high above his head and was just about to bring it down to crush the volcano when Jaclyn said, “Shane, I’m sorry!”
He stopped midswing. “Huh?”
“You were right. You’ve been right ever since third grade. You didn’t break the flamingo. I did. I just didn’t want to admit it. I had told the whole class that I was going to make this perfect flamingo and then I ruined it. I was so desperate to believe I hadn’t made a mistake that I convinced myself it was your fault.”
Sha
ne’s glared at her. “Everyone thought I was a liar. A bad kid. They still do.”
“I know. I didn’t realize what I had done to you. Sure, it’s hard when people expect you to be perfect all the time, but it’s a thousand times harder when they don’t believe in you at all. I didn’t know that until today.”
Shane’s eyes darted back and forth. It looked like his brain was short-circuiting. Then he dropped the shovel and it clattered to the ground.
Fatima gingerly picked it up. “I’m just going to hold on to this.”
Shane looked down at his knobbly hands and ran his tongue along his broken braces. It was like he was noticing that he was wearing a Halloween costume and he didn’t remember putting it on.
“What happened to me? What happened to you? What happened to everybody?”
“I’ll explain later. The important thing is I can fix it if I can get through these doors. But Miss Carver said she won’t unlock them for anything.”
A smile slowly crept across Shane’s face. “Leave that to me.” He turned to Paige. “Sorry about the soap.”
Paige shrugged. “It’s okay. These pants needed to be washed anyway.”
He took off down the hall.
“Hey, Shane,” Jaclyn called after him.
He looked back. “What?”
“We believe in you.”
He nodded and ran around the corner.
The girls looked at each other.
“What do you think he’s going to do?” said Fatima.
“I have no idea,” said Jaclyn.
Moments later, the PA system crackled to life, and Shane’s voice came blaring through. “Good afternoon, students. Or should I say—bad afternoon! I’m coming to you live from the most forbidden place in the entire school. That’s right. I’m in Miss Carver’s office.”
Jaclyn, Paige, and Fatima crowded together at the cafeteria doors and peeked through them. They could see Miss Carver looking up at the PA speaker, her expression a perfect storm of confusion and fury.
Jaclyn Hyde Page 10
