Wish (5 page)

“You okay. Really?” His expression was impossible to read,
but he sounded worried.

“I’m fine. Go away.”

“Sydney,” screeched a voice from behind me. ”What the heck
are you wearing?”

I swiveled around as Stevie ran towards our car. She wore a
short, frayed jean skirt with black fishnets. Her tank top barely held in her
boobs. She jiggled as she hurried towards us, but her spiky black hair didn’t
move an inch.     

“Hi, Cody, you big jock.” She twirled around. “Hey. Is my
butt hanging out of this skirt?” She feigned talking to me, but kept her eye on
Cody. The skirt barely covered her rear end.

      Cody definitely looked to see if it did, and then
averted his eyes and pretended he hadn’t looked and walked away from us. “See
you later, Lamesters,” he called.

      Stevie watched him go.

“Yummy,”
I heard her say.

I gawked at her. “Yummy? Stevie. That is gross.”

“What are you talking about?” Stevie asked, scowling at me.

“You just said Cody was yummy.”

“I did not.” She gave me a funny look and then tilted her
head. Shoot. Was I reading her thoughts too?

“And what are you wearing? Overalls? Did we just land back in
the 1990’s?”

      “It’s a long story, Stevie. I got up late.”

      She squinted at me. “You always get up late. But you
usually manage to look a tiny bit cool. Wrinkly and in need of a good shower,
but cool.” She gestured to my outfit. “Sorry sweetie, but outside of your
necklace, this is not in any way a cool look.”

      “I know,” I groaned.

      Stevie shook her head then reached over and tore the
sleeves on my t-shirt. She reached in her backpack, rummaged around for a
minute and then pulled out a black marker. “I swear, Sydney. If I weren’t here
to look after you, you’d be in serious trouble.”

      I didn’t answer but stood still as she scribbled on the
back of my shirt.

      “There,” she said, satisfied with her work. She spun me
around and squiggled on the neckline of my shirt with her marker. “Now you can
claim to be making a statement at least.”

      I glanced down. She’d outlined my necklace and wrote
something in French beside it.

      I frowned, but a cramp pierced my stomach and a gush of
grossness came from below.

      “Oh. My God.” I squirmed and hurried after Stevie as
she started towards the school.

“I got my period. I don’t even have anything to you know,
use,” I whispered.

      She stopped walking and burst into laughter. “Finally.”

My dirty look was meant to silence her.

“Sorry. Welcome to the horror.” She looked at me sideways and
started moving. “Come to think of it, you do look a little different. Better.
That’s weird. You’re supposed to look horrible and puffy with lots of zits.
Your skin looks amazing. You’ve got wacky hormones.”

      “I guess.” I glanced at her. “Did um, bizarre stuff
happen to you when you got yours?”

Like most normal girls, Stevie got her period when she was
13.

      “You mean cramps and headaches and cravings for massive
amounts of carbohydrates? He is so cute.” Stevie waved across the parking lot
to one of the seniors.

      I didn’t bother looking.  “Um. No. Like. Other things.”
I wanted to tell her about the wish. About Cody reading my thoughts. The book
in Mom’s room. But I’d promised Nana I wouldn’t say a thing.

      Stevie shrugged. “Not really. I barely notice when I
get mine. I’m lucky. Do you need tampons? I have some in my locker.”

      I looked around to make sure no one was listening to
us. “I don’t even know how to use a tampon.” Magic wasn’t going to help me with
that. Was it?

      Stevie giggled. “Yeah. I should have guessed. Your Nana
wouldn’t exactly be using tampons would she? And your mom is about as much help
as my mom these days.” She stopped smiling. “Sorry. Your Mom’s um. Sick. She
didn’t ditch you by choice like mine with her whole fleeing to another country
thing.”

      It was my turn to shrug. “No that was my Dad’s job.”

      Stevie patted my arm. “Our parents totally suck.”

Yup. What a great pair we were. Stevie hurried up the stairs
to the front entrance of the school and I had no choice but to catch up to her.
When we pushed through the front doors, I stopped moving. The Clickers swarmed
the entrance like insects, gathered right by the school trophy display. Their
usual hang out spot was in front of the water fountain by the gym. Something
was up. 

They all seemed to spot us and the buzzing got louder. Jenny
stood out from the rest of her friends, in her bright sundress and fabulous
accessories. Her worker bees all wore a variation of the same uniform. They
watched me with poison in their eyes. She took a step and the buzzing stopped.

“Abracadabra,” I said under my breath. I reached up and
grabbed my necklace, rolling it between my fingers. Somehow the necklace
comforted me a little. Maybe now would be a good time to have powers and be a
witch after all.

      “Sydney, don’t be weird. Just keep walking,” Stevie
whispered from the side of her mouth. “She must have found out Mike was at your
house this morning.
          I swiveled to look at Stevie. “You knew he came over?” I whispered.

      “I saw his car. Shh. Keep walking.”

      “Nice outfit,” called on of Jenny’s followers.

      They all giggled. Not a nice sound.

      “Quiet, girls,” called Jenny. “I’ll deal with this.”

      She stepped forward so she stood right in front me. My
stomach gurgled with fear and ramped up my already throbbing cramps.

From the corner of my eye I saw kids in the hallway stop to
watch, sensing something brewing. Stevie stiffened and took a step beside me. I
saw some of our friends close in behind her, not knowing what was going on, but
showing solidarity. For Stevie’s sake, I knew. Not mine.

      Jenny hovered over me like a blond Amazon.

“Sydney Grant,” she announced, as if she’d just found out my
name. As if we hadn’t gone to the same schools for years. She wrinkled up her
nose as if I smelled bad and I really hoped I didn’t. God. I didn’t even have a
shower.

She glanced down at my shoes and then her eyes moved slowly
up until she looked at my face. “What could Mike possibly see in you?”

A nervous giggle escaped my throat and I wanted to slap my
hand over my mouth to stop it from happening again.

“Did you sleep with my boyfriend?” she demanded.

      “No.” I didn’t add that I’d never slept with anyone.
Except a few stuffed animals and recently a small domesticated animal.

      “Liar.” She stepped even closer, peering down her nose
at me, making me feel small and a little sluttish, even though I hadn’t done
anything technically wrong. Well, except wish her boyfriend would fall in love
with me. Which was stupid and let’s admit it, kind of embarrassing.

“Are you one of those girls who’ll do anything to get a boy?”
Jenny said.

I heard a few people giggle and whispers from the gathering
crowd. I closed my eyes and wished Jenny would fall flat on her perfect face.

      Jenny tripped. She landed on my feet. Her skirt rose up
as she plopped on the floor, giving the boys around us a peek at her lacey pink
thong underwear.

I inhaled quickly and took a guilty step back. Nana’s warning
words echoed in my head.
“Be careful what you wish for, Sydney. You’re a
witch.”

      Jenny shot up from the floor, getting to her feet with
incredible dignity. I gave her props for that. She brushed herself off, pulled
down her skirt and smoothed it out as if she’d totally meant to do a face plant
in front of everyone. In spite of myself I admired her poise.

      “Are you doing kinky sex stuff to my boyfriend?” She
squinted at me.

The whispering got louder. Great. I was about to become the
kinky -sex girl. I’d never live it down. I’d have to start wearing leather
chaps and high heels to gym class.

      “For God’s sake, she’s never even kissed a boy, never
mind your goofy boyfriend,” Stevie bellowed.

       And there. Just like that I went from Kinky Girl back to
Hopeless.

“Shut up.” Jenny snapped, glaring at Stevie. “You.”

      “It’s Stevie,” Stevie reminded her. “Same name since
grade school, Jenny.”

Scary but true. Kindergarten to grade one, Stevie and Jenny
were friends. Until Stevie’s mom took off and I moved to town.

      “Oh. Yes,” Jenny said and looked Stevie over from head
to toe. “I guess I’d have left too, if I was your mother.”

      “How sweet. You do remember,” Stevie said. “So. Is your
father still sleeping with your nanny? I’m assuming you still need one to wipe
your butt.
”
 A few people chuckled.

      Jenny glared at her, but then turned her attention back
to me. “You think a loser like you can steal my boyfriend?”

      I frowned. She’d tried to hurt Stevie. So I smiled all
innocence and sunshine. “You know. A few days I wouldn’t have thought so, but
now… I’m not so sure. He has been calling me.”

All right, maybe, just maybe I’d accidentally put a spell on
her boyfriend and that was the reason for the calls. However, that was totally
none of her business if she was going to be so mean.

      Jenny squealed, reminding me of the potbelly pig at the
zoo and frightening me almost as much. Evil teen girl with anger management
issues.

      I wished Keith would appear to save me from the Clickers.
If there was one person who wasn’t afraid of Jenny, it was him. He couldn’t
stand her.

      “Hey. What’s going on?” Keith strolled up to my side
and elbowed me. He wore a black t-shirt and blue jeans with frayed holes in
each knee. A dark curl from his long bangs fell over his eye and he blew it out
of the way. He looked like the artist he was. Keith’s talent was legendary in
our school. He sketched and painted better than anyone I’d ever seen. Anyone
the art teachers had seen. I smiled at my friend for a moment before Goosebumps
popped on my arms. I’d wished for him.

“There
some sort of problem here, Jennifer?” he asked. He glanced down at me and
smiled. “You’re wearing the necklace,” he said in a soft voice.

      I glanced up at his familiar face and reached for my
necklace, rolling it through my fingers. My heart warmed up in a most
inappropriate way. I glanced at Stevie, feeling a little guilty. But seriously,
I’d never been happier to see Keith in my whole life.

      “Keith O’Reilly.” Jenny flashed her megawatt smile at
him. ”You’re friends with HER? Come on now. I know what you like, remember?
She’s pathetic.”

       My mouth dropped open. I stared at Keith. His lips
pressed together in a straight line. Never mind Jenny was pretending to not
know we were friends. Keith never mentioned anything about Jenny knowing what
he liked.

      “I wish you would just shut up,” I shouted at Jenny.

      An audible gasp hummed from kids in the hall and some
kids cheered. Jenny stared at me, as if confused. Then, abruptly she spun on
her expensive high-heeled shoes. She hurried down the hallway, away from me.
Her gaggle of girls stared after her and then quickly stumbled over each other
trying to catch up first.

      A couple of kids clapped but Stevie told then to leave
and the rest of the crowd lost interest too, and everyone started moving
towards classes and lockers.

      I exhaled a breath I didn’t even know I’d been holding.

Stevie shrugged. “Well. Glad that didn’t get worse. Come on,
guys.”

I didn’t move. Neither did Keith.

Stevie pulled on my arm. “Hey it’s over. You go girl.” She
grinned. “It
was
anticlimactic, especially for Jenny. But it’s not like
she can say much else. Why’d he drop by your place anyhow?”

“I don’t know,” I mumbled, trying not to think of my birthday
wish “He wanted to give me a ride. I told him no.”

“Well. It’s obvious they’re having a fight and he’s using you
to make Jenny jealous.  It’s not like he’s really going to pick you over her.” Stevie
punched my arm and I frowned at her as I rubbed it.

“Why wouldn’t Mike want to hang out with Sydney?” Keith asked
as fell in step behind us.

      “Well. For one thing. Look at her outfit. She’s a
dork.” Stevie gestured at me and rolled her eyes at Keith.

      Keith shrugged. “You look okay to me,” he said. “But
why does it say, “Witch?” on the back of your shirt.”

      I glanced over my shoulder, trying to see what Stevie
had scribbled on my back.

      Stevie laughed. “I thought it was funny. She looks like
a farm girl this morning. Kind of like Dorothy from the Wizard of OZ. I was
being ironic.”