Read The Wish Stealers Online

Authors: Tracy Trivas

The Wish Stealers (6 page)

“Yeah,” she said.

“Awesome,” he said, smiling again.

Griffin blushed as red as a fire engine.

Genuine gold fears no fire.

—Chinese proverb

Chapter
10

E
arly the next morning Griffin opened the box of pennies and scooped up one for each pocket, and then tucked the box into her backpack. All night she had debated about what she should do. Mariah Weatherby Schmidt was dead. There was no returning the stolen wishes to her. Even if she gave the box back to Mr. Schmidt, he would probably stick it on a sagging shelf in his overstuffed garage or just dump it into the garbage. Then she might still be stuck with bad luck. She decided she would
try
to return some of the wishes to “a person who is on the same journey as the original wisher,” whatever that meant. Maybe that would help stop these “coincidences.”

X
I wish the dentist will not have to pull my two back molars for braces.

X
I wish my new school smells like warm chocolate chip cookies.

X
I wish when it stops raining that no soggy worms will fry on the sidewalk the next sunny day.

?
I wish to become an amazing bass guitarist.

?
I wish for a baby sister.

?
I wish for Grandma Penshine to get well soon.

?
I wish no kid in the world has nasty green food caught in his teeth and no one tells him.

In her left pocket was the “no homework” penny, and in her right pocket was the “world peace” penny.

Griffin couldn’t stop touching the pennies. The natural oil from her palms was making them glow. No homework and world peace seemed nearly impossible, so she decided to start with them. Even on math tests Griffin always attacked the hardest problems first.

“See you after science. We’ll save a seat for you at lunch,” said Libby, with Maggie Hart and Madison James, friends from elementary school, heading toward their social studies class. Griffin continued walking alone down the long science wing, past bulletin boards of colored paper, past the stingy
water fountain that doled out a droplet at a time, and into the huge science room with cardboard planets dangling from the ceiling.

A few kids sat in their seats, staring at the planets slowly swaying back and forth as if they were on a hypnotist’s chain. Griffin took her seat.

“Good morning, my bright and amazing students, the future scientists of the universe! We are here to understand THE WORLD! THE ENTIRE SOLAR SYSTEM! THE UNIVERSE!” said Mr. Luckner, the sixth-grade science teacher. He wore yellow pants and a black shirt with puffy planets dancing all over it. “Can you all believe at this very minute that at the equator our planet is spinning one thousand thirty-eight miles per
hour
? The average speed for a car on the highway is fifty-five miles per hour! Think about how fast the earth is moving right now! Dizzy, anyone?”

The boys in the back row kept staring at the cardboard planets, heads swaying.

“We all should be dizzy just thinking about it!”

A few kids yawned as some others quickly tried to finish their homework while Mr. Luckner wasn’t looking.

“All-righty! How many minutes would it take a rocket to travel from Earth into space?”

Griffin’s hand shot up. “Nine minutes!” she blurted out.

“Very good, Griffin, very good,” said Mr. Luckner. Griffin knew this because her mom always said, when stuck in holiday traffic, “I can’t believe this! In a rocket we could reach
outer space
in nine minutes and we’re stuck in Dadesville County traffic for thirty minutes!”

Griffin smiled, thinking about her mom. A boy she didn’t know, Zeke, at the desk next to her smiled back. Giant chunks of green spinach snarled in his braces. A girl sitting to her left, Ashley, smiled. Green goop stuck in her front braces too.

Griffin’s eyes grew huge. That was another of her wishes:
I wish no kid in the world has nasty green food caught in his braces and no one tells him.

I have to tell them!
she thought. “Zeke!” she whispered. “Zeke!”

Mr. Luckner called, “Griffin, would you come to the board and try to estimate how long it would take to travel from Earth to Jupiter if I gave you some facts?”

“Okay,” said Griffin, distracted by the spinach.

She walked toward the front of the class. Mr. Luckner handed her a dry erase marker, and she climbed up on one of the high stools to write the formula on the whiteboard. Just as she placed her foot on the inner rim of the stool, her penny tumbled out of her pocket and rolled on the floor
like a wobbly planet, in front of the whole class.

Mr. Luckner swooped down to pick it up before she could climb off the stool. “Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck,” sang Mr. Luckner, turning the penny over in his hand.

“‘No homework,’” he read.

Griffin stood in front of him. The whole class hushed.

“Griffin, are you trying to send me a message?” he asked.

“No. It’s just a penny I found,” she answered.

A strange look washed over Mr. Luckner’s face. “A penny that has ‘no homework’ taped on it!” said Mr. Luckner. A stillness engulfed the room, and even the swinging planets stopped. The science room snake flicked its tongue against the glass wall of its terrarium. Its yellow eyes lit up, glaring at Griffin. Mr. Luckner stared, mesmerized by the penny. Light from the penny blinded the entire class.

Mr. Luckner exploded, “THIS IS A MARVELOUS idea! A stupendous idea! NO HOMEWORK!”

Every kid in the room sat up, electrified.

“Instead …,” said Mr. Luckner. A strange glow emanated from the penny and scattered light off the hanging planets. A copper radiance swirled in Mr. Luckner’s eyes. Mr. Luckner spoke again. “Instead of nightly homework for
the next month, I’m assigning all of you participation in our school’s science night. In the past, science night was voluntary for sixth graders, but it is now
mandatory
for all of you! You will create a booth, display materials, and write a six-page paper to present at science night. You must work on this using books and the Internet. You have a little less than one month to get ready for science night.

“My whole life I’ve been wishing for no homework to correct!” said Mr. Luckner, and he tossed the penny back to Griffin—but just then a gust of air swept through the room, flinging the penny into the tropical fish tank.

Griffin watched the penny sink through the aquarium water, past the sharp red coral, and disappear into a plastic sunken ship. All the fish bulged their fish eyeballs, circling around and around in pursuit of the lost penny.

“Your first quarter science grade will depend on your science night booth and your oral reports on a famous scientist, due next week,” said Mr. Luckner.

He wrote on the board:

Wednesday, September 10, ORAL REPORTS (on famous scientists)

Wednesday, September 24, SCIENCE NIGHT (booth and paper)

“That’s all folks. No homework! Just two projects this month. No more nightly correcting for me! Brilliant idea, Griffin!”

“Now look at all the work we have to do!” said Zeke. Green vegetables stuck in his braces.

“I’m excited!” said Audree Stein, who had long chocolate brown hair that fell in soft waves around her pretty heart-shaped face.

“I’m not! Thanks for ruining the first month of school!” said Michael Janis.

Griffin bit down hard on her lower lip. She thought,
This is how the first wish begins
.

Be careful what you wish for.

Chapter
11

H
ow’s school going, Griff?” asked her dad when he picked her up at car pool.

“Fine,” she said, but school had been anything but fine the last three days. Kids in Mr. Luckner’s class were angry at having to do a science project, and she’d found more and more pieces of toilet paper stuck in her locker. She slid the “world peace” penny deep into her pocket for the whole world’s safety.

“Really?” said her dad, knowing her too well. He pulled onto the main road headed to the bakery in the center of town.

“I guess it’s just getting used to a new school,” said Griffin.

When they entered the bakery, smells of cupcakes and melting chocolate greeted them. “Would you like a sample?” asked the lady behind the counter, holding out a frosted double chocolate brownie to Griffin and her dad.

“Just what I was wishing for, Griff!” said her dad, licking the chocolate from his fingers like a little boy.

“Yeah,” Griffin said, and she smiled sadly. She wanted to tell her dad so badly about Mariah.

“We’re here to pick up a cake for my wife’s baby shower,” he said.

“Oh, yes, we’re almost done frosting Saturn’s rings. Can you give us five minutes?” asked the clerk.

“Sure,” said her dad, spying the newspaper rack.

“Dad, I’m going to go outside and look at the cakes in the window.”

“Okay, Griff.”

In the large refrigerated bakery window, rose petals were scattered on the floor of the case. Three cakes of different shapes rested on stands. One was shaped like a race car, another heart-shaped with strawberries and raspberries on top, and the largest cake of all frosted a perfect pink. A beautiful porcelain figure of a ballerina twirled on top of it.

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