That little announcement made Courtney stand right up, tray in hand. I had seen her mad before, but never this livid. Her eyes tiny slits, she put the tray in her right hand and flung it right at me. Spaghetti and meatballs tumbled through the air, with the tray landing right on Gabi’s shoes.
“No way,” Gabi screamed. “Not my suede Steve Maddens.” She reached into her lunch bag. A Soylami sandwich wasn’t exactly fling worthy, so she dumped it on the ground and pulled out her drink box. She shoved the straw in, aimed it at Courtney and squeezed.
A bright red stain the size of a plum formed in the middle of Courtney’s shirt. The look on her face as she surveyed her shirt was scary enough to make flowers wilt. “Boy, are you are going to pay for this,” she growled through clenched teeth.
“Food fight!” D.L. shouted. Seconds later the whole cafeteria erupted.
There was spaghetti, pudding, lettuce, granola bars, and an assortment of other foods whizzing throughout the cafeteria. I ducked for cover as a barrage of meatballs headed my way. I picked a slew of them up off of the ground and hurled them back at Courtney’s table. My aim wasn’t as good without using my powers, but I think I still managed to get her with a few. It was the most fun I had had in school in ages. Totally liberating. Even if I was now covered in tomato sauce. At least I only ruined my gym shirt. A lot of people were going to need to go shopping after today.
I was mid windup for my next meatball pitch when a voice filled the cafeteria. Using a bullhorn, Mr. Stanton declared, “Stop! Drop the food now.”
chapter 16
“I want silence,” Mr. Stanton said. No one said a word. He dropped his bull horn. He didn’t need it anymore, no one was crazy enough to cross him when he was angry. “First the mess in the hallway and now this? I will not have this in my school.”
He looked around, his eyes scanning the cafeteria, with occasional stops at some of the usual troublemakers. “I want to know who is responsible for this. Now.”
Most people kept their heads down. I decided to step up, which was better than having D.L. or someone rat me out. “It was me,” I said, taking a step closer to Mr. Stanton. “I started it.”
“You?” he asked, giving me a look that made me feel the size of a Raisinette. “Why?”
I shrugged a shoulder and started biting my pinky nail. “Because . . . because . . . it was stupid.” And it really was. It wasn’t like my little stunt got Cole to stop thinking about other girls, or start liking me. All it did was get me in trouble. I really should have thought through the whole thing better.
“Let’s go,” he said. I was getting a personal escort to his office.
“It wasn’t just her,” Courtney chimed in. “Gabi started it, too.”
“What?! That’s not, you, uhh,” Gabi stammered. Then she got it together and pointed a finger at her accuser. “It was her. Courtney’s the one to blame.”
Mr. Stanton took a deep breath. “All three of you come with me. And we might as well get to the bottom of this now. Who was the one who yelled ‘food fight’?”
“Cole,” D.L. said without missing a beat.
“Liar,” I screamed. “It was you.” He could not get away with messing with Cole. I wasn’t going to stand for that.
“I don’t know what she’s talking about,” D.L. said. “She’s been trying to mess with me since you introduced us this morning.” Then he turned his focus to me. “We’re not in kindergarten anymore, Angel. If you like me, just say it. Don’t try to pick a fight.”
How dare he?! And in front of Cole? D.L. was rotten. But he was also an incredible liar. He sounded really convincing. I mean, I almost bought his story, and I knew for sure there wasn’t any truth to it.
“I don’t like you. I can’t stand anything about you,” I shot back.
“You know they say when someone protests too much, it’s because they don’t want to admit it’s actually true,” he said.
How was I supposed to respond to that? If I argued, I’d be protesting too much, and if I didn’t, people might believe him. I hated D.L. Helper.
“Cole?” Mr. Stanton asked.
“I don’t know if she likes him,” he said, flicking pieces of spaghetti off of his shirt.
WHAT! How could he even think there’d be a possibility that I’d like that jerk over him. “I don’t,” I told Cole and everyone else in the room.
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Mr. Stanton interrupted, shaking his head. “Were you the one who called ‘food fight’?”
“No,” he answered. Only he didn’t tell on D.L. He was a better person that that.
“Quit lying,” D.L. ordered. “You know you did it.”
“Enough,” Mr. Stanton stopped him. “You can both join me in my office. We’ll figure this out there. The five of you—let’s go.”
chapter 17
“This is all because of you, Double-A,” Courtney hissed at me, as we waited in the main office for Mr. Stanton to come give us our punishment. “You’re so dead.”
I ignored her. There were bigger things on my mind. For one, I was squished on a bench next to Cole who wouldn’t look at me—just at the stupid ceiling. Cole who no longer liked me. Cole who had already moved on to other girls. Cole who I was still obsessed with. Cole who had seen me in my training bra this morning. Nothing Mr. Stanton would do could be a bigger punishment than I already suffered through.
But Courtney didn’t let up. She went on with the name-calling, which led to her telling D.L. the whole story about me in my underwear, which led to D.L. making fun of me, too. “You didn’t bother putting clothes on this morning? God, Garrett. You really are a spazz. What were you hoping, that flashing the school would—”
“Enough already,” Cole finally opened his mouth.
I looked at him, but only out of the corner of my eye. I didn’t trust myself to make full eye contact. Had Cole just come to my defense or was he just annoyed with D.L. and only now getting around to expressing it?
“What’s your problem?” D.L. asked.
Cole clenched his fists. “Hmm . . . I wonder . . . Try you getting me in trouble for something I didn’t do.”
D.L. shrugged his shoulders. “Better you than me.”
“You’re lucky I didn’t rat you out.”
“Like that mattered.” D.L. sneered at me. “Someone did it for you.”
“Yeah, why didn’t you tell on him yourself?” Gabi asked Cole. At least the conversation was steering away from my clothing malfunction.
“I,” he said, glaring at D.L., “don’t get other people in trouble.”
D.L. didn’t seem bothered at all. But Gabi and I—and even Courtney—looked uncomfortable. We had all pinned blame on someone. All of us but Cole. No one said another word until Mr. Stanton returned.
“Does anyone have anything to say?” the principal asked.
“I didn’t do anything,” D.L. protested.
I rolled my eyes.
“Well,” Mr. Stanton said, “I have people here who say otherwise. And I just spoke to the lunchroom aides, and Mrs. Dill is positive that you not only called out ‘food fight’ but were the one who got her in the head with a meatball. Not the kind of first impression you want to make at a new school, young man.”
I always knew I liked Mrs. Dill. D.L. kept his mouth shut after that.
“Cole, you can go,” the principal said. Cole stood up and left which made me sad. Even though I knew I needed to stay away from him and was still mongo embarrassed about everything that happened, I still wanted to be near him.
Mr. Stanton interrupted my thoughts. “Your punishment,” he said, looking us each in the eye, “is detention for the rest of this week and the next two weeks. Right up to the dance.”
Gabi let out a gasp. I knew what she was thinking. Her mom was going to kill her. Gabi had a spotless record, which was expected in the Gottlieb house, anything less was met with lectures and many extra hours spent studying.
“I have Hebrew School on T
uesdays,” Gabi said. “Although, I kind of wouldn’t mind missing it,” she threw in.
“You can be excused from detention that day,” he told her.
“I have it, too,” D.L. added.
“Why don’t I call the instructor and get a list?” Mr. Stanton said. He was already onto D.L. and his games.
“Nah, that’s okay,” D.L. said. “I’m probably not on their list yet, anyway.” Like he ever would be. I doubted he was even Jewish.
Then I realized something. If Gabi had Hebrew School on Tuesdays that meant I’d be stuck with Courtney and D.L. all by myself. That was cruel and unusual punishment and had to be fixed immediately.
“Mr. Stanton,” I said, rising to my feet. “The others shouldn’t have to pay for what I did. I’m the only one who should be punished.”
“That’s very nice of you to try and take all the blame, Angel, but you were not the only one involved in this,” he said.
“But I started it. That’s much worse. It’s okay. Blame me.” I didn’t care if he expelled me. In fact, it sounded like the solution to most of my problems. No more jokes. No more teasing. I’d get to stay home. It would be like a vacation. Well, except for the part where my mother punished me for the rest of my life. Still, it beat being stuck in a room with Courtney.
“She makes sense,” Courtney said, defying nature and agreeing with me for once.
“Yeah,” I argued. “Courtney shouldn’t have to serve detention. She’s innocent.”
“I know you’re trying to help your friend, Angel,” Mr. Stanton said, “but I’m not going to hear it.”
“Courtney is not my friend,” I said. “Ask anyone.”
He ignored me. “You’ll all start detention tomorrow. That way your parents can make arrangements to pick you up, if they need to. Now get to class.”
That was it. There was no changing his mind. I was going to be stuck with Courtney and D.L. for two-plus long weeks.
chapter 18
An all too familiar scent wafted past me as I walked into my house. It was a vanilla, lavender, and mint combo. My mother’s cleansing candles. She had them lit all over the house. She does this about once a month—to rid the house of negative spirits. But that’s only half of it. After the candles are lit she takes her giant totem pole and shakes it in every corner of every room in the house. Apparently it’s to scare ghosts away. Though if you ask me, she’s more likely to be giving them a good laugh.
“Hey, Mom,” I said.
“Angel,” she said, swinging around so fast, I thought the totem pole was going to weigh her down and send her crashing. But she knew how to control the massive stick. “How was your day?”
“Good,” I lied. “Just so you know, I’m going to stay after school for the next couple of weeks.”
She and all the faces on the totem pole stared me down. “Why?”
“After school project.”
She gestured for me to continue.
“Nothing exciting. Just an English assignment.”
“What’s it on?”
I stumbled for a second. All those eyes were making me nervous. “Romeo and Juliet.”
“I love that play,” she said. “What are you doing for it?”
“Umm, acting out a few scenes.” I didn’t want to lie to her, but I didn’t want to tell her about detention either. She didn’t know about my powers and leaving that part out made my actions seem a lot worse. After all, if it wasn’t for my powers, I never would have set off the fireworks causing me to ignore Cole, which meant I never would have tried to alter my shirt to impress him, which meant I wouldn’t have been humiliated, which meant Cole might still have wanted to date me—not someone else—and therefore there would have been no reason for me to send my pudding flying. So, ultimately, I really wasn’t to blame for the food fight. My powers were.
“That sounds nice,” Mom said. “I can quiz you on your lines later.”
This was bad. I didn’t have time to memorize Shakespeare. “That’s okay. I got it under control. Besides, we’re just putting it on for class. No parents allowed.”
Mom and her stick moved closer to me. “Really?”
“Uh-huh,” I bit the skin around my nails.
“Angel . . .” she said, drawing out my name.
“Yes?” I gave her a big smile, flashing my dimples.
“I know about the food fight. Mr. Stanton called me.”
I should have known—that’s why she was asking all the questions! It’s just that I’ve never been in trouble before (or, more accurately, no one ever used to pay attention to me enough to notice) and neither has Ms. Perfect Attendance Gabi, so I never knew how the whole in-trouble-thing worked. Great. As if I weren’t in enough hot water in all other areas of my life, now my mother had a case against me as well.
“What would possess you to do something like that?” She leaned the totem pole up against the wall, but it fell over, clunking to the floor. That did not help her mood. “Well?”
“Cole doesn’t want to go out with me anymore and he’s been flirting with all these girls, and I got angry,” I spit out. That part was true.
Mom took a few deep breaths, but they didn’t seem to be calming her. She was probably freaked that I had started following in my father’s evil footsteps. “That’s not an excuse. You can’t start fights every time you get angry.”
“I know.”
“Apparently, you don’t.” She took another breath. “First, a food fight, then lying to me. Up to your room, now.”
Mom followed me up and collected my iPod, cell phone, and laptop. “You’re to stay here and think about what you’ve done.”
No problem there. She had all of my stuff. What else was there to do?
chapter 19
The only good that came out of the whole day (other than seeing Courtney with pudding on her face) was that I finally mastered moving an object forward. As I sat stuck in my room, I sent pencils, DVDs, jeans, and all the other junk on my floor sailing into a heap in the corner. It was actually kind of easy. I just had to remember how it felt to fling the dessert.
Lou popped in as I was sending a towel across the room. It ended up draped over his face. Served him right for arriving unannounced.
“Well done,” he said, removing the towel. “I see you’re ready for your next lesson. And I must add, nice job with the food fight. I am personally impressed.”
I jumped off of my bed. “How do you know about that? You said you weren’t going to spy on me at school.”
He winked. “Don’t worry. I wasn’t there.”
“Then how do you know about it?”
“I heard you telling your mother. You never said I couldn’t spy on her.” His light eyes got an extra bright glint to them.
Oh. Lou didn’t know I used my powers for the food fight, he just thought I had been a good old-fashioned troublemaker. “Well, no spying on Mom, either. Leave her alone, you already messed her up enough.” It was Lou’s fault Mom was a new age groupie. When she found out she was married to the devil and not some college professor, she went a little loopy trying to find ways to ward him off.
“I told you before, I’d never hurt your Mom,” he said, leaning against my dresser.
“You better not,” I warned him. Not that I knew what I’d do if he went back on his word. It wasn’t like I was any match for the devil, but still . . .
Lou pulled out his hPhone, checked it quickly, and returned it to his pocket. “Time for lesson two,” he said, handing me a pencil. “You are going to stop this mid-flight.”
That didn’t sound too hard. I focused, sent the pencil flying—but it didn’t stop. Not until it hit the wall.
“You’ll get it,” Lou assured me. “Keep practicing.” And then he was gone, leaving me there with another boring task.
I gave up on the exercise after sixteen more tries. My day was long enough, and it was my powers that got me in trouble in the first place. They were the absolute last thing I wanted to think about at
the moment.
chapter 20
As I walked with Gabi to third period, Dana Ellers and Tracy Fine stopped right in front of us, interrupting our conversation. “Hey,” Dana said.
“Hi,” I said cautiously. I wasn’t sure what she wanted, but my top guess was to make fun of me over flashing the school. That seemed to be every eighth-graders favorite hobby recently.
“Can’t believe you reamed Courtney with that pudding. Totally awesome,” she said. I was completely taken aback. Had my lunchroom escapades overshadowed my debut as an underwear model?
“Yeah,” Tracy said, “It was about time someone . . .” Suddenly, Tracy bit her lip and Dana looked down. “We have to go.” As quickly as that, the two of them scurried off.
It was pretty obvious why. Courtney had stopped right behind me. And while my classmates may have liked seeing her taken down a notch, they weren’t willing to publicly fess up to it. But it gave me hope. Maybe I wouldn’t be Double-A forever.
“Just thought you’d like to know, I meant what I said. You’re going to pay for messing with me.” Courtney flipped her light hair over her shoulder. “I’m going to see to it that Cole finds someone way better than you.”
Yes! That meant he hadn’t asked anyone out yet! Maybe he wasn’t over me any more than I was over him!
“Not only that,” she continued. “I’m going to make sure he always remembers what a loser you really are. He’s going to be begging people to forget he ever hung out with you. That’s a promise.”
“She’s awful,” Gabi said, stating the obvious, as Courtney walked away.
“I know,” I said. “It’s like nothing she does ever blemishes her record.”
And then I had a thought. I pushed it down, but it kept bubbling to the surface. What if I gave her a blemish? And not on her record. The real kind that would ruin her perfect skin. I could give her the king of all zits right on the tip of her nose.
She’d finally feel what it was like to have people point and laugh. Sure, it involved using my powers. But it was for the greater good—to teach the mean girl a valuable lesson and make her a nicer person. It was the right thing to do. Very after school special.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Dress Page 6