Embrace (16 page)

“Her father would have known if you were there,” Mrs. Bishop said. “He would have called us.”

“He didn’t know,” I replied. “I snuck her into the house when he was at work, and she hid in my room until she felt better.”

Our story provided an explanation for how Kaylee had been able to shower, why she was wearing my clothes, and why she wasn’t starving. We also offered a theory as to what had happened at school, which included someone dropping some type of drug into Kaylee’s mocha.

You can bet I cast the calming spell before I said anything to my dad too. I’m sure he noticed the holes in my story, but the spell made him unwilling to argue. I dismissed myself as soon as I could, afraid if I kept rambling he’d break free of the spell and I’d be in big trouble.

I spent the rest of the evening trying to catch up on my reading for English.

That didn’t go well. By no fault of the author, I was snoring before I reached the end of chapter one. Considering I should have been halfway through the book by now, I was so screwed when it came to passing English this semester.

Chapter 14

Guilt

K
AYLEE’S
P
ARENTS
D
ROVE
H
ER
to school the next day. They wanted to have a talk with Principal Douglas to let him know Kaylee had been drugged. No doubt it would launch an investigation, but we’d deal with that later.

I got a ride from Isaac.

“How’d it go?” he asked when I got in the Jeep.

“I would have been grounded for the rest of my life if it weren’t for the calming spell.” I exhaled, blowing my bangs out of my eyes, and shuddered at the thought of only being allowed out of the house to go to school. “My dad looked as if he wanted to yell, but only managed to squawk out a
Do you know what you and Kaylee put everyone through?
and
I’m very disappointed in you.
Kaylee’s parents just seemed relieved to have her home. I hope they didn’t wake up this morning and realize they were way too relaxed about the whole situation.”

Isaac rested his hand on mine and squeezed. The warmth of his powers wrapped itself around my hand, my arm, and then my entire body. It was an awesome feeling.

“What’s done is done. Latte?” he asked.

“Yes, and I’ll grab Kaylee one too. I bet she’ll need it.”

In an effort to ease Kaylee’s return to school, I spoke to Mr. Chapin before class to let him know our version of what had happened. She arrived twenty minutes after the bell. Mr. Chapin stopped his discussion long enough to welcome her back. All eyes followed Kaylee as she made her way to her desk. I handed her the lukewarm mocha.

Thanks
, she mouthed, ignoring everyone else.

I could barely concentrate on the lesson. Kaylee looked well, not at all like a person who’d spent the morning being chewed out by her parents. I’d hoped for a few minutes to talk to her, but the day’s lesson centered on a debate over the differences between the writing styles of past and present authors. I tore a piece of paper from my notebook and scribbled a note to Kaylee on it instead:

How’d it go?

I folded it in half and passed it to Kaylee when Mr. Chapin had his back to us. Kaylee took a minute to write her reply and handed the scrap of paper back to me:

Okay. Principal Douglas is calling the police.
He wants a full investigation.
You might be called down to his office.

I nodded.

“Are you going to be okay?” I asked Kaylee after class.

The first couple of days back to school were going to be the worst. A lot of people had seen Kaylee hopping up and down on her desk, screaming for help. Even more had heard about it.

Kaylee rubbed the metal cross Josh had given her. “I’ll be okay. See you in History.”

I was more than anxious to get to Foods. I had to know if Mark would show his face in school now that we were onto him. I wouldn’t if I were as evil as him. Then again, he had shown no signs of remorse so far. Would getting caught even bother him? I had my answer soon enough.

“Madison,” Mark called to me when I entered the classroom.

He’d saved me a seat, as usual. If there’d been another open stool anywhere in the room, I would have sat on it. I sighed at my luck and headed toward his table. It did occur to me that his friendliness might be a trick. He might have figured out I was one of the people who’d bound him from harming others. What if he confronted me? What if he was waiting with another hex bag or a spell?

I brushed that thought aside. We bound him. Nothing he could do now could hurt me. Besides, I wasn’t afraid of him.

Not much, anyway.

“Hi,” Mark said as I plopped down on the stool.

I was careful to keep my backpack away from him. “Hi.”

“Is it true? Is Kaylee back?” He looked truly excited at the news. So excited, I wondered if he’d put a glamour on himself.

“Yeah, she’s back.” I pretended to be interested in my Foods book, hoping Mark would take the hint that I didn’t want to talk.

“That’s great,” he said. “So, what did the doctors come up with?”

Oh! I wanted to punch him right in his freckled nose. I turned my head and looked into his beady, mud-colored eyes. “They believe someone dropped something into her mocha. Then she had an allergic reaction to the medication she was on.”

“I knew they’d figure something out.” Mark tapped his pencil on the table as he talked. “I’m glad she’s back,” he whispered before turning his attention to our teacher.

I had no idea how to take Mark’s comment. On one hand, he seemed to actually care. On the other, why would he be glad Kaylee was back if he wasn’t planning something else? I decided he had to be gauging my reaction, trying to figure out if I’d had anything to do with binding him. That’s when a terrifying thought occurred to me. Maybe our binding spell hadn’t worked. Maybe he was smug because we had no idea we’d failed.

No. I refused to let my imagination get the best of me this time. Isaac was sure about the poppet and the spell. If he believed in it, then I did too. That didn’t stop me from wondering, though, if Mark had realized he’d been bound. Isaac could have been wrong about Mark feeling the effects of the spell as we’d cast it. Mark might not know his powers were useless until the next time he tried to use them.

“Try all you want,” I mumbled under my breath. “It won’t work.”

“Did you say something?” Mark asked.

“Just talking to myself.”

I spent third period in the principal’s office, telling our story to him and a couple of officers, one of them being my dad’s friend, Joe Zimmerman. The younger officer with a buzz cut quizzed me over and over and over. I tried not to fidget as I answered his questions but kept rubbing my hands on my jeans. When he asked me why I was so nervous, I asked him if he was going to arrest me for helping Kaylee sneak out of the hospital. To my relief, he answered no. No one pressed charges. Kaylee’s parents were just happy to have her home and healthy. And the hospital didn’t want to be sued for misdiagnosing Kaylee, for not noticing the drugs they’d prescribed had made her worse, and then letting her walk out the front door unnoticed. My actions seemed heroic, really.

The interrogation ended when the bell rang. Kaylee and I reached History at the same time.

“I’m so glad to see you back,” Mrs. Parris gushed when Kaylee entered fourth period. She dropped her voice to a whisper. “Principal Douglas told me what happened. Don’t you worry about a thing; the police will find who did this.”

Kaylee thanked her. I bit my tongue before I could reply
Wanna bet?
We took our seats.

Sarah greeted Kaylee with a hug. “I’m
so
glad you’re okay.”

“Thanks,” Kaylee said.

“Is it true?” Sarah whispered. “That someone drugged you?”

Kaylee half nodded, and I said, “Yeah.”

Sarah gave Kaylee another hug. “The festival’s this Friday. Are you up to coming?”

I’d completely forgotten about the festival. Kaylee looked at me, excitement hiding just under her carefully arranged expression. Leave it to Sarah to know exactly what to say to cheer Kaylee up. It was nice to see her excited.

“We’ll be there,” I replied.

Kaylee’s smile lit up her face. “What’s left to do?”

“We’re pretty much ready,” Sarah said. “Mr. Hoffman delivered the cornstalks and bales of hay. He brought a few people with him, and they’re setting up a maze now. Mark and Ben recruited a bunch of guys to help set up the props and booths. Only things left are some last-minute decorations and to set up the bake sale booths. We can’t do that until Friday, so we could use your help then.”

“Sure,” Kaylee said.

“Great. Friday’s a half-day. We can walk to Mrs. Sheppard’s room after class. We’ll grab the cookies—” Sarah broke off when she saw Paige.

“Sarah, Madison,” Paige said as she took her seat behind me. “Kaylee, you’re looking good.”

“Thanks.” Kaylee eyed her, no doubt wondering why Paige suddenly cared.

Emma slid into the seat behind Kaylee. “We heard someone drugged you.”

“I’d rather not talk about it,” Kaylee said, looking a little tired of the whole subject.

Emma shrugged and took her History book out of her backpack. “I’m not eating or drinking anything that’s been out of my sight ever again.”

“The important thing is you’re better,” Paige said. “And back in time for the festival. You’ll be there, right?”

“We’ll be there,” I said.

“Great,” Paige said to Kaylee, even though I was the one who’d answered. “Will Josh and Isaac be there?”

Kaylee narrowed her eyes. “I’m sure Josh will. I can’t speak for Isaac. Maybe Madison knows.”

It bothered me that Paige asked about Isaac. It was like a slap in the face. She might as well have said,
I haven’t given up; he will dump you for me.
I had news for her, though—if Isaac did come to the festival, it wouldn’t be to see her. She needed to stop chasing him; he wasn’t interested. I would have pointed this out if I didn’t know that Paige would then work even harder to get his attention. I fought not to let my emotions show.

“I’ll ask him when he drives me home this afternoon,” I said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Paige said in a sugar-laced tone. “I’m sure I’ll see him at some point today.”

Mrs. Parris told everyone to stop talking before I could reply, which may have been to my advantage because I was about to lose my temper and tell Paige off.

The end of the day couldn’t come quickly enough. I lost track of how many people had asked me about Kaylee. Most of them would be keeping a close eye on their food and beverages.

It was a relief when the last bell of the school day rang. Seeing Isaac and Paige deep in conversation near the double doors to the parking lot, however, stirred up quite the opposite emotion. Emma stood a few feet away from Paige. Isaac appeared to listen attentively, totally interested in what Paige was saying. He even laughed and didn’t slap her hand away when she’d handed him a sheet of paper.

It was hard to explain, but I wanted Isaac to despise her as much as I did. For as long as I’d known Paige, she had to have whatever I did. She used to shop at the same stores as me. Buy the same clothes. Hang out with the same people. Crush on the same guys. Now, she obviously wasn’t stopping at pining from a distance. Ugh! I just wished she’d go away.