People actually seemed to buy it all. I guess people want answers. Even when they don’t make sense, which was just fine by me. I actually hoped that was the case. Because, I admit it, I was the one who started the rumors.
When everyone was talking I wrote up a fake note from Elena that took responsibility for everything. Then I made sure to drop it in Tracy Fine’s lap as I made my way past her. She was a huge gossip. If you ever want the whole school to know something, right away, tell Tracy Fine. It’s quicker than Facebook.
Mr. Stanton entered the room, bullhorn in hand. “All right, everyone,” he yelled into it, practically destroying one of my eardrums. I was right next to him. “This day has gotten out of hand. But the craziness is over.”
Finally.
“Everyone is to go back to class,” he ordered.
I was the first one out. But an arm grabbed me. “Just a minute.” It was Miss Spring, the evil school nurse.
“Is that my jacket?” she asked.
Oh no. No. NO. Of all the people in the whole school, why did I have to take Miss Spring’s coat? The woman lived to torture students. “No,” I answered.
“I don’t believe you.” We were drawing a crowd.
“That is definitely my jacket,” the nurse said, examining the fabric.
She actually reached into the coat’s pocket and pulled out her sunglasses case. She pointed to the letters DS on the front. “Are you going to say these are your initials as well?”
Well, it could have stood for Daughter of Satan. But I decided to keep that thought to myself. “Can we talk about this in your office?” I asked.
“No,” she said.
Note to self: Add Miss Spring to list of possible demons.
“It’s just a big mix-up,” I said.
“Hand the coat over,” she said.
“I’m a little chilly. How about I give it back later?”
“Now.”
I gritted my teeth and untied the jacket.
My new boobs were about to make their Goode Middle School debut.
chapter 44
Miss Spring took the jacket from me, and even she seemed shocked by my new appearance. For a second I thought she was actually going to hand the coat back and put me out of my misery.
“No way!” Courtney said, through fits of giggles. “So that’s why there’s no toilet paper left in the girls’ bathroom.”
“Did she really think no one would notice that she stuffed her bra?” Jaydin asked.
“It’s like she shoved beach balls up her shirt,” Lana chimed in.
Well, Courtney and Co. certainly were no longer nice. Not even close.
What was worse—the whole auditorium was laughing at me. At least it felt that way. I scanned the room. Oh. My. God. Everyone was looking my way. Even Cole. I crossed my arms over my chest, turned around, and bolted straight for the exit. And not just from the auditorium—from the whole school.
And I didn’t stop there. I just kept running.
“Wait up!” It was Gabi.
I stopped.
She was out of breath, and we were only a few blocks from school. She really was a horrible athlete. “Where did you get those things?” she asked, pointing right at my boobs.
I shielded them with my arms. “Target,” I said.
Gabi rolled her eyes at me. “Seriously, what happened?”
“What always happens. I tried to use my powers and they went all wonky. These things”—I looked down at the massive growths coming out of my upper body—“weren’t supposed to get this big. I just wanted Cole to notice me.”
“I’m sure he noticed all right. I think everyone did.” I couldn’t tell if she said it with disbelief or awe.
“Thanks a lot.”
“Sorry,” she said. “It’s just . . . I never saw any that big.”
Gabi wasn’t making me feel any better. I went from having the flattest chest in all the land to having prize-winning watermelons.
“Why didn’t you just make them small again?” she asked.
I still didn’t like the term small used when referring to my boobs, but it beat what they were now—crazy gigantic. “Don’t you think I tried?”
“If I were you, I’d try again. I don’t know how you’re going to explain those to your mom.”
That was true. Especially since Mom didn’t know about my powers. And the stuffing excuse wouldn’t get me very far. As soon as she saw me trying to go to school this way, she’d demand I take the stuffing out of my bra.
“You’re right. I can do this.” The last time I attempted to make them shrink, I was interrupted and had to give up. This time I’d just keep trying, even if it took all night.
Go back to normal, go back to normal. Actually a little bigger than normal would be better. Go back to a little bigger than normal, I thought and pushed my arms against my chest, willing them to shrink.
But it wasn’t working. Maybe because I was being greedy. But come on! I wasn’t asking for the world. Just a happy medium. Not boobs that were too big. Or ones that were too small. Just something in between.
I closed my eyes again and focused really hard. I could feel my shirt getting looser. It was working!
“Uh, Angel,” Gabi said. “You might want to open your eyes.”
I didn’t like the tone of her voice. I looked down at my chest. No way! There was something worse than having a massively small chest or a massively big one. And that was having one itty-bitty boob and one gargantuan one. I was completely lopsided. Only one of my boobs went back to its normal size. “This was not what I meant by having something in between!”
This was going to be really hard to explain. I had to get them back to their regular size. I covered my chest with my arms. Fine, I thought. I give in. Just go back to normal. To A-cup Angel.
I concentrated and concentrated and concentrated. Finally, I felt some movement. My big boob was getting smaller and smaller, until it was back to its original size.
“You did it!” Gabi yelled, and clapped her hands together.
Thank goodness. For once I was actually happy to see my nonexistent chest!
chapter 45
“Mom?” She wasn’t in the kitchen when I got home. “Mom!” I called out again.
There still wasn’t any answer. I checked the living room.
“MOM!”
“What is it?” she asked, coming down the stairs.
“Nothing.” I just threw my arms around her, not caring if I seemed like the crazy one in the family this time. Having your very own flesh and blood, your own mother, even a kooky one like mine, act like you didn’t exist was scary. I was just happy to have her back.
“Are you okay?”
I nodded. “Just wanted to say hello.”
Mom gave me a questioning look. It wasn’t every day, okay, any day, that I came home and ran straight to hug her. She squeezed me back. “Sure you’re okay?” she asked as I pulled away.
She wasn’t getting any more info out of me. After one last hug, I ran to my room and closed the door. “You’ve got mail! You’ve got mail! You’ve got mail! You’ve got mail!” a voice said, which was very strange. Even if my e-mail account could still have been open from this morning, I didn’t have AOL.
It had to be Lou.
I picked up my computer. Not because I wanted to know what he had to say. He was out of my life. I just wanted the noise to stop.
When I logged on to my e-mail account, just like I suspected, the message at the top of my inbox was from Lou. It was a memo to everyone in the underworld, and he had bcc’d me on it. Basically it warned that if anyone attempted to take a good soul, they’d get in huge trouble.
After I read it, the memo dissolved off the screen. In its place was a live video feed from Lou. “Did you read my note?” he asked.
“Yeah, but it doesn’t change anything. I’m not forgiving you.”
“There’s more,” he said, sounding like one of those infomercial guys who keep throwing in more inc
entives to get you to buy their knives or potato peelers.
Lou held up a piece of paper and ripped it in half. As he did it went up in flames. “That was the contract Gremory made for the soul of the baseball player.” He ripped a few more pieces of paper, sending more flames into the air. “And these are a few old contracts I made years ago. I convinced them to trade in their wishes in exchange for their souls. I’m cleaning up my act. Because of you.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“Do you forgive me?”
“No,” I said. It was great that he sent out the memo and all, but I still didn’t trust him. How did I know that he wouldn’t just go and send out a revised note the next day, taking back what he’d just said? Or that he’d ripped up real contracts and not some scrap paper with special effects thrown in? “How would I have known if any of it was true?”
“You can check,” he said. “I’ll e-mail you a list of names. Just Google them. You’ll see. Then after you know it’s the real deal, we’ll be okay, right?”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I can’t do it anymore.”
“Angel.”
“No, Lou. You messed up big time.”
“You mean like accidentally making all of your best friend’s wishes come true?” he asked.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied.
A moment later a video came up on my screen of Lou vanishing into thin air from my school hallway, a zombie coming for me, and me running like crazy.
“Yeah, you don’t remember that?” Lou asked, his face reappearing on the screen. He looked amused.
“How’d you get that?”
“I have my ways.”
“Did you hurt the camera guy?” I yelled at him.
“Of course not,” he said. “But there was no way I’d risk that footage getting out.”
I bit my nail. “How did you even know there was footage?”
“Angel,” he said, shaking his head. “You don’t think I knew something was up? You’re not as good a liar as you think.”
Maybe that was a good thing. I didn’t want to be like him.
“When I ran into you and Gabi, I could tell you granted her wishes. Your body language, your voice, the look in your friend’s eyes. I’ve been doing this a long time. I have a sixth sense for this type of thing.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked.
“You didn’t want my help. And sometimes the best way to learn is by fixing your own mistakes.” He gave me a small smile. “And that’s what I’m trying to do, too. Fix my mistakes. Please, Angel, forgive me. Give me another chance.”
I wanted to believe him. I wanted to forgive him. But I had already given him so many chances. I wasn’t falling for it again. I was done playing the fool. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I can’t.” I closed the laptop.
My time with the devil was over.
chapter 46
“It looks like Lou did give back those souls,” I told Gabi as we walked into the cafeteria the next day. “It was all over the Web. That baseball player got kicked off the team. A billionaire business guy went bankrupt. A NASCAR racer got his driver’s license taken away. The list goes on and on.”
“So are you going to forgive him?” she asked as we sat down at our table.
“Yeah . . . eventually. I just need to see that he’s really given up trading souls. Once I’m convinced I’m sure I’ll feel differently.”
“But you do forgive me, right? We’re okay?”
I nodded. “We’re more than okay.”
“Good,” she said, looking into her lunch bag. “In that case, any chance you want to give me back those wishes? Today I have tofu pastrami on seven-grain bread with a side of dried apples. Yuck. That cheeseburger was a lot better.”
“Not a chance,” I said. But I did hand her one of my Oreos.
Gabi twisted it open. “I figured as much. I guess I sort of went overboard at the end there.”
“You think?”
“I’m sorry I got all crazy,” she said.
“Don’t forget mean,” I told her.
“And mean.” She bit her lip. “You’re never going to let me forget this, are you?”
“Probably not.” I threw my napkin at her. “But we’re even now. You forgave me after I was stupid enough to pick Courtney over you, now it’s my turn to hand out the forgiveness.”
I was just glad to have Gabi back. We were even able to joke about things that didn’t seem so funny yesterday (i.e., that small island that was growing out of my chest). I knew people were going to be trash talkin’ me about it for years to come.
“Hey,” Cole said, taking a cautious step toward me. I had been avoiding him again. It was all so humiliating.
He looked at me, then Gabi, then back at me. “Did you get my messages?”
Cole had called and left about a dozen voicemails apologizing over and over again. He even left a corny note taped to my locker—which didn’t seem so corny because it was addressed to me—begging me to forgive him.
“Yeah,” I said.
“I don’t know what came over me. I don’t know why I sent those notes to Gabi or that cupcake or any of it.” Cole’s head dropped down.
I kind of wanted to make him sweat it out. After all, he did pick my best friend over me. Even if it wasn’t really his fault.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, lifting only his eyes, “to both of you.”
He kicked a napkin on the floor. “Angel, do you think—” He paused. “Do you think you can forgive me?” It seemed everyone was asking me that.
Cole looked genuinely sad. And to be fair he only chose Gabi because of my powers. That didn’t make it hurt any less. But I said yes because the thought of losing him hurt a lot more.
He looked up and smiled at me. One of those cute, lopsided grins I thought I’d never see again. At least not directed at me. “I’ll make it up to you. I promise,” he said. “You still want to go see Zombie Zone Four with me tomorrow?”
I’d had my fill of zombies. Enough to last me the rest of my life. But I could definitely deal with another hour and a half of them as long as Cole was sitting by my side.
“Yeah,” I said, smiling back at him. “But, I have to warn you, zombies make me scream.”
“I’ll be there to protect you,” he said.
My stomach did a few jumping jacks.
Gabi made a gagging noise. “Just kidding,” she said. “It’s sweet.”
Cole blushed. “I told Reid I’d sit with him today,” he said, looking back at his friend. Cole was definitely looking for an escape. The whole situation was still a little weird. He didn’t seem quite sure what to say to Gabi. Not after what happened. And not with me sitting right there. “Is that okay?”
“Of course,” I said.
He put his hand on mine and left it there for a second. “Wait for me after lunch. We’ll walk to next period together.”
I nodded.
Then he walked away. But he smiled at Gabi first. I wasn’t going to let it make me jealous. It was just a smile. A smile at someone he had said he always thought was pretty. But that didn’t really bother me. Gabi was pretty.
“Hey,” I said once Cole was gone, “have you talked to Marc?”
“He won’t even look at me now that the wish wore off.” Gabi picked at her sandwich and tried to smile. But it looked forced. My next project was totally going to be finding her a boyfriend. She deserved to find someone awesome like Cole—just not Cole himself!
“He’s nuts. You’re going to find someone better, I promise.”
“Too bad Elena left before she introduced me to Lance Gold. Now that would have been cool!”
“Totally.”
But I would take Cole over Lance any day. I couldn’t keep myself from sneaking a few extra glimpses at him during the rest of lunch. He was back at his old table. D.L. caught me looking over, but instead of making fun of me—he actually smiled. But it’s possible he was just thinking about how rid
iculous I looked the other day. I quickly turned back to Gabi.
We had another visitor a moment later. Courtney. I should have known I wouldn’t make it through lunch without having a run-in with her. Life was definitely back to normal.
“Hi,” she said. “I think . . .” Then she lifted one hand to her nose and pretended to sneeze. “Double-A choo,” she said, while flinging a handful of tissues at me with her other hand. She picked one of them up by two fingers and held it in the air so everyone could see. “You’re leaking, Angel. The bathroom’s restocked, if you need to freshen up your bra.”
“Ha-ha,” I said. I was going to be the school laughingstock forever.
Courtney turned to go back to her table. But we both were surprised by what we saw. Max—the nerdy version—had taken her seat.
“What is he doing?!” Courtney yelled, and stomped back to her table.
“Committing social suicide,” Gabi answered more to herself than anyone else.
My whole body tensed up. “Did we mess up? Does he think he’s still welcome there?”
“I don’t know,” Gabi said.
We both watched, waiting for the worst.
“Why are you here?” Courtney hovered over him.
“I told you,” Jaydin answered for him. “I’m his new tutor.”
Courtney put her hands on her hips. “Why?”
Jaydin shrugged. “I don’t know. I said I would. And it’ll look good on my transcript. You know my mom is bugging me about doing more extracurricular activities.” For a second she reminded me of Gabi.
“Well, he’s in my seat,” Courtney fumed. She gave Max a disgusted glance. “He’s not welcome at this table.”
“Fine,” Jaydin said, getting up. “We’ll work over there.”
Courtney’s jaw dropped. “You’re picking that thing over sitting with me?!”
“It’s for school,” Jaydin practically screamed. “Besides, it’s only a couple of days a week. He’s going to work with his other tutor the rest of the time. So lay off. Let’s go, Max.”
Careful What You Wish For Page 13