Careful What You Wish For

by Shani Petroff

  “That’s not fair,” Tracy said. “I want to be next to him.”

  “Okay, okay,” Mrs. Torin said as the rest of the class also put in their requests. “I understand. It’s not every year I get a student like Max. He is one of a kind.”

  “Even Mrs. Torin is on a Max kick,” Gabi whispered to me as we took our seats—on the empty side of the room. Fortunately, we weren’t under the Max spell. I guess that’s how it works—the wisher (if the wish isn’t on their own behalf) and the granter have immunity. “This is unbelievable.”

  It really was.

  “Max, you can come right up here,” Mrs. Torin said. “Take my seat, so everyone can see you.”

  Max didn’t move.

  “Come on.” Mrs. Torin gestured toward him. “Prize students deserve the spotlight.”

  Max shuffled his way to the front. He kept his face down, so I couldn’t see his expression. But he had to be hiding a huge smile. Sudden turns in status like this didn’t happen all the time.

  With Max out of the seating equation, everyone grabbed a desk. Cole took one next to me, which was cool.

  “We’re going to read aloud from Romeo and Juliet today. Max, you can be Romeo. Do I have a volunteer for the part of Juliet?” Mrs. Torin asked.

  Every girl’s hand shot up except for Gabi’s and mine.

  “Please,” Courtney said, practically lunging from her seat.

  And Mrs. Torin actually picked her. Not that I was shocked. She thought Courtney was an amazing actress. She even gave her the lead in Charlie Brown not too long ago. The part that should have gone to Gabi.

  Watching Max read his lines was pretty torturous. Brad Pitt he was not. He fumbled over the words and took about three million centuries to get out a line. I already thought reading Shakespeare was boring, but listening to it with Max as the lead was way, way worse. Not that anyone else seemed to think so. They applauded every time he managed to spit out a line, and Mrs. Torin even suggested he try out for the next school play!

  My special gift was obviously pretty powerful. Maybe I’d try to broker world peace next. The thought made me laugh. Some girls tried to make their fathers proud of them. My goal was the opposite. Lou was going to be furious when he saw all the good I did.

  Gabi tossed a note at me.

  I carefully opened it under my desk. This is awesome, it said. We did it.

  As I wrote my response, Mrs. Torin called me out. “Something you’d like to share with the class, Angel?”

  I crumpled up the paper and dropped it into my backpack. “No, thanks,” I said. “They already know.”

  And they did. I was going to write, Max is the king!

  chapter 10

  “You’re in a good mood,” Mom commented when I got home.

  Understatement. I was in a fantastic mood. I had done something amazing with my powers. Something kind. Or, more importantly, something not evil. Nothing was going to get me down. I even volunteered to help Mom with her monthly cleansing. The one where she lights candles and roams through the house shaking a giant totem pole to ward off negative spirits.

  The giant pole and I pirouetted around the kitchen. I tossed it up in the air, caught it, and did a dip for an encore. It was Dancing with the Stars-worthy. Well, if I was a star.

  “What’s gotten into you?” Mom asked.

  “Just had a good day at school.”

  “Well, I’m certainly not complaining,” Mom said. “Feel free to waltz your way through the upstairs. It could use a nice cleansing.”

  I twirled my way into the living room. The totem pole wasn’t as much fun to dance with as Cole, but I could pretend. I glided my way upstairs with my partner and did a flying leap into my room.

  And then my mood took a sudden nosedive. Try and guess who was leaning against my dresser waiting for me.

  I shut the door so Mom wouldn’t hear, then I pointed the stick at Lou. “Leave.”

  “Angel—”

  “No, I don’t want to hear it.”

  “What about your lessons?” he asked.

  “Don’t need them. Don’t need you.” And it was true. My powers hadn’t gone off on their own at all since he was out of my life. Not to mention that I just had major success with wish granting. I was doing just fine.

  “What happens when something goes wrong?”

  I shook the totem pole at him. “It won’t. And if it does, I’ll fix it. Maybe I’ll just grant myself a wish for everything to be fine. Isn’t that what you like to do? Play with wishes?”

  “Angel.” Lou’s face got serious. “Wish granting is not meant for someone at your level. You need to keep studying with me before you attempt that.”

  I rolled my eyes at him. He was such a liar. Wish granting was simple. He just wanted me to ask him for help. “Whatever.”

  “I mean it, Angel. It’s very risky to use powers that are beyond your grasp. Do I need to remind you of the time you turned your friends into statues?”

  “No.”

  “And it’s not just you,” he said. “Take Gremory. He tried wish granting, and he lost control. Then he couldn’t undo the damage.”

  “Well, I’m not a demon.”

  “No, but you’re a girl who doesn’t know how to control her powers.”

  I squeezed the totem pole. It took all my willpower not to tell Lou he was wrong, that I’d already granted a wish, and it all worked out perfectly. But I didn’t want him to go and undo it. Or worse, try to make Gabi hand over her soul as payment.

  “Promise me you won’t try it,” he said.

  “Fine. I promise.” Lou wasn’t the only one who could lie.

  “Good. Because there can be major consequences. When Gremory tried to undo the wish and the problems he caused—he made a bigger mess.”

  I knew what Lou was doing. Giving me a lecture to scare me from trying anything advanced without him.

  “Yeah, whatever,” I said. “Undoing powers is tricky.” It wasn’t like I had plans to undo anything, anyway. Max was going to stay popular forever. “Got it. Now go.”

  I pounded the totem pole on the ground.

  “Angel.”

  I pounded again. “Go!”

  With that, Lou shook his head and left.

  “Are you okay up there?” Mom called out.

  “Yep,” I answered. “Just getting rid of all the evil in the room.”

  chapter 11

  “Can you believe he tried to get me all paranoid about my powers?” I complained to Gabi as we walked into homeroom. “What a jerk.”

  “Definitely.” But she was barely listening to me anymore. Couldn’t really blame her, though. I had been talking about it an awful lot. Nonstop, actually. “Hey, look,” she said as we got closer to her desk. There was a cupcake with blue icing there. And a folded note.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “A cupcake,” Gabi said, picking it up.

  “I know that. I mean the note. What does it say?” She shrugged her shoulder and unfolded the piece of paper. “Something sweet for someone sweet,” she recited. “From your secret admirer.”

  Talk about corny. But I didn’t say that out loud. Gabi looked superexcited, and I didn’t want to ruin it for her. Because corny or not, it was still pretty cool. “Who do you think it’s from?” I asked.

  “No idea.” She put her finger in the frosting and licked it off. “Mmm. I love frosting.”

  Gabi loves anything sweet. But her mom is like the food police and only wants Gabi to eat things with nutritional value. So getting junk food totally made her day. And this particular junk food was from a boy, so it made it that much yummier.

  I scanned the room. “Maybe Marc Greyson gave it to you,” I whispered. “Wasn’t he the one who ate about a dozen cupcakes at the dance? Maybe they’re like his signature now. And he seems to be looking this way.”

  Gabi didn’t say anything. She was focused on the cupcake.

  “I bet he likes you and wants to go out with you.” I had to admit, I
was getting pretty excited myself. The thought of Gabi and I going on double dates was totally cool. Maybe one day we’d even have a double wedding.

  Gabi turned around to look at Marc. “He is cute. But why would he like me?” She sat down.

  I smacked her arm. “Because you are amazing. Why wouldn’t he like you? You’re smart, you’re pretty, you’re talented, you’re—”

  “A big loser,” she said.

  “Stop it,” I hissed at her. “First, you are so not a loser. Since when do you believe what Courtney Lourde says? And second, Cole goes out with me. And if you’re a loser, then I am, too. And he doesn’t seem to care. So then Marc wouldn’t, either.”

  Gabi giggled. “Okay, maybe you’re right.” She turned around to look at Marc again. “Do you think it could be him? He’s really cute!”

  “Who?” Tracy butted in. “Are you talking about Max? You’re friends with him, right?”

  I shrugged my shoulder. We weren’t exactly friends, but he did follow me around a lot. “I guess.”

  “Then will you see if he likes me?”

  Tracy was asking me for a favor? I thought she hated me! I told her I would. Bringing a couple together was a good thing. And good was my new specialty.

  Everything was going just great. Max was even going to get a girlfriend. I didn’t know what Lou was talking about. Wish granting was easy. Not sure what Gremory’s problem was all about. What do you expect from a demon?

  But I certainly was no demon.

  I was 100 percent good. And there’d be no mess-ups on my watch.

  chapter 12

  “Sign this.” Courtney shoved a paper under my nose at the end of social studies class.

  “What is it?”

  She let out a sigh. She clearly didn’t want to be talking to me. The feeling was mutual. “A petition. To hold a reelection for student senate.”

  “Why?” I asked, pushing away the paper she had shoved in my face.

  “Duh. So Max can run for president. He shouldn’t have to wait until next year. He deserves it now. I already have eighty signatures.”

  “I’ll sign,” Rick said, grabbing the paper. He dropped it back in front of me when he was done.

  “Now you,” Courtney demanded.

  I didn’t argue. I just signed. So did Gabi. Then Courtney ran over to Max. “Once I have one hundred signatures, I’m going to show it to the principal. I know he’ll let us do a revote. You’re going to be the perfect president,” she said, and flipped her hair over her shoulder, giving Max a big old smile.

  Gabi’s body was shaking from trying to hold back her laughter. It was pretty funny watching Courtney flirt with the guy she once referred to as uglier than toe fungus.

  “Courtney,” D.L. yelled from the doorway. “What are you doing with that? Let’s go.”

  She stood up and marched right over to D.L. “That is Max and don’t ever speak about him in that tone again. Because I promise, if you do, we are so done.”

  “What’s with you?” he asked, reaching for her hand. “Since when are you champion of the charity cases?”

  Okay, this was weird. Why wasn’t D.L. on the Max bandwagon?

  I wasn’t the only one wondering . . .

  “What did I just tell you?” Courtney yanked her hand away from him. “Quit being so mean. Why can’t you be more like Max?” She stomped out of the room with D.L. following close behind.

  “Whoa,” Gabi said.

  I had to second that. Courtney just dissed the hot school bad boy—her very own boyfriend—to stand up for the freaky school dork. I really did use my powers for good.

  Max stood up and walked right past us.

  “Wait up,” I called out to him.

  He stopped, but he wouldn’t look at me. Just at his feet.

  Okay. I wasn’t looking for a “thank you” or anything like that. After all, Max had no idea that I was responsible for his fabulous new reputation. But I would have liked to have seen a smile. A little bounce in his step. Something to prove using my devil powers was worth it. That it had meaning. But nope. Max looked gloomier than ever.

  “What’s wrong?” Gabi asked.

  “Everything,” he muttered.

  “Everything?” I repeated after him. “What do you mean everything? Everyone is crazy about you. It’s like the perfect day.”

  “Yeah,” he said, kicking his foot over a scuff mark in the floor. “Just perfect. Now the whole school is out to get me.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked. This was crazy. Was he living in some parallel universe? Our classmates were treating him like a superhero. Gabi’s wish made sure of that.

  “You’ve seen it. They’re all pretending to like me. It’s a big set-up. They’re planning something. I’ll probably wind up taped to my locker at the end of the day if I’m lucky. It’s probably much worse than that. Like this whole president thing. It’s some elaborate scheme.”

  “No,” I said. “Max, they just like you.”

  “Right.” His foot moved like crazy over the floor. “All of a sudden, just like that,” he said, snapping his fingers, “they start liking me. No way.”

  I chewed on my nails. This was not what I imagined.

  “It could happen,” Gabi said, nodding wildly.

  Max gave her a weak smile. “No it couldn’t. What’s worse, even people like Cole and Reid are in on it. It wasn’t like we were friends, but at least they never tried to torture me before. Now they’re helping Courtney and everyone set me up.”

  “Cole wouldn’t do that,” I protested.

  “Then why all of a sudden did he offer to help me get ready for basketball tryouts? He barely ever speaks to me. Now he wants to be my friend? He’s probably in charge of luring me somewhere.”

  “It’s not like that, Max. It’s—” I cut myself off.

  “It’s what?”

  What could I say? “It’s because of me and my devil powers”? That “I made everyone want to be friends with you”? So I just told him that I didn’t know.

  Max didn’t say anything else. He just walked out of class.

  “This is awful,” I said to Gabi. My nails were now nonexistent.

  “It’s not that bad,” she said. “Eventually he’ll realize everyone’s sincere, and he’ll be happy.”

  Eventually? I didn’t want eventually. “But now he feels worse about himself. And I caused that.”

  “It’ll all work out,” Gabi said. “Now come on, let’s go. Maybe we’ll get to see Marc on the way to class!”

  How could she think about boys when Max’s future was at stake? “Gabi, this is major. Look how upset he is. He’ll probably drop out, beg his mom to homeschool him, and if she says no, he’ll just run away from home.”

  “You’re way overreacting,” Gabi said.

  “I’m not! It could happen. Max needs to know this is real.”

  “Getting him to believe that right now is going to be hard,” she said. “I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but I wish he was more like Courtney. She has enough confidence for the both of them.”

  “Seriously.” My head was pounding. What good was granting Max popularity if he completely misinterpreted it?

  chapter 13

  “I think he smiled at me,” Gabi said as we passed Marc on our way to class. “Or maybe it was meant for Brooke. She was right behind me. Did you see it? What do you think? ’Cause if he did smile at me, then he probably was the one to give me the cupcake.” Marc was all Gabi could talk about.

  I, on the other hand, was more concerned about Max.

  “Groups of four,” Miss Simmons said. Everyone clamored around Max begging him to be in their group.

  “Max,” I called out. “Come work with us.” I figured it was the least I could do. He knew Gabi and I would never be part of a scheme to set him up. And it would give me time to make him understand that everyone really did like him.

  “Riiiight,” a voice said back. A voice that sounded like Max’s, if Max’s v
oice was sarcastic, evil, and totally condescending. I had to be hearing things.

  Only it didn’t stop. “No one wants to work with you, Double-A!” the voice that sounded like Max’s continued. “Except maybe your nerdy sidekick.” Courtney and Co. laughed like they were watching a Will Ferrell movie.

  Was this really coming from Max? The Max who has been crushing on me since forever? The Max who tried to carry me home when I fell off my bike in sixth grade? The Max who gave me a homemade present for Christmas every year since I’ve known him? The Max who was the kindest person in all of Goode? The Max who just moments ago thought the whole school was out to get him? Were the insults really coming from him?

  “No way I’d work with you,” he said. “Or your spazzy best friend.”

  Yep. They were. I felt like the Easter bunny just spit on my sneakers.

  “Hey,” Cole said, stepping up to my defense. “Cut it out.”

  Max put up his hand. “Look, Cole. We all know you’re into doing charity work, and Angel’s your pet project, but it doesn’t mean the rest of us need to be nice to her. You’re lucky we still include you at all.”

  Cole opened up his mouth to say something else but stopped himself. He just backed into his seat. Then he said sorry. Only it wasn’t to me. It was to Max! Apparently nobody talked back to the new Max. Not if they wanted a social life.

  “Max?” Gabi said, gripping her braid.

  “Gabi?” he said, mimicking her.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Well, at this very moment, it seems I’m having a conversation with the queen nerd’s number one subject.”

  Gabi’s mouth fell open and Max laughed. He didn’t care that he had just majorly insulted us both. It didn’t bother him at all. In fact, it was the opposite. He seemed to stand a whole foot taller.

  “Enough,” Miss Simmons said. “Groups now. Or I pick them. Max, go ahead and choose your partners.”

  King Max eyed every student, each of whom seemed to be holding their breath.

  “Pick me.” Courtney broke the silence. “We can go over your election campaign.”

  “And me,” Jaydin added. “I have the best grades in the class.”