by Amy Meredith
‘I take it all back, Seth surprises me,’ Eve admitted. ‘Who knew he – or really any boy – was aware that MarieBelle chocolate is the best ever? Or did you give him one of your hints?’
‘I didn’t. Not even a teeny one,’ Jess answered, picking up the box and hugging it to her chest. ‘This is so sweet of him.’ She giggled. ‘Sweet.’
‘Absolutely sweet,’ Eve agreed, wondering if Luke would ever do something ultra-romantic, like surprise her with a special gift.
‘I already know which one you want.’ Jess untied the ribbon, and a card in a heavy cream envelope fell free. She opened it carefully, and managed not to make even a tiny tear. Eve knew the card would go into what Jess called her treasure box, a hatbox where she kept mementoes of her favourite moments.
‘Are you going to tell me what it says, or are you going to start keeping secrets from your bestie?’ Eve asked. Jess didn’t answer. ‘What’s wrong? You’re all pale.’
‘It’s not from Seth,’ Jess told her.
‘Someone’s trying to steal you away?’ Eve exclaimed. ‘Who?’
Jess stared at the card a moment longer, then raised her eyes to Eve. ‘They’re from Simon. Don’t you think that’s kind of, I don’t know …’ She shrugged.
Eve frowned. ‘I actually thought it was brave of him to ask you to the prom yesterday. You know how he’s been crushing on you for ever. It might have been the first time he’s ever asked a girl out. At least we’ve never seen him out with anyone. Asking you, awesome you, to the biggest event of the year, that took real courage,’ she said. ‘But you said no. And Seth made it really clear you’re with him. I don’t get why Simon would do this.’
‘Maybe he ordered the chocolates before he asked me,’ Jess suggested, wrapping the brown ribbon around her wrist over and over.
‘But they were hand-delivered. MarieBelle doesn’t have a delivery service,’ Eve pointed out. ‘Simon must have brought them over himself, which means he still brought them even though you’d turned him down.’
She flashed back on Simon’s expression as he looked at Seth and his friends yesterday afternoon. He’d looked humiliated and furious at the same time. Had he been so angry that he was going to keep coming after Jess to prove some kind of point? She decided not to mention that theory to Jess. She wanted her friend to be able to hang onto her prom high.
‘Maybe you’re right, though,’ Eve said. ‘Maybe he’d already gotten the chocolates and decided just to give them to you since he had them. What did he say in the card anyway?’
Jess wrinkled her nose. ‘“Yours always.” That’s just wrong and weird.’
‘Well, Simon isn’t exactly known for having good social skills. He probably read some blog that gave him the idea,’ Eve commented. ‘Now, come on. You know I’m waiting for my white kona coffee bean one.’
‘You think it’s OK to eat them? It feels kind of bad when we’ve just been saying how clueless and weird he is,’ Jess said.
‘I said he was brave, so I definitely get one,’ Eve said. ‘And you were nice to him yesterday. Not everyone would have been. I think it’s just good karma coming around. And don’t you just love when good karma comes in the form of chocolate?’
‘We’re not letting Peter see these,’ Jess said as she led the way into the house. ‘My little brother doesn’t deserve any, because he has no appreciation of good chocolate. He’d be as happy with a jumbo bag of M&Ms.’
‘And the way he inhales food, I’m not sure he’s even able to taste it,’ Eve said. But she smiled. Peter was basically her honorary little brother, and most of the things he did that annoyed Jess just made Eve laugh. She didn’t even mind the way he teased her non-stop and called her ‘Evie-weevie’.
She was so glad he’d gotten over seeing her use her powers against Amunnic. It had scared him. Badly. He’d had a hard time even looking at her for weeks. Finally, just a couple of days ago, he’d started acting like his usual self, and Eve was very relieved.
Before they even reached the living room, Eve heard Peter walking along the landing. It had to be him. Neither of Jess’s parents made that kind of noise.
Jess tried to hide the box of candy behind her back, but she was too slow. ‘I know you got chocolate. Don’t even try to deny it,’ Peter yelled as he started thundering down the stairs. ‘Give me some.’
‘I think he could have one. Just one,’ Eve said, hoping she might score a few points with him. Even though he was almost totally normal around her, she knew he’d never forget seeing her use her powers. And lightning bolts shooting from the fingers – that could be a terrifying sight, even if those bolts were killing a blood-drinking demon.
‘Evie-weevie! Always got my back!’ Peter held a hand up for a high-five when he reached her, and Eve slapped his palm. ‘So what are we doing? What’s the plan for the afternoon?’
‘We – as in me and Eve – are in prom-countdown mode,’ Jess told her brother. ‘We’re going to Manhattan to shop.’ She opened the box of chocolates and held it out to her best friend. Eve picked out her favourite flavour and took a nibble. She smiled as Peter began making little whining puppy sounds. He was such a goof.
‘You can have one, as in one.’ Jess held up one finger, then offered the chocolates to Peter.
Peter grabbed one of the beautifully painted chocolates and stuffed the whole thing in his mouth. ‘So, let me help with the prom-shopping stuff. I can give the man’s opinion.’
‘Did you just call yourself a man?’ Eve teased, happy that Peter was teasable again.
‘He’s just trying to get more chocolate,’ Jess said. She gave an exaggerated sigh. ‘Take one more, then go back to your man-cave. Luke and Seth are coming shopping with us. They’ll provide all the testosterone we need.’
Peter grabbed another chocolate and popped it in his mouth, even though Eve suspected he hadn’t finished eating the first. ‘You know where to find me when you realize no one will tell you the truth about how you look in those dresses the way I will,’ he said as he started back up the stairs. ‘You can rely on me to always say if something makes your butt look big,’ he called over his shoulder.
Eve stared after him. ‘It seems like he’s really getting over the Amunnic thing. What he saw me do.’
‘I told you he would,’ Jess answered. ‘He just needed a little time. The whole Many Faces thing really shook him up. At least the other victims seem to have forgotten everything.’
‘All that blood loss. And the shock.’ Eve turned to Jess. ‘You don’t know how good it felt to hear him call me “Evie-weevie”.’
‘You’re disturbed, you know that?’ Jess joked.
Eve nodded happily, feeling extra glad they hadn’t told Peter that she was part demon. He’d never have gotten over that. Never.
Chapter Three
Jess took one last look in the mirror, then headed out of her bedroom. She’d left Eve downstairs while she showered the kung fu sweat off her in case the guys showed up early.
Whee! I’m about to go shopping for The Dress! She gave a little twirl as she started down the hall. She kept doing that. Twirling. She couldn’t help it. She didn’t think she’d ever been so happy. But she’d never been going to the Senior Prom with Seth before – Seth who she’d been crushing on for ever! She felt like someone had taken a Bedazzler to her – but not tacky, just sparkly.
She hesitated at the doorway, then turned and grabbed the box of chocolates off her dresser. Somehow she didn’t want them in her room. And it wasn’t like she could offer any to Seth.
Jess hurried down the hall, then stopped at Peter’s room and gave a couple of quick knocks.
‘I knew you’d realize you needed me!’ he said as he swung open the door.
‘What I need you for is eating the rest of these.’ She thrust the box of chocolates at him. ‘I so don’t want a volcanic pimple erupting just in time for the prom, and you don’t have anything you have to look good for,’ she added with a smile.
‘No, I don’t,’ he agreed
happily, popping two more chocolates into his mouth.
‘I’m glad you’ve gotten over being weirded out about Eve,’ she told him, keeping her voice low, even though Eve shouldn’t be able to hear her from downstairs. ‘I know what you saw … it looked horrible.’
‘But it saved my life. And everybody else’s,’ Peter said. ‘For a while I guess that whole day was one big glob of badness, and Eve seemed as bad as everything else, firing out those lightning bolts.’
‘It really hurt Eve that you started acting all freaked around her,’ Jess answered. ‘I understood why, and I tried to explain it to her.’
‘Truth? I’m still a little freaked,’ Peter admitted. ‘It’s hard to look at her and just see … Eve. The old Eve. I’m trying though. I do know I wouldn’t even be standing here if it wasn’t for her.’
‘I’m proud of you.’ Jess didn’t think she’d ever said that to him before, but she meant it. ‘You should have seen how happy she was that you were being your usual obnoxious self around her.’
‘Cool.’ Peter’s brows drew together. ‘She is the same, right? I mean, you know her better than anyone. If she was different, you’d be the one to see it.’
‘You don’t have to worry,’ Jess promised. ‘Eve is Eve. She’s just a little new and improved – now with demon-killing power.’ And demon blood, not that she’d ever tell Peter that.
Peter nodded. ‘Yeah. But isn’t it weird that there weren’t any demons here until Eve got that power? It kind of seems like she’s almost a demon magnet. And that means whoever’s around her is going to keep getting attacked. Just … be careful when you’re with her, OK?’
Awww. Her little brother was worried about her. That was so sweet. ‘Why do you think I’ve been taking kung fu? I know I need to be ready for anything.’ She wasn’t going to let Eve protect the town all by herself. Eve had power, but that didn’t mean she didn’t need Jess and Luke backing her up. Jess smiled at her brother and headed for the stairs. ‘Try to show some self-control with that candy,’ she called back. ‘You’ll get sick if you eat it all in one day.’
She was still thinking about the candy when she reached the living room and plopped down on the sofa next to Eve. ‘I think I have to call Simon.’
Eve nodded. ‘He needs to know that you’re with Seth and that he shouldn’t be sending you presents.’
‘Although how can he not know that after the way Seth and his boys acted yesterday?’ Jess asked. ‘Oh, well. At least this time I can be polite, like I wanted to be. I didn’t even manage to say thank you to him after he asked me.’
‘Which so wasn’t your fault,’ Eve told her.
‘Come with me. I need moral support.’ Jess led the way to the kitchen, looked up Simon’s number in the school directory her mom kept in the junk drawer, then phoned him before she could change her mind.
Simon picked up.
‘Hi. Um. It’s Jess. Jess Meredith,’ Jess said uncertainly.
‘Jess! Hello!’ He sounded really excited. Nervous too. His voice had a little quaver in it.
‘Hi, Simon. I wanted to say thank you for asking me to the prom, and for the chocolates. They’re so beautiful I can hardly make myself eat them,’ Jess began. ‘But, here’s the thing, I’ve been going out with Seth for a while now. He’s my boyfriend, so …’
Jess paused, waiting for an answer. But Simon didn’t say anything. She hoped she hadn’t hurt his feelings. She’d chosen every word carefully.
The silence continued, and Jess shot a nervous glance at Eve. Did she really have to spell it out more? Eve gave her an encouraging pat on the hand, and leaned close so she’d be able to hear if Simon said anything. He didn’t. The silence stretched out, and out, and out. Jess couldn’t take it any more. ‘Anyway, like I said, I wanted to tell you thanks. But I’m not available.’
Available? Had she really just used that word?
Simon uttered several harsh, guttural sounds, then hung up. Jess stared at the phone, confused. ‘Did he say something?’ she asked Eve.
‘It kind of sounded like what he was muttering in the hall the other day,’ Eve replied, her brows pulling together in a frown.
‘Well, now that I’ve heard it myself, I don’t think it’s Klingon or World of Warcraft or any other kind of geekspeak,’ Jess said. Whatever it had been, it had given her the creeps. She was glad she hadn’t understood the strange words. The way he’d said them made it clear that they didn’t mean anything good.
* * *
‘It sounds like you have a big admirer, Jess,’ Luke said. Jess had just finished telling the guys about the candy and the phone call. ‘Or should I stay stalker?’
Seth gave a snort. ‘Stalker sounds way too menacing for Simon. He can hardly look at a girl without his knees knocking.’
‘Just try to make the sounds he made,’ Luke told Eve and Jess. ‘Maybe we can figure out what he meant.’
‘What does it matter?’ Eve asked. The four of them were walking towards the station to head for the city. They shouldn’t be talking about Simon when they were starting on their fabulous jaunt to Manhattan.
‘Was it something like …’ Luke made a sound that started out sort of like a rooster and segued into a kind of elephant trumpet.
‘I can’t remember the sounds well enough to make them,’ Jess said, speaking loudly to be heard over Luke.
‘Me neither,’ Eve said. ‘So can we please have a subject change?’
‘Sure,’ Luke said. ‘What do you want to discuss? Global climate change? Strategies to end homelessness? How to achieve world peace?’ He winked at Eve.
‘You don’t think I could talk about any of those things, but I could,’ Eve told him.
‘I just still can’t believe that guy had the nerve to give you chocolates after it should have been clear that we’re together,’ Seth said.
‘It’s over now. I told him how things were, and that’s it,’ Jess assured him, slipping one arm around his waist.
Eve caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye. She spun towards it, just in time to see a basketball bouncing off Seth’s back.
Seth grabbed it, twirled it on one finger, then threw it back at Connor, who stood about half a block behind them, laughing his head off. And getting annoyed glances from a couple of Main Street shoppers.
‘We’re getting a game up over at the Y. You two in?’ he shouted to Luke and Seth.
‘Nope,’ Jess called back. ‘These boys are ours for the entire day.’ She made a flicking motion with her hands. ‘You go play,’ she teased.
Connor dribbled the ball a few times. ‘Your loss,’ he said.
They started walking again. ‘Where are you all off to?’ Jess’s neighbour Megan Christie, who was also at Deepdene High, was now heading across the road towards them. On Main Street you could easily see half the people you knew in about half an hour.
Eve heard Jess give a little sigh and knew she was relieved to have another distraction from the subject of Simon. ‘We’re doing a shop-till-you-drop,’ she answered.
‘With boys? You know they’ll drop hours and hours and hours before you and Eve do?’ Megan said.
‘Hey, we’re athletes,’ Luke protested. ‘We aren’t going to have a problem walking through some stores.’
Megan shook her head, making a little clucking sound with her tongue. ‘“Walking through some stores”,’ she repeated. ‘Clearly you’ve never been shopping with these two.’
‘What do you have going today?’ Jess asked her.
‘Even though I’m older than you, I, sadly, don’t yet have a prom dress to buy.’ She didn’t sound too upset. There was no doubt Megan, one of the flirtiest, most popular girls in school, would be going to her prom when she was a senior. ‘I’m meeting up with Shanna and Elisa. We’re seeing that dying-girl movie.’ She pulled a mini-pack of Kleenex decorated with hearts out of her purse. ‘I’m prepared.’
‘I want to see that too. You have to tell me what it’s like,’ Eve said.
>
‘Will do. And you two’ – she pointed from Luke to Seth – ‘on Monday I expect you to report in on whether football, basketball, or shopping is more gruelling.’ She waved and started back across the street.
‘On the subject of shopping, how do you all feel about making a quick stop in East Hampton?’ Jess asked. ‘When I was taking a shower, I remembered that I’d seen this gorgeous dress in the window of the Cynthia Rowley boutique. I need to look at it again, so I can compare and contrast.’
‘Fine by me,’ Seth answered.
‘Me too,’ Luke put in. ‘Do you think we need to stretch first?’ he asked Seth. ‘We don’t want to pull a muscle.’
‘You know how girls always say that one of the things they look for in a guy is a sense of humour?’ Eve asked. When Luke nodded, grinning, she continued, ‘That’s not my thing.’ He just grinned wider.
‘So East Hampton it is,’ Jess said.
‘Absolutely. If you don’t look at the dress now, it’ll get more and more gorgeous in your mind, and you won’t like anything else we see,’ Eve answered. ‘But then when you go look at it later, it could actually not be especially gorgeous at all.’
‘Exactly!’ Jess smiled at her.
‘And that’s why we’re taking pics of all the possibilities,’ Eve reminded her.
‘Want to cut through the woods?’ Seth asked. ‘It’s not a bad walk to East Hampton. We can be there in about fifteen minutes.’
Eve and Luke exchanged a glance. She knew he was thinking about the missing animals. So was she. But the portal was closed, and if somehow something nasty had gotten into the woods, she could handle it. Before she met Jess that morning, she’d made a quick stop at the power plant. The energy was still churning inside her, and it would love to get out. Not that she wanted anything bad to happen, of course. It was just nice to feel powerful and prepared.
‘I’m up for a walk in the woods,’ Eve said. Why not check things out? she thought. Jess and Luke agreed, and a few minutes later they were entering the cool darkness of the trees. Eve hadn’t been there since she, Jess and Luke had battled the wargs. That night, she’d seen a dead body for the first time, the body of Willem Payne, the Order member who had battled the demons alongside them. The memory made her shiver.