WISH
A Young Adult Novel by
Janet MacLeod
Text Copyright: Janet Gurtler 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Janet Gurtler.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
CHAPTER ONE
A bad feeling chomped on my stomach lining and the sixteen candles on my cake slid into the icing, sad and defeated as if they knew how much I sucked at being a teenager.
“Be careful what you wish for,” Nana said like it mattered at all.
I could wish for a carefree, loving Mom who baked cookies after school and made cocoa for our heart to heart talks. Or how about a cool Dad who would mess up my hair and drive me to cheerleading try-outs. Stupid, yes, but kind of better than reality.
“Hurry up and make your wish, Syd. Blow out the candles before you burn down the house.” My best friend Stevie loves cake and hates waiting. Her eyes squinted together shifting into a sort of uni-brow and she stuck her hip out. Her real name is Stephanie but she only answers to Stevie. After her mom took off when she was seven, Stevie got a new attitude and a new nickname. All the tiara’s and pink shirts from her childhood went to Goodwill.
I glanced at Keith, my other best friend and another semi- permanent fixture in our house. The most normal person I knew. He leaned against the kitchen wall with a smile that suggested he had a secret. A normal expression for him. His hands were tucked in the front pockets of his jeans. When he had a growth spurt last year and got kind of hot, Stevie and I agreed we would never fall for him and ruin the circle of friendship karma.
The truth was I would ever be cheerleader material. And my dear old Dad disappeared pretty much right after I was born. I guess he wanted to mess up more than my hair. And my mom? She’d been gone for almost a whole year.
“Dude, seriously,” Stevie said. “We’re not getting any younger here.”
I closed my eyes and wished for the first thing that came to mind and then blew out the candles.
Stevie jumped up and down pointing. “One candle stayed lit. One boyfriend, one lover.” She bopped around like punk rocker in a mosh pit.
Nana cleared her throat and Stevie stopped bouncing, but didn’t stop grinning.
“Excuse me while I puke,” Cody said. As my older brother, I guess the idea of me with a lover seemed kind of horrifying to him.
“Me too,” I said. I had a few things to accomplish first. Even though I was officially sixteen, my own body seemed against the idea of me growing up. I was still waiting to grow real boobs, and even more horrifying waiting to get my period. Yes. At sixteen.
Stevie stuck her tongue out at Cody and they continued to squabble.
“What’d you wish for?” Nana slid up beside me and spoke quietly in my ear.
“A pony,” I lied. She glanced around the kitchen and then went to the window and looked in the back yard. I watched her, frowning. She’d been acting quirky all day.
To distract her, I interrupted Cody and Stevie’s bickering. “I want to say something,” I announced in a loud voice.
“Speech, speech!” Stevie forgot Cody and re-focused on me, as she should, since let’s refresh, yes, it was my birthday.
I took a deep breath for courage. “Okay. Let’s see. Thanks to my two best friends for helping me celebrate my birthday, and to my brother who had to.”
Cody booed and Keith shifted from one leg to another and grinned.
“And Nana. I know it’s been kind of a hard year and it’s nice to have the people I depend on, uh, well, around me.”
“Your Mom would be here if she could,” Nana said. She’d moved back to the table and didn’t look ready to jump from her skin anymore.
I swallowed the lump that instantly formed in my throat. “Uh. I guess so. If she wasn’t, you know. Crazy.”
“Sydney,” Cody said and made a grumpy cat face.
Stevie lunged forward and threw her arms around me, squeezing tight. I squeezed back hard.
“Great. Your lover is Stevie.” Cody rolled his eyes. “No surprise the way you two are always slobbering all over each other.”
Stevie pulled away from me and stuck her tongue out at Cody. “Don’t hate on us because we’re not emotionally repressed boys,” she said and looked pointedly from his white socks to the tip of his head. “And. Um. Nice freshly pressed pants, Code. I mean, what eighteen-year-old boy irons his jeans?”
I tuned out the rest of Stevie’s insults and Cody’s comebacks. They pretended to hate each other but really the two of them should get a room. Except she’s my best friend in the world, and he’s my brother. So that would be almost like incest and totally gross.
“That’s enough you two.” Nana grabbed a big knife off the table and opened her mouth. I wished she wouldn’t say anything more about Mom.
She closed her mouth. “Okay.” She handed me the big knife. “Do the honors, Sydney, it’s your day.”
I cut a tiny sliver of cake and plopped in on a plate and held it out to my brother. “For you, Cody.”
He crossed his arms. “Funny. Cut me a man size piece.”
“It’ll take more than a piece of cake to make you a man,” Stevie said.
I added more cake to his plate and then cut and handed a piece of cake to Nana and Stevie and then finally a big piece to Keith. His eyes twinkled when he smiled. That didn’t happen often enough lately.
I slid my finger around the pan and scooped up excess icing and then took a piece of cake for myself. My tiny birthday party, my big piece of cake. Just the way I’d wanted it. No fuss. No big blowout. I slid icing under my tongue. Yum. My favorite food. Nutritional value, zero. Comfort value, off the charts. The cake eased some of the unexplained anxiety racing around my belly like a hamster running on a wheel. It started when I woke up and I didn’t shake it all day.
Keith bent down to pick something up and then stepped forward and thrust a box with wrinkled wrapping paper covered in baby blue footprints at me.
“It’s the only wrapping paper we have in the house. Six thousand Baby Showers.” He shrugged. “Happy Birthday Syd.”
I put down my cake and smiled. Keith’s Mom re-married last year, and his twin brothers were only a few months old.
I tugged on the paper and yanked out a beautiful black velvet box. I glanced at Keith but he was shoveling the last of his cake in his mouth. I flipped the lid on the velvet box up and squealed when I looked inside. “Oh My God, Keith! This is awesome.”
He lifted a shoulder and put his empty plate on the kitchen table. I petted the necklace inside the box, a black rope with a cool pendant. It was a silver symbol, totally funky and retro. I loved it on sight.
“I thought you’d like it.” He ran his fingers through his long curls. “It’s no big deal.”
“Yet for my birthday you got me a Road Kill t-shirt?” Stevie said.
Nana leaned across me and snatched the box out of her hands. She held it up to her nose, studying the necklace and then grabbed at her heart with her other hand. “I should have known this would happen.”
“What? That I would get gifts? On my birthday?” I glared at her and shot Keith a look of apology. The crazy was back. I pounced at Nana grabbing the box out of her hands. I eased the necklace from the box and held it up around my neck and fastened the clasp. It nestled on my skin, feeling cool and comfortable. Like it belonged.
Nana made some odd noises and while I mentally w
illed her to stay out of the crazy place, I lunged at Keith, wrapping my arms around him. My head barely came to his shoulder. He smelled like baby powder and felt perfect. I wanted to stay pressed this close to him for the rest of my birthday.
Unfortunately, he pushed me away and took a step backward. “Like I said, no big deal.”
Stevie leaned towards my neck, her nose wrinkled up. “Um. VBD. Very Big deal. It’s very Harry Winston.” Her favorite jewelry designer. For a girl who dresses predominantly in black and pretends she’s tougher than a bloodstain, fragments of a Princess phase, lingered in unusual ways.
I put my fingers protectectivly on the pendant and softly rubbed. A great sense of peace settled inside me. The best I’d felt all day. I opened my mouth and yawned, and bathed in the sensation that things were going to be all right after all.
“I guess it’s gift time.” Cody disappeared from the kitchen and re-appeared holding a plastic Safeway bag. He thrust it at me.
“For little ole me?” I teased him.
He rolled his eyes and went to get himself another piece of cake while I reached inside the grocery bag. I squealed when I pulled out a turquoise and black miniskirt. Plaid. I imagined wearing it as I passed my crush Mike Cameron in the hallway. He’d take one look at me and push his extra body part, Jenny Truman away. I frowned at the thought of Jenny. The evil Goddess of tenth grade who had never liked me. Even though I’d done nothing to her. Except breathe the same air. And secretly lust after her boy toy.
I’d been coveting the skirt online but didn’t have the funds to buy it. I frowned wondering how he’d afforded it.
“It was on sale,” Cody told me, interpreting my frown perfectly. “Stevie told me you liked it.”
I glanced at both of them. When had they planned this out?
“Your mom is going to have a fit when she sees how short your skirts are getting,” Nana muttered.
The moisture in my throat dried up then. “Yes, well I guess it’s good she’s in the Looney bin then, isn’t it,” I said bitterly.
“Sydney.” Nana’s face paled and she moved to my side and slipped her hand around my waist. Her frail fingers were warm and comfortable on the bare skin between my jeans and the shirt I wore. I inhaled her fresh scent. She smelled like old lady perfume or laundry detergent? Tide cologne?
“We’ve talked about that,” she said softly so only I could hear her.
The anxiety in my belly twanged up again, as if I were on a rollercoaster ride and dropping down. “Just kidding.” I lifted my thumb nail to my mouth and chewed.
“Hey, I got something for you too.” Stevie jumped in to lighten the dark family moment and glanced at Nana.
“Don’t be mad at me,” she told her and then she squeaked with excitement and ran out of the room. She returned a few seconds later with a huge grin on her face and a big box under her arm. There were holes on the side of the box. She dumped it in my arms. It shifted. I lifted the lid, peeking inside.
I gasped. “Oh. My. Gosh. I can’t believe you!”
“Stevie, what did you do?” Nana didn’t beat around the bush with Stevie. She was one of us. Kids she liked to boss around.
“Cody promised you wouldn’t mind,” Stevie said and batted her eyelashes. I glance at Cody and he was hiding a grin under his hand.
Nana hurried forward and looked inside the top of the box. “Oh dear!” she said.
I reached inside and pulled out the completely white kitten. He blinked at me with big round blue eyes. He didn’t have a speck of color on him and was a big ball of fluffy cuteness. I loved him the moment I laid eyes on him.
I held the cuddly soft kitten to my cheek. “Can I keep him?” I pleaded rubbing his fur against my mouth.
“I can’t believe you didn’t ask me first, Stevie,” Nana said, but her voice was soft. “Not that it would have mattered.”
“He was free,” Stevie said holding up both hands with a shrug. As if it weren’t her fault. “My dad took me to the shelter. I saw this guy and knew Syd had to have him. Even my dad agreed and you know how he is. I had to take him or someone else would have scooped him up. How could I not, Nans? Look how cute he is. And you’ve been telling Sydney she could get a cat for the longest time.”
Nana was shaking her head, still pale and almost sick looking “Your mom is going to have a fit.”
My stomach burned with certainty even as I rubbed the soft furred little kitty on my cheek. I had to have his cat. I wasn’t going to let him go. “Mom loves cats. Besides, it’s not like she’s going to know,” I said.
“Oh, she’ll know,” Nana shook her head. “She might already know.”
I frowned at her and Stevie looked over and raised her eyebrows. “He came with the supplies he needs,” she told Nana. “A litter box. Food even. It was an amazing deal. My dad couldn’t believe it. And look how cute he is. He makes Syd happy. You want her to be happy. Don’t you?”
Nana huffed. “Nothing is for free, Stevie. Trust me on that.”
I rubbed the kitten’s soft white fur against my chin. “Nana. Can I keep him? Please? It would help…” I let my words linger in the air.
Nana threw her hands in the air as if to signal her surrender.
Stevie and I both squeed at the top of our lungs. Cody even came over to pet his teeny head.
Stevie smiled. “What’re you going to name your kitty?”
I didn’t even pause. “Magic.” He seemed kind of enchanting, and it suited him. I liked it. “This is the best birthday of my life,” I said and giggled.
Keith and Cody looked at each other and then at me. “Because of a cat?” Cody asked.
“No. Because of everything. I mean it. Really.”
I didn’t need my Mommy to be happy.
Magic hissed then and dug his claws into my arm. He scratched me so hard he drew blood.
At the sudden pain, I dropped him but he landed gracefully on his paws. “Ow. You don’t like that name you little traitor?”
I reached for the scratch but my necklace heated up under my skin. I reached for it instead and the pendant was cool against my fingers. For a moment I felt more at peace than I had in a long time.
When I let go I realized the burning sensation from Magic’s scratch had vanished. I glanced down at my arm. There was nothing on it. No mark. Nothing. No blood.
On the floor, Magic rubbed around my leg, mewing for my forgiveness. I picked him up, rubbing my cheek against his soft fur. “Do that again and you’re cat chow,” I whispered in his ear.
Nana stared at the spot where Magic’s claws had cut into my skin, her mouth and eyes wide open. She grabbed at my arm, her face contorted with something like fear. “What did you wish for?” she demanded.
I pulled away from her and glanced at Cody. His eyes were wider than Nana’s. I looked at her. Crazy peered back at me and made my heart race.
“Tell me what you wished for when you blew out the candles,” she repeated.
“Nana,” I pleaded. “Stop it. You’re embarrassing me.”
“This isn’t a joke.” She sounded angrier than the time Stevie and I ate an entire five-gallon pail of napoleon ice cream and threw up all over the bushes outside. She pulled out a chair and plunked down in it, muttering.
Stevie and Keith glanced at me, and then at Nana, their expression reflecting my confusion.
“Sydney,” Nana said after a moment. “What did really you wish for?” She said it in a voice I didn’t dare ignore.
I glanced around the room. “Really?”
“Tell me.”
My face flamed. I lifted Magic to my cheek.
“I mean it, Sydney. Don’t lie.”
“Uh. I wished that Mike Cameron would fall madly in love with me,” I said in a voice barely above a whisper. Even in front of Stevie, Cody and Keith, I couldn’t lie. She always knew when I lied. Always.
Stevie started to howl with laughter and I hid my face in Magic’s fur.
“Who is Mike Cameron?” Nana dema
nded.
“Mike is the biggest jock dork in our school,” Stevie told her.
Not the tightest of lips on my best friend.
“He’s the boy Sydney’s been drooling over for the last six months.”
I walked over and punched her shoulder.
“Ow. That hurt. And you totally have, so there.”
Nana shot her a dirty look, watching both of us with all seeing eyes. No sign of craziness when I needed it.
“He’s plays football and wears polo shirts and hangs all over Jenny Truman. It’s sickening,” Stevie squealed. “I have no idea what Sydney sees in him.”
“I think he’s cute, that’s all. It’s not like I really like him or anything.” My cheeks were blazing and I avoided looking at Keith. “I couldn’t think of a wish and I panicked. I didn’t want to wish for nothing. That’s lame.”
“Not as lame as wishing for Mike Cameron to fall in love with you,” Sydney said and snorted.
“God. Who cares what I wished for?” I shouted.
“I am not listening to stupid girl talk anymore,” Cody said, but no one bothered to look his way. “I’m outta here.” He turned around and plodded out of the kitchen.
Keith ran his hand through his hair. “I should go, too,” he mumbled. “Gotta help out my Mom and then work at the art gallery. See you at school tomorrow. Happy birthday, Syd.” He patted my shoulder on the way out and practically ran out of the kitchen, leaving Stevie and me alone with the crazy lady.
“Thanks for totally embarrassing me, Nana,” I said when the boys were gone and the kitchen seemed suddenly bigger and more ominous.
“Um. You’re the one who embarrassed you,” Stevie added, none too helpfully.
I glared at her. “I can’t lie to Nana,” I reminded her. She knew. She couldn’t lie to her either. No one could.
“And what do you care if I make stupid wishes about boys? I’m supposed to. I’m a teenager. It’s my job,” I said to Nana.
“You have no idea what has happened.” Nana shook her head and then rested it on her hands. “I knew this wouldn’t work. I told her but no, no one listens to an old woman,” she said to the kitchen table.
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