My hand automatically went up to my face. “Oh yeah. I bet now everyone will want one.”
“I wouldn’t mind—if I didn’t have to get hit first,” said Lucy. “It makes you look brave.”
“But I’m not really,” I objected. “I’m worried about what everyone will say tomorrow.”
Lucy and Alexa looked at each other.
“What?” I said.
“You tell her what happened,” Lucy said.
“Okay.” Alexa held up a finger till she finished chewing. “At lunch on Friday Sage came over to our table. At first she pretended to be worried about you. But then she started saying that you were always trying to call attention to yourself. She said that was why you didn’t duck when the ball was coming—and why you have a weird pet instead of a dog or cat like everyone else.”
I looked at Destiny, who was nipping at Mom’s potted asparagus fern. Instantly, tears sprang to my eyes.
“We told Sage we knew what really happened and that she’d better shut up or we’d tell,” said Lucy. “But you should’ve heard Leo! He said meanness makes people ugly and that she’d better not look in the mirror or she’d scare herself.”
Knowing Leo had defended me made me feel a little better. It also made me blush.
Alexa ran a hand over the purple velvet drapes surrounding our window seat. “You know, this room reminds me of the dance studio where Lucy and I take hip-hop—especially these drapes and the wooden floor. We could show you some steps if you want.”
“Dance! Dance!” Sammy chirped. He’d been on the floor “cooking” with one of Mom’s pots and a spoon. Inside the pot was a bunch of little plastic people he called “the meatballs.”
“I’m not supposed to do stuff like jumping or spinning yet,” I said. “But I could be the DJ.”
“No, that’s okay,” Alexa said. “Let’s think of something we can all do.”
“How about playing hide-and-seek?” Lucy suggested.
“Me pay! Me pay!” Sammy exclaimed. He was at a stage where he said everything twice.
“Oh, Sammy,” I sighed.
“He can be my partner,” said Lucy.
“He’ll only want to hide,” I warned her. “And if you let him hide with you, he’ll talk and give you away.”
“I don’t mind.” Lucy grabbed Sammy’s hand. “Come on, Sammy. We’ll go first.”
Alexa and I stayed on the window seat and counted to forty with our eyes closed.
“Ready or not, here we come!” we shouted.
Alexa pointed at the staircase and I nodded. We’d both heard the steps creaking. We tiptoed up with Destiny right behind us. She was getting pretty good at hopping up steps.
Although we could hear Sammy’s voice in my bedroom—“Hee, hee, hee! Me hidin’!”—we pretended to look in other rooms. And when we finally got to mine, he scrambled out from under the bed before we could crouch down to look. “You find me!” he squealed, throwing his arms around my knees.
It was my turn next. While Alexa, Lucy, and Sammy counted, I raced to the bathroom and climbed into the claw-foot tub. As I pulled the shower curtain closed, the curtain rod squeaked.
I could hear Sammy pulling Lucy to my room again, as if it were the only place to hide. But Destiny led Alexa straight to the bathroom. Des had honks of surprise, honks of joy, and honks of complaint. This time, her long honks—Honnnk! Honnnk!—made her sound as if she were calling me.
“So you think she’s in here, Detective Destiny?” asked Alexa, yanking the curtain open.
When she saw me, Destiny went quackers, honking and flapping. I climbed out of the tub and got down on the floor with Des. She flew onto my shoulder and then onto my head.
“You could use her for a shower cap!” Alexa exclaimed.
“You can’t do that with a golden retriever,” said Lucy from the doorway.
“Woof!” said Sammy.
We all cracked up, even though the joke was pretty lame.
And for the rest of the afternoon, we kept repeating that line over and over—You can’t do that with a golden retriever!
It made us laugh every time.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Ye Olde Family Connections
“I want to sit with Sage,” I told Gray on Monday while we waited for the bus.
His face closed up tight as a fist. “Sage! Why?”
“I have to find out something.” There wasn’t time to explain more. The bus was already pulling up.
As I climbed the steps, a wave of panic almost made me turn back. The driver was a substitute. If the kids started up again, Mac wouldn’t be there to help me. But I had to stick to my plan. So I walked quickly until I got to Sage.
She was too busy examining her hair for split ends to notice me coming. Her mouth dropped open when I sat down.
“Surprise!” I sent her a sly, sideways glance I’d practiced in the mirror.
“Wh-what do you want?” Though she was trying to sound like her snotty self, her voice shook a little.
“You broke our deal. You broke my face, too. I want to know why!” Actually, the swelling under my eye was mostly gone. All that was left was a touch of pink and yellow. If I’d been a sunset, I would have been pretty.
“I didn’t throw that ball! Raffi—”
“I know you told him I could stop it with my mind,” I interrupted. “You knew he’d do anything you asked him to.”
“Well, my grandma’s in the hospital because of your mother and her stupid play.”
I couldn’t believe what a jerk she was being! “Look, I’m sorry your grandma’s in the hospital because she’s a really nice person. But it didn’t happen because of my mom. Maybe it made you feel better to see me get hurt, but I’m sure it didn’t help your grandmother one bit. I bet if she knew what you did, she’d feel worse.”
“You’re not going to tell her, are you?” She looked around the bus to see if anyone had heard me. But the only ones watching us were her friends, Maya, Anna, and Ellie. If I wanted to, I could get them all in trouble. I sent them a look that let them know I was thinking about it.
“That depends.” I lowered my voice. “I don’t want you talking about me to anyone again . . . or . . . or . . . I’ll use my power on you. Got it?”
“Yes.” She nodded quickly and went back to examining her hair. I pulled Ella Enchanted out of my backpack and pretended to read. But I was thinking that I didn’t want to use my power on Sage or anyone else. Ever.
When the bus lurched to a stop in front of our school, I nearly slid off the seat.
“You!” the driver barked as I was about to get off. “Wait here! The office wants you to fill out an accident report.”
“Um, okay,” I murmured, although the last thing I wanted to do was go over what had happened again.
“We’ll stay with you,” Alexa offered when she and Lucy got up front.
“Oh no, you don’t. She’ll have an excuse for coming late to class. You won’t. Move along, you two!”
My friends sent me sympathetic looks as they shuffled down the steps.
“Tell Ms. Tomassini I’ll be in soon,” I yelled after them.
“You okay, Pix?” Gray asked, stopping next to me.
“She’s fine,” snapped the driver. “Don’t hold up the line.”
Leo was right behind Gray. Before he jumped down the steps, he rolled his eyes at the driver. I put my hand over my mouth to hide my smile.
While the rest of the kids were filing out, the driver found a form and a pencil stub and handed them to me over her shoulder. I skimmed the form quickly. There was a section that asked for information from my doctor and a signature from my parent or guardian. “Excuse me? I think I’m supposed to bring this home,” I said.
The driver watched the last kid, a first grader, get off the bus. Then she took off her hat and sunglasses. “You’re probably right, kiddo,” she said turning around in her seat.
“Aunt Doris!” I jumped up and hugged her. I guess part of me want
ed to make sure she was real.
She hugged me back so tightly, I think she was relieved to see me, too. “I’m sorry I was away so long, but I had to do a lot of digging to find out what I needed to know. Our lineage ladies are very good, but they’re old and slow. And the documents we have are so faded they’re hard to read. It took a while to figure out the puzzle of you.”
“What did you find out?
“That your great-great-great-grandmother was a stopper, too, kiddo. It can be a very useful gift, once you learn to control it.”
Useful? Huh! Maybe if I was a spy or a ninja. Why couldn’t I have gotten a more practical power, like the ability to keep people like Sage from hurting my feelings?
As if she’d read my mind, Aunt Doris said, “A gift like yours takes time to grow into. A Goose Girl’s special power appears between the ages of ten and fourteen. That’s when our girls become apprentices. They’re actually the ones who are responsible for creating the magic that goes into our cakes. We Goose Ladies teach them how to put it all together.”
“I don’t see how being a stopper can help me bake a cake—unless it’s used to stop it from burning in the oven,” I grumbled. “Besides, I need to be ready now! I think Raveneece came to my house yesterday. I found Destiny’s cowgirl hat on the mat.”
“Well, why didn’t you say so!” Aunt Doris pursed her lips like Mom did when she was thinking. When she finally spoke, there was anger in her voice. “She’s trying to draw you out. She wants you to find her. But you mustn’t do it! Even if she manages to get Destiny somehow, you’ve got to stay away from her, Pixie.”
I wrapped my arms around myself to keep from shaking. “Why does Raveneece want Destiny anyway? My dad says she won’t lay eggs for another whole year.”
“She isn’t just after goose eggs. She wants you.” Aunt Doris sighed. “Look kiddo, Raveneece is out to settle a very old score. She thinks you can help her get back something her ancestors lost long ago.”
A lump of fear rose in my throat. “Her ancestors were the Sinister Sisters, weren’t they?”
“Yes.” Aunt Doris shook her head disapprovingly.
“My mom has this book—Sister Goose’s Cautionary Verse for Brats. Do you think they wrote it?”
Aunt Doris took a big gulp of air—and swallowed her gum. She coughed so much, her face turned red.
“I thought they’d all been de-destroyed!” she sputtered as I pounded her on the back. “That book is the last and only thing Mother Goose’s sisters wrote before they lost the family legacy. Raveneece seems to think you can help her get it back.”
“The book? She can have it!”
“The book won’t satisfy her, kiddo. It’s much more complicated.” Aunt Doris looked out the bus window. “In another month when school is over, and if we can convince your parents, you can spend the summer at Chuckling Goose Farm. I promise I’ll tell you what I know then. In the meantime, stay away from Raveneece Greed. Now you’d better go to class.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Ye Olde Return
Lucy, Alexa, Gray, and Leo were waiting by the classroom door when I got there. But once I walked into the room, a lot of other kids rushed over. Everyone was talking at once, welcoming me back, asking how I felt, and saying they’d missed me. Even two of Sage’s friends, Ellie and Anna, were part of the group. Ellie handed me a cute bracelet she’d woven and Anna gave me a pack of gum. It was weird how having an accident could turn you into a popular kid. It made me hope the bruise on my eye wouldn’t heal up too fast.
Though I could feel Raffi looking at me, I refused to look back. But on his way to the paper-recycling bin, he dropped an envelope on my desk. Inside was a card with a dog chewing a sneaker. The printed message said, “Sorry! It didn’t even taste good.” Underneath, Raf had scribbled, “Sorry!” about twenty more times and signed his name.
“Okay, everyone. I agree it’s great to have Pixie back, but please return to your seats now,” said Ms. Tomassini. She sent me a special smile. “I have good news for you, Pixie. The deadline for the poet laureate submissions was last Friday, but we got it extended for you.”
Great. I pressed a hand to my forehead and tried to look as if I were in pain. “I’m sorry, Ms. Tomassini—I forgot about it.”
“No worries. You can work on your poem now, while the rest of the class starts their book reports.”
I really did try to think of a new idea, but I’d already used up my energy on the bus, dealing with Sage and what Aunt Doris had told me. Anyway, I still wanted to write about Destiny—this time without saying a word about golden retrievers.
“My Destiny”
by Pixie Piper
You can’t walk my pet on a leash.
Go fetch, you can’t get her to play.
She can’t lay an egg, or sit up and beg
But I’m not giving her away.
Suddenly my head started hurting. I’d only rested it on my desk for a moment, when Ms. Tomassini appeared beside me. Like a lot of teachers, she could sneak up on you, quiet as a cat.
“What’s wrong, Pixie?”
“I hate my poem,” I whispered.
She put a hand on my shoulder. “Would you like me to show you how to write a haiku? We worked on those while you were out.”
“No thanks.” Before I could stop it, a tear leaked out of my eye.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have asked you to try writing yet. Even sitting and listening can be hard when you’re recovering from a head injury. Do you need to go home?”
“No,” I whispered, even though I really, really wanted to.
I was kind of relieved there was a different substitute bus driver on the way home. I was too tired to think about the Goose Ladies. All I wanted to do was curl up in bed, cuddle with Des, and close my eyes.
The bus seemed to take forever to get to our stop. I said good-bye to Gray and dragged myself down the driveway as if I were crossing the desert. Before I reached for the doorknob, it opened by itself. Sammy squeezed out and grabbed on to my leg.
“Peeksie! Peeksie! Dessie go bye-bye!”
“Whoa, easy, Sammy! You’ll knock me over.” Then I realized what he’d said.
Mom was staring at me. Her face was too pale and her eyes were too bright. It was a warm day, but I went cold with fear.
“What’s wrong?” I whispered.
“Destiny is missing.”
“No! No!” I screamed. “She can’t be!”
Tears were running down Mom’s face. She put her arms around me. “When we came home a few minutes ago, I looked in the mudroom. Des was gone and the side door was ajar. I guess one of us could have left it unlocked, but I don’t see how she could have gotten it open. She’d have to be able to turn the knob and push.”
Suddenly, I wasn’t tired anymore. “I’ve got to look for her right away! I’m going to the pond.”
“No, Pix. You’re still healing. You need to rest for a while. Daddy is already out looking for her. Give him a chance.”
“Please, Mom! What if a hawk or a fox finds her? I promise I’ll rest later.”
“Go to your room and lie down now.” I’d never heard my mother sound so strict. I knew it was because she was scared.
I threw my backpack down and stomped up the stairs with my brother behind me, wailing. “No, Sammy—stay out!” I yelled, closing the door on him. It was mean, but I couldn’t help it. I flopped on my bed, taking deep gulps of air to stop from crying. I’ll just rest for five minutes and then I’ll call Gray, I told myself.
But five minutes later, it felt as if my mattress had turned to quicksand. I could barely lift an arm or a leg. My head seemed enormous, my neck as weak as a stem. And when I closed my eyes, pictures of Destiny drifted by like a train made of clouds.
Des tugging my pants . . . splashing and chuckling in the bathtub . . . flapping ecstatically when she found me during hide-and-seek . . . sitting cozily on my lap, her heart pulsing against my hand like a tiny star. All the things I hadn’t pu
t in my poem, the things that mattered—and now she was gone.
Sammy was already in bed when Dad finally came home. “I searched until it was too dark to see much, even with a flashlight. But I didn’t find anything. Not even a webbed footprint.” He looked so sad with the corners of his eyes and mouth turned down. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
“Thanks for looking, Daddy.” I got up from the table and my untouched mac and cheese. “May I be excused?”
Mom gazed at me for a long moment. “Pixie, she might be okay. She might have found shelter somewhere safe for the night.”
“Or she could have met some wild goose friends,” Dad added. “Geese are social creatures.”
I shook my head and forced a smile. “I know. I’m just really tired.”
I took the phone into my room and called Gray. He was quiet while I told him what happened.
“I just don’t see how Destiny got out,” he said finally.
It was hard for me to say what I was thinking. I didn’t want it to be true. “It—it must have been Raveneece. She wanted Des really badly.” I didn’t tell him what Aunt Doris had told me—that she wanted me, too.
“Destiny’s super smart. She might have gotten away.”
“If she did, she would’ve come back, Gray. Or my dad would have found her when he searched the woods.”
“We should look again tomorrow after school. Maybe he missed a clue or something.”
“No, we need to look tonight—we can’t wait!” I whispered. “We’ll go after everyone’s asleep.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Ye Olde Night Predator
A few minutes after midnight, I heard Gray’s Who-WHO, Who-WHO call, which sounded something like, “Who-cooks-for-you?” He’d learned the call from a pair of barred owls that lived in our woods, and he was really good at it.
With my parents’ permission, I’d been sleeping downstairs on the sofa. I’d told them it was so I could hear Destiny honking, in case she returned in the middle of the night. They’d agreed so easily, I’d felt guilty. But I already had my clothes on under my pajamas. All I had to do was pull off the PJs and slip on my hoodie and sneakers. I’d already tucked the wish cookie I’d saved from the fun fair and the little goose-shaped flashlight into the hoodie’s pockets, in case I needed them.
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