I put the saucer down on my dresser and pour out some of the soda. SLURP!!! The gnats attack it from all sides. Please, let this work!
Half an hour later, Katarina and I watch twelve huge red pinch gnats still slurping Fanta out of the nearly empty dish. They’re yawning, and one by one they all clunk over, sound asleep. “Sugar crash?” I say.
Katarina nods.
“I like the pinch gnats a lot better when they’re asleep.”
“Everybody likes pinch gnats better when they’re asleep.”
“How long are they going to stay red? I can’t walk around all week with a swarm of big red bugs following me! I’d go from being Underwear Girl to Bug Girl.”
“Relax. They’ll digest the red overnight, and then they’ll be invisible again.”
“You’re sure?”
“Have I ever been wrong before?”
I’m pretty sure she has, but now’s no time for an argument. I just hope she’s right. I say, “While they’re sleeping, can I ask you something?”
Katarina nods.
“Before the pinch gnats came, you said, ‘All you have to do is…’ What were you going to say?”
“I was going to say, ‘All you have to do is find her prince.’”
“That’s your big advice? You do know there aren’t a lot of princes around here, right?”
“Nonsense! There are princes all over the place.”
I’ve never seen even one, but I hope she’s right.
Ow! Ow! Ow!
At the crack of dawn the next morning, I feel a dozen pinches.
OW! I sit up, and in the dim light from the window, I see that I’m covered with crawling bugs. The red color has faded almost entirely, but I can still make out their ghostly outlines.
Why are they pinching me? Was I asking questions in my sleep?
I shake them off my arms. Some of them land right back on me, pinching like crazy, while the others fly over to the half-full bottle of Fanta. They try to crawl inside, but they’ve grown too big to fit through the opening. They buzz around it unhappily and then zip back to me.
“Katarina! Wake up!” I say.
A moment later, the jewelry box lid pops open and Katarina peers out sleepily.
I point at the gnats. “They’re almost invisible again—but they won’t stop pinching! And I’m not even asking questions!”
Katarina watches the gnats as they take turns pinching me and then zooming back to the Fanta bottle. “For the love of glitter, pour them some soda!”
I hop out of bed—Ow! Ow! Ow!—and fill the empty saucer. The gnats forget me and surround the saucer like kittens lapping milk (mean, ugly, kittens). They almost instantly turn bright red again. We’re back where we started—maybe even worse, because the gnats are bigger.
Katarina turns to me. “Well, I hope you’re happy. You’ve turned them into sugar fiends.”
“At least they’ve stopped pinching me,” I say. I stare at the gnats, trying to figure out what to do next. I really can’t have them following me around at school. Finally I say, “I know what I can do. I’ll just fill up a huge bowl with soda—gallons and gallons—and they’ll be so busy drinking they won’t even think about me.”
“Won’t work. They’ll drink till they explode. Trust me, pinch gnat guts are very hard to clean up. And the smell!”
“Ew! But if I just give them a little soda, they’ll drink it all and come find me at school, for sure. I can’t spend all week in my room making sure their dish is full!” Suddenly, I think of something. “But Katarina, you could.”
“I’m not a waitress.”
“No, you’re a wonderful, generous, sweet fairy godmother who helps her friends. Please! It’ll be like a vacation. All you have to do is sit here and trickle out a little soda once in a while.”
“No.”
“Please. Please. Pretty please. Please. Please. Please. Pleeeeeeeease!”
“All right! All right! I’ll do it if you’ll just shut up!” Katarina sighs. “I’m one of the greatest fairy godmothers in the country. No—why be modest? In the entire world! And I’m reduced to spending my time pouring out soda for bugs.”
“I owe you.”
“You’re darn tootin’ you do.”
“And one more teeny little thing…”
Katarina raises an eyebrow.
“If it’s okay with you, we need to move the saucer into the back of the closet so Mom won’t see it.”
Katarina looks toward the ceiling. “What, oh, what, did I do to deserve this?”
I guess that means yes.
When I get to school, Sunny sits down next to me in homeroom and says, “You didn’t text me about how we’re getting my mom married by Friday.”
“I’m sorry! I got distracted because Katarina and I had a bug problem.”
And for the rest of homeroom, Sunny and I talk about pinch gnats and about how Katarina’s going to stay in my closet and feed them soda. As we leave the room, Sunny says, “We never talked about the wedding.”
This was on purpose, since there’s not much to talk about so far. “I’ll give you all the details at lunch, okay?”
Sunny smiles—she completely trusts me.
By lunchtime, I need to have everything worked out. I’m sure I’ll come up with something in English, World Cultures, or science.
I don’t.
At lunchtime, I find Paige and Sunny in the cafeteria going through an old-style photo album. “What’s that?” I ask.
Paige says, “It’s from my mom and dad’s wedding. I thought it might give us some ideas.”
“Good thinking.” I sit down next to them and look at a sweet picture of Paige’s parents. It’s a “walk down the aisle” shot taken a moment after the wedding ceremony, and they both look so happy they could burst.
I haven’t seen that many pictures of Paige’s mom, who died before Paige and her dad moved here. I look at her mom’s smiling face.
“She was so pretty,” I tell Paige.
“Even your dad was pretty back then,” Sunny says.
Paige points at her father’s big grin. “Dad says it was the second-happiest day of his life.”
“What was the happiest?” I ask.
“When I was born.”
Sunny laughs. “That’s what my mom says about me!”
I turn the album page, and there’s a photo of Paige’s mom throwing the wedding bouquet. Paige studies the picture, a little sad. I wonder if Paige will ever stop missing her. I know I’d never stop missing my mom if she died, so the answer must be no. But maybe after a while you remember the good times and think less about the sad ones.
We keep flipping through the album, and I open my notebook to make a list of all the things we need. “We’ve got to have a church. A minister. Flowers. A cake. And a beautiful, beautiful dress. Anything else?”
Sunny says, “Just one thing.”
“Rice to throw?”
“Not rice. Lacey—where are we going to get a groom?”
Sunny and Paige look at me as if they expect me to know the answer. Like I’m a fairy godmother or something.
Oh, right. I am. All I can say is, “I’m still working on it!”
In PE, I’m extra sucky at basketball, because I’m trying to think of somebody for Gina to marry. The guy needs to be nice. He needs to really like kids, because Sunny is part of the package. He needs to be handsome, at least to Gina. And he needs to be able to come to a wedding on Friday. His wedding.
Mrs. Brinker blows her whistle right in my ear, and I jump about ten feet. “Lacey! You’re not even pretending to focus!”
“Yes, I am. I’m very focused.” Which is true—only, not on basketball.
“Everyone else is getting better, but you’re getting worse. I want you to stay after school every day this week for remedial practice.”
Makayla smirks at me. (Now I’m kind of glad that I hit her on the head with the basketball last week.)
But I don’t have time for Makayl
a—or for remedial practice. I’ve got a wedding to plan and a lot of magic to do. Then I get an idea. I tell Mrs. Brinker, “Excuse me a second! I’ll be right back!”
And with Mrs. Brinker and the kids all staring at me, I run toward the locker room. Mrs. Brinker shouts, “Lacey! You get back here this instant!” I pretend not to hear her.
In the locker room, I take the wand out of my sweater pocket. I need a spell! It’s not helping that Mrs. Brinker is shouting through the door: “LACEY UNGER-WARE! If you’re not back here by the time I count to ten, you’re getting detention! One, two…”
I cover my ears with my hands and try to think fast. What rhymes with basketball? Zilch! And then I remember something Scott said, so I chant, “Ready, get set, nothing but net!” and toss the spell at myself. I’ve done enough spell-tossing to know they only last till midnight, but that’s more than enough time to get me through gym class.
Mrs. Brinker says, “TEN!” just as I sprint back into the gym.
“I’m back! I needed my lucky socks!”
Mrs. Brinker glares at me, but I just grab the ball from Makayla and throw it toward the basket, which seems about a mile away. Darn it! The ball flies so low there’s no way it’s going in. Then, at the last second, it pops up and swishes through the net.
My mouth drops open, and so does Mrs. Brinker’s.
“Do that again,” she says.
Makayla can’t believe her ears. “Mrs. Brinker! You said Lacey was getting detention.”
“Quiet! Lacey’s shooting.”
Everyone in the gym looks at me as I pick up the ball. I start to sweat—I know I’ve got magic on my side, but this is still my worst bad-at-PE nightmare. I take a deep breath and shoot. The ball goes in the basket like it’s being pulled by a magnet.
“Do it again,” Mrs. Brinker orders.
Twenty-nine free throws later, the ball is still going in. Mrs. Brinker’s eyes are about to pop out of her head—and the other kids are staring at me like I just grew a third ear. I drop the ball and ask Mrs. Brinker, “Do I still have to stay after school for remedial practice?”
Mrs. Brinker, still looking dazed, shakes her head. She tells me, “No, Lacey. That won’t be necessary.”
The bell rings, and I sprint to the locker room before she has a chance to change her mind.
After school, we all meet up in Sunny’s backyard. Almost a whole day has gone by and I’m no closer to getting Gina married.
The girls look at me expectantly, and I have to tell them the truth. “I don’t know how to find Gina her true love. Not a clue.”
“Can’t you just use magic?” Paige asks me. “When you were my fairy godmother, you turned that squirrel into a prince; he was handsome and really loved me.”
“But only until midnight.”
Sunny says, “My mom deserves better than a squirrel.”
I nod. “And we need a permanent true love. Magic is always temporary.”
Paige gets an idea. “What about your dad, Sunny? Maybe your mom still loves him. I saw this movie once where the kids get their parents back together.”
“My dad’s new wife wouldn’t like that idea.”
“Oh, I forgot about her,” says Paige.
I kick the fence, which makes Fifi, the poodle next door, bark. I say, “This is so hard! We’re never going to find anybody!”
Paige’s phone buzzes, and she smiles as she reads a text. “It’s from my father. He’s still working at the hospital, but he wants me to meet him for dinner.”
OMG!
I have a BRILLIANT idea. I know I have a lot of brilliant ideas, but this one is extra super special with sprinkles on top. “Sunny, your mom should marry Paige’s dad!”
They’re supposed to jump up and down and tell me how smart I am—but they don’t. They just sit there staring.
“Think about it,” I say. “They’re not married to anybody and they’ve both got wonderful daughters—you’ll be sisters!”
Paige says, “My dad’s not ready to get married again!” But then she hesitates. “Well…I don’t think he is.”
And Sunny says, “It would be fun to have a sister.”
“It can’t hurt for Gina and Dr. Harrington to meet, can it?” I say.
Both girls shake their heads no, which isn’t exactly jumping up and down, but it’s going to have to do for now.
Trying to sound positive, I say, “We can do this! Maybe it’ll be love at first sight.”
“But my mom hasn’t left the house all month,” Sunny says. She turns to Paige. “How does your father feel about bathrobes?”
Paige smiles, but then she thinks of another problem. “My dad’s working nights at the ER this week.”
And, in a flash, I think of the answer. “It’s simple. We send Gina to the ER with a big emergency.”
Sunny asks, “What’s the emergency?”
I say, “You are.”
Half an hour later, Sunny, Paige and I rush into Gina’s bedroom, where she’s in bed watching more Bridemonsters.
I say, “Gina! Gina! Sunny needs to go to the hospital!”
Gina sits up, worried. “What’s wrong?”
Paige says, “She’s got a hundred-and-five-degree fever!” I show Gina the digital thermometer, which flashes 105°.
Sunny wobbles around the room, red and sweaty. Gina jumps out of bed and feels her forehead. “You’re burning up!”
Sunny rasps, “Mommy! Why are there fish in the room?”
Gina says, “Fish?”
The fish were Sunny’s idea; I thought they were silly, but boy, did they work.
Fifteen minutes after that, we’re all rushing up to the emergency-room door. My plan has worked great—and it was so simple. All it took was a tiny bit of magic to make the thermometer read 105, plus Sunny running around the block until she was hot and sweaty. And now we’re here, ready for Dr. Harrington to fall in love at first sight…
…with a woman in a bathrobe, no makeup, and unwashed crazy-lady hair. Love may be blind, but it can still smell.
I pull my wand out of my pocket and ad lib a spell: “Gina is a big mess! New hair, makeup, and dress!” I toss it just as she steps through the sliding door to the ER.
And when Gina comes out the other side, she looks like a movie star. Her hair is styled, her makeup is flawless, and she’s wearing a cute little black dress. Oops—she’s still got on her bunny slippers. But a fairy godmother can’t think of everything.
Gina, so upset about Sunny that she doesn’t even notice she’s wearing different clothes, runs up to a nurse. “You’ve got to help us!”
“What’s wrong?”
Sunny points at imaginary fish. “Look! Guppies! The whole room is full of guppies!”
That’s all it takes. The nurse hurries us into an exam room.
A minute or two later, Dr. Harrington strides in, looking tall and handsome in a lab coat. And, like a character out of a romantic movie, he doesn’t notice anyone else in the room, not me, not Sunny, not even his own daughter. He just stops and stares at Gina, and she stares back like she’s hypnotized. (I’m so glad I changed her dress!)
This is working way better than I hoped. Love at first sight for sure!
I half expect him to sweep her into his arms and kiss her. So I’m shocked when instead, she crosses her arms and glares at him, and he crosses his arms, too. He says, in a curt voice, “Hello, Gina.”
Gina says, every bit as curtly, “Hello, Stephen. I hope you’re a better doctor than you were a driver.”
“You’re complaining already. Why doesn’t that surprise me? There’s a pediatrician on call tonight—let me get her.” And he buzzes for the other doctor and leaves.
Whoa. What just happened? Not only do they know each other, they hate each other!
It takes us two hours to get out of the emergency room. The hospital people wanted to do a hundred different tests on Sunny until we finally admitted we were faking the whole thing. I’d describe the lecture we got from the
doctor, but it would take about three pages.
Gina is mad! As she marches us back to the car, I almost expect to see smoke coming out of her ears.
Paige stayed behind at the hospital to have dinner with her dad—lucky!—so now it’s just me, Sunny, and an angry Gina. I’m glad Katarina’s at home with the pinch gnats. If she were in my pocket right now, she’d be kicking me.
Gina doesn’t say a word until we get into the car. She doesn’t start the engine and instead starts yelling. “What were you girls thinking? How could you fake something like that? You scared me to death!”
Sunny’s probably going to get grounded.
“Did you think you were being funny? Well, you weren’t! It was totally irresponsible! And Lacey, I’m calling your parents the second I get home.”
Oops. I’m going to get grounded, too.
Then, miraculously, Sunny saves us. She takes Gina’s hand and says, “Mom! I’m really, really sorry! But I had to do something to get you out of your bedroom. I’ve been so worried!”
Gina looks at Sunny, shocked. “You were worried about me?”
“Yes! You never get out of bed anymore and all you eat is wedding cake. You’ve stopped drawing—and you missed my karate class!” Sunny starts to cry.
All of Gina’s anger about the emergency room evaporates. She hugs Sunny as tight as she can. “Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry. I’ll never miss one again. I know it’s been hard for you lately. But I’ll be better, I promise.”
Wow. I may not have found Gina a husband, but at least she’s going to try to act normal again. That’s got to be a good thing.
The drive home is a lot calmer than I thought it was going to be. I even get brave enough to ask the big question: “You know Dr. Harrington?”
Gina rolls her eyes. “I dated him in high school. He asked me out to the prom—and then he got us lost on the way there. I knew the right exit, but he wouldn’t listen to me, so we never made it to the dance.” She sighs. “I saved for that prom dress for six months, and nobody ever saw it except for my parents and Stephen Harrington the Jerk.” She pauses. “You guys think I’m being petty?”
Sunny and I both shake our heads. The prom is super important. I guess we can cross Dr. Harrington off the true-love list.
The Magic Mistake Page 4