Poison and Mirrors

by Holly Hook

  Something rustled in the underbrush.

  I turned.

  A dark form emerged from the vegetation, cloaked in a black robe and hood with trim the color of blood. It looked like a living shadow coming out of the ground. The air went as cold as a mountain peak and became as sharp as a dagger. The world turned dark around me and the sky went to an ashen gray, the gray of death.

  "Hand it over," the figure said in a low voice that made me think of a deep, dark cave. "I need you out of the way."

  And he reached out towards me.

  I backed away, tripped over a root, and fell.

  A strange buzzing woke me.

  I sat up in bed. The sound repeated itself, along with the gentle white noise of a fan blowing. The sticky air wrapped around me as I sat up and got my bearings. Where was I? Plain white walls with hearts and skulls drawn all over them surrounded me like the scribbling of an inmate. Black curtains hung over an open window and only let in a bit of weak sunlight. Dawn. It was morning. I'd been dreaming.

  Then the memory flooded back.

  This was my room in Haven House. Duh.

  And no shadow guy was lurking around.

  Well, it had been an awesome dream, at least. I fished through my backpack and got out my dream journal. I flipped to a random empty page, one where I had scribbled roses and vipers bearing their fangs around the border. On it, I wrote about the dream, closed the book, and checked the time.

  Crap. I had to leave for school in twenty minutes. So much for breakfast, like Stephanie loved to insist on. I couldn't wait until I could just grab a coffee and a donut like an adult. I'd stopped eating cereal at the table with the little kids a long time ago.

  The buzzing sound came again.

  The phone. I'd left it in my backpack. I fished it out and shoved the dream journal back in.

  At first I marveled at the screen, at the perfect images that came up behind the glass. Something about it felt right and familiar. But then I blinked. The phone was always like this. There was nothing magical about it. What was wrong with me? I was just as stupid today as I was yesterday.

  Sara sent me a message. Don't forget the salad.

  Won't, I typed back. Don't think the little kids will want to devour it. I thanked Mrs. Laney that we hadn't had to make cookies. Those wouldn't have lasted long.

  I dressed in my black dragon leggings and my skull hoodie today even though I could tell it would be hot. I rushed downstairs with my backpack, pushed through the kitchen and around the boys, and opened the fridge. Tony watched me from behind his glasses and went back to his cereal when I waved at him again. All seven of them ate in silence. It was morning. I couldn't blame them.

  "Hey, Tony," I said. "Everything okay?"

  He didn't answer me. Instead, he poked Chad who sat next to him. He was in the fifth grade and a year older than him. Tony clung to Chad like he was a brother. I could understand that. Tony whispered something to her and he made a confused face at him.

  Maybe word about Mr. Rain had spread a lot farther than I feared.

  The huge bowl of purple salad remained in the fridge, untouched by even Stephanie. The green one had vanished. I grabbed it, made sure the plastic wrap was tight, and ran out the door. Sara had already left. She was the good one, always getting to school early so she could get studying done without the kids.

  I hopped on my bike and balanced the Dark Side salad on top of my handlebars all the way to school. I got two cheers from some basketball guys as I drew closer. When I waved to them, my project almost took a tumble. Sara had the other salad, the green one. She had the light side of the force.

  Sara met me outside in the hall after I had stuffed my project into the fridge in Mrs. Laney's classroom. She held the green salad as she came in through the parking lot doors. "Morning," she said. Her smile told me that something was up.

  "Morning," I said. We dropped the good off every time we said it. I was not a morning person.

  "Let me stash this," she said. Sara had her hair in pigtails today, tied in red bows, and she was wearing her red lipstick. It was the same color as that apple from my dream. She put the Light Side salad next to mine and closed the fridge. "I have news. Mrs. Laney's having her second and fourth hours meet in here at the same time. We're all going to do the tasting after lunch today. Now think about what that means."

  "That we'll get crowded?" I asked. "That we're all going to die horrible deaths in the excess body heat?"

  She smiled. "No. It starts with E."

  E.

  Eric.

  He had Mrs. Landry in second hour.

  And he might try my salad. I might even get the chance to talk to him.

  A shiver ran down my spine and my heart raced. "Good to know," I said. My mouth got dry. I could stomach whatever nightmares came every night, but talking to Eric—nope.

  "Come on. Aren't you excited? You never get to talk to him in Algebra."

  "Because of Mr. Rain," I said. Would Eric even want to look at me? I was just the mouthy goth girl who lived at Haven House. Eric was the guy with the class jacket who would get accepted at some Ivy League place. We weren't even in the same universe. People expected me to go out with guys like Skull Major, who spent his days cleaning his motorcycle even though he didn't have his license yet. Skull couldn't even pull his pants up high enough to hide his butt crack. People had tried to hook us up way too many times.

  Just because I lived at Haven House didn't mean I didn't have standards. I wished people realized that.

  Sara wasn't expected to date him. She might dress like me, but she wasn't bad like me.

  "Come on," she said. "I'll make sure I steer him in your direction. Eric's a nice guy."

  "I..." I choked up. "You don't have to, Sara."

  "What? This is making you nervous? Nothing makes you nervous."

  "This is Eric we're talking about."

  Sara smiled. "I'll make sure the two of you talk," she said, winking. "Just watch. Foods will be amazing today."

  * * * * *

  I didn't eat lunch. Mrs. Landry had instructed everyone in Foods not to do so today. Because food. I didn't want to eat, anyway. Sara had something planned, and it was something I couldn't escape.

  I loved her and hated her at the same time.

  The bell rang, and I dragged myself to Foods. I stepped over the threshold and onto the red brick floor and found the fridge open. Mrs. Landry had our dishes all set out. My Dark Side salad sat in the middle of the long tables she had set around the room in a U shape. The tables almost sagged with sliced fruits, whole grain breads, tuna salads and deviled eggs. My stomach rumbled just staring at it all. We rarely got a good home cooked meal at the Haven House and this was way better than cafeteria food.

  "Do you know what kind of lettuce this is?" Mrs. Landry asked me, standing over my salad. She pulled her sleeve down over her upper arm and smiled at me. "I've seen nothing like it."

  "I'm not sure," I said. "It was growing in our garden at Hav...at home. There are all kinds of veggies in there and I'm not even sure what some of them are." Well, these. "We had a couple different lettuces."

  She smiled. "It looks good, Mara. Almost magical. I can't wait to have the students try this."

  I leaned closer to my salad. The lettuce leaves seemed even more purple now, almost black. They were the same color I imagined the velvet on the inside of a vampire's coffin might be.

  I wondered if I should serve this.

  "Hey, Mara."

  My heart about stopped.

  Eric.

  He stood there, smiling and resting his hand on the table. He had on his class jacket today, the one with the big orange E. His long hair hung over his shoulders. His broad chest had gotten him asked to join the football team several times, but each time he refused. He didn't like to hang out with the jocks. He kind of floated around. It seemed like there were pieces of each group in Eric and he didn't belong to any one of them.

  The smile faded off his face and the tw
in wrinkles in his cheeks vanished. He rubbed his hand through his hair. I wished I could do that. "Is something wrong?"

  "No," I said. "It's just, we never cross paths, you know?"

  Wow. I had to talk like an idiot. Now I needed to think about the Eric dreams I'd written about in my journal next and then I'd be a complete failure.

  Heat rushed to my face. I was glad I'd put on plenty of pale makeup today. I prayed that Eric couldn't see it.

  He didn't seem to. "What's that?" he asked, eyeing my salad. "It looks like it came from another planet or some garden in an underworld."

  "I like the garden in an underworld idea," I said. Maybe we had something in common. Eric didn't look like the guy who would be into the same stuff I was. Even though his hair was long, he shared his clean appearance with the kids in the Honor Society, even though he never hung out with them, either. I couldn't figure him out.

  Eric got a closer look at the salad. He leaned down and sniffed it. "Who brought it in?"

  "I did." I searched around for Sara but she wasn't in here yet. She must have asked Eric to talk to me to make me feel better. The last thing I needed was the pity.

  “It smells great,” he said, reaching for the plastic spoon I had thrown in there this morning.

  “Not yet,” I said. “You don’t want Mrs. Landry to yell at you.”

  “She won't yell at me.”

  “I will yell at you,” Mrs. Landry said from behind us.

  I whirled around, almost glad she was there. Mrs. Landry smiled and eyed all the food. “I think it was a great idea, having both classes do this together. It quickens the grading for me, too.”

  Eric breathed out, hesitated, and spoke. “I had a hard time convincing Mr. Viele to let me out. We’re supposed to have a test today.”

  Mrs. Landry screwed up her features like she was searching for an excuse. “It’s good to do these exercises this way,” she said. “No one is to touch the food yet. Not until I give the order.”

  The teacher walked away and Eric shrugged at me. “She’s not this strict most of the time.”

  “She has many people today,” I said. I was talking to Eric and having a real conversation with him, and I wasn’t dying from it. I spotted Sara on the other side of the room, hiding behind the cabinet. She smiled at me.

  Mrs. Landry called for everyone so sit. There wasn’t enough room, so the second hour kids had to stand up against the wall. The room grew hot, even with the open window looking on the outside, and people fanned themselves with paper plates and whatever else they had in their hands. Eric took off his class jacket. He was wearing a black T-shirt with a coat of arms today. He fanned himself off with his shirt and muttered something to the guy next to him. It was the first time I'd seen him with the class jacket off.

  “See?” Sara asked me.

  I nodded. Mrs. Landry walked up and down the table of food today. My stomach rumbled now I had spoken with Eric like I promised. The stress had come off. The heat in the room increased, and I regretted putting on my leggings. At the next table, Devon pretended to faint.

  “All of this food looks superb,” Mrs. Landry said. “I’ll be giving out a lot of good grades for this. I’m pleased with the healthy choices. However, I may have to mark down whoever brought the Thin Mints from the Girl Scouts.” She pointed to a plate with an assembled circle of brown cookies on it. It looked like a few people had already snuck away with some. In other words, someone had forgotten to do their project. “However, I think we should head outside to do the tasting. It’s much cooler out there and we won't have the heat from the ovens that I ran today. Everyone, grab your dish and we’ll go out to the picnic tables that are under the trees."

  Cheers went up and everyone scrambled to grab their dishes. Sara seized her Light Side salad, and I wrapped my arms around mine. I couldn’t believe I had balanced this on my handlebars this morning. I checked to see what Eric had brought in. A loaf of bread he must have made in some bread maker. It looked really good. I'd have to try it and compliment him on it.

  It was a long walk around the school to where the picnic tables waited. We all got under the shade and breathed sighs of relief as we set our food out everywhere. Blissful coolness washed over me as the breeze blew and the leaves rustled. A few flies hung around, anticipating the free food. One tried to land on Sara's salad and she tried to hit it with the wooden spoon. It flew away, hovering over each dish for a second while ignoring my salad as if it was swimming with the plague.

  For a second, I wondered if something was wrong with the purple leaves.

  They looked strange.

  "Did someone dye this?" Devon asked, pointing to it. I shrunk back.

  "Hey," Eric said to him. "Don't knock the salad because it's different. You might hurt its feelings."

  More heat rushed to my face. He was defending me. Well, the salad, but he knew it was mine.

  Mrs. Landry handed out the paper plates and opened a box of plastic forks and spoons. We all lined up and dug into each dish, piling food onto our plates. There was not enough sitting room with two classes out here, so most of us had to stand. Eric got a big heaping pile of the purple salad and Mrs. Landry grabbed some of Sara's bright green one. We had a whole spectrum of colors going on here.

  "Try the bread," Eric said through a mouthful of deviled egg.

  I did. The bread was amazing and just a little spicy. "What kind is it?"

  "Beer bread," he told me with a grin. "Don't get too excited. The alcohol burns off when it's cooked, so the beer is just for flavor. "

  "Beer bread?" Devon asked. He and his football friends all gravitated towards where Eric's loaf was sitting. "Beer bread!"

  Eric snorted. "They'll be disappointed." He speared the purple lettuce leaves, and I waited with bated breath.

  "Eric! Don't eat that!"

  Sara shoved past me and I jumped in shock. I fell into the bench of the picnic table to where Moanna was sitting and sampling some coleslaw. Sara knocked Eric's paper plate out of his hands and it went toppling to the ground, food and all.

  "Sorry," I said to Moanna. She gave me a dirty look, but I ignored it. "Sara—what are you doing?"

  She faced me. Sara was shaking and very pale. Her gaze darted over to the edge of the baseball diamond.

  I turned.

  Sara wasn't the only one acting strange. One of Devon's friends had dropped his paper plate and purple lettuce had gone everywhere along with a deviled egg. He wrapped his arms around himself and sank down to all fours. Next to him, a guy named Nort was already on his hands and knees and his face seemed longer than usual—a lot longer. Another plate of lettuce had fallen next to him, leaving brilliant purple on grass. His face was turning tan. His eyes, black.

  And short hair was sprouting all over his body.

  "What is going on here?" Mrs. Landry asked. She ran towards the boys and stopped.

  I felt as if I was watching a clay animation play out before me. The boys struggled to stand up from the grass, but they couldn't. More fur sprouted. Tan for Nort, and gray for Devon's friend. Shirts strained and ripped, revealing more fur.

  Sara grabbed my arm and Eric cursed. Both classes ran over and crowded around the two boys while Mrs. Landry tried to wave them back. Some girls screamed and backed away, throwing down their plates of food. Salad and veggies toppled everywhere. Green mixed with purple. Another one of Devon’s friends got out his phone and held it above the crowd, trying to film.

  Eric broke away from us and ran to join the crowd. He stood on his toes and looked back at us. “Come here!” he shouted. “You won’t believe this.”

  I backed away. Sickness filled my insides like green scum. Something was wrong. Something was way wrong.

  And it might have to do with my salad. Both guys had it on their plates. Sara had noticed something wrong before I did. She stared at me, her mouth falling open in horror. Sara made a squeaking sound and pointed to the middle of the giant huddle.

  Mrs. Landry pushed into the mi
ddle of everyone and held up her hands. “Back away!” she shouted. “Give them some room. Everyone, stop crowding them and give them some space.” She wore a look of scary calm like someone in shock.

  The two classes backed away. More people threw down their plates to join the others already on the ground.

  I did the same. Food was the last thing I wanted right now.

  Two donkeys stood in the middle of everyone where Devon’s friend and Nort had been standing before. A tan one, and a gray one. They looked at each other and at the crowd as if they didn’t know what to do. Purple lettuce and deviled eggs and beer bread lay scattered everywhere as if the donkeys had crashed our party and gone after all our food. Nort’s clothes lay torn on the ground along with Devon’s friend’s. One donkey made a grunting sound and turned around to check itself out. Another, more terrified grunting sound followed as it turned and tried to see its other side.

  I blinked again and again, trying to dismiss it. But the scene didn’t go away.

  Could this be Nort and Devon’s buddy themselves?

  Some curse had fallen on them. No. Curses weren’t real. Why couldn’t I remember that? I pinched myself as hard on the arm as I could, almost hard enough to draw blood. Pain screamed, but I didn’t wake.

  Mrs. Landry stepped in front of the donkeys and waved the people behind them to the front. Students filed past them, silent with mouths hanging open. One last girl still clutching her plate of food tossed it to the grass to join the others already there.

  Nort and Devon’s friend had turned into donkeys. Unless this was the most elaborate trick someone had ever played, Sara and I were seeing a real live curse.

  And it had come from our garden.

  The gray donkey took a step, lowered its face to the ground, and munched on more of the purple lettuce. It ate until there was nothing left and moved on to the beer bread still on the ground. The tan donkey joined in and ate as if nothing else in the world mattered. I took another step back. Mrs. Landry knew the purple salad was mine. That me and Sara were there when Mr. Rain choked. She would blame this on me for sure and I had no proof I had nothing to do with it.