Blue Moon (16 page)

Kate realized that Annie was nowhere to be seen.

At the same time the band began playing and Jack and Lily stepped into the cleared area of the garden

to have the first dance of the evening. A minute or two later other couples joined them, and soon the

garden was filled with people swaying together.

Kate watched the scene, thrilled that it was almost over and everything had gone smoothly. The food

had been delicious, everyone was having a great time, and she was sure her mother was going to be

thrilled with how she and her friends had behaved.

Suddenly the air was filled with a sharp scream. People stopped dancing and looked around. As Kate

looked on, Mrs. Winter emerged from a knot of dancers, holding her hand to her chest. There was a red

smear down the front of her dress, and for a brief horrible moment Kate thought that she was bleeding.

“Strawberries!” Mrs. Winter shrieked. “Someone threw strawberries at me!”

“Who did this?” Mayor Pershing said, rushing over to dab at Mrs. Winter’s dress.

“I don’t know,” wailed the distraught woman. “It just came out of nowhere.”

The mayor turned around, glaring at the gawking crowd. She opened her mouth to say something, but

just as she did a chunk of cake hit her in the side of the face. Frosting smeared across her cheek and

stuck in her hair, and the cake dripped onto her dress. She let out a bellow of rage and started shaking

her fists.

All around her, people looked on in horror. Then someone laughed, and before long a lot of people

were laughing. While the mayor and Mrs. Winter stood next to one another, their faces contorted in

anger, their guests couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous they looked.

“Stop it!” the mayor shouted. “Stop laughing. I want to know who did this. I want to know now.”

The laughter stopped, and the mayor stalked away from the group with a still-crying Mrs. Winter behind

her. They walked through the doors and headed for the kitchen, with Kate and her mother following

them anxiously.

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“I’m sure we can wash that right off, Mrs. Mayor,” said Mrs. Morgan as they reached the kitchen.

Kate ran a rag under warm water and handed it to her mother, who started to wipe the frosting off the

mayor’s face and dress. Kate turned to Mrs. Winter and tried to help her.

“Maybe if we blot it with club soda it will come out,” she suggested.

“Oh, it doesn’t matter,” said Mrs. Winter, pushing Kate’s hand away. “Everything is ruined.”

Lily and Jack came running in a moment later looking very concerned.

“Mother, are you all right?” Lily asked.

Her mother turned to her. “I suppose this is your idea of a joke,” she said. “Trying to make me look

stupid just because I wouldn’t let you have your way.”

“Me?” Lily said, shocked. “I had nothing to do with this.”

“Then who did?” Mrs. Winter demanded.

“Was this one of your college friends, Jack?” asked the mayor. “I told you I didn’t want those

overgrown frat boys here.”

“Don’t look at me,” Jack said. “You cut most of my friends off the guest list.”

“Well, if it wasn’t them then who was it?” his mother said angrily. “I have been made a laughingstock in

front of some very important people. I am very disappointed in the two of you. Very disappointed.”

“But we—” Jack said.

“Oh, don’t bother,” the mayor said. “This is just like you, Jack. I suppose you think it’s hysterical. Well,

have a good laugh.”

“Jack would never do something like this, Mom,” Lily said to the mayor.

“Don’t you start too, Lily,” Mrs. Winter said. “We’ll all talk about this later. Right now your guests

expect to see you dancing. We already look like fools. There’s no need for you two to look the same.”

The two mothers looked at their children with stern expressions. Lily and Jack turned and walked away,

looking like they were being sent to their rooms.

“I don’t know what could possibly have gotten into them,” Mayor Pershing said when they were gone.

“But thanks to them everything has been ruined.”

Mrs. Morgan looked at Kate but didn’t say anything. Kate knew her mother was worried that the

incident was going to make everyone forget all about how good her food had been. And Kate was

worried that it would make her mother forget how much Cooper, Sasha, and Annie had helped out.

Annie,
she thought suddenly. Where had Annie been during the incident? Kate hadn’t seen her

anywhere.
No,
she thought as an idea sprang into her head.
She wouldn’t. She just wouldn’t.

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CHAPTER 16

“Okay,” Kate said. “Spill it.”

She and Cooper had found Annie. She was carrying dishes in from outside. They cornered her in the

hallway and dragged her into the bathroom.

“What do you mean?” Annie asked innocently.

Kate looked at Cooper, then back at Annie. “You disappeared right before that strawberry flew,” she

said. “Where did you go?”

Annie’s eyes went wide. “You don’t think
I
did that, do you?” she asked. She sounded sincere, but Kate

saw that the corners of her mouth were twisting up into a smile.

“I knew it!” Kate said.

Annie, unable to contain herself another second, let out a laugh. “Come on,” she said. “It was funny.

And you agreed that somebody should teach those two a lesson for being so pushy.”

“I didn’t say that
you
should do something,” Kate snapped. “You ruined the wedding, Annie.”

Annie looked hurt. “It wasn’t just me,” she said. “Ryan helped.”

“Ryan?” Kate said in disbelief.

Annie nodded. “You didn’t think I could be in two places at once, did you?” she asked. “Besides, he

thought his mother could use a little pie in the face, too. Or should I say cake in the face?”

Kate paced back and forth. “I can’t believe this,” she said. “Not only did you ruin the wedding of two of

the most important families in town but you got one of the family members to help you? What’s going to

happen when he decides to tell his brother what happened?”

“You worry too much,” Annie said, smiling.

“Tell that to my mother,” said Kate. “She’s in the kitchen right now terrified that she’ll never get another

job because of this.”

“This had nothing to do with her,” said Annie. “It was just a little joke.”

“Not when people find out that someone she hired to help her was responsible. Don’t you get it, Annie?

I asked you to come today to make things easier. But now you’ve just caused trouble and made it all

worse.”

“And ruined Jake and Lily’s wedding,” Cooper added.

“This is it, Annie,” said Kate. “I know you keep saying that you’re not doing anything, but I just don’t

believe you. You haven’t been acting yourself, and frankly, I don’t think I like the way you
are
acting. It’s

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like someone else has taken over your body or something. You would
never
have done something like

this before.”

Annie leaned up against the sink and folded her arms over her chest. “I’m not a little kid,” she said.

“Stop treating me like one.”

“Then stop acting like one!” replied Kate furiously.

“I’m sorry you two feel like I’m having more fun than you are,” Annie said, looking from Kate to

Cooper. “It’s not my fault that I did the ritual and you didn’t, so I don’t see—”

“Wait a minute,” Cooper said. “Back up. What did you say?”

“I said it’s not my fault that I did the ritual,” said Annie. “I asked you guys to come, but you were too

busy doing other things.”

“What ritual?” Cooper asked. “You never mentioned a ritual.”

Annie looked away. “Oh, didn’t I?” she said. “It was no big deal. Anyway, the point is—”

“No,” Kate said. “Tell us about this ritual. What was it?”

Annie gave her a petulant look. “It was just the blue moon ritual,” she said. “Remember, the one you

guys didn’t want to do? I just did one myself, that’s all.”

“And what exactly did you do?” Cooper pressed.

“Nothing!” Annie said. “Just the usual stuff.”

“Elaborate,” Kate ordered.

Annie sighed as if Kate had just asked her to list the principal imports and exports of Denmark. “I lit

some candles,” she said. “I cast a circle. I did a meditation. I invoked Freya. I—”

“Whoa,” Kate said. “Go back one.”

“I did a meditation?” Annie said.

Kate shook her head. “No,” she said. “The part where you invoked Freya. What do you mean

exactly?”

Annie shrugged her shoulders. “I just asked her for a little help,” she said.

Kate let out a sigh. “If I recall correctly, Freya is a goddess of love and beauty, right?”

“Among other things,” Annie replied crossly.

“And you asked her for a little help doing what?” Cooper asked.

Annie looked chagrined. “Being more like her,” she said. “But it wasn’t a spell or anything. I found it in

this book, and it sounded like a great idea. I didn’t ask Freya to
do
anything really.”

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“Maybe not,” said Kate. “But I think she did something anyway.”

“You guys are trying to ruin this for me,” Annie said. “I didn’t do anything. I just asked Freya to hang

around a little, and now you’re acting like I sold my soul or something.”

“Did you?” Cooper asked teasingly.

“No!” said Annie. “Don’t even joke like that.”

“What did you say?” asked Kate. “Do you remember?”

Annie held out her hands in the air. “I don’t know,” she said in exasperation. “Oh, Freya, do you want

to come and be my friend for a while because my real friends are all too busy with their boyfriends and

their lives, I guess. Or something like that.”

Kate put her hand to her forehead. “Okay,” she said. “Now that we know what you did, we have to

figure out what exactly happened.”

“No,” Cooper said. “We have to figure out what to
do
about it.”

“Why do we have to do anything?” asked Annie. “I’m having a great time. You two are the ones who

have a problem with it. Why should I have to
do
something about finally enjoying my life?”

“I don’t think you get it,” Cooper said. “You’re out of control.
Way
out of control. You might feel fine,

but—trust me—you’re not fine.”

“What have I done that’s out of control?” Annie demanded.

Kate and Cooper exchanged looks. “Number one,” Kate said, holding up a finger. “You’ve become a

fashion plate.”

“Number two,” continued Cooper. “You slapped Sherrie.”

“Number three,” followed Kate. “You kissed a boy.”

“Number four,” Cooper said. “You whipped strawberries at the mayor.”

“Shall we go on?” asked Kate. “Or is that enough?”

“Ooooh,” Annie said. “This isn’t fair. I’m just having a little fun. And it was cake, not strawberries. The

strawberries went on Mrs. Winter.”

“Well, the fun is over,” Kate said. “I believe that you didn’t mean to do anything with this ritual, but you

did. I don’t know what, and I don’t know how it’s working, but we have to put an end to it.”

“How?” Cooper asked while Annie sulked.

“We’ll ask Tyler’s mom,” Kate said. “Sophia won’t be back until Tuesday afternoon, but Rowan is

back tomorrow. I’m sure she’ll be able to think of something.” She turned to Annie. “In the meantime,

don’t do anything else.”

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“Does that mean I shouldn’t call Ryan?” asked Annie. “He gave me his phone number.”

“No!” said Cooper and Kate forcefully.

“What about Brian?” added Kate.

Annie frowned. “I didn’t think it would hurt to have a backup just in case,” she said.

“That’s it,” Cooper said. “You’re grounded until tomorrow. I’m staying at your house tonight just to

make sure you don’t cause any more trouble.”

Kate looked at her watch. “We’ve been in here for ten minutes,” she said. “We’d better get back out

there.”

She pushed open the door of the rest room and they stepped into the hall.

“There you are,” said Sasha, who was walking by with a tray full of plates.

“We had to have a little girl talk,” Kate explained.

Sasha looked interested. “Anything I should know?” she asked.

“Later,” Kate said. “How’s my mom doing?”

“Well, she’s stopped talking to herself, so I guess that’s a good sign,” Sasha replied.

Kate groaned. “Let’s go help clean up,” she said. “The sooner I get her home the better.”

They all went into the kitchen, where Mrs. Morgan was busily ordering the crew around. The girls

pitched in, and soon things were tidied up and the leftover food was packed into containers. As Kate’s

mother washed the last dish and put it away, she sighed.

“Remind me never to do this again, will you?” she said.

“Come on,” Kate said. “It wasn’t that bad.”

Mrs. Morgan sighed. “That poor girl,” she said. “Now whenever she thinks back on her wedding day

she’s going to remember her mother covered in strawberries.”

“Do they have any idea who it was?” Kate asked hesitantly.

Mrs. Morgan shook her head. “Nobody saw a thing,” she said. “It was like magic or something.”

Kate pretended to be engrossed in putting away leftovers, and she hoped her mother hadn’t noticed her

reaction to the word “magic.”
If you only knew,
she thought silently.

When everything was cleaned up and put away, Mrs. Morgan called everybody to gather around the

kitchen’s central counter. “I want to thank you for helping out today,” she said. “I could never have done

this without you. While not everything went exactly according to plan, our end of things couldn’t have

gone more smoothly.”

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Kate looked across the table at Annie, who was studiously looking at the floor while Cooper stood

beside her, keeping an eye on her every move.

“So thanks and good night,” Mrs. Morgan finished. “I’ll see you all next time.”

The crew broke up, and Kate picked up some things to carry out to the car. At the door, she met up

with Cooper and Annie again.

“I’ll call you guys tomorrow and tell you when and where to meet me,” she said. “Don’t let her out of

your sight,” she added to Cooper.

“Don’t worry,” Cooper replied. “I asked Sasha to come too so we can take shifts watching her and

making sure she doesn’t try to get out the window using her sheets as a ladder or something.”

“Please,” Annie said, sounding disgusted. “And ruin perfectly good sheets?”

“I’d laugh if I weren’t so annoyed at you,” Kate said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

An hour later, Cooper, Annie, and Sasha were sitting in Annie’s bedroom. They’d gotten a ride home

with Cooper’s parents before walking to Annie’s, so Cooper had been able to pick up a change of

clothes for herself. Sasha was wearing a pair of Annie’s shorts and one of her T-shirts, and Annie was

sitting on the bed in some pink silk pajamas she’d recently purchased.

“Okay,” Sasha said into the phone. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She hung up and turned to the others. “Thea says hi,” she said. “Now, are you going to tell me why

we’re playing watchdog for Miss Crandall here?”

“Annie’s gone and bewitched herself,” Cooper said, stretching out on the sleeping bag she’d rolled out

on the floor.

“I did not,” said Annie moodily. She turned to Sasha and added, “I did a ritual where I asked Freya for

a little help, that’s all. Cooper and Kate are acting like I summoned up the hounds of hell.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Cooper said. “She’s not herself. We’re not sure
who
she is, but she’s definitely not

herself.”

“Is this like
The Exorcist
?” asked Sasha with interest. “Are you going to start spitting pea soup and all

that?”

“Hardly,” Annie said.

“So what are we going to do?” said Cooper. “It’s not that late.”

“Because if this
was
like
The Exorcist
we could just throw some holy water on you or something,” Sasha

continued, still on the subject of the famous horror movie.

“Would you stop already?” Annie said.

“I don’t know,” Cooper said thoughtfully. “Maybe Sasha is on to something.”

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“What are you talking about?” Annie asked warily.

“Think about it,” Cooper said. “If you were somehow, you know, filled with some kind of force or

whatever that has transformed you into a glamour queen, maybe we can sort of take it out of you again.”

“What are you thinking?” Sasha asked.

“Well, look at her,” said Cooper, gesturing toward Annie, who was busily painting her toenails. “What if

we forcibly turned her back into the old Annie?”