But I had to get a hold of myself. I needed to get home. Pronto. I focused on the pizza joint the best I could and prayed with all of my might to return there safely.
“Please powers, kick in.”
They didn’t. This was bad. I was stuck in space. A big, black empty abyss. Floating hopelessly in the dark with no way home. What if this was my future—to drift aimlessly forever? My mom would always wonder what happened to me. And Gabi. She’d probably—Gabi!
I completely forgot about her. Where was she? I saw her get sucked into the funnel. She had to be nearby. I looked to the left, right, downward, but she was nowhere. My pulse quickened. Had the galaxy swallowed my best friend? Would I ever see her again? My eyes burned. The tears were coming, and I didn’t even try to stop them. I made my only real friend disappear into the black hole of Space.
“Gabi!” I yelled. “Gabi! Where are you?”
Nothing.
I was panicked. What was I supposed to do? Not that it really mattered. Without Cole or Gabi, what really was there left for me?
Just as I was about to let myself float off aimlessly, I heard a squeal coming from above me. I looked up, and my tears gushed out even harder than before. Only this time it was because I was relieved. Gabi was hovering about thirty feet above me. Thank goodness!
She was trying to say something, but I couldn’t hear her through the helmet. I figured she was light years away.
“What?” I called to her, trying to stay in one place. It was a challenge since I was weightless and drifting. I tried not to hyperventilate. If I passed out, there was no telling where I’d fly off to.
Gabi waved both hands around her and kicked with her feet. She looked like she was swimming the breast stroke. She did it until she reached me. At least we were together now. We could help each other figure out how to survive this nightmare.
“This is the coolest thing ever,” Gabi shouted, then proceeded to do three back flips.
“Cool? That is so not the word for this,” I snapped. Why wasn’t she freaking out? My momentary relief of finding her was gone and replaced by the realization that I had no idea how to get us home. “This is serious. What if we’re stuck here for days? There’s nothing to eat. We could drift off to who knows where—”
Gabi started giggling. “Maybe we can make friends with some aliens, and they’ll invite us for dinner.”
The atmosphere must have been messing with her brain. This was no laughing matter.
“Gabi, get yourself together,” I shouted as she pirouetted and leaped around me. “We have to figure out how to get home.”
“Do we have to?”
“Gabi!”
“Fine,” she said, while somersaulting. “I’ll help you. But can’t we have a little fun first?” Sometimes that girl totally baffles me. She’ll freak out about a B-minus on a quiz, a broken nail, and watching scary movies, but send her to outer space and she felt right at home.
“No,” I said. There was no time for fun. Getting back to Goode was the only thing that mattered.
Gabi ignored me and leaped higher up into the stratosphere. Each jump was ten feet high. She did it twelve times before landing next to me. “You’ve got to try this,” she said. I could see her grinning through the helmet, and before I knew it she gave me a push, sending me drifting off.
“Stop!” I shrieked, fighting against the atmosphere to return to her side. “What are you doing?”
“Come on,” she urged me. “You need to have fun, too. Just give it a try.”
I didn’t care how impressive her back flips looked, I was not taking part in space acrobatics.
“Take us back to Goode, take us back to Goode.” I kept repeating it until my voice went hoarse. “My powers won’t reactivate.”
Gabi air cartwheeled over to me. “I bet I can jump-start them,” she said.
“Then do it!”
She got a wicked little smile on her face. “Okay, but first you have to have a little fun. This is too cool. You can’t go back home without at least playing a little. Just try—for me?”
“I don’t want to.”
“Come on,” she coaxed me. “Don’t you want my help to get us back? A few minutes of fun, that’s all I’m asking.”
She didn’t play fair. “Fine.” So, with hopes that my peanut butter and jelly sandwich from lunch wouldn’t make a reappearance, I decided to give space gymnastics a try.
I tumbled, belly flopped, and even picked Gabi up by my baby finger and tossed her higher into the atmosphere.
Gabi spiral dived down to me. “See, wasn’t that awesome? Aren’t you glad you didn’t waste this opportunity?”
“You sound like your mom,” I told her.
Gabi shrugged her shoulder. “Even my mom is right once in awhile. Now come on, didn’t you have fun? Even a little?”
“Fine. It was kind of cool to be able to do a quadruple flip, but I really want to go back now. Are you going to help me?”
“Here’s what I’m thinking,” she said after squeezing in a few more somersaults. “Since we got up here when you were talking about an out of this world time,” she reasoned. “Maybe now we should talk about having a Goode time.”
Was she really making puns at a time like this? “That’s your big plan? That won’t work. Besides I was angry when I talked about an out of this world time.”
“You seem pretty angry now,” Gabi said, falling backward to do the back float.
Oh. That Gabi was smart.
Then she started calling me names like Double-A and Freak Show, but coming from her it just made me laugh.
Then she hit a nerve. “If we don’t get back home, you’re just giving Cole more time to hang out with Jaydin. They’re probably kissing right now.”
OH. MY. GOD. Our little space odyssey made me forget about Cole. I stood him up, with Jaydin right there to take my place. Why hadn’t Gabi reminded me earlier? I definitely need to get back. Now.
“I wonder if he’ll think she’s a better kisser than you,” she went on. “Oh, that’s right. He doesn’t even remember your kiss.”
I knew she was just saying these things to get me worked up, but it still really bothered me. “Stop it, Gabi,” I said, my temper flaring up.
“Nope. They’re probably k-i-s-s-i—”
She didn’t get to finish spelling it out. Because right in the middle, the tornado appeared and headed straight for us. It grabbed hold of both Gabi and me and hurled us right back where we had started—the tree near Goode’s Greatest Pizza.
“I’m sorry,” Gabi said, rubbing her head. She had bumped it during the landing. “I only said all those things because I knew it would get us home.”
I didn’t even answer her. I just ran into the restaurant. Cole was nowhere to be seen. I looked at the clock. Eight o’clock—I was three hours late.
I headed over to my bike. I needed to get home before Mom had a fit. She only let me out because I said it was for a school project.
Gabi followed me. “You know I didn’t mean what I said up there, right?”
I nodded.
“Everything’s going to be okay,” she assured me.
But somehow, it really didn’t seem that way.
chapter 25
I got to homeroom early Monday hoping I’d get a chance to talk to Cole. I had called him twice on Sunday night to apologize for not showing up, but the call went straight to voicemail both times.
The minute he got to his desk, I blurted out, “I’m so sorry.”
He didn’t even turn around.
“Cole,” I said. “Please. Things got crazy. I didn’t mean to leave you stranded.”
He shifted to face me. “You could have at least texted.”
“I was out of range.” He had no idea how far! “Otherwise I would have.”
“Whatever,” he said, and turned back around. “I should have expected it from you.”
There was silence. What could I say to that? His words made me feel awful. “You can s
till look at my science homework if you want,” I said, my voice less than a whisper.
“No thanks,” he said. “Did it without you.”
I wanted to know if that meant he did it on his own, or with Jaydin’s help, but there was no way I could ask that.
When the bell rang, he left without as much as a glance at me. It was like that all day.
As I headed to detention with Gabi, we passed about a dozen signs for the dance. Like I needed another reminder that I didn’t have a date and would probably never ever have one again.
“He’s never going to take me to the dance now,” I complained.
“I don’t have anyone to go with, either,” Gabi said. I didn’t want to seem unsympathetic, but that didn’t make me feel better.
I slumped into my desk in detention and stared straight ahead. I just wanted to go home.
“Let me have your attention,” Miss Simmons said. “I’ve reached a decision. Since we need more volunteers for the dance’s planning committee”—she looked at all of us—“I’m appointing all of you. You can come up with a theme, be in charge of decorations, come up with a prize for the king and queen. Now get to it.”
D.L. let out a groan. I felt the same way. The dance was the last thing I wanted to think about.
Miss Simmons didn’t seem to care what we thought. She just left for the teachers’ room with a warning not to cause any trouble or we’d be spending the rest of the year sitting in her classroom after school.
“I don’t want to be on some stupid dance committee,” D.L. moaned.
We were on the same page. Neither did I.
“It’ll be fun,” Courtney said, her face lighting up. “We get to create the perfect night. Something really romantic. I’m sure Jaydin will thank us.”
Courtney looked right at me. “Did you hear? Cole asked her to the dance. Right after you ditched him at the pizza shop.” She tried to look all innocent. “I hope I didn’t have anything to do with that.”
As Courtney watched my expression, she looked like someone told her she’d never have to do another drop of homework her entire life. I wanted to scream at her. You’re lying. It’s not true.
Only I knew it was. Living in outer space was looking much more appealing.
chapter 26
You are not going to cry. You are not going to cry. I hoped my tear ducts would obey.
“How about a Hollywood/Oscars theme for the dance,” Gabi said, trying to change the subject. Once again she came through for me, diverting attention to give my pink watery eyes an opportunity to clear up. “We could have a red carpet, people snapping pictures like the paparazzi, stars hanging on the walls. It could be totally cool.”
“Lame,” Courtney said. But I knew she was just saying that because it was Gabi’s idea. She had to be salivating over the thought of acting like a celebrity. She pretended to be one every day of the week.
“What do you guys think?” Courtney asked me and D.L.
“It doesn’t matter,” I muttered, my face staring out the window. I didn’t dare look at any of them for fear my eyes would start leaking.
“Of course it matters,” Courtney objected. “Don’t you want the perfect backdrop, so everyone can see how cute Cole and Jaydin are together?”
Typical, horrible Courtney. Making sure she rubbed Cole’s new girlfriend in my face.
“Anyway,” Gabi answered for me. “What are your ideas?”
“I know,” D.L. said. “We should do something like a haunted house. We could all dress up as something evil. Garrett would make a killer she-devil.”
Did he just say what I think he said? OH. MY. GOD. He knew. For a second my thoughts about Cole were trumped. Somehow D.L. figured out my secret. “I AM NOT THE DEVIL,” I blurted out. “Why would you think that? I’m just like everyone else. Tell ’em, Gabi.”
My breathing got superfast. This was disastrous. Of all the people to find out, it couldn’t be him! He’d totally blackmail me, rat me out to a gossip magazine, call the FBI, something. Then it hit me how stupid I was being. There was no way D.L. could have known. My breathing slowed back down, but not in time to escape Courtney’s ridicule.
“Whoa,” she said. “Somebody’s in extra freak show mode today.” Then she stood up. I knew what that meant—she was about to do one of her nasty imitations. “I AM NOT THE DEVIL.” She had my voice down, but added in her own flare with her arms waving in the air and running in a circle.
D.L. cracked up. “Yeah, seriously, Garrett, why so defensive?” He looked at me like I just drank the formaldehyde used to preserve the frogs for dissection.
“Maybe she just doesn’t like to be called the devil,” Gabi responded.
“Then maybe,” he replied, “she shouldn’t go getting everyone in trouble and stuck in detention.”
So that was it. I was right. He didn’t really know I had devil genes, he was just annoyed with me. It was all a scary coincidence with D.L. being his usual irritating self.
“You’re just as much to blame as I am,” I said.
“Hardly. You brought everything on yourself.”
The sad part was—he was right. Everything wrong with my life was one hundred percent my doing. Why did I ever think ignoring Cole was a good idea? If I had just talked to him after the whole fireworks thing maybe we’d still be together now.
Miss Simmons came back into the room and dismissed us. I could not get out of the room fast enough.
“You really lost it in there,” Gabi said, following me home. “There was no way D.L. could have known about your dad. Then you went and almost told him. You need to keep yourself from overreacting to everything.”
I stopped walking and turned around to face her. “Overreacting? I think I’m entitled to overreact. Cole is completely over me. He even asked someone else to the dance.”
“He only did that because he thought you had given up on him,” she said, twirling a strand of her light brown hair around her finger. “You just have to show him that you didn’t. Try and get him back.”
“Right. Like he’s gonna ditch Jaydin to go out with me.” I started walking again.
Gabi had to run to keep up with me. “He asked you out before. He could have chosen her then, too. But he didn’t.”
That was true. He actually did like me . . . once.
“But that was before I got all weird.”
She didn’t even know what to say to that, because it was true. After a long pause, she finally spoke.
“So un-weird yourself. Step up your training with Lou, and go out of your way to make things better with Cole. Make him see you’re still the same girl you were before.”
Gabi was right. I couldn’t let Jaydin win. I could get Cole back. I just needed to fight for him.
So the next day in homeroom, I gave him my absolute brightest smile when he took his seat. “Hi, Cole.”
“Hi,” he answered, keeping his back to me. At least he didn’t totally ignore me.
“Thanks again for having me over to watch the Mara’s Daughters video.” I know it was a lame attempt at conversation. He had me over a lifetime ago. But I really didn’t know what to say, and I hoped reminding him that we had been on a date would make him wish we were going on another one. Only it didn’t seem to be working. Maybe that date just reminded him of how crazy and embarrassing I had acted. I was going to have to go another route.
“Sure.” His back was still to me.
Ughh. The one word answers were killer. Now I know how he must have felt when I avoided him. It was time for me to be bold. “So I was thinking,” I said, trying to muster up some courage. “That maybe we could grab some pizza after I finish detention today. You know, to make up for the other day.”
I had never asked someone out before. It was scary. The seconds he took before he answered felt like millenniums. “Can’t. Hebrew School today.”
“Oh, that’s right.” Duh. I should have known that. I felt foolish, but I pushed forward, anyway. “Maybe some other time the
n?”
“Maybe.”
He might as well have said, “I’d rather take a math test while submerged in ice water with snakes biting my toes than hang out with you,” because that’s how it felt.
Cole had moved on. But I wasn’t giving up. That just meant I was going to have to come up with some other way to get through to him.
chapter 27
Courtney took D.L.’s hand in detention and giggled at everything he said. D.L. kept whispering things in her ear which just made her even more giddy. It was a little puke-inducing actually. But while watching them act all couple-y was bad, having them turn their attention to me was much, much worse.
“What freak show behavior do you have in store for us today, Double-A?” Courtney sneered. “Gonna throw a hissy fit, wet your pants, cry over Cole?”
D.L. laughed.
I felt like Little Red Riding Hood right before the wolf pounced and gobbled her up. “Let’s just finalize a theme for the dance,” I said, trying to ignore the taunts, “before Miss Simmons gets back.”
“We’re going to do Under the Sea,” Courtney said matter-of-factly.
“Says who?”
“Says me.”
She was so smug, I just couldn’t let her get her way, even though I really didn’t care. “No. I think we should have a luau.”
“That’s dumb,” Courtney snapped at me. “I am not going to a dance with a bunch of people in Hawaiian shirts. It’s tacky. With my idea, everyone can dress up.”
“As what—a fish?”
Her eyes narrowed in on me. “What do you care, anyway? It’s not like you have a date.”
She is not going to get to you. She is not going to get to you. She is not going to get to you. I clutched hold of my desk to try and calm myself. “So what? I still have a say.”
“Well, we outnumber you.” Courtney reached over and took D.L.’s hand.
He shrugged his shoulders at me. “She’s right.”
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Dress Page 8