Itch. Scratch.
Scratch, scratch.
My head is itchy. Why is my head itchy?
I scratch again and slowly move my hand in front of my eyes.
A small reddish brown bug scurries down my finger. Lice.
I scream and scream and then scream some more.
“Liana, there's something on your arm,” I hear Carly say. “And your other arm. And on your legs.”
They just got back from the showers and are in the cubby room changing. I didn't join them in the showers because I already spent half a day in the infirmary showers with a bottle of Nix. I spent the other half sitting on the infirmary bench with the nurse and a nit comb. Since my sheets and comforter are still being fumigated, I've been lying on my sleeping bag.
“It's red,” Carly says.
“It's ugly,” Morgan says.
“It's poison ivy,” Liana hisses.
Damn straight.
“I want my pencil case. Now!” Miri screams, hands firmly on her small hips.
“Oh, now you're talking to me.” I put my surely winning hand facedown on the porch. It's free play, and Poodles and I are in the middle of a gin rummy game.
“I'm not talking to you,” Miri snaps. “I'm yelling at you.”
“I'll be right back,” I tell Poodles as my sister drags me by the arm into the bunk. I pick up Miri's book and toss it at her. “Here you go.”
“Outside!” she barks. I follow her behind the cabin.
Her eyes are popping out of her head like Slinky toys. “Did you give Liana poison ivy?”
“Miri, calm down—”
“Don't tell me to calm down. Just tell me the truth!”
Fine. “Yes.”
She gasps and then chokes on her own gasp. “And you used my spell book to help you?”
“Yes.”
A moment of quiet and then she explodes again: “How could you do that to my best friend!”
“Your best friend”—I cannot believe she just called that evil witch her best friend!—“gave me lice!”
“She did not. I'm sure you got it from Prissy or one of her dirty friends.”
“Prissy does not have lice. Did Liana tell you that?”
“Yes, she did.”
Now I'm furious. “And you believe her? That's just great, Mir. You take the word of someone you've known for five weeks over your own sister's?”
“At least she keeps her promises.”
“You're a gullible idiot.”
“I'm sick of you!” Miri screams, kicking the green wall. “You're always putting me down! Everything is about you! It's been like that since I was born!”
“If you hate me so much, then go live with another family!”
“I'm planning to,” she says slowly. “Liana wants me to go to boarding school with her in Switzerland, and I'm going.”
That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. “You can't go to boarding school,” I scoff. “Mom would never let you.”
“Well, I have news for you, Rachel. She can't stop me.”
“Of course she can! You're twelve!”
“She has no say in what I do. Did you know that witches believe that a girl becomes an adult when she turns twelve? It's just like Judaism.”
“That may be, but you still won't be allowed to go.”
“She isn't the boss of me.”
“Uh, yeah, she is, Mir. And I'm going to tell her what you're planning.”
“Go ahead. She'll find out eventually.”
“I'm writing her right now.”
“Too bad she's away. And you can forget about instant messaging or e-mailing. Liana's already concocted a blocking spell. By the time Mom gets back, I'll be gone.”
“Oh, really? When exactly are you planning on leaving?”
“Saturday night. Liana and I don't see a reason to stay at camp any longer. It's kind of a waste of our time. Liana cares about the same things I do. We're going to spend the last few weeks of summer doing something real. We're going to use our powers to help people. And then we're starting school at the end of the month.”
“You can't leave. Mom gave you that location anklet to keep you from taking off.” So there!
Miri waves my words away. “Liana is a brilliant witch. She knows how to get rid of it.”
Liana this, Liana that. “May I ask how you're planning on paying for this school?”
“I'm a witch, Rachel. I'll zap up some money. I'll zap up permission forms. I can do it; I'm an incredibly powerful witch, you know.” She fiddles with the lanyard bracelet on her arm. “Liana says I'm one of the most powerful witches she's ever seen. Even more powerful than Mom.”
Nice big head she's got there. “They'll search for you. They'll drag you home.”
“No, they won't. They won't care. It's not like Mom will even notice I'm gone.”
I sigh. “Oh, Miri, of course she will.”
“No, she won't! No one will. Mom is busy with Lex, and Dad is busy with Jennifer and Prissy, and he'll be even busier with a new baby. And you're . . . well, you're always busy with your friends and your boyfriends.”
Is that how she really feels? “Mir, you know that's not true.” Not lately, anyway, since I'm down to one camp friend and zero boyfriends. Guilt creeps through me. It's true. I have been a little preoccupied. But I'm a teenager! We're supposed to be preoccupied!
She nibbles her fingers as she talks. “You ignored me all summer. You only cared about me when you needed me. When you needed my magical powers. Now that you have your own, you won't need me for anything. But Liana cares about me.”
I grab her tightly by the shoulder. “Miri, I care about you. I would do anything for you.”
She's looking at the ground instead of into my eyes. “No one at school will notice. It's not like I have any friends.”
“Because you don't make an effort!”
She shakes her head. “You know I never fit in. Not like you. And Liana knows tons of teen witches around the world. Girls just like me.”
“I'm not going to let you go.”
“You don't have a choice. And neither does Mom. I'm a much more powerful witch than her, and with Liana's power as backup, nothing can stop me.”
That's when I realize she really can pull this off. We might end up like Mom and Aunt Sasha, and I might never see her again. Why can't I make her listen? “Please don't do this,” I say, my voice cracking. And then, softly, “I . . . I'll miss you.”
She hesitates.
“What?” I ask.
She looks up at me with big hopeful eyes. “If you care about me so much, come with me.”
I take a step back. “I can't just take off!” Can I? Sure, my parents are crazy. Sure, I live in a cramped apartment with one bathroom, and I have only one close friend at school. But you can't just run away when the going gets tough. Your problems just come with you. “No,” I say. “That's no solution.”
“See?” she says softly. “You're a liar. You wouldn't do anything for me.”
And with that, she walks away and doesn't look back.
17
LET'S MAKE A DEAL
After bedtime, I climb down my ladder and stand by our bed. “We need to talk.”
The late-night moonlight slinks through the window, illuminating her nasty smile. “I'd be delighted to.”
“Let's go somewhere private. The CL?”
“The nighttime make-out center? That's hardly private. I prefer the lookout.”
“I'm not quite in the mood for hiking.” Or bees, for that matter.
“Please,” Liana snorts. “What kind of witch do you take me for?” With a snap of her fingers, the bunk's broom rises from its spot near the door, soars across the room, and lands in her hand. “Let's go.”
I wish I had my helmet.
We take off from the porch and zoom up to the lookout in thirty seconds flat.
I slide off the broom to safety as soon as my tiptoes touch the ground.
“So,” s
he says, twirling the broom in her hand like a baton, “what do you want to talk about?”
“You are not taking Miri with you to boarding school,” I say, arms shivering. It's colder up here than I thought it would be.
“I don't think it's up to you,” she says calmly.
“She's not acting like herself at all. Did you put her under a spell?” I'm sure that she did.
Liana laughs. “You have to accept the fact that your sister likes me. She would rather be with me. I can teach her things you'd never be able to. You have to consider what's best for her, Rachel. It's about time you thought about someone other than yourself.”
I try to clear my mind by looking at the star-filled sky. Am I being selfish? Is Miri better off with Liana?
No. What would Liana teach Miri? How to be evil? And Miri is way too young to be on her own. “You're crazy if you think I'm letting you take her.”
She laughs—cackles—again. “You're crazy if you think you can stop me.”
She does have a point. How could I stop her? Her magic is eons more advanced than mine. Trying to fight it would be like challenging her to a tennis match, a newbie against a pro. I need to go at this another way—by begging. “Please, Liana. Tell Miri this is a bad idea. You can still spend time with her. You can spend next summer with her if you want. You don't have to kidnap her. Think about how devastated my parents will be.”
She tilts her head to the side, as though considering this. “Well, when you put it like that . . .”
My heart races. It's working! The begging is working! Who knew that begging was so effective? I should have begged Raf for a kiss from day one. No, forget that. A girl has to have some pride, after all. But when a sister is at stake, pride be gone! “And how would I explain it to my dad?” I press on. “He doesn't even know we're witches!”
“There is one other option,” Liana says, nodding. “It will be more up to you than Miri.”
I pause. “What is it?”
She stares me dead in the eyes. “I won't take Miri with me to boarding school if you'll switch psyches with me.”
Huh? “What are you talking about?”
“There's a swapping spell, where two people can switch psyches without anyone knowing,” she explains in a rush.
Why would the wonderful and glamorous Liana want to change places with boring old me? “But why would you want to be me?” I ask. It makes no sense. I can't believe she'd switch places with me just so Miri can be with her. Something else is brewing in her evil little mind. I'm sure of it.
She shrugs. “It's just a really cool spell, and I've always wanted to try it. Once swapped, you see the other person's memories and everything.” She crosses her arms in front of her chest. “Look, do you want to try it or not?”
“How long would we have to switch for?” I ask, my suspicion mounting.
She looks away. “Whatever. Not long.”
“How long?” I repeat.
She hesitates before answering. “Until we both want to switch back.”
Chills creep down my spine. What if Liana never wants to switch back? Sure, my life may have its issues, but you know what? In spite of all my issues, I'm happy being me. “I don't really like this idea,” I say. I like her even less. She's the last person I'd ever want to be.
“Come on, Rachel. You whine about your life constantly. About how annoying your family is. About how the guy you like won't kiss you. About how you have no friends at home. Wouldn't you kill to be me?”
“I never whine about—” I stop. She's right. I do whine. But like I said, I may have issues, but I wouldn't trade my life for anything, not even for a pair of perfectly matched boobs. “No,” I say. “Absolutely not.”
“Then it's back to option one,” she says. “I'm taking Miri.”
“That's blackmail!” I cry. “You can't do that!”
If the situation weren't so terrifying, I'd laugh. If Liana had come to me with this idea in the first place, before she started getting all nasty, I might have agreed. Hey, I like a good practical joke as well as the next person. I mean, it might even be fun for a while, like maybe a day or two, or even a week. And I'd get to whip some butts in tennis. But now she's using it to blackmail me.
The question is, why does she want my life? I don't believe for a moment that she cares one iota about Miri.
She throws her leg over the broom and raises a foot off the ground. “I can do whatever I want. Don't you get it, Rachel? I always get my way.”
With that, she flies off, leaving me in the dark. And if that's not bad enough, now I have to hike all the way back.
On the trek down, I have a full-blown panic attack. First of all, I swear I hear howling in the distance. Just wonderful. To top off a perfect night, I'm going to get eaten by a wolf.
But even worse: what am I going to do? I need to find a way to stop Liana, to beat her at her own game.
If only I could get in touch with my mother. But Miri said Liana cast a blocking spell. All I need to do is unblock the block, and for that I need to get my hands on Liana's spell book. Right, and then you can crown me queen of England.
I swat a mosquito out of my hair.
I have to try. What choice do I have? I creep into my bunk to find my enemy fast asleep. Ha! Fool. And I thought she was smarter than that. I'll just take her jewelry box and . . .
Where's her jewelry box?
Her jewelry box is gone. Did she hide it, or did she morph her spell book into something else? Maybe a comb? A bottle of suntan lotion? I look around at all our belongings. She could have morphed the spell book into anything. I grab my baby powder and begin sprinkling it, first on Liana's stuff and then liberally around the room, all the while chanting the appropriate spell under my breath.
Nothing morphs. Instead, it looks like it snowed in here. Either that or someone has really bad dandruff.
“Penguin Bear's all white!” Carly cries, waking me up.
Liana's laughter echoes through the room.
I cover my head with my comforter. This isn't over yet. Not by a long shot.
Yay! Raf's coming back today! Not that I have the energy to deal with that at the moment. I mean, come on. I currently have a little more on my mind than apologizing to and sealing the deal with my quasi boyfriend.
Though maybe if I can get one part of my life in order, the rest will fall into place. Like with a math problem when you start with the brackets and the rest of the equation begins to make sense.
The boys aren't scheduled to return until fourish, which is smack in the middle of GS. Poodles and I wait on our beach towels, eyes peeled for any signs of incoming boats on the lake. I'm going to walk right up to Raf and plant one on his lips. Then I'll apologize. I don't care who sees, either. This is happening today. Now. As soon as he lands his canoe. (Not sure if you land a canoe, but it sounds right, since you're bringing it to land.) Maybe the sight will shock my sister, who is ignoring me and reading a book on the other side of the beach, into changing her mind.
“I miss Harris so much,” Poodles says, fiddling with her hair. “Do I look okay?”
“You look gorgeous as usual.” I, on the other hand, am beyond caring what I look like. Raf has already seen me in my pj's, with a ginormous bruise on my head, and covered in bee stings. I doubt smoothing my hair will tip the scales. I just want to kiss him already! “You know you can't kiss Harris in public, right? He's still staff.”
She sighs. “I know. But I just want to see him. I know I said this was just a summer fling for me, but I think I'm falling for him.”
“But you live across the country.”
Her eyes are shining. “We still have two weeks of camp left. And maybe he'd consider transferring to UCLA.”
“Oh, isn't that sweet?” Liana says, making herself comfortable next to us on the sand.
“This has nothing to do with you,” I tell her.
“Seriously, Liana,” Poodles says, smoothing her hair again. “Get lost.”
Liana smil
es. “Everything has to do with me. Haven't you realized that yet, Rache?”
“There they are!” Poodles shrieks, scrambling to her feet. “I'm going to wait on the dock.”
The four canoes are now in view, pulling up to the camp. Harris is in the stern of the first boat; Raf is in the bow of the second. “I'll be there in a sec!” I call to Poodles as she runs down the beach.
“No, you won't,” Liana says.
I glare at her. “Yes, I will.”
“Silly Rachel. When are you going to learn that I'm the one calling the shots?” She lets out an exaggerated sigh. “I've given this some thought and here's how the game is going to be played. See, you surprised me yesterday. I expected you to agree to my plan right off. I thought you would jump at the chance to spend time in my shoes. It should have been an easy choice for you. Your sister comes with me, or you become me. But instead you're forcing me to make this far more difficult than it needed to be.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Shut up and listen,” she orders, her voice icy cold. “We are going to switch places. Don't you get it? That's why I'm here. That's why I came to camp in the first place.”
Excuse me?
Liana's eyes flicker over the beach. “The question is, how far do I have to go to get what I want?”
The spine chills are back. “What are you going to do?”
She fixes her gaze on Poodles. “It's sweet that she has such strong feelings for Harris, don't you think?”
Poodles waves to Harris and runs toward him.
“Leave her alone,” I say.
Liana ignores me.
“Don't!” I shout, and then, helpless, I feel a gust of cold and watch as Poodles throws her arms around Harris and kisses him right on the mouth.
Unfortunately, I'm not the only witness. Deb sees it. Anthony, Abby, Mitch, Janice, Houser, and Rose all see it too.
That can't be good.
Liana sighs. “Say bye-bye to Harris. I'll bet he'll be asked to leave camp immediately. Poodles might have to leave too. A shame. Two whole weeks early.”
Nausea overwhelms me. “You're crazy,” I say.
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