Nia, however, was busy digging through her backpack. “So, the mission at hand,” Nia began to say.
“Find the three. Break the curse. Save the future,” I said, repeating what Clio had told us the last time we were at headquarters.
“Yep,” Nia said. “Clio sent us a message via chat.” She pulled out two pairs of earbuds and a splitter for the jack. “Share,” she said, plugged in the earbuds, and opened up a video on her phone.
I pushed the bud into my ear just in time to hear Clio say, “ . . . should be receiving her county science fair invitation this week. You all must be at this fair. She must win. Watch out for anyone trying to keep her away from the event. Remember your training.”
The screen went blank. “That’s it?” I asked. “That’s all the help we get?”
We were quiet. Mela spoke up next. “The sirens could be anybody. Men, women, animals. They’re shapeshifters. One of them could be your mom!”
“What?” my mom asked from the front of the car.
“Nada, Mom. Just messing around back here,” I said, trying to keep my tone light. To the others I said, “My mom is not a siren. But I get your point. Where do we begin?”
“Chaos. Sirens quite like it, according to Clio. I’m rather good at chaos myself. We could create a siren trap,” Thalia said, rubbing her hands together.
“Please don’t destroy my house, or my school, or my city, for that matter,” I said, making Thalia chuckle.
“No promises, mate,” Thalia said.
“The box,” Nia interrupted, putting us back on track. “The Cassandra Curse. Especially anywhere near Maya Rivero. She shouldn’t accept any gifts, right? Maybe we can tip her off somehow and keep an eye out for something that might be the curse.”
Mela and Thalia murmured their agreement. I gasped softly. Whenever one of us had a realization in language arts class, Ms. Salvo liked to announce that “the penny had dropped.” I never really understood what it meant, but I liked the idea of it, of a penny falling, and falling, and landing at last with a plink.
Plink. The Cassandra Curse rested inside a box. A jeweled box, Clio had said.
Plink. Very much like the one Raquel said that Jordan Miguel gave her.
Plink. A gift she was keeping secret for some reason.
“Callie? Callie?” Mela was nudging me. “Is this your house? Because it’s adorable,” she said as the van came to a stop. My house had a Spanish-tile roof, and a flamboyán tree in the center of the yard. My mom had planted roses in front of the porch, one tree for each of her kids. Our front door was bright red. It was small, but I guess it was kind of cute.
“Yeah. C-come on. I’ll show you around,” I said, but my heart wasn’t in it. What if someone was using Raquel to safeguard the curse?
Thalia, Mela, and Nia dragged their suitcases up the porch steps and into the house. I stood outside for a moment, watching as they looked around at our furniture, the blue paint on the walls, my enormous First Communion portrait, complete with me in a white dress and white veil, a picture that Mom had framed in gold, next to a pair of similar portraits of my brothers in their white suits. “Classic Cuban Catholic,” Mario had called them. “Tacky,” Fernando had added. “Beautiful,” my mom would say. “Mortifying,” would be my take.
Nia stood before the portrait. “I’m a Methodist. Never took pictures like those before.”
“It’s a Cuban-Catholic thing,” I said, feeling my cheeks blush. Then I thought of something. “Hey, Nia. How does this even work? I mean, if there are Greek gods, then what does it mean for the rest of it?” My mom insisted on going to Mass sometimes, and for me, it was always a peaceful time. I’d hold Mami’s hand through the service, and sing the songs, and recite the prayers. I liked it.
“I wondered that,” Nia said, “but Paola explained that the universe is big enough and mysterious enough for all our beliefs to matter, and for all our versions of God to exist. That our magic was sacred in whatever way made sense for each of us. Basically, if it’s true in your heart, it’s true. I’m okay with that.”
I looked up at the three portraits, and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel so embarrassed when I saw them. “I’m okay with that, too. Thanks, Nia,” I said.
I grabbed Thalia’s book bag, but it felt like it weighed a million pounds.
“What’s in here?” I asked.
“All the Narnia books,” Thalia said. “You wouldn’t happen to have a magical wardrobe in your house?”
“Nope. Just a magical bed,” I said, which made everyone giggle.
“For the last time, those books are fiction!” Mela said, but Thalia only rolled her eyes. Then my cat, Misu, strutted up to Mela, who cried out, “Kitty!” and scooped her up.
Nia sneezed. “Oh no. You have a cat?”
“Sorry,” I said, while Nia started digging around in her bag for allergy medicine.
An ambulance roared past, its siren on full blast. The others jumped, startled. I didn’t even hear it.
“Ambulances are just part of the neighborhood’s sounds,” I said. They looked at me skeptically. I took a deep breath.
Sisters, I thought, and followed them in.
Chapter 18
The New Kids in School
Thalia was the first to say something on Monday as we stood outside my school. “Miami Palms Middle won’t know what hit them,” she said. Nia and Mela weren’t as enthusiastic.
“Here goes nothing,” Nia said under her breath as we went through the front doors.
“Gods help us,” Mela muttered, adjusting her backpack.
Nia, Mela, and Thalia were given my schedule, so we would be together all day. More importantly, I shared all my classes with Maya Rivero, too.
“There she is,” I whispered soon after getting to school. Maya sat alone on the floor, her legs crisscrossed, a Rubik’s Cube in her hands. She clicked the sections of the cube back and forth, trying to line up the colors. Some of the stickers that made up the colors had peeled off, but Maya seemed to know which colors they had been.
All around Maya, other kids were busy talking, or looking at their cell phones together, or shoving one another playfully. Maya, sitting in the center of it, reminded me of the eye of a hurricane.
“She’s lonely,” Mela said.
“She’s concentrating,” Nia added.
“Doesn’t look like fun to me,” Thalia said.
I was about to suggest I introduce them to Maya when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around, and there was Raquel. Behind her were Violet, Max, and Alain.
“Hey,” Raquel said. “New friends?” Her hair was different again. The pink was now blue, and her curls were gone, replaced by stick-straight glossy tresses. When she’d moved on to the next round on America’s Next Star, she hadn’t bothered to text me when it happened. I hadn’t bothered to congratulate her.
“Um, yeah,” I said. “You?” I gestured at Violet and company.
Raquel laughed in a way I didn’t recognize. It was high-pitched, different from the way she normally threw her head back and guffawed. “Don’t be dumb,” she said. “You know these guys.”
By this time, Thalia, Mela, and Nia had turned around.
Thalia was the first to speak. “So are we going to have a dance-off or something? Is that what we do in America?”
Violet opened her mouth to speak, one hand already on her hip, when I cut in. “These are my new friends. Exchange students staying with me. Thalia, Nia, Mela, meet Violet, Max, Alain, and Raquel.” I paused. “Raquel is my best friend,” I added.
What I’d hoped was for Raquel to say, “Yeah,” or to put her arm around me, or something. But she only stood there and stared at the muses, then back at me, as if they were proof of something.
Alain broke away from our awkward introductions and sauntered over to Maya. Nearby, one of the triplets (Lisa? I couldn’t always tell the two girls apart) was hanging up a sign that read “Don’t Be a Sap! Join SAP!” Alain glanced at the sign
, said, “Why are there so many nerds in this school?” and then plucked the Rubik’s Cube from Maya’s hands. “Hey!” Maya shouted.
He tossed the puzzle back and forth, flipping it in the air, then bouncing it off his knee like a soccer ball.
“Give it back,” Maya said. “I’ve almost solved it!”
“Oh,” he said, then gave the cube a couple of twists, undoing Maya’s work.
“Jerk!” Thalia shouted at him.
“Shut up, Queen Elizabeth,” Violet said.
“How dare yo—” Thalia began to say, when all of a sudden, Alain burst into tears.
Mela had placed one hand on his wrist and stared at him with her big brown eyes. Her other hand fluttered softly by her side, her kódikas at work. Whatever he was remembering, it clearly had broken his heart. He dropped the Rubik’s Cube and ran out into the courtyard. Violet chased after him.
“Sorry about him,” Max said to Maya, picking up the Rubik’s Cube and handing it to her. “I love these things,” he told her, then followed his friends out.
“You’re scary, you know that?” Nia whispered to Mela, who took a deep breath and seemed to shake off the moment with a shimmy of her shoulders.
Nia went over to Maya and started pointing out other ways to solve the puzzle. Mela and Thalia sat beside her and watched as Maya deftly twisted the cube, getting the colors to line up at last.
That left me and Raquel alone, so to speak.
“You’re doing really well on the show,” I said.
Raquel wrapped a blue lock of hair around her finger. She’d never seemed to care what her hair looked like before. She did it again, then held up the hair to the light, as if admiring it. The gesture looked wrong on her.
“You look really pretty on TV,” I added. “And in real life, too. Of course. Not just on TV.”
“Thanks,” she said. She turned to look behind her, craning her head to see where Violet and the others had gone.
“Raquel, I thought we were best friends,” I said at last. My voice quivered. I could have kicked myself for being so direct.
Raquel took a deep breath. “Look at your phone, Callie. Go ahead. Look at it.” I pulled my phone out of my bag. “See the missed messages? I called and texted you lots. It’s an L.A. number, so you didn’t recognize it. But it’s been me. I’ve tried.”
I looked at my phone. There they were. Her messages. How could I tell her I didn’t have cell service in England, of all things? Or that I was so busy with my new roommates that I hadn’t checked my phone that much?
“You have an L.A. phone number now?” I asked, my voice weak.
Raquel waved the comment away. “It’s like you’ve disappeared. Violet says you’re just jealous because . . . because . . .” She couldn’t seem to find the words.
My chest tightened. Jealous! Jealous? “I am not jealous,” I said. “I don’t even want to be a singer. Or famous.” If only she knew, I thought. I didn’t want any attention at all. And here I was, in charge of saving the world from sirens, and protecting a Fated One. I didn’t want this.
“It’s not just that. You’re jealous of other things, Violet says.”
I blinked furiously at her to keep from crying. “Other things? Because Jordan Miguel gave you a gift? Or because I’m fat and you’re not. Or maybe because your parents are together and mine aren’t. Is that why I’m supposedly jealous?”
All of it had spilled out of me so quickly that I wondered if she wasn’t right. Maybe I was jealous after all. I sniffed and pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes.
Now Raquel grabbed my hands. “No, Callie! I—I don’t know why things are different with us. But they are. I wanted you there with me at every step. But every time I call you, you’re missing. And now these new girls? I feel like I don’t know you.”
I could have said the same thing about her. In fact, I almost did. But at that moment, Raquel’s backpack slipped off her shoulder, and out tumbled the box.
I gasped. What if it popped open? Would we all be cursed? But the box stayed closed, and I noticed a little gold latch and keyhole.
“Is that Jordan Miguel’s gift?” I asked.
Raquel nodded. “Yes. He told me I can’t open it until I win. He really believes in me.”
“Oh,” I said. That stung a little. Then a notion struck me. “Raquel, did he give it to you personally?”
“Ha, ha, technicalities,” Raquel said, her lips pursing tightly. She didn’t say the word “jealous” again, though I knew she was thinking it. “No, his assistant did. A nice lady named Kim something or other. She wears the prettiest feather earrings I’ve ever seen. Peacock feathers. Everyone in L.A. wears them.”
Siren feathers, I thought. “Raquel. Don’t open the box without me. Promise? And keep an eye on it at all times.” It was all I could think of to say, the only safeguard I could imagine. I didn’t know how to stop a curse, but I would try.
Raquel pursed her lips. “You’re being weird again. Listen, go back to your new besties before they make a poor friend choice over there.” We both glanced over as the girls were laughing with Maya. Thalia had them doubled over with laughter.
“That’s mean, Raquel,” I said, but she shrugged, turned, and went off in search of Violet.
The bell rang, and people started to disperse. “Where to?” Nia asked.
“Science class,” I said.
Nia pumped her fist into the air. Today, her shirt read: IF LOST, RETURN TO NASA.
“How many NASA T-shirts do you have?” I asked as we made our way down the packed hall.
“All of them,” Nia said, wiggling her eyebrows.
There were three new desks at the front of the science classroom. Ms. Rinse was obviously expecting Nia, Thalia, and Mela, but she ignored them when we walked in. That’s because Ms. Fovos and Ms. Salvo were there, too, and the three teachers were talking excitedly by the chalkboard. Ms. Fovos tugged at her turtleneck while she talked, and Ms. Salvo clicked her long nails against a clipboard. Ms. Fovos called Violet over, and the teachers whispered something to her, and she nodded. They seemed . . . obviously nervous about something.
I looked over at Mela, mouthing the name Violet Prado at her. Mela narrowed her eyes, elbowed Thalia, who then nudged Nia with her foot.
We were on alert.
The tardy bell rang, and Ms. Salvo and Ms. Fovos hurried out, late to their own classes.
“No anagrams today. It’s a day for announcements,” Ms. Rinse said. We sat quietly for once. The vibe in the room was strange, and we had all picked up on it. “First, we have three new exchange students. Mela Gupta, Nia Watson, and Thalia Berry. Ladies, welcome to Miami Palms Middle.” Ms. Rinse clapped, then clapped harder when the rest of the class didn’t follow suit. She clapped until we were all clapping, and it was beyond awkward, I can tell you that. Thalia’s ears turned pink, Mela put her head down on her desk, and Nia stared up at the ceiling through all of it.
“Second announcement. The winner of the science fair is—drumroll, please?” Alain drummed on his desk, but when Ms. Rinse said, “Maya Rivero! Congratulations,” Alain stopped and said, “Boo!”
Maya didn’t seem to hear him. She was beaming. The muses turned to look at her, then to me. Thalia gave me a thumbs-up. I turned around to give Alain an evil look and noticed that Raquel, who normally sat in front of him, wasn’t in class. I searched the other rows for her, but she was 100 percent absent.
But I’d seen her before the bell rang.
What if she’d opened the box?
What if my best friend was now cursed?
“Maya,” Ms. Rinse continued, interrupting my dark train of thought. “The county science fair is on December 20th. And I have tickets for all of you to attend. We’ll make it a field trip for the class, and root for Maya,” Ms. Rinse said.
Everyone clapped again, sincerely this time. There was nothing better than a field trip.
“Third announcement,” Ms. Rinse began, then paused and looked at the clock. �
�Okay, everyone. Quietly, without running, we will make our way to the cafetorium for a special assembly.”
We got up loudly, everyone chattering about what it could be. “Quietly,” Ms. Rinse shouted, and I heard her sigh, “Why won’t anyone ever listen to me?” before heading out into the hall.
I caught up to Maya and tapped her shoulder. “Hey, congrats!”
“Thanks,” Maya said. “I’m excited. Ms. Rinse said she would help me with my project, so there aren’t any accidents like I had in class.”
“I can help, too,” Nia said, catching up to us.
“I can, as well,” Mela added.
“Don’t look at me, I’m rubbish at science,” Thalia said. “But I’ll provide snacks!”
Maya scratched her head. “Um. Okay. If you guys want,” she said. Then she hurried away toward the cafetorium with the others, half running, as if she couldn’t wait to get away from us.
I hung back with the muses. “Listen. Slow down a bit,” I told them. “You’re going to scare her away. Besides, we’ve got to focus here. You know the Cassandra Curse? I think Raquel has the box. And she was supposed to be in class just now, but she wasn’t.”
All three muses stopped cold.
“Your best friend? The one who was incredibly mean to you?” Thalia asked.
“You noticed,” I said. The others nodded. I pressed on. “Jordan Miguel gave it to her and asked her to keep it closed. And yes, she’s become a total mean girl. Suspicious, right? Like the presence of the curse is . . . affecting her in some way?” I didn’t say that maybe I was being a little bit of a mean girl, too.
Mela cleared her throat. “I think we have another problem,” she said, and pointed toward Violet, who was carrying two big buckets and creeping toward a door that led to the backstage area of the cafetorium. A pair of red feathers floated out of one of the buckets.
“Siren feathers,” Nia said.
“This assembly,” Thalia muttered, “is about to get real really fast.”
Chapter 19
Best (Worst). Assembly. Ever.
The hallways were packed as students snaked their way to the cafetorium. Mela, Nia, Thalia, and I linked hands, and I led them through the throng. There was shoving. There were weird body odors. Mela lost a shoe and we had to backtrack to get it.
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