Careful What You Wish For (5 page)

No wonder I liked Gabi. The girl was a genius.

“Let's do it!” I had her stand directly across from me. We grabbed hands and made eye contact. “Focus,” I told her. She nodded.

“Make everyone in school adore Max,” Gabi said. “Make the wish come true.” I repeated exactly what she said, then concentrated on making her wish come true.
Make Gabi's wish come true. Make Max popular. Make the wish come true,
I thought over and over again. When the late bell rang we dropped hands. “Keep your fingers crossed,” I said. “If that worked, we just turned Max's world around.”

I didn't have to worry about getting a seat when I got to English class. They were pretty much all empty. Except for the back right hand corner. Right where Max sat.

People were fighting to get a seat near him. My wish granting had worked! I grabbed Gabi's arm. “How cool is this?”

“Totally,” she said.

Jaydin squeezed her way into the seat next to Max.

“Get up,” Courtney said, yanking her BFF's sleeve. “I want to sit there.”

“Too bad,” Jaydin said, doing the unthinkable and defying the ever-powerful Courtney Lourde herself. “I got here first.”

“I said get up!”

That was something I never expected to see. Not if I lived to be 125 years old. Courtney Lourde fighting to get closer to Max Richardson. I half expected to see Wilbur the pig fly by the window.

“Why don't I make it easy?” Rick Drager said. “Both of you leave him alone. Hey, Max, come check this out. I got a bunch of new rookie baseball cards. Some I already have. You can have the duplicates if you want.” Rick? The very Rick who just this morning smashed Max into a locker was now vying for his attention?

When Max didn't move, Rick got up and went to him.

“No way,” Cole said, blocking his way. “Everyone knows what you did to him. You think I'd let you get anywhere near him after that?” Cole turned his attention to his new friend. “Don't worry. He tries to mess with you, he has to mess with me first.”

“And me,” Reid said. A bunch of others echoed him.

This was better than I expected. The whole class was pro-Max. More than that. They thought he was the greatest thing ever. I was so happy I wanted to do a victory lap. After all, my powers let me help someone. Someone who really deserved it. That was definitely high-five worthy.

“All right, everyone, take your seats,” Mrs. Torin said.

No one budged.

“The bell rang,” she said. “To your desks, or tomorrow there will be a seating chart.”

“Oooh,” Lana said. “Can you make sure to put me next to Max?”

“That's not fair,” Tracy said. “I want to be next to him.”

“Okay, okay,” Mrs. Torin said as the rest of the class also put in their requests. “I understand. It's not every year I get a student like Max. He is one of a kind.”

“Even Mrs. Torin is on a Max kick,” Gabi whispered to me as we took our seats—on the empty side of the room. Fortunately, we weren't under the Max spell. I guess that's how it works—the wisher (if the wish isn't on their own behalf) and the granter have immunity. “This is unbelievable.”

It really was.

“Max, you can come right up here,” Mrs. Torin said. “Take my seat, so everyone can see you.”

Max didn't move.

“Come on.” Mrs. Torin gestured toward him. “Prize students deserve the spotlight.”

Max shuffled his way to the front. He kept his face down, so I couldn't see his expression. But he had to be hiding a huge smile. Sudden turns in status like this didn't happen all the time.

With Max out of the seating equation, everyone grabbed a desk. Cole took one next to me, which was cool.

“We're going to read aloud from
Romeo and Juliet
today. Max, you can be Romeo. Do I have a volunteer for the part of Juliet?” Mrs. Torin asked.

Every girl's hand shot up except for Gabi's and mine.

“Please,” Courtney said, practically lunging from her seat.

And Mrs. Torin actually picked her. Not that I was shocked. She thought Courtney was an amazing actress. She even gave her the lead in
Charlie Brown
not too long ago. The part that should have gone to Gabi.

Watching Max read his lines was pretty torturous. Brad Pitt he was not. He fumbled over the words and took about three million centuries to get out a line. I already thought reading Shakespeare was boring, but listening to it with Max as the lead was way, way worse. Not that anyone else seemed to think so. They applauded every time he managed to spit out a line, and Mrs. Torin even suggested he try out for the next school play!

My special gift was obviously pretty powerful. Maybe I'd try to broker world peace next. The thought made me laugh. Some girls tried to make their fathers proud of them. My goal was the opposite. Lou was going to be furious when he saw all the good I did.

Gabi tossed a note at me.

I carefully opened it under my desk.
This is awesome
, it said.
We did it
.

As I wrote my response, Mrs. Torin called me out. “Something you'd like to share with the class, Angel?”

I crumpled up the paper and dropped it into my backpack. “No, thanks,” I said. “They already know.”

And they did. I was going to write,
Max is the king!

“You're in a good mood,” Mom commented when I got home.

Understatement. I was in a fantastic mood. I had done something amazing with my powers. Something kind. Or, more importantly, something not
evil
. Nothing was going to get me down. I even volunteered to help Mom with her monthly cleansing. The one where she lights candles and roams through the house shaking a giant totem pole to ward off negative spirits.

The giant pole and I pirouetted around the kitchen. I tossed it up in the air, caught it, and did a dip for an encore. It was
Dancing with the Stars
-worthy. Well, if I was a star.

“What's gotten into you?” Mom asked.

“Just had a good day at school.”

“Well, I'm certainly not complaining,” Mom said. “Feel free to waltz your way through the upstairs. It could use a nice cleansing.”

I twirled my way into the living room. The totem pole wasn't as much fun to dance with as Cole, but I could pretend. I glided my way upstairs with my partner and did a flying leap into my room.

And then my mood took a sudden nosedive. Try and guess who was leaning against my dresser waiting for me.

I shut the door so Mom wouldn't hear, then I pointed the stick at Lou. “Leave.”

“Angel—”

“No, I don't want to hear it.”

“What about your lessons?” he asked.

“Don't need them. Don't need you.” And it was true. My powers hadn't gone off on their own at all since he was out of my life. Not to mention that I just had major success with wish granting. I was doing just fine.

“What happens when something goes wrong?”

I shook the totem pole at him. “It won't. And if it does, I'll fix it. Maybe I'll just grant myself a wish for everything to be fine. Isn't that what you like to do? Play with wishes?”

“Angel.” Lou's face got serious. “Wish granting is not meant for someone at your level. You need to keep studying with me before you attempt that.”

I rolled my eyes at him. He was such a liar. Wish granting was simple. He just wanted me to ask him for help. “Whatever.”

“I mean it, Angel. It's very risky to use powers that are beyond your grasp. Do I need to remind you of the time you turned your friends into statues?”

“No.”

“And it's not just you,” he said. “Take Gremory. He tried wish granting, and he lost control. Then he couldn't undo the damage.”

“Well, I'm not a demon.”

“No, but you're a girl who doesn't know how to control her powers.”

I squeezed the totem pole. It took all my willpower not to tell Lou he was wrong, that I'd already granted a wish, and it all worked out perfectly. But I didn't want him to go and undo it. Or worse, try to make Gabi hand over her soul as payment.

“Promise me you won't try it,” he said.

“Fine. I promise.” Lou wasn't the only one who could lie.

“Good. Because there can be major consequences. When Gremory tried to undo the wish and the problems he caused—he made a bigger mess.”

I knew what Lou was doing. Giving me a lecture to scare me from trying anything advanced without him.

“Yeah, whatever,” I said. “Undoing powers is tricky.” It wasn't like I had plans to undo anything, anyway. Max was going to stay popular forever. “Got it. Now go.”

I pounded the totem pole on the ground.

“Angel.”

I pounded again. “Go!”

With that, Lou shook his head and left.

“Are you okay up there?” Mom called out.

“Yep,” I answered. “Just getting rid of all the evil in the room.”

“Can you believe he tried to get me all paranoid about my powers?” I complained to Gabi as we walked into homeroom. “What a jerk.”

“Definitely.” But she was barely listening to me anymore. Couldn't really blame her, though. I had been talking about it an awful lot. Nonstop, actually. “Hey, look,” she said as we got closer to her desk. There was a cupcake with blue icing there. And a folded note.

“What's that?” I asked.

“A cupcake,” Gabi said, picking it up.

“I know that. I mean the note. What does it say?” She shrugged her shoulder and unfolded the piece of paper. “Something sweet for someone sweet,” she recited. “From your secret admirer.”

Talk about corny. But I didn't say that out loud. Gabi looked superexcited, and I didn't want to ruin it for her. Because corny or not, it was still pretty cool. “Who do you think it's from?” I asked.

“No idea.” She put her finger in the frosting and licked it off. “Mmm. I love frosting.”

Gabi loves
anything
sweet. But her mom is like the food police and only wants Gabi to eat things with nutritional value. So getting junk food totally made her day. And this particular junk food was from a boy, so it made it that much yummier.

I scanned the room. “Maybe Marc Greyson gave it to you,” I whispered. “Wasn't he the one who ate about a dozen cupcakes at the dance? Maybe they're like his signature now. And he seems to be looking this way.”

Gabi didn't say anything. She was focused on the cupcake.

“I bet he likes you and wants to go out with you.” I had to admit, I was getting pretty excited myself. The thought of Gabi and I going on double dates was totally cool. Maybe one day we'd even have a double wedding.

Gabi turned around to look at Marc. “He is cute. But why would he like me?” She sat down.

I smacked her arm. “Because you are amazing. Why wouldn't he like you? You're smart, you're pretty, you're talented, you're—”

“A big loser,” she said.

“Stop it,” I hissed at her. “First, you are
so
not a loser. Since when do you believe what Courtney Lourde says? And second, Cole goes out with me. And if you're a loser, then I am, too. And he doesn't seem to care. So then Marc wouldn't, either.”

Gabi giggled. “Okay, maybe you're right.” She turned around to look at Marc again. “Do you think it could be him? He's
really
cute!”

“Who?” Tracy butted in. “Are you talking about Max? You're friends with him, right?”

I shrugged my shoulder. We weren't exactly friends, but he did follow me around a lot. “I guess.”

“Then will you see if he likes me?”

Tracy was asking me for a favor? I thought she hated me! I told her I would. Bringing a couple together was a good thing. And good was my new specialty.

Everything was going just great. Max was even going to get a girlfriend. I didn't know what Lou was talking about. Wish granting was easy. Not sure what Gremory's problem was all about. What do you expect from a demon?

But I certainly was no demon.

I was 100 percent good. And there'd be no mess-ups on my watch.

“Sign this.” Courtney shoved a paper under my nose at the end of social studies class.

“What is it?”

She let out a sigh. She clearly didn't want to be talking to me. The feeling was mutual. “A petition. To hold a reelection for student senate.”

“Why?” I asked, pushing away the paper she had shoved in my face.

“Duh. So Max can run for president. He shouldn't have to wait until next year. He deserves it now. I already have eighty signatures.”

“I'll sign,” Rick said, grabbing the paper. He dropped it back in front of me when he was done.

“Now you,” Courtney demanded.

I didn't argue. I just signed. So did Gabi. Then Courtney ran over to Max. “Once I have one hundred signatures, I'm going to show it to the principal. I know he'll let us do a revote. You're going to be the perfect president,” she said, and flipped her hair over her shoulder, giving Max a big old smile.

Gabi's body was shaking from trying to hold back her laughter. It
was
pretty funny watching Courtney flirt with the guy she once referred to as uglier than toe fungus.

“Courtney,” D.L. yelled from the doorway. “What are you doing with
that
? Let's go.”

She stood up and marched right over to D.L. “
That
is Max and don't ever speak about him in that tone again. Because I promise, if you do, we are so done.”