“Fine,” I answered, giving him a half truth. I read in some article that the best way to get away with a lie was to keep it as close to reality as possible. Without too many details. “I haven’t granted any wishes, but I’m thinking about it. It’ll let me do some good in this world. Unlike you.”
“It’s too dangerous,” he warned me.
“Like having the devil roaming the streets isn’t?”
“Let’s talk about this.” He took a step closer to me.
“No. Now go. I have to get Gabi home. She’s sick, remember?”
Without another word, I grabbed Gabi’s arm and stormed off, dragging her behind me. She might not have been sick, but something was terribly wrong.
chapter 18
I took Gabi to the McBrin house. It was old and abandoned and we met there every morning so we could walk to school together. No one else ever hung around there. Probably because they were afraid it was haunted.
Gabi was bursting.
“I have powers? This is the absolute coolest thing ever.” She looked like a firecracker about to explode. “I wish for—”
“Stop.” I was afraid she’d wish for something crazy. Like a pet elephant. “Let’s be careful,” I instructed. “Why don’t you wish for something simple? Like a piece of gum.” I had to see if my suspicions were right. If I really messed up the same way as Lou’s demon friend.
Gabi closed her eyes and put out her hand. I held my breath and hoped that I was wrong and that Gabi couldn’t make all her secret desires come true.
She opened her eyes and glanced down at her palm. “Nothing there,” she moaned. “It didn’t work.”
I grabbed her hand to see for myself. It was empty. Thank goodness. It was all a mistake. She wasn’t responsible for everything that happened in school. “Trust me. This is the best thing that could have happened.”
“I guess,” Gabi said, smacking a piece of gum between her teeth.
Wait a minute.
“Where did you get that?” I lunged toward her, as if getting a closer look would make the gum disappear. “Where did that gum come from?”
Gabi opened her mouth and the gum dropped out—right into my hand. Which totally would have grossed me out and sent me running to the nearest hand sanitizer if I wasn’t freaking out.
“It just appeared. I wished for a piece of gum and there it was.” She giggled. “Ha! That just made another piece appear.”
“Shhh,” I said. “Then don’t say anything else. You need to stay quiet. Don’t wish for anything else. Don’t even think about anything else.”
I’d made a Frankenstein! A cuter, skinnier one, with long, light brown hair and perfectly pressed clothes.
But Gabi didn’t follow orders very well because all of a sudden a hot fudge sundae appeared in front of her.
“Sorry,” she said, licking her lips in anticipation. “I didn’t mean to. It just kind of popped in my head. And now here it is.”
Gabi eyed the dessert. Then me.
“I wish I had a spoon. And extra whipped cream,” she said super fast. One after another the things she wished for appeared. “Sorry, but come on. It’s only ice cream. And it looks so good.”
“Gabi!” I screamed. “What are you doing? You know how easy it is for wishes to get out of control. You’ve seen what’s happened to me. Something that seems like it won’t matter turns into a huge nightmare. What if you accidentally said something like—” I stopped myself. I didn’t want to put any ideas in her head. Last thing I needed was for her to repeat some harebrained thing I said, like, “I wish Edward from Twilight was my boyfriend.” We already had a devil in Goode—the last thing we needed was a coven of vampires. Hot or not.
“Can you please try to reverse what you’ve done? Try something small first. We’ll work up to the bigger things.” Like reversing what she did to Max and figuring out a way get rid of her newfound ability.
“Fine,” Gabi said, letting out a big sigh. “I wish the sundae would disappear.”
It didn’t budge.
“Try actually meaning it,” I said.
“I am trying,” Gabi said.
But I didn’t believe her. I saw the look on her face. She was enjoying the power rush. She didn’t want it to go away. Sure, maybe some of it, like making Max a Courtney clone, but not the other part. The part that got her ice cream and straight As and who knew what else.
“You have to want to get rid of the sundae. Think of the possibilities. Maybe it’s poison.”
“A poison sundae?” she said. “Come on.”
The shade of ice cream got a little darker, and I dumped it out into the grass before she could take a bite. “See,” I screamed. “Did you see that change? One wrong word and you could accidentally kill yourself. DO NOT REPEAT THAT. Gabi, you have to be really careful until I figure out a way to fix this.”
“Don’t worry,” she said, looking way too relaxed for a girl who just had a brush with death by mint chocolate chip. “I’ll be careful, and I won’t wish for anything crazy. I can handle this. I’ve seen how you’ve dealt with your powers. I’ll be fine. I promise.”
Her reassurance didn’t calm me down one bit.
I was in for big trouble. I could feel it.
chapter 19
I took a big chug from a bottle of Mom’s sweetness serum. I was game for anything that promoted goodness, even one of Mom’s concoctions. But it didn’t help me solve any of my problems. I was still at a loss about how to undo Gabi’s wishes. And I had to hurry. It wouldn’t be long before Max made the whole student body his personal butlers. Or . . . Gabi accidentally wished for the end of civilization.
The doorbell distracted me from my thoughts. I tossed the container back in the fridge and made my way into the living room. Mom beat me to the door. “Well, I’m glad to see you are finally learning some manners.”
She was talking to Lou. My fists clenched. What did he want? And since when did he bother waiting to be invited in?
“I know you hate it when I pop in unannounced. So I’m working on it.”
“Thank you,” Mom said. And she sounded like she actually appreciated the gesture.
Was Lou trying to use Mom to get to me? Make her all sympathetic to his cause to get to know his daughter? It wasn’t going to work. I’d just tell her everything he’d been up to with the soul stealing. Then he’d never be allowed back in.
“Mom,” I said, giving Lou a smug look. “Do you know why Lou’s really here? What he’s been up to recently?” He wasn’t going to win this time.
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
“Lou’s—”
He cut me off. “Here to help Angel with her pow—”
“NO!” I shouted. Mom didn’t know I inherited Lou’s evil powers, and I wanted to keep it that way.
“Her what?”
“Her PowerPoint presentation. I suggested she try one for her science project—to give her a leg up on her classmates. I told her I’d help her make it. Isn’t that right, Angel? Didn’t we say today after school?”
Blackmail. That was Lou’s plan. Hang out with him or he’d rat me out to my mom. Nicely played. He really was good at this manipulation thing. “Yeah, that’s what we said. Let’s go.”
I slammed my bedroom door shut. “This is not making me like you more.”
“You’ll come around,” he said.
That’s what he thought. I sat on my bed, put on my iPod, and stuck in the earbuds. So he sat down next to me and plucked them right out. “We need to talk.”
I looked up at the ceiling.
“What you said before, about thinking about granting wishes, don’t do it.”
“Why? Don’t like the idea of me helping others?”
“What I don’t like,” he answered, “is the idea of you doing something that could hurt you.”
I ignored him.
“Angel, I’m serious. You don’t know what you’re doing. Look what happened to Gremory. It was a mess, he thought
he was making the man’s wish to become a baseball player come true. But his focus wasn’t right.”
“Yeah, you told me,” I said, hoping to end the conversation. “He ended up granting all of the guy’s wishes.”
“Yes, and that’s why I don’t want you trying it. It’s a very common mistake. Gremory’s thoughts were so wrapped up in giving the guy what he wanted that he ended up granting all of the guy’s wishes.
“So? It’s not like you couldn’t reverse it in a millisecond.”
“It’s not that simple. Once a wish is made it’s done. No going back, no altering it. Unless the person who made the wish wants to give it up.”
Again Lou was making a big deal out of nothing.
“Okay, if the guy wished for something bad, why wouldn’t he want to reverse it?”
“Because,” Lou said, “it’s all or nothing. The wish was that all his wishes would come true. To undo it means giving everything back. Not just the bad stuff. Gremory’s subject wanted to be a baseball player way too much to give it up. Sure, there were some things even he would have wanted to reverse. Like when he accidentally wished his coach would shut up, and the guy could no longer speak at all. But nothing was worth giving up his dream.”
Then he was a jerk. I wouldn’t have that problem with Gabi. She wasn’t that baseball player. She wouldn’t let someone suffer because of her. She was the nicest, best person in the world. She would definitely give it all up. She wouldn’t leave someone silent for the rest of their life or Max all self-absorbed—not even for all the ice-cream sundaes and straight As.
Lou went on with his story, pretending not to notice that I was back to ignoring him. “Gremory, of course, couldn’t leave things as they were. And with a little help from me we made the man realize he was better off without wishes. But do you see how dangerous playing around with this power can be? What if the person wished everyone would shut up? There would be worldwide ramifications.”
“Okay,” I said. “You made your point. You can go now. I won’t try to grant a wish.”
Too bad I already did.
chapter 20
I got to the McBrin house extra early the next morning to meet Gabi. Which, if you know me, is super impressive. I am not a morning person at all. But I couldn’t sleep. I kept having nightmares that a zombie was after me, wanting me to grant him a wish. Between that and thoughts of Gabi transforming the town into Wonka World, I got my butt in gear extra early. I was there a whole twenty minutes before Gabi showed up.
“Thank God,” I said when she finally arrived. “You didn’t make any more wishes, did you?”
She said she didn’t. But Gabi was the worst liar ever. She looked like she just swallowed a baseball bat, she was that uncomfortable.
“Gabi . . .”
“Okay,” she said, and dropped down to the grass. “I may have made a few itty-bitty ones. But not on purpose. They just happened. And honestly, they’re so small, it’s like they don’t exist at all. I mean, it’s nothing to worry about.”
“What did you wish for?” I said before she went into a fifty-eight minute oral presentation on why I shouldn’t freak out. The girl could talk when she wanted to.
Gabi pulled at her ponytail and twisted the strands around her fingers. “Well, my mom totally doesn’t care what I eat anymore or how I do in school.” Her voice got higher and faster. “My room has its own dessert bar, a hundred-inch flat screen TV, a whole wall of new books, a water bed, a—” She saw the look on my face and stopped. My jaw was skimming my sneakers.
“Come on,” she said, standing back up. “You have to admit it’s pretty cool. It didn’t hurt anyone. And Rori is sooo jealous. It’s awesome.” Rori was Gabi’s little sister, who was more than a little spoiled—and used to getting whatever she wanted.
“Yeah. Cool until something bad happens. We have to reverse it.”
“Too bad we don’t know how,” she said. The sincerity in her voice was totally fake.
“Good news,” I said. “We do.” I filled her in on what Lou had told me about how Gabi had to want to give up her new “power” and relinquish everything she wished for in order to put things back the way they were.
“Everything?” she asked. “I really like the dessert bar in my room.”
I put my hands on my hips. “I’ll buy you a Twinkies value pack,” I promised. “Now please. Before you do something you regret.”
“What if I promise to be extra careful?”
“It’s too risky.”
She knotted her fingers together. “Your powers are risky, too, and you manage.”
“It’s not the same thing. You just have to say or think something and poof, it’s here. I have to have perfect concentration to make anything go right. My passing thoughts don’t make things appear out of thin air.” I took an extra long pause for dramatic effect. “Do it for Max. Do it for all the people he’s bossing around and turning into his servants. Do it for me.”
My little guilt trip worked. Gabi nodded. “Fine.”
“Just clear your mind and focus on how you don’t want wishes.”
I watched her. It seemed like she was concentrating. Her eyes were squeezed closed and it looked like she was holding her breath. “Okay,” I said when she opened her eyes. “Try to make a wish.”
“I wish for a diamond—” She paused when she looked at me.
Way to think small, I thought.
“Bracelet,” Gabi finished.
And the shimmering jewels appeared encrusted around Gabi’s wrist.
“Whoa,” she said, her face almost as bright as the bracelet.
The reversal hadn’t worked. Gabi was still as magical as before. What went wrong? I watched her hold the jewels up to the light. She looked relieved. “Gabi,” I said. “You have to want to give the wishes back for it to work.”
“But what if I don’t really want to?” she asked.
“Then you’re dooming Max to be all Courtneyesque for the rest of his life, for everyone in school to worship him for eternity, and for me to who knows what. All because you want a few wishes. It’s totally selfish.”
She dropped her head. “You’re right,” she conceded. “I can do this. I wish I could undo everything. I don’t want wishes.”
I hoped that was enough. “Test it.”
“I wish I had a matching diamond necklace,” she said, her voice sounding the tiniest bit hopeful.
Her neck went from having nothing on it to being covered in jewels.
Trying to give back the wishes didn’t work.
Gabi obviously wanted them, and I had no clue how to change that.
chapter 21
“I thought you said you’d give up the wishes,” I said, throwing my arms up in the air.
“I tried,” Gabi said. “Really!” she added when she saw the look I was giving her. “But it’s not my fault if way down deep I want to keep them. How am I supposed to control that?”
“Maybe by thinking about the harm your wishes have caused?! That should make you want to give them up.”
Gabi scrunched up her nose. “What harm?”
“Max for one. All the name-calling and pushing people around. How do you think his parents are going to feel when they realize their son has turned into a monster?”
Gabi shrugged her shoulders. “I guess I don’t think it’s so bad. Courtney’s the same way, and she seems pretty happy. She gets whatever she wants.”
Sounds like someone else I know. “Then what about the danger?” I asked. “If you accidentally wish for the wrong thing? Something really, really bad. Then what?”
She gave me a half smile. “I just don’t think that will happen.”
I didn’t even know what to say.
“Sorry,” she said. “I can’t help wanting what I secretly want. I’d give up the wishes if I could.”
She left me with no choice. It was time for a different approach. A powerful one.
“I hope you mean that,” I said, “because I think I know
what will work.”
Gabi backed up a step. “I know you, Angel. Don’t get any big ideas. I’m not your guinea pig.”
She really did know me well. She knew exactly what I was going to do. I would use my powers on her—the strongest stuff I could muster. “You didn’t have a problem with me using ‘my gift’ on you before. You even volunteered. It was your idea for me to grant you a wish in the first place.”
“That’s different,” she said, moving back some more. “Giving something is a lot easier than taking it away. Besides, this wish stuff has you totally freaked out. And when that happens, your powers never work right.”
I took a step toward her. “I’m perfectly calm,” I said, although my heart was racing faster than usual.
“What do you want to do?”
“It’s easy.” I smiled, showing off my dimples. I wanted to her to feel reassured, even though I was nervous. “I’m just going to take away the wishes.”
She shook her head. “You tried yesterday, and it didn’t work.”
“Yesterday, I didn’t know what I was up against. I only tried to undo part of the wish—Max being all evil. I didn’t know I had to try to take away everything you wished for.”
“Didn’t Lou say the only way this could be reversed was for the wish maker to want to give it all up? That was there was no other way?”
“Lou says a lot of things that aren’t true. Of course there’s another way. My powers gave you the wishes; they have to be able to take them away. Lou just doesn’t want me trying anything advanced without his guidance. He’s hoping I’ll come beg him to start my lessons up again.” I put my hand on her arm. “Let’s just give it a try. I can do it.”
She moved away. “You’re making me nervous.”
“Don’t be.”
“You have that look,” Gabi said. “The one Rori gets before she does something stupid. Like that time she skateboarded down the staircase and broke her leg.”
“Please, Gabi, what can it hurt to try?”
“I don’t even want to think about that,” she answered.
“Come on. You said before that you were willing to give up the wishes. But something deep down wasn’t letting you. Well, if we use my powers to get rid of them, it doesn’t matter what you want deep down.”
Careful What You Wish For Page 6