With a deep breath, I pushed open the door to the mall. I wasn’t greeted by flames or a demon army. It was just the mall. Busier than usual. But still, just the mall. I wasn’t relieved, though. On television, the devil had said it was his show. Lou had to be up to something. The question was what.
Trying to avoid people was harder than I thought it would be. Staring at my feet made it impossible to see where I was going. Or what was going on around me. I needed help. I needed Gabi.
I made my way to the security desk and begged the guard to page her. A few minutes later, Gabi rounded the corner.
“Ang—,” she screamed.
“Shhh,” I warned her and grabbed her arm, pulling her into the Juicy Couture store. I pulled a dress off the rack and went back to the dressing rooms. Gabi followed.
“That’s going to look amazing on you. But everything does,” she gushed.
“Knock it off,” I told her. I hadn’t brought her back there to get compliments. I brought her back there to try and undo the spell so that she could help me with my other problem. My Lou problem. “You’ve been infected by my powers. They’re what’s making you think I’m a superstar.”
“You are,” Gabi said.
“Gabi, listen to me. You need to snap out of this. Think about it. Isn’t it much more likely that you’re under a spell, and I’m still the same regular girl I was this morning? The same girl you were furious at for messing with your love life. Come on, you have to know I’m not some idol?”
I could almost see her processing what I said.
“Nope. You’re Angel Garrett, the most fabulous, incredible, wonderful person ever. And trying to convince Marc and Lance to go out with me was sweet. You knew how much I liked them, and you went out of your way to help me. I’m sorry I got angry. That was wrong. I should have appreciated what you were trying to do.” Hopefully she’d remember that statement when I reversed the spell. “You’re the best friend ever,” she went on. “How lucky am I?”
Lucky? Not very.
“Now just relax,” I told her. “I’m going to use my powers on you. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that it works out better this time.”
“Cool!” she said, opening up her arms, ready to embrace the power. “Bring it on.”
Obviously, she wasn’t thinking straight. There were no questions, no lectures, no warnings about what could go wrong, no trying to come up with an alternate solution. She was just happy to help.
Put Gabi back to normal. Put Gabi back to normal. I thought it, I said it, I focused on it as hard as I could.
“Well?” I asked her. “Do you still love me?”
“Of course I do! You’re my best friend.”
“Yeah, but sometimes you get annoyed with me, right?”
Gabi shook her head back and forth violently. “I don’t understand how I ever could have been mad at you. You’re too wonderful. I’ll try to be worthy of you. I promise. You’ll see. I’ll be the best best friend ever. Someone who deserves to hang out with you.”
Why weren’t my powers working?
“Are you girls all right in there?” the saleslady asked.
“Are we?” Gabi asked me. “You’re not mad at me, are you? I hope not.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “We’re fine,” I yelled to the woman. Only we weren’t. Not as long as Gabi was under my spell.
“Thank goodness,” Gabi said. “I don’t think I could live knowing you were upset with me.”
That was going too far. “Listen to me,” I said to Gabi, holding up my hands. I stopped myself before I grabbed her and shook her. “I’m not all that. Okay? I’m not even such a great friend a lot of the time. Got it?”
Gabi blinked a few times. Then she crossed her arms around her stomach. “No kidding, you aren’t. Ughh. What am I doing in here with you?”
“What?” I asked.
“I said, ‘Why would I want to go shopping with someone disgusting like you?’”
Oh no! I hadn’t undone the spell. I’d reversed it! Instead of having Gabi love me, I made her hate me.
“Gabi, you don’t really think I’m disgusting. I’m your best friend. We’ve been best friends since nursery school. What you’re feeling isn’t real. We’re friends. I can fix this.” I held onto her shoulders. “You like me. You don’t hate me. You—”
“Help!” Gabi screamed and pushed me aside. She ran right out of the dressing room.
“What’s wrong?” the saleslady asked, rushing over.
“Her,” Gabi said, pointing at me. “She’s what’s wrong. Don’t let her anywhere near me. She’s the devil.”
chapter 17
“Ha-ha!” I said, shooting Gabi a how-could-you-do-that-to-me look. “She’s joking. I’m not the devil.”
“Just his daughter,” Gabi put in. Then she ducked down behind a display of shoes. “Watch it,” she warned the saleswoman. “She’ll probably try to make you her own personal shopper servant.”
The saleswoman rubbed her temples.
“I’m not the devil or his daughter,” I told her.
“No kidding,” she said.
Oh right . . . I forgot that normal people wouldn’t believe that the actual devil would be hanging out at the mall.
“Now if you’d both please leave the store. This isn’t a playground,” the woman continued.
“You’re kicking me out for trying to help you?” Gabi asked, peering up at her. “Fine. Don’t blame me when you’re cursed.”
Gabi gave me one last look and then she made a break for it.
I had no choice. I chased after her.
“Wait up,” I yelled. It was a good thing she was a horrible runner. I was able to catch right up.
“I’ll scream,” she warned, “if you come any closer.”
“Fine,” I said. “I don’t want to hurt you. I just want everything back to normal.”
“This is normal,” she said.
“No, it’s not. We’re friends, remember? Do you even know why you hate me?” I wanted to move toward her. But I was afraid she’d make a scene. So I stayed put.
Gabi ticked off reasons on her fingers. “You use your powers on me, you’re dangerous, you ditched me for Courtney a couple of months ago, you’re selfish, and you totally humiliated me in front of Marc and Lance Gold.”
It might have been the spell talking, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t true. Gabi was right. I had been awful. I owed her. I was going to see that she was happy if it was the last thing I ever did. “I’d never hurt you. Not on purpose. Never.”
“Well, you did.”
“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again,” I promised. And it wouldn’t. I was going to make everything up to her. Starting with Lance.
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because we’re best friends.”
She snorted. “Not really.”
“Then because you know my secret. I can’t risk you telling anyone else. Promise not to, and I’ll leave you alone.”
Gabi bit her lip.
“Please,” I said.
“Okay. But I’m only doing it so I don’t have to deal with you ever again.”
“You don’t really mean that.”
I didn’t even realize that I took a step forward until Gabi screamed my name.
“Angel Garrett, you’re already breaking your promise.”
“I’m not, I’m sorry. It was an accident.” I backed up. “See, I’m moving away.”
But there wasn’t really anywhere for me to go. Because Gabi’s scream had attracted a crowd. A whole bunch of people were headed our way.
“Did you say Angel?” someone I didn’t even recognize asked.
“Yes!” another cheered. “I love her.”
“Move,” Courtney elbowed them. “Don’t you see I’m trying to get through?”
“Get away while you can,” Gabi said.
“What’s your problem?” Courtney sneered. “Well, other than the obvious ones like that you’re a complete loser. But I wo
uld have thought you’d be jumping up and down to see Angel.” Courtney may have had newfound feelings for me, but the ones she had for Gabi were the same as always. Pure contempt.
“Not quite,” Gabi said. “She’s just like you. Evil.”
“You think I’m like Angel?” Courtney asked, standing even straighter. “I guess even losers know greatness when they see it.”
“Please,” Gabi said. “She’s not great. She’s awful.” She turned to Cole. “You were right to dump her before.”
Sometimes I truly hated my powers.
“She’s not awful,” Cole said, squeezing his way through the fan club that formed around me. “She’s Angel. She’s . . .” He didn’t finish. Instead he just leaned in and kissed me. In front of everyone.
“Not fair,” Reid said. “I want to kiss her.” The same Reid who was dating Lana Perkins.
Crazy.
I pulled away from him. Don’t get me wrong. I liked when he kissed me. And when he stuck up for me. Only this time it didn’t feel like I was kissing Cole. More like a pod person. Like I was in one of those body-snatcher movies. Where someone looked like Cole and sounded like Cole, but wasn’t actually Cole.
Gabi squirmed her way out from the middle of the group, a look of disgust on her face. “If you ever come to your senses, Cole, and realize how gross she is, come find me.”
“Never going to happen,” he said.
“We’ll see,” Gabi replied with an all-knowing, gloating lilt to her voice. Maybe she was in an altered state of mind, but it still was chilling to hear.
The space Gabi left was quickly filled. Everyone wanted to get as close to me as possible. And they all started talking to me at once. Cole, Courtney, other people I knew from school, strangers, everyone. They all had wonderful things to say. But the compliments weren’t making me feel good. They were making me feel lousy—especially after what had just happened with Gabi. I just had to reverse that love spell.
Only I couldn’t do it on my own. I needed someone who could actually control their powers at will. I needed Lance Gold. He could fix everything—the love spell, my best friend hating me, my teen parents. He was a major do-gooder. Maybe he would even re-reconsider going out with Gabi.
I had to get back to Lance. After all, weren’t guardian angels supposed to help people?
And at that moment, nobody needed more help than me!
chapter 18
“Did Lance do his appearance yet?” I asked Cole.
“Who cares?” he said. “You’re the only one worth seeing.”
“Totally,” Reid agreed. Several others echoed that sentiment.
“Cole, come on. I want to know,” I said. “Is Lance still here?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” he answered, kicking his foot against the ground. “The crowd got a little crazy after you came out onstage. Lance’s manager made him stay backstage, and security told us unless everyone simmered down, the event would be canceled. It seemed like they still planned to have it, but most of us didn’t care about it anymore. We just wanted to find you.” He paused. “Why do you want to see Lance? Do you like him? Better than me?”
“Of course not.” It was true. I didn’t like Lance better. But at the moment I did need him more than Cole. “We just came here to see him, so I thought we should.”
“We’ll never get past all that security. Let’s do something else instead. Like go to the music store. There’s a ton of songs that could have been written just for you.”
“Oooh, like Mara’s Daughters’ ‘Mysterious Love,’ ” Max said.
“Or ‘Beautiful Wonder,’ ” someone else yelled out.
The next thing I knew, everyone was calling out names of songs that reminded them of me.
I couldn’t even have a private conversation. Everyone just butted in.
And nothing anyone said was of any importance. Well, other than Cole. He made one good point. We’d never get past all that security around Lance. It was true. There was no way we would. But I could.
I just needed to ditch the army following my every move.
“Okay, everyone. I’m so glad you’re all here,” I said to the crowd. “But I need a little time alone. So why don’t we all meet up in the food court in an hour.”
“No way,” Jaydin said. “What if you take off again? We can’t take that chance.”
“I promise I won’t,” I answered her.
“Sorry,” some sixth-grader from my school said. “Don’t hate us for it. But we’re never leaving you. We can’t. We love you.”
Just perfect. What was I supposed to do?
I turned to Cole. “I need to get away from these people,” I whispered.
“What did she say?” Courtney asked.
Cole took my hand. “What she said,” he told Courtney and the crowd, “is that this is no way to treat someone as awesome as she is. She wants the royal treatment.”
Max started to bow.
“Not like that,” Cole said. “What I mean is have a little respect. You all just pounced on her when she arrived. She deserves a grand entrance.”
“That’s true,” Lana agreed. “They play a song when the queen of England enters a room. I bet I can find it on my iPhone.”
“Good idea,” Cole told her. “There’s a Radio Shack right there. Put it on one of their stereos and have everyone wait there. Then Angel can walk in while it plays. And I promise,” he crossed his fingers behind his back, “I’ll make sure she doesn’t disappear.”
Lana nodded furiously like she had a new mission in life—to see that I was tended to. “Don’t worry, Your Majesty,” she assured me. “I’ll see to it that everyone gives you the respect you deserve. Come on, people. Don’t keep the queen waiting—we have a grand entrance to get ready for.” She ushered them to the store.
“Just hide in the bathroom for a little while,” Cole told me. “I’ll tell them all you ran to the food court. They’ll go searching for you there. Then we can duck out of here.”
“Perfect,” I told Cole.
I slipped into the ladies’ room. It was very cool having a smart boyfriend, even one under a spell. Thanks to him, I lost the mob. Or so I thought.
Because next thing I knew I heard him yelling, “You can’t go in there!” He was trying to give me a signal that someone was coming into the bathroom. I jumped into a stall, and, as carefully as I could, I placed my feet on the toilet bowl. I stood crouched there praying I wouldn’t fall in. Staying still perched on a toilet is a lot harder than it sounds. People in the movies do it all the time, but it was supertough to keep my balance. Especially for someone like me. It was slippery. I felt one of my feet moving. I tried to stop it, to keep it in place, but I couldn’t. It was like it had a mind of its own. And before I knew it, my foot slid right into the toilet bowl! Yuck!
I couldn’t even move. I had to keep it there because the door to the bathroom opened. If the water made a splashing noise, whoever it was would find me.
The person was walking around the bathroom. Then I saw her face peer under the stall. It was Jaydin. I froze. Please don’t see me.
She backed away. Phew. I was free! For a whole second. Because a moment later she shoved the door open. “Gotcha,” she said. “I knew Cole was lying. I knew you were just trying to get away.”
I should have known not to underestimate Jaydin Salloway. She was way smart.
I jumped off the toilet and ran, my foot squishing water as I went. Why did I always make a bad situation worse? Jaydin was right behind me. Cole, too.
“Angel’s over here,” Jaydin shouted to everyone in the area. “This way.”
I turned into the bookstore and hid behind a shelf.
“You can’t get away,” Jaydin said. “You’re leaving a trail.” I looked down. She was right. Toilet-water footprints were leading her right to me.
I wanted to vanish. But seeing as my powers were what got me into this mess, trying another advanced one seemed like a bonehead idea. So I got down on my hands and knees
and crawled, trying to stay hidden behind rows of books. As Jaydin and her followers got closer, I crawled under a table in the kids’ section and hid.
Jaydin wasn’t giving up. That girl was thorough. She looked under every nook and cranny until she spotted me. “Found her,” she yelled.
That was all it took. Pretty soon everyone crowded around me in the store. There was no way to get away from these people.
“Sorry,” Cole said.
So was I. It royally stunk. Why couldn’t these people go back to thinking I was a nobody? Even hating me would be better than this. Then they’d stay away. It was certainly keeping my best friend far from me.
Gabi!
If I was able to make her hate me, I could make anyone hate me. Sure, it wasn’t the ideal solution. But it beat being shadowed. And it would let me find Lance by myself.
There was no other answer.
It was time to turn my fans against me.
I got out from under the table and yelled at the crowd. “You all hate me!”
“No, we don’t,” someone shouted back. That was followed by, “We adore you,” “You’re awesome,” and “Angel forever.”
“I couldn’t hate you,” Cole said. “I’ll prove it. I’m going to take all of the money I get from my Bar Mitzvah and have the words I Love You written in the sky.”
A skywriter? Sweet. But no thanks. They needed to stop loving me so much. I closed my eyes and focused. Stop loving me so much. Stop loving me so much. Stop loving me so much. But when I peeked through my lashes, everyone was still grinning at me. That wasn’t hate. It was awe. They were just as crazy about me as ever.
“Seriously people, listen!” I said.
But they all started chanting. “Angel, Angel, Angel.”
If they were all so into me, then why didn’t they even pretend to care about what I wanted?
And why weren’t my powers working? They had gone off in the dressing room. Maybe because it was quieter in there. There were dozens of people in the bookstore and they were all talking. I just needed to focus more. Tune everyone out.
I jumped on a table and raised my arms as if to engulf everyone around me. I concentrated like my life depended on it. Because it did. If I couldn’t get to Lance, then an evil Lou was set loose on the world with no one to stop him. And everyone was in danger. And it would be all my fault! “You don’t love me,” I said, my voice steady. “You want nothing to do with me.” I felt the words run through my body. I imagined everyone turning on me. I pictured it, I felt it, I hoped for it.
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