Careful What You Wish For

by Shani Petroff

  “No, I do,” Kyle Manning countered. “Pick me.”

  The whole class erupted again trying to point out why they should be chosen. “I made my decision,” Max said. Everyone got silent. “Courtney, Jaydin, and Kyle.”

  There were a bunch of groans. Kyle pounded his fist into the air and yelled “Yes,” and Courtney and Jaydin actually squealed. And not tiny ones, either. It was like they just won a Teen Choice Award and an actual Jonas Brother was handing them the surfboard trophy.

  “Courtney,” D.L. said, running his hand through his hair.

  “What?” She looked annoyed that he’d interrupted her before she had a chance to give her big acceptance speech. And Courtney was no Taylor Swift. She’d put anyone in their place.

  “Aren’t we working together?” D.L. asked.

  “We don’t need to do everything together. I’m working with Max.”

  “Then what am I supposed to do?” D.L. asked.

  Courtney shrugged her shoulder. But Max gave him an answer. “Join the nerd herd.” He gestured toward me and Gabi.

  “Yeah, right.” D.L. said. Instead, he tried to team up with a group of guys in the back. But they wouldn’t take him.

  “Sorry, dude,” one of them told him. “What Max says goes. And he wants you to work over there.”

  D.L. flung his backpack over his shoulder and made his way over to me. He did not look pleased. At all. “Garrett,” he said, slamming his bag on the table next to mine. He was so upset about the whole Courtney/ Max situation he didn’t even bother to insult me.

  My group, Gabi, Cole, and D.L., stood there not saying a word.

  Can you say awkward?

  Gabi finally chimed in, trying to break the tension. “We’ll get the microscope.” She dragged me from the table. “Okay, what is going on?” she asked me when we were away from everyone.

  I shook my head. “Uhh. We created a monster.”

  “But how? Just last period he was all ‘poor me.’ Now he’s all Freddy Kruger. But meaner.”

  “Yeah. I don’t get it. He even makes Courtney seem nice.” Then I had a thought. A bad one.

  Popularity hadn’t gone to Max’s head. Powers had.

  “What?” Gabi asked. “You look like you just saw Godzilla.”

  “He’s like Courtney,” I whispered, practically choking on the words.

  “No kidding.”

  I gripped her wrist hard and squeezed. “You don’t get it. When we left class you wished he was more like Courtney—and now your wish came true.”

  chapter 14

  “Oh my—” Gabi wrapped her arms around herself. “We turned Max into Courtney!”

  I nodded, although it was more me than her. If I didn’t have devil blood running through me, none of this would have happened. There’d be no wish granting. No chances for someone nice and kind to be transformed into a monster.

  “Okay,” Gabi said. “It was just an accident. We must have both been wishing for the same thing at the same time and kicked your wish-granting powers into gear again. It’s not a big deal. We’ll undo it. Put him back to normal.”

  But we didn’t get a chance. Just then D.L. called us over. “What’s taking you so long? Come on.”

  As much as I hated the idea, Max was going to have to stay Mean Max until lunch.

  Science dragged on, and I couldn’t stop watching the clock. Counting the seconds until I could undo my mistake.

  “Perfect,” Miss Simmons said, studying Max’s worksheet. “Class, look over here. Now this is the epitome of an amazing student. You should all strive to be more like this young man. Even when his answers are wrong, you can tell thought and effort went into them.”

  D.L. snorted. Almost everyone gave him a nasty stare. “Okay, what am I missing?” he asked. “Is everyone in a trance or something? Why is everyone all about Max? Even Simmons is gushing.”

  The bigger question was why wasn’t D.L.? Once I took a moment to think it through, I realized he’d been on Courtney that whole time for the way she was treating Max. Gabi and I weren’t affected by the wish because we were the ones responsible for it. But D.L.?

  “Cole?” I said, my fingers crossed. “Why do you think everyone likes Max?”

  “Because he’s awesome. I hope he joins the basketball team. It would be so cool to ha—”

  I stopped listening as he blathered on about Mr. Wonderful and turned my attention back to D.L. “You really don’t think Max is cool?”

  “No. I don’t get why anyone else does, either. I swear I’m absent one day, and it’s like I come back to the Twilight Zone.”

  “You were absent?”

  He didn’t need to answer. I knew the answer. I remembered Courtney mentioning it. She was all upset that he wasn’t in school the other day.

  Then it all started to make sense. Gabi had wished for everyone in school to think Max was amazing. But D.L. wasn’t here, so the wish didn’t affect him.

  It was the first piece of good news. At least the whole world wouldn’t be bowing down to some eighth-grader from Goode, Pennsylvania. Since I barely spoke to my mother last night, I never had the chance to see if she, or anyone outside school, had been sucked into the vortex of Max worship. This was a relief. Only people who were in the building were stuck that way. At least until I could fix it.

  A roar of laughter came from Max’s table. “I can’t believe I never knew how funny you were before,” Courtney told our school’s new ruler.

  “There’s a lot you don’t know.”

  It was clearly a dig, but Courtney just beamed at him.

  D.L. put his elbows on the desk and rested his head on one of his hands. “I don’t get it. Why would she want to hang out with him over me? I mean, look at him.”

  It was hard to feel sorry for someone who was even conceited when he was sad. I shrugged a shoulder. “Maybe everyone is finally realizing how great Max is.”

  But as I watched Max point to Gabi and laugh, I felt like I got punched in the stomach. Max wasn’t great. He was awful. And he had the devil’s daughter to thank for that.

  chapter 15

  “That better have worked,” I said. Gabi and I were sitting at our table in the cafeteria, and I had just finished trying to reverse her last wish. We both chanted “Make Max nice again” about thirty times. I couldn’t take another minute of his meanness. I actually missed the clumsy old version of him shuffling up behind me on my way to class.

  “It did,” Gabi said, grabbing her lunch. “It had to.” She looked at the closed bag in her hands. “Please make it be something good today. I can’t take anymore tofu burgers.” She held it out to me. “Want to trade?”

  “No way.” I was going to stick with my grilled cheese sandwich and greasy potato chips.

  “Whoa!” Gabi pulled out her food, but it wasn’t what she—or I—expected at all. It was junk food deluxe. A cheeseburger, french fries, a Twix bar, and even a can of Coke. “I think my mom might be having a nervous breakdown.” She popped a few fries in her mouth. “But I’m okay with that if it means this is what I get for lunch,” she said, her mouth full. “These are sooo good.”

  “I can’t believe she gave you that. What happened to fast food stunting your growth, poisoning your body, muddying your mind, and doing whatever other damage she could think of?”

  “Maybe my dad packed it. I could totally see him trying to surprise me.”

  “I should have traded,” I said, letting go of my sandwich, which suddenly didn’t look as appealing, onto my tray.

  “Too late now,” she gloated, and took a bite of her cheeseburger.

  “Hey,” Cole said, sitting down and grabbing a few of Gabi’s fries and downing them. He gave her one of his huge lopsided smiles. “You don’t mind, right?”

  How could she mind? Not after getting one of those smiles. They were pretty irresistible. And she was human, after all.

  “Nope,” she said, gesturing for him to take more.

  “Sweet. Thanks.” Cole took mor
e of her lunch. “When do you want me to help you with your Bat Mitzvah stuff?”

  “Everyone ready for Mrs. Torin’s test today?” I chimed in, totally changing the subject. I was feeling left out. And I wanted him to make plans with me. Not my best friend.

  “Ughh,” Gabi said. “No. There was so much reading. I—” She didn’t finish because she got distracted. We all did.

  Max had marched right into the center of the lunchroom and now he was standing on Courtney’s table. Gabi and I exchanged a look.

  It was safe to assume that the reversal didn’t work.

  “Uh-oh,” Gabi whispered. “What’s he doing here, anyway? I thought he had math tutoring during lunch.”

  “And disappoint his minions?” I asked.

  “Angel,” Cole reprimanded me. “You shouldn’t talk about Max like that. He’s my friend.”

  I knew it was the spell talking and not Cole, but it made me want to give him a hard poke, anyway. Max had totally ripped on me in science class. Powers or no powers, Cole should hate him for the sheer fact that I’m his girlfriend and Max dissed me. But no. Cole didn’t want to defend me. Just his idol.

  He even left me stranded at the lunch table. He wanted to go sit near Max. So he just stood up, waved a quick good-bye, and ran back to his old table. Correction. Make that Max’s table.

  “I decided to join you all today,” Max said, perched on the tabletop. Applause sounded throughout the cafeteria. Even the lunch ladies joined in. “I don’t feel like standing in line, so I need someone to go pick up my lunch.” About a dozen people jumped up. “You,” Max said, pointing to Dana. “And it better be decent.”

  Instead of being annoyed that he was acting like some cruel drill sergeant, she practically skipped off to go get his food. She didn’t even care that he didn’t give her money for it. I half expected him to ask people to lick his shoes clean. He probably would have if someone gave him the idea. “And since I’m missing my math lesson, I’m going to need someone to finish my assignment for me.”

  “I can do it,” Jaydin said. “I’m great with equations. And I can tutor you if you want.”

  “I’ll think about it,” Max said.

  Think about it? One of the prettiest, most popular, and smartest girls just offered to help him in a subject he stunk at, and he was going to think about it?

  “Let’s try again,” I told Gabi. “We need to reverse this.”

  We grabbed hands. The good thing about sitting at the nerd table was that no one paid attention to you. Well, unless they wanted to make fun of you. But everyone was too wrapped up in Max to even notice we existed.

  “I wish Max was back to his normal self,” Gabi said.

  I repeated it, squeezing Gabi’s hands so hard she actually yelped. “Please, please, please, let him be normal again,” I prayed. Never in my life had I concentrated on anything so hard. This needed to be reversed. I was not going to be responsible for causing more evil in the world.

  “Please, let him be nice again.” This time I said it about three hundred times. No exaggeration.

  “Max, come sit next to me,” Courtney said. “Move, D.L.” She swatted her boyfriend’s arm. “Give him some room.”

  Max jumped off the table and stood over D.L. “I don’t like to be kept waiting.”

  “I don’t believe this,” D.L. said, getting up from his seat.

  Neither did I.

  The reversal didn’t work.

  chapter 16

  “Look,” Gabi said, running over to her locker. There was a note taped to it. She definitely was not as concerned about this whole Max situation as I was, which was pretty frustrating.

  “Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed. “I bet it’s from my secret admirer.” She tore it down. “It is,” she said, and actually jumped a foot into the air.

  GABI, G = GRACIOUS. A = AMAZING. B = BEAUTIFUL. I = I HOPE YOU’LL FEEL THE SAME WAY ABOUT ME.

  “How are you supposed to feel the same way if you don’t even know who it’s from?” I muttered, leaning my back against the locker.

  “Don’t be such a downer,” she said, smacking my knuckles with the note. “This is the most exciting thing that has happened to me in . . . in . . . ever! The only thing that would make this day better would be if we didn’t have to take that English test.”

  “Uh . . . and how about Max? We have to figure out how to fix him.”

  She clutched her note. “I know. We’ll figure it out. Or, and I know you don’t want to, but maybe we can just ask Lou for help?”

  “How can you even suggest that?” My eyes darted around the hall. Just saying my father’s name was enough to make him come pay me a visit, and I was in no mood. “He’s not a part of my life anymore. Not after what he did.”

  Her voice got extra quiet. “But he wasn’t the one who set out to take anyone’s soul. From what it sounds like, he was just trying to clean up that other guy’s mess.”

  “But he didn’t have to step in. He could have just walked away from the whole situation.” How could she side with the devil? “I can’t forgive him. Not this time.”

  “Okay,” Gabi said. “Sorry I said anything. I promise, we’ll come up with a different solution.”

  I nodded. “Maybe we just need to go somewhere really quiet to reverse everything.”

  “Maybe,” she said, “but first, we have to get through English. I need an A on this test, so my mom doesn’t kill me. What I wouldn’t give for us to get out of class today.”

  She didn’t need to tell me. Gabi was a much better student than I was. “There you are,” Mrs. Torin said when Gabi walked into class. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

  Gabi’s eyes froze with fear. It was like watching a hunter pick up a gun and point it at Bambi’s mother. “Is everything okay?” she asked.

  “More than okay,” Mrs. Torin said. “As a reward for being such an exemplary student, you don’t need to take today’s test. You have an automatic A. In fact, you can leave early. I’ll write you a pass. And that’s not all. . . .”

  Mrs. Torin looked at me. “This is your lucky day, too, Angel. Gabi should have someone to celebrate with, so you can go home as well.”

  She was letting us both leave? Normally I would have been ecstatic. But not this time.

  This wasn’t good news. Not good news at all.

  chapter 17

  “Oh my God. Oh MY God. OH. MY. GOD.”

  What had I done?

  “That was so awesome,” Gabi screamed as we left school, skipping out on last period. But she couldn’t have been more wrong. That wasn’t awesome, that was completely horrendous.

  “I cannot believe she just let us leave,” Gabi chirped away, oblivious to the disaster unfolding around us. “What’s going on today?”

  “You. You’re what’s going on.”

  “What are you talking about?” she asked.

  “Yes, what are you talking about?” Lou was standing right in front of us! I put my arm out to block Gabi from him. He was dangerous. There was no way I was letting him near my best friend.

  “None of your business!” I shouted.

  “Isn’t it a little early for you to be done with classes?” he pressed on. “Cutting school are we?” He looked amused.

  “No!” I couldn’t blame him for thinking I was a juvenile delinquent, following in dear old dad’s footsteps. “Gabi isn’t feeling well,” I lied. “So the nurse gave me permission to take her home. What are you doing here, anyway?”

  “Well, you said you didn’t want me visiting you in school. So I waited for you outside.”

  “I don’t want you visiting me anywhere!” I needed him gone. And not just because I hated being around him. But because I needed to warn Gabi about what I did. To her! Without Lou finding out.

  “Now, now,” he said. “Don’t be so quick. I can be useful. I can help your friend get better. Gabi, what would you like? Chicken soup? Or I can whip you up some cold medicine that tastes like chocolate-dipped strawberries. Or maybe y
ou just need some relaxation. How about a spa day?”

  “Gabi, don’t even think about accepting any of that,” I warned.

  “Fine,” she said to me. “But some of it does sound good. I wish—”

  I covered her mouth with my hand. “Think about Max. How he acted in science class. Seriously. Just think about Max.”

  Lou raised an eyebrow at me, and Gabi was completely confused. I could tell by her expression she thought I was nuts.

  “What?” I moved my hands to my hips. “I just don’t want Lou to go after your soul. You say you want something and he’ll try to bargain you for it.”

  But that wasn’t why I was so frantic. Not this time. I didn’t want Gabi to wish for something because if she did—it would come true. And not because of Lou. But because I ACCIDENTALLY MADE ALL OF HER WISHES COME TRUE. That’s right. All of them. It was the only way to explain everything. Why Max was acting all superior, the junk food in her lunch, the automatic A, getting to leave early. Gabi wished for all of those things to happen—and they did.

  I couldn’t risk her wishing something else—something that could be way, way worse. Especially not with Lou watching.

  “I wouldn’t take her soul,” Lou said.

  “No, you’d send Gremory for that,” I shot back at him.

  “Gremory won’t be trying that again. Not after what happened last time.”

  “What happened?”

  “Ahh, that demon,” Lou laughed, and shook his head. “Instead of only granting one of his subject’s wishes, he accidentally granted them all. What a mess. But that’s what happens when you don’t have the right training.”

  Gabi let out a gasp.

  Why did she have to pick now to catch on? I glared at her and shook my head ever so slightly. Lou wasn’t supposed to see.

  But of course he did.

  “Angel?” he said.

  “What?”

  “Have you tried to grant a wish?”

  “Of course not.” I kept eye contact with him. Looking away would have made me seem guilty.

  But Lou wasn’t buying it. He was the devil. A pro at spotting deception. “Angel?” he said again.