Daddy's Little Angel

by Shani Petroff

  He noticed me staring at him and waved his hand again. In a heartbeat, he was back to looking 100 percent Lou-like. “I’ve left you alone for a few weeks, and I thought it was time for us to chat again,” he said, picking up the dress I had dropped and hanging it up.

  “Here? Aren’t you worried someone’s going to notice you?” I kept my ears open for anyone heading our way.

  “No. Not particularly.” He handed me my backpack from off of the floor. “I don’t worry about too much.”

  “No kidding. Anyone gives you any problems, you can just send them to the underworld.”

  “Very true.”

  That I did not want to hear. I had been joking. Sort of. “I have to get back to my friends. I started to leave, but he reached out and put his hands on my shoulders.

  “Stay. Let’s get to know each other. We can talk for a while,” he said.

  I shook my head. “There’s nothing to talk about as long as you’re in the devil business. I can’t be a part of that.”

  “Hmmm,” he said. “I may have an idea, but I need to look into it before I say anything.” He took his hands off of me and clapped them together once. When he opened them, a black American Express credit card was resting on his palm. “For now, how about taking this?” he asked, gesturing to the Amex. “No limit. You can treat yourself and your friends to the greatest shopping spree ever. All expenses paid, courtesy of yours truly.”

  “You can’t bribe me,” I said, although it was a tiny bit tempting. Okay, way more than a tiny bit. I had been dying for a new wardrobe for forever. Turning it down was like having my toenails ripped off. Excruciating.

  I heard footsteps nearing the entrance of the dressing room area. I turned around to see Lana poking her head in. “There you are,” she said. “Come on.”

  I quickly looked back to Lou. He was Lucy again. Lana hadn’t seen a thing. “Did you get what you wanted?” she asked.

  “No,” I said, still staring at my father in his disguise. “Not even close.”

  chapter 25

  After about our twenty-nine hundredth store, we decided to get some frozen yogurt. On our way to the food court, I saw Cole and a bunch of his basketball friends heading our direction.

  Lana noticed them the same moment I did. “Don’t worry,” she said. “We won’t tell Cole you’re crushing on him.”

  “What!?” I shrieked.

  “Chill,” Jaydin answered, swatting me with one of her shopping bags. “It’s not a big deal.”

  “I’m not crushing,” I said, and started to chew on my nail.

  “Whatevs.” Jaydin gave me a sly smile. “Deny all you want, but Courtney told us what you said.”

  I felt the breath leave my body. I only admitted to her that I had a thing for Cole because she promised she’d never tell a soul. How could she have shared my secret? And how could I have been so stupid to tell her in the first place? I must have been in a cookie coma.

  Lana started giggling. “You look like you just found out you’re going to have to take Max to the fall formal. Relax. It’s not a big deal. We tell each other everything.”

  “Like about Reid,” I said. At least I had something on her, too.

  Lana got up in my face. “Do not breathe a word of that.”

  “I won’t. Just don’t tell anyone about Cole,” I said.

  Lana nodded. I looked over at Jaydin. “You neither, okay?”

  Jaydin raised her eyebrows at me. “Hey, Cole,” she called out and continued to walk straight toward him. I had no choice but to follow. “Guess what I heard?” She stopped right in front of him.

  “What?” he responded.

  I closed my eyes. This was it. I was about to be humiliated. Again.

  Jaydin grabbed my arm and pulled me next to her. “Well, Angel here was telling me that she . . .” Jaydin paused, and smirked at me before continuing. “Why don’t you tell him, Angel?”

  Why was she doing this to me? What was I going to say? I couldn’t tell him I’ve been dreaming about him forever. He’d think I was pathetic.

  “It was nothing,” I said.

  “Oh, come on, Angel,” Jaydin said. “What was it you said about your crush?”

  Did she just ask what I think she asked?

  The thing about Courtney and her friends was that they enjoyed hazing each other. For me, the panic, shortness of breath, and black spots in front of my eyes took away from the appeal. I couldn’t think of one good answer to her question. And then it occurred to me: Maybe I should see if I have powers? For a moment that felt like the perfect solution. What choice did I have, other than admitting the truth and losing my only chance at love? But then I saw a vision of myself in horns and a tail with the accompanying fashion challenges, and came to my senses.

  “What Jaydin was saying was that I thought we could crush you guys at skee ball.” I drew inspiration for my save from the arcade across the food court.

  “You think so?” he said, giving me one of his adorable crooked smiles.

  “I know so,” I said. I had no idea where I was getting the confidence, but it was there. Maybe it was my reward for letting good triumph over evil. There had to be some sort of prize for that. Right?

  “Let’s go see,” he said, and gestured to the arcade.

  I nodded and looked over at my friends. Lana was awestruck and Jaydin looked, well, pretty indifferent, but I knew she had to be impressed. I totally turned a disaster into a major win. I was hanging out with Cole Daniels! Could life get any better?

  chapter 26

  I invited Gabi over the next night to work on our homework. I didn’t tell her about hitting the arcade with Cole and everyone, even though I really wanted to. It was strange keeping something so big from her, but I didn’t want to get into another fight about hanging out with Courtney’s group.

  As I sat on the floor of my bedroom trying to figure out the value of x, something hit me on the head. “Hey!”

  Gabi looked up. “What?”

  I picked up the paper airplane and flung it back at her. “Quit throwing things at me.”

  “Wasn’t me.” She inspected the airplane. “You’re not going to like this.”

  I reached out my hand and took the plane. Written on the wings was: Give me a chance. Not even the sky’s the limit. Dad. I crumpled up the piece of paper. “I don’t want the sky,” I whispered.

  More airplanes appeared and flew around the room.

  Gabi looked at me. “Just ignore it,” I told her. “Lou eventually goes away.”

  She nodded. She really was a great friend. I don’t know how many people would have put up with being taunted by the devil if they didn’t have to. She was the only person I told about my father. I mean, there was no way I was trusting Courtney with that part of my life. She couldn’t even keep my Cole secret.

  “Let’s get back to the equations,” I said.

  But paper airplanes kept falling from nowhere and bonking me on the head. Gabi too. She swatted at them like mosquitoes. I stood up and looked down at the ground. “This is not funny anymore. Cut it out.”

  Thankfully, Lou listened. The planes stopped their descent, and I went back to my homework. “What did you get for number twelve?”

  “Nothing yet. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  The lights in the room started to flicker, and I heard a ding. I looked up to see a lightbulb pop up right over Gabi’s head.

  Floating inside the bulb were a few words written in red smoke: I know. Ask your dad.

  “What are you staring at?” Gabi asked.

  I pointed to the neon light hanging above her.

  She turned up her head. “Whoa.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Maybe you should just talk to him,” she said, shrugging a shoulder.

  The words in the lightbulb switched to: Great idea.

  I swiped it away. “I can’t. What if I like him, then what? I’m just one step closer to becoming the heir apparent of Hades. And there’s no way I’m letting th
at happen. So, please, let’s drop it. Forever.”

  chapter 27

  I knew Gabi had more to say about my father but she kept it all to herself and went back to her homework instead. She could usually tell when I didn’t feel like talking. A few minutes later, she began humming.

  “What are you singing?”

  “I’m not singing,” she answered.

  “Humming, whatever.”

  Gabi looked away. “I didn’t realize I was doing it out loud. It’s just one of the songs from Charlie Brown.”

  Ever since I became friends with Courtney, Gabi’s show was an awkward topic for us. “How’s it going?” I asked. Before she could answer, my cell phone vibrated. I was dying to check out the text message, but I ignored it and prodded Gabi to go on.

  “It’s good, I guess.” She started fidgeting with the hem on her skirt. “It’s fun to be a part of it. I even have all the songs and the choreography memorized.”

  She still seemed disappointed about not getting to actually perform.

  “It’s just—” She cut herself off.

  “What? It’s okay. You can tell me. I won’t say anything to Courtney.” My cell phone went off again. This time I looked down quickly. It was Lana texting to say she had major Cole scoop. I wanted details, but I saw Gabi yanking away at her ponytail, so I knew she was getting frustrated with me. “Sorry. Go ahead.”

  “It’s just Courtney being Courtney. It’s annoying,” she said. “We’re in dress rehearsals and she refuses to wear the Lucy wig because she says the color doesn’t go with her skin tone. Mrs. Torin told her she had to and—”

  “Well, you can’t really blame her for wanting to look good,” I butted in.

  Big mistake.

  Gabi’s eyes turned into little slits. The expression on her face was as if I had told the whole school that she wets her bed. “It’s Lucy in Charlie Brown,” she yelled. “Of course, she has to wear a black wig. Everybody knows that.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I didn’t know it was such a—”

  My phone started ringing. It had to be crazy important if Lana was calling right after she texted me. “I’ll just be two seconds,” I whispered and answered the phone.

  She was calling to say that Cole mentioned my name on the way home from school. I was dying to hear more about it, but I saw Gabi starting to pack up her stuff to go. So I asked Lana if I could call her back. “It’s my mom,” I said. “Let me just take care of what she wants, and I’ll call you later.”

  When I hung up, Gabi looked like she was going to burst into flames. “Your mom? Your mom? Your mom?” she yelled.

  “Is someone calling me?” my mother screamed from downstairs.

  “Never mind!” I shouted back at Mom. Then I turned to Gabi. “It’s not what you think.”

  “Oh, please. I’m not stupid. I know you’re embarrassed to hang out with me. You’re afraid of what they,” she gestured toward my phone, “will think.”

  “That’s not true,” I protested. “It was just the easiest way to get her off the phone. If I told her I was with a friend she just would have kept on talking.” I wasn’t trying to hide Gabi. Really. I just knew Lana wouldn’t take my need to get off the phone seriously, if she thought Gabi was the reason. Gabi started to leave, but I grabbed her arm. “I swear. I’m not embarrassed. You’re still my best friend. We’ll go out on Friday night. The mall, a movie, wherever you want.”

  “Fine,” she said, and headed for the door.

  chapter 28

  “Great skirt.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I’m so excited for tonight,” I said, giving Gabi a big smile as she sat down next to me in science. “My mom’s going food shopping today and she’s getting a huge angel’s food cake and a half gallon of Heavenly Hash ice cream for after we go out on Friday. You can have as much as you want. She won’t tell your mom.”

  Gabi had to be salivating by now. Her mom’s idea of dessert was a saltine. “Nice.”

  Not much of a response, but it was enough. It meant we’d be okay.

  “Everyone grab a partner and one microscope per team,” Mrs. Laurel called out. We hadn’t teamed up in ages, but in the past it was usually Gabi and me. Cole and Reid. Courtney and Jaydin. Lana and Brooke. And then Max and whoever wasn’t fast enough find anybody else. But today Reid was absent.

  “Got a partner?” Cole asked me.

  The room went from warm to hot to ice-cold to burning up. I shook my head no. I could feel Gabi staring at me, but I had no choice. This was Cole, and it sounded like he was asking me to work with him.

  “I’ll grab the microscope,” he said, and headed to the table where Mrs. Laurel kept them.

  I let out a big breath. Yes! We were partners. Only how could I fully enjoy it? Gabi was still looking right at me. I turned to her. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “But it’s Cole.” She had to understand. It wasn’t like I picked Courtney or Jaydin or Lana over her.

  As I stood waiting for her to tell me it was okay, Max trudged over. “I guess it’s you and me, Gabi.” His eyes turned to me, and his arms swung so much he ended up knocking over all of Gabi’s papers. As they both bent down to pick them up, they knocked heads.

  “Aww, look at the losers falling all over each other,” Courtney chimed in from her desk.

  Gabi glared at me and then Courtney before storming away to get her microscope.

  “Wait,” I called after her, but she didn’t look back. Great. Just one more thing to make Gabi hate me. This was horrible.

  A thought flashed in my head. I pushed it aside, but it kept reappearing. Try to see if you have powers. After all, with the use of powers, I would have been able to make everyone (besides Cole of course) want to work with Gabi. I could have made them all adore her, in fact, and then she could have been popular. She wouldn’t have been mad at me anymore, and I wouldn’t have had to feel guilty about working with Cole. It would have been perfect. Well, aside from the whole evil thing. And the potential for me to turn all my classmates into frogs. Or killer sharks. I couldn’t go through with it. It was just wrong. It would have been a slippery slope to darkness as a way of life. I would just have to apologize a bazillion times to Gabi and pray she’d understand why I didn’t partner up with her.

  When Cole came back with the microscope, we huddled around his desk. We were so close, the right side of my body was touching the left side of his. I thought I was going to go into shock from the awesomeness of it all.

  As Mrs. Laurel instructed us to put the slide of a dog’s fur under the microscope, Cole turned to me. “It’s really cool that you know Mara’s Daughters.”

  I didn’t know what to say—it wasn’t like I really knew them. So instead of answering, I concentrated on the microscope.

  But Cole didn’t drop the subject. “Do you hang out with them a lot?”

  “Not really,” I said, switching the slides around.

  “Oh.”

  He looked disappointed. Then I had a thought—one I really didn’t want to have. What if Cole was just being nice to me to get to the band? Maybe he was crushing on Beleth or one of the twins. If he thought he couldn’t meet them, would he just drop me? I didn’t want him out of my life.

  “They are family friends, though,” I quickly added.

  “Yeah?” he asked, his expression perking up.

  “Something with my dad.” Even I wasn’t quite sure what.

  “Sweet,” he said. “I wish my dad had those kinds of connections. I love Mara’s Daughters.”

  He went on about Mara’s Daughters for so long, I was relieved when the bell rang. The conversation about the band was getting annoying. I didn’t want to hear about Cole loving Vale, Vinea, and Beleth. I wanted to hear about him loving me.

  “See ya later,” he said as he made his way to the door.

  I gave a small wave. I was an idiot to think that a guy as cute as Cole would ever like a girl like me. Now it made sense—he was just chatting me up as a way in with Mara’s
Daughters. And now I had gotten Gabi mad at me for nothing. I rushed over to her to try and fix things. She was shoving her stuff into her backpack. “Do you hate me?”

  “I can’t believe you did that to me,” she answered, not looking up.

  “It wasn’t something I did to you. Come on,” I whispered. “It was a chance at one-on-one time with Cole.” I didn’t bother telling her about my suspicions. “And I promise, I’m going to make everything up to you Friday night. You’ll see.” Her face seemed to lighten up a tiny bit.

  “You can’t do Friday night,” Courtney said, butting in from behind us. “You said you’d come to my sleepover.”

  Courtney never mentioned having a party. In fact, she probably didn’t even decide until that second that she was going to throw one. I was torn. I really wanted to go. Everybody talked about Courtney’s sleepovers and how getting an invitation was a huge deal, but I couldn’t ditch Gabi. She’d never forgive me. “I forgot,” I said, playing along.

  “Well, now you remember, and you better be there,” Courtney said, tossing her bag over one shoulder.

  I looked back at Gabi. “Can we do Saturday instead?”

  She shook her head no. “Forget it. Do whatever you want.” She started to leave.

  “Wait,” I called after her. “We’ll hang out first, and then I’ll go to the sleepover.”

  Neither Gabi nor Courtney looked happy with that idea. “You can’t come late to my party,” Courtney said. “Nobody does that.”

  “But, I already promised Gabi I’d hang out with her.” I looked at Courtney and pleaded with my eyes. I knew she hated Gabi, but I hoped she liked me enough to give in on this one thing.

  Then a miracle happened. Courtney smiled and said, “I was planning for us all to go to a movie that night, anyway. Gabi can meet us at the Multiplex, but just that. She’s not coming to my house.”

  That was a start. “Thank you,” I said and ran over to Gabi who was now by the door.