Zombie Queen of Newbury High (3 page)

“No, I feel at home in my bedroom when I’m watching those shows on television. There is a big difference,” Mia corrected, and was just about to turn around and head out the door when there was a noise. She glanced over to the counter, where an ancient woman with wild silver hair was waving with arthritic fingers.

“Candice, you’re back. I’ll just go get your latest order,” the old woman said as she awkwardly got to her feet and hobbled away.

“Thanks, Algeria.” Candice beamed as she tugged Mia over to the counter.

“Excuse me, but why exactly are you on a first-name basis with a five-hundred-year-old witch?” Mia hissed in a low voice the minute the other woman had disappeared behind a beaded curtain with a picture of Elvis on it. “What’s going on?”

“Okay,
fine
.” Candice let out an exaggerated sigh. “So sometimes orthodox medicine is incapable of dealing with all of my medical problems and I need to look outside the box for cures.”

“And by ‘outside the box,’ you mean in a weird shop that’s run by an old woman who looks like she was shipped over on the
Mayflower
?” Mia said as she glanced around the place and shuddered.

“You see, now that’s exactly the reason I didn’t mention it to you before, in case you went all judgmental,” Candice retorted. “Besides, I’ll have you know that Algeria is a gifted herbalist—and so what if she’s a little bit on the wrinkled side? The important thing is that she understands how to heal people with delicate constitutions such as my own.”

“How did you even find a place like this?” But before Candice could answer, Algeria shuffled back into the room with a brown paper bag. Up close and personal she was even older and more shriveled than Mia had first realized, and her blue eyes were so pale they were almost transparent.

“Here you go, dear,” the old woman rattled. “These are the seaweed and squid supplements you ordered. With your discount that’s eighty-five dollars.”

Mia’s eyes nearly bulged at the price, but Candice didn’t even blink as she handed over her platinum credit card. “Actually,” she said at the same time, “there was one other thing I was hoping you could help me with. I don’t suppose you have any love spells, do you?”

“Love spells?” Algeria narrowed her watery eyes before glancing around to check that the shop was empty (which, unsurprisingly it was, since who in their right mind would go in there except for them?). Then she leaned forward and lowered her voice, “Who told you about that?”

“No one,” Candice quickly assured her. “It’s just, when I was in here the other day looking for something for my asthma, I overheard a woman asking for a spell to help her win the lottery. I just figured lottery, love, it’s sort of the same thing. So do you do them?”

Mia glared at her friend. A lottery spell? She had to be joking, but before she could say anything Algeria leaned even closer.

“Love spells aren’t something that you play around with.” The old woman shook her head, and her wild hair seemed to stick out even more. While Mia wasn’t quite as appearance-obsessed as Grace or Samantha, what would be the harm in Algeria getting a bit of product to tame that frizz down? “Why do you want one?”

“Actually, it’s for my friend.
Prom-date problems
,” Candice added in a knowing whisper.

“Always is this time of year.” The old woman nodded sagely before turning to Mia. “So, girlie, is this something you really want?”

Mia paused for a moment and shot Candice a hesitant look. Did she really want it? Then the humiliation of seeing Rob so easily transfer his affections marched into her mind and started to dance around in a multicolored blur.

“Look,” she finally answered. “I know it’s a pathetic, sexist, lame tradition that I won’t care about in ten years, but when Rob asked me to the prom, there was a part of me that wanted to be
that
girl. Just for one night. You know, the girl who gets the guy. The one who buys the great dress to wear, worries about whether her shoes match her purse. I was even going to let my mom fuss with my hair and take some photos.” As she stopped talking, she couldn’t believe she was actually buying into this love-spell thing.

“Okay.” Algeria seemed convinced. “So what sort of spell would you like? We could give him boils. Or make his ears grow every time he tries to make the hanky-panky with anyone else. That’s a good one.” The old woman chortled in amusement.

“I’ll say.” Candice gave Mia an excited nudge. “I told you she was amazing.”

Mia stared at Algeria in alarm. “No, nothing like that. Look, he asked me to the prom and now this horrible girl is sniffing around trying to get him to change his mind. All I want is to make sure he doesn’t listen to her.”

“Oh.” For a moment the old woman looked a bit disappointed. “Are you sure?”

“Definitely,” Mia assured her.

“Fine, one run-of-the-mill love spell coming up,” Algeria muttered as she pulled out a small black velvet book with Elvis on the front. Then she flicked it open and, after studying it for a moment, started to pull a variety of bottles out from under the counter and lined them up.

As Mia watched her, she tried to ignore the fact that this had to be the weirdest thing she and Candice had ever done (and considering they’d met in seventh grade when they’d been relegated to playing the front and back end of a horse in the school play, that was really saying something). But then again, if it worked, it would all be worthwhile, and if it didn’t, well, there was always the push-up-bra idea to fall back on.

“Isn’t this great?” Candice grinned next to her as Algeria suddenly looked up and pointed a bony finger at them.

“I need a rose quartz. You, girlie, go over and get me one. It’s on the top shelf. There is a stepladder in the corner.”

“What?” Mia glanced up in alarm at the shelf Algeria was pointing to and felt her heart start to pound in panic.
No one had mentioned anything about climbing.

“Oh, Mia doesn’t do heights,” Candice interrupted as she casually walked over and stood on the small ladder so she could reach up to the top shelf, while Mia tried to resist the urge to sit down on the ground and put her head between her legs to stop the dizzy feeling from overtaking her. “Here you go. One rose quartz crystal.”

“Don’t do heights, eh?” Algeria looked up with interest.

“It’s no big deal,” Mia assured her as she willed her heartbeat to return to normal. Besides, it was sort of true, since, as long as she wasn’t up somewhere high, she was totally fine. According to her mom, she had been like that even as a baby, and while she had no idea what had caused it, she had a healthy respect for the fact that when she was too far up in the air, her heart rate went through the roof, her palms went sweaty, and nausea would normally follow not long after.

“Well, if you ever want something for it, you come back and see me,” Algeria said as she started to pour everything into a small wooden bowl. Then after several minutes of singing and arm waving (
And ew, did she just spit in it?
), she poured the liquid into a brown vial and passed it over to Mia before packing several crystals, a silver amulet, and a bag of sand into a large brown paper bag.

“One love spell. Now remember, the trick is to get as close to him as possible when you’re doing this.”

“Oh.” Mia took the vial and gave it a dubious look. “I thought I’d just be able to throw some powder into the air and make a wish.”

Algeria put down the pencil she had been using to write out instructions and fixed Mia with a serious glare. “Look, girlie, if you don’t want to do this properly, then it’s no good in me even selling it to you. You need to be close to him. Do you hear?”

“Of course she does,” Candice butted in. “So what if we do it outside his house? Is that close enough?”

“No good, too many walls in between. Closer.”

“But I don’t know how to get—” Mia started.

“What about the senior class awards assembly?” Candice suddenly blurted. “It’s during last period and if we hurry, we can get back there in time to do it while Rob goes up to get his football award. Oh, but will it be a problem that everyone else will be there?”

For a moment Algeria paused as she rubbed her chin. Then she shot them a toothless grin. “No, I don’t think that will be a problem at all. Oh, and by the way, the spell costs one hundred dollars.”

“One hundred dollars?” Mia yelped in outrage and was almost tempted to turn and leave. The only thing stopping her from doing so was the image of Rob humiliating her and the fact that Candice had suddenly grabbed her by the elbow with a cast-iron grip.

“We’ll take it,” her friend assured the ancient woman before nudging Mia to get her wallet out.

“Fine.” Mia reluctantly handed over her entire savings and tried not to mind that she would no longer be buying patent-red stilettos to go with her dress. The things she did for love.

 

“So, do I have the best ideas or what?” Candice announced half an hour later as they both peered out from behind the bleachers. Principal Keegan was droning on about how important it was to get the prom queen and king nominations in by tomorrow afternoon because the ballot papers would be passed out on Wednesday.

“Let me get back to you on that once I know if it works or not,” Mia retorted as she tapped her fingers and waited for the speech to finish so that Rob could go up and collect his award and she could start her chanting. They’d managed to sneak undetected into the gym just before the assembly had started, which was lucky, because setting the whole thing up had taken longer than she had imagined.

They’d had to find a wooden bowl, pour in the liquid (which did not smell at all nice), sprinkle sand into a circle, and lay out crystals and amulets in some sort of pentagram pattern. Not to mention the three pages of Algeria’s messy handwriting to read once Rob was close enough to them. These sorts of things definitely looked easier on television.

“I told you, Algeria is a genius, so of course it will work,” Candice insisted. “By the way, have you seen what Mrs. Taylor is wearing today? What is it with that dress?”

“Oh, I know.” Mia was instantly distracted as she craned her head a bit farther up to get another look at their eccentric IT teacher. As she did so, Chase Miller, who was standing right at the back of the assembly, suddenly glanced over in their direction. Crap. Mia grabbed Candice’s arm and tugged her back below the bleachers.

“What was that for?” her friend complained. “You know I bruise easily.”

“Sorry.” Mia cautiously peered up again and was relieved to see that he was no longer looking their way. “I just thought someone saw us. I had no idea doing a love spell would be so stressful.”

“Well, it’ll be over soon. Anyway, I don’t know what you’re so worried about. What could possibly go wrong?” Candice said.

Mia paused, but before she could respond, her friend pointed in the direction of the stage.

“Look, the football team is lining up to get their awards. It’s time to get chanting.”

three

“
L
ike seriously, you are so dead,” Grace said later that afternoon. Mia, who had been in the middle of looking out her bedroom window at Samantha’s house, turned around to where her younger sister was standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips in a ridiculous and highly exaggerated pose. “I heard you cut school this afternoon, and Mom’s going to flip when she finds out.”

“Of course I didn’t cut school, and can you get out of my room?” Mia crossed her fingers, since no good could come from Grace knowing what she and Candice had been up to. She returned her attention to the window. It was now almost five in the afternoon and there was no sign of Rob’s SUV outside Samantha’s house, which had to be a sure sign the spell she’d done earlier had really worked.
Right?

“Oh, really, well that’s not what I heard. And do I smell smoke?” Grace persisted as she walked into the room, her perfect nose wrinkled as if trying to search out a phantom cigarette. All Mia could guess was that the sickly incense from Algeria’s store was still clinging to her clothes. She’d better change before dinner, or else her mom would really flip and give them the “Your grandfather died of lung cancer at the age of sixty-one” lecture. Again.

“I’m surprised you can smell anything with all that perfume you’re wearing,” she shot back, but Grace was undeterred as she continued to prowl around Mia’s room looking distaste-fully at the large David Boreanaz poster on the wall. “Besides, don’t you have a huge math test tomorrow that you should be studying for?”

“Oh, that.” Grace shrugged her slim shoulders. “I have a feeling I’m going to be sick tomorrow.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you.”

“Of course there is,” Grace assured her before doing an Oscar-winning cough, and Mia rolled her eyes. Her sister had probably spent longer perfecting the cough than it would’ve taken to just study for the test. And even worse was the fact their mom would not just let her off school but probably get a couple of tubs of low-cal Ben and Jerry’s just to make sure she was comfortable. Mia blamed the divorce. She had been eight at the time, but Grace had only been six and had cried for weeks for their dad to come home. Their mom was obviously still trying to compensate. None of which improved Mia’s mood.

“Just go away, Grace.”

“Fine.” Her sister shrugged. “I just need to get your laptop first.”

“Not likely,” Mia retorted as she reluctantly dragged her gaze away from the window. “Use your own computer.”

“Mine doesn’t have video software on it.”

“Since when do you need video software?” Mia widened her eyes in surprise.

“Don’t worry, geek-head. I don’t have any plans to make up
Buffy
and
Angel
collages and post them on YouTube with stupid emo songs playing in the background.” Grace gave a dismissive wave of her hand as she strutted over to where Mia’s laptop was sitting. “I just need to do some homework.”