Love Charms and Other Catastrophes (11 page)

“Sure you won't drink coffee? It always makes me feel better,” Nico offered.

“She doesn't drink coffee?” Ken asked.

“Gives her headaches.”

Ken rubbed his chin. “With that extra caffeine, she'd be a love charm-making machine. We'd blink and her apartment would be crammed with new charms.”

“You're right.” Nico deadpanned, “It could be the worst crisis Grimbaud has faced in ages.”

Hijiri managed a laugh, even though her body felt leaden. “It's not worth suffering through that drink. Tastes like mud.”

The boys couldn't argue with that, though Ken insisted that using unhealthy amounts of sugar and milk could help. “It's an option,” he said, after letting Nico get back to work. “In case you run out of energy.”

September had already proved that she would be working long and hard this semester. The month had only just begun and yet she'd already failed one challenge by losing the popular vote and was not any closer to solving Ken.
So how am I doing, Love?
Hijiri thought grimly. She wasn't sure if she wanted the answer.

 

Chapter 7

THE UNFORTUNATE ACCIDENT

The charm theory club met in the same science room as last year, this time on Wednesdays after school. Stepping into the classroom again, Hijiri was hit with memories from the first time the rebellion, under the guise of the club, met one another. Since the science rooms were in the basement, shadows splashed the walls and the lightbulbs alone couldn't dispel them. Jars of animal parts lined the shelves in the back.

Ken unsnapped his chest strap and dropped his backpack on a desk. He examined the room, drinking in the details. He picked up the jar of eyeballs and weighed it in his hands. Flipping it over, he ran a finger over the glass underside. His mouth twitched into a smile. “Watch this,” he said. He twisted the jar.

“Don't open it,” Hijiri said. She braced herself for a pickled, vinegary scent.

Fallon and Sebastian came into the room, and Fallon gasped when she saw Ken pop the lid off. Sebastian grinned and asked Ken to toss him an eye.

But when Ken reached inside, he pulled out a rubber bouncy ball. And another. And three more. There was no liquid inside. The bouncy balls themselves came in different colors.

Sebastian caught the bouncy ball Ken threw at him. “Where are the eyes?”

“It's just a trick,” Ken said, pleased. The outside of the jar still showed eyes floating in preservatives.

“How did you know that?” Hijiri asked.

Ken shrugged. “Just a guess.”

“It's a charm,” Hijiri insisted. “But I don't know what kind would create an illusion like that.”

Ken put the jar back. “I bet it's a hearth charm,” he said quietly.

“Did Love teach you about other charms?”

Ken stared at the jars. “All charms are interesting, but hearth charms are my favorite.”

He dodged my question. Why does he keep doing that?
Hijiri pressed a hand to her forehead, flattening her bangs. “If Love only created you days ago, how can you possibly know enough to have a favorite type of charm?”

Ken's eyes flickered over her face. “Sometimes you know what you like. It's called trusting your heart.”

Hijiri's cheeks burned under his gaze. She looked down. “So your totally fake charm-heart told you that you love me and you love hearth charms.”

Ken's jaw tightened. “That's right,” he said, a little too harshly, and brushed past her to sit next to Sebastian.

Hijiri raised her eyebrows. She was just trying to solve him. Had she said something wrong? If anyone should lose a temper, it should be
her
. She was getting tired of having her questions unanswered.

“I guess that means dissection isn't in our future,” Sebastian said, bouncing a ball on the tile.

“I wouldn't say that,” Mirthe said, overhearing the conversation. She rushed into the room to claim the teacher's desk. Instead of making room for her twin, she dumped her textbooks across the free space. “Senior biology is scheduled to dissect a pig in November.”

Hijiri leaned forward in her chair, hoping to sneak a peek at Ken. See if he still looked frustrated. With her. Before she could get a good view over Fallon's shoulder, Femke arrived, creating an entrance that left Mirthe sputtering.

Curls of fog rolled into the room like a carpet. Only the top of Femke's head and green eyes showed. The fog dampened the room. Hijiri smelled feathers and raindrops.

“What are you
doing
?” Mirthe shouted, using her folder as a fan. “Don't bring clouds in here. We won't be able to see.”

“I wanted to show everyone what I made,” Femke said in her quiet, composed voice.

Mirthe's fingers went white on her folder.

Femke closed her eyes and the fog shifted, returning to her in frothy waves. The gray fog formed the shape of a dense fur coat. When she walked to the teacher's desk, the fog left a smoky trail behind her.

“That's amazing,” Fallon said carefully, her eyes flickering between the twins.

Hijiri wasn't sure if she should clap or not. Since when did they
not
celebrate the twins' inventive weather charms? But Mirthe's reaction confused her.

“Dad's been teaching me some new skills,” Femke said to Mirthe, calmly pushing her twin's textbooks aside so she could hop up on the desk. Somewhere underneath the fog-coat was her bag; she opened her notebook to a clean page and waited.

“Did Dad tell you to use charms in school? You know that's not allowed,” Mirthe bristled.

“Since when did you care about the rules?” Femke said coolly.

Hijiri exchanged a stunned look with Fallon. Femke and Mirthe
never
fought. This was a first, and it made the usually cheerful club meeting oddly tense.

Luckily, the moment was interrupted by Nico and Martin's arrival. The minute he saw the fog-coat, Martin's eyebrows nearly shot into his hairline. He was about to say something when Nico grabbed him by the arm.

“Let it go today,” he said firmly.

“The hazards,” Martin argued. “There's a reason we don't use charms in the building.”

Femke apologized to Martin and said she'd take care of it. She played with the tortoiseshell barrette in her hair—Mirthe wasn't wearing a matching one—until something clicked. A latch.

The barrette pulled the fog in like a magnet. Within seconds, the fog swirled its way inside the barrette until nothing was left but the faint taste of rain on their tongues.

Mirthe refused to stay sitting on the desk with her sister. Instead, she paced the front of the room and asked everyone to take their seats.

They arranged their desks in a U shape, careful to leave enough space so that Mirthe could continue burning off her agitation. Hijiri pressed her palms flat against her desk, waiting to see what would happen next.

Femke asked the first question, unperturbed by her sister. “Who's going to be representing our club at the student government meetings this year?”

Fallon and Sebastian said they'd be serving again.

“We don't have to make our club sound as boring this year,” Nico said.

“Yes, we do,” Femke said lightly. “New members are strongly discouraged.”

Hijiri smiled at that. At least someone felt the same way as she did about keeping their group small and private. With new people, the memories of the rebellion would fade faster. She knew she was being selfish, but she didn't want to let go. They had the rest of the school year together before the twins and Martin graduated. And one more mission: winning the love charm-making competition.

“Ken managed to sneak past our defenses,” Sebastian said, smirking. “He must love charm theory.”

“Or a certain someone,” Fallon added.

Hijiri rolled her eyes.

“Thank you for letting me be here,” Ken said with amusement, “however debatable my motives are.”

“Next order of business,” Mirthe said, clapping her hands. “The first challenge should be a wake-up call for us. We need to be prepared for the next challenge.”

“I don't think
anyone
could have prepared for this one,” Fallon said.

“There has to be something we can do,” Mirthe insisted.

“Not cheating, I hope?” Femke said flatly.

“We've been sneaky before.”

“This time it's different,” Fallon said. Her expression turned serious. “Detective Archambault is not like the other police officers in town. She's keeping a close watch on us. If any of us are suspected of cheating, Hijiri's chances of winning the competition are over.”

“We're not used to playing by the rules,” Sebastian said, making everyone laugh. The tension eased, and even Mirthe slowed her pacing.

“Then let's brainstorm love charm ideas for the end of the competition,” Mirthe said.

“We've only been in a school a week,” Sebastian said, slouching.

“And already lost one challenge,” Hijiri said. The admittance hurt less now, but it still stung.

“This is Hijiri's specialty. Maybe she should tell us what
she
has in mind,” Femke said.

Mirthe stopped her pacing to glare at her twin.

The room was thick with tension. Hijiri wanted to crawl under her desk.

Ken leaned forward, elbows on his desk. “Why don't we start with the love charm's purpose? Should it be practical or showy?”

Hijiri scooted up in her chair too, so she could see him.

“What do you mean?” Mirthe said.

“I mean, what kind of charm would steal the show? Something flashy or shocking to grab the audience, or a practical charm that people would actually use?”

“Showy won the first challenge,” Nico said. “Sanders's question was so random, it caught everyone's attention.”

“Practical is always best,” Fallon said. “A charm that's needed. No one can resist what they think they're missing.”

“That may be true,” Mirthe said, “but Hijiri can't sell charms yet anyway, so why create something in demand? Better to entertain people instead.”

Hijiri gripped the corners of her desk. “Both,” she said softly. Then louder: “The perfect love charm should have a little of both to win the competition.”

“Have you come up with anything?” Mirthe asked.

“A few ideas. Nothing stands out yet.”
Not when Nico and Martin are having problems, and so are you and Femke
, she thought, frowning. How could she concentrate on winning when her friends needed her help?

*   *   *

The twins pulled Hijiri aside after the meeting. Mirthe waited until everyone had left the room before grabbing Hijiri's shoulders and asking about Ken. “So what have you discovered about him so far?”

Hijiri's forehead wrinkled. “He still stubbornly believes he'll win me over. He smiles too much. And he's too nice.”

“None of that sounds magical,” Mirthe said.

“I disagree.” Femke crossed her arms. “Niceness
is
magic, but no one thinks of it that way since it's quiet and constant.”

Mirthe ignored her. “But what about the charms? What's he made out of?”

“I haven't figured that out yet.”

“You're kidding me.”

“Look, he won't answer any of my questions.” Hijiri brushed Mirthe's hands off her shoulders. “I've tried to see if he knows anything—he
has
to—but he's been dodging my questions. Or conveniently has coughing fits.”

Femke gasped softly. “The coughing. Does he really do that only when you ask him questions?”

“I guess so?” She hadn't paid that much attention.

“Try to test that. If he doesn't have a cold,” she said, “maybe it's some sort of defense. Like, Love built him to keep his secrets, so Ken can't tell you anything that would help you solve him.”

Hijiri's pulse quickened.
Could that be true?

“Love wouldn't make it easy for you,” Femke said, smiling. “You have to be cleverer.”

“That's why we're here! The De Keyser twins, at your service. Tell us what we need to do, and we'll have that charm-boy solved by the end of the week,” Mirthe boasted.

“Such a short time frame,” Femke muttered.

“Maybe not a week, then. But soonish.”

Hijiri sighed. “Thank you for the help. I'll keep that in mind.”

“We've given her a lot of think about,” Femke said to her sister. “We should go.”

“You just want to get home faster,” Mirthe said. “Dad's going to give you another fog charm lesson, right? Go ahead. I don't want to be there.”

Femke's green eyes flashed, but she said nothing.

After she left, Mirthe hopped back up on the teacher's desk and pretended, very badly, to not care that her sister was gone.

Hijiri huffed in exasperation. “What's going on with you two? I've never seen you fight.”

Mirthe tapped her fingers on the desk, the hollow sound filling the room. She looked ready to burst. “Femke and I need to make a big decision when we graduate, since we're weather charm-makers,” she said in a rush. “Our discipline is so broad that we're required to claim a specialty. What we choose determines our apprenticeships for the next few years.”

“How could you possibly decide? There's no way I could with love charms.”

“Love is love,” Mirthe said, “but weather is snow, fog, clouds, wind, heat, volcanoes, hurricanes, tornados, sun, and moonlight … I could keep going.”

“Is that why you're upset? You can't make a choice?”

“That's part of it,” Mirthe said, squirming in her seat. “But the bigger problem is my sister. She's engrossed in studying clouds, kind of like my dad with his wind. But clouds are
boring
. What could she do with them? I've tried to tell Femke she needs to choose something more exciting. She won't listen.”