Daddy's Little Angel (16 page)

“It’s a new thing they’re working on . . .”

“It’s interactive theater. They want everyone to take part.”

“It’s interactive theater. They want everyone to take part.”

This time, it wasn’t just the actors repeating me. It was the
entire
audience
including Cole
.

“Oh my God.”

“Oh my God,” everyone in the auditorium chanted.

“Stop.”

“Stop.”

I let out a gasp.

A collective gasp went out among the group.

Everyone stop repeating after me
, I thought to myself thirty times, really fast. “Testing,” I tried.

“Testing.”

“No,” I yelled.

“No,” more than a hundred voices shouted back.

This was madness. I needed to concentrate so my powers would work right.
How can I think in a zoo?

“Will you just leave me alone?” I cried out.

And just like that, the noise stopped.

Because they were gone.

I was the only one left in the room.

I had made every single person, even Cole . . . vanish into thin air.

What had I done? I ran up to the stage and looked out at the empty auditorium. Where was everyone?

I remember wishing everyone would leave me alone. But what else had gone through my mind? I remember thinking about madness . . . that I needed to concentrate . . . that this place was a zoo.

A
zoo
! That was it. In my head, I had called the auditorium a zoo. That had to be where I sent them all.

I needed to do something. Fast. For all I knew, everyone could have ended up in cages with the tigers or other wild animals.

“Can I be of some assistance now?”

I turned around. Right behind me, standing center stage was Lou. I had just told him to leave me alone. But at that exact moment in time, I really needed help. Then again, how could I trust him?

“No. I’ll figure it out. You’ve done enough assisting, thank you very much. If it wasn’t for you I’d never be in this position.”

“Me?” He tried to look all incredulous.

“Yes, you.” I ticked off the reasons on my fingers. “If you weren’t in my life I wouldn’t have had powers to try out, Gabi wouldn’t be mad at me because Courtney never would have been friends with me in the first place, and I wouldn’t be stressed out about what Cole thinks of me because he wouldn’t even know I exist.”

“Well, like I explained, I had very little to do with Courtney befriending you or Cole—”

“Stop. I don’t have time for your excuses. I have people to save.”

Lou jumped off the stage. “I can fix everything. Bring everyone back.” He pulled out his hPhone, punched a few buttons, and let out a low whistle. “Oh, and preferably before that panda wakes up.” He held out the device for me to see the entire cast of
Charlie Brown
and their families crammed together in the animal’s cage.

My whole body tensed up. “Lou, get out of here so I can work on saving them.”

“Okay, but you’re going to need to start by relaxing yourself and concentrating. Powers are hard to control. It takes a lot of hard work and practice to learn how. You can’t just jump in with something advanced.”

I needed to fix the situation before Gabi or someone got mauled.

Bring everyone back to the auditorium
, I thought, but nothing happened. I said it, too, but still nothing happened. I screamed it.

But nothing happened.

I was a failure. I prayed there were no casualties. I could just see it on the local news.
Lions, tigers, and the people of Goode? Hundreds of area residents trapped inside the zoo. Film at eleven.

Then, suddenly, I felt something. A wind gust, which kept getting stronger and stronger, like a tornado circling the auditorium. When it cleared away, everyone was back. Thank goodness! I was so relieved. Complete and utter ruination averted. Now I just had to see if I still had a chorus of mimics.

“Hello,” I whispered.

This time no one repeated what I said. But they did stare at me with crazed looks in their eyes. They were freaked out by recent events, and they knew I had something to do with it.

“It had to be her,” an old guy said.

“That’s the girl we were all mimicking,” a woman cried, pointing at me.

“I always knew she was a witch,” Lana called out.

Uh-oh. They were totally on to me.

“Calm down everyone,” Mr. Stanton yelled. “I’m going to call the police. We’ll figure this out.”

This punishment was going to be a lot worse than a detention. I’d be lucky if I wasn’t burned at the stakes or probed by some secret FBI unit for the supernatural beat.

“We should tie her up, just in case,” Courtney shouted from onstage. I kind of wished her voice was still gone. “She did this. She’s some sort of psycho.”

“Yeah,” Lana echoed. “She’s just going to do it again.”

Some man came up to me and grabbed my arm. He was surrounded by a mob of others. “We’re just going to lock you in a dressing room until the authorities get here,” he said, as if he were speaking to a rabid dog. Then another man picked me up and started to carry me away. I tried to escape, but I couldn’t. I looked down at all the faces. Cole was staring at me with a look of terror. A couple of people from my science class were running for the exit. Max was there, too, and even he looked creeped out. I felt the tears streaming down my face. I didn’t know what to do. I was afraid to use my powers again. But if I didn’t, my life was going to be over. I hated to do it, but I only had one choice.

“Lou,” I cried out. “Please help m—”

Before I finished my sentence, I found myself face-to-face with Lou inside Courtney’s dressing room.

“You have to do something,” I pleaded. “Just this once.”

He nodded and waved his hand.

“Wait,” I shouted. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to give you a do-over. Bring you back in time, before any of this craziness started.”

“No. I don’t want to do everything over.” I didn’t want to get into a conversation with Lou about it, but Cole kissed me during all of that madness. I didn’t want that taken away. “Can’t you just erase a few things from everyone’s memories?”

“I can, but it’s extremely difficult. On a large scale like this, a lot of wires can get crossed. People can end up forgetting things beyond the incident in question—like if they took their medicine for the day, or picked up their kids from the babysitter. It’s very complicated. Whenever I’ve done it in the past I’ve prepared with yoga and meditation to clear out the mental cobwebs. The do-over is really your safest bet.”

There had to be another solution. But when I heard a man call out, “I’ll check the dressing rooms,” I gave in. “Fine,” I said to Lou. “Just do it.”

The next thing I knew, I was outside the pizza shop walking with Cole, Reid, and Lana.

“Nice outfit,” Lana said, and then looked straight ahead. Everything was happening just like before. We couldn’t all find seats together so Cole and I sat two rows in front of Lana and Reid. Only this time, I didn’t get up to go backstage. This time I didn’t think thoughts or click my heels or whisper anything. I just sat there. Waiting.

When Courtney came out onstage, I let out a gasp. The last time I did that, Cole took my hand. This time, he didn’t even ask if I was okay.

The truth was out. Courtney was right. He didn’t like me after all. He just kissed me out of fear. I had read in some magazine that experiencing scary things together like roller coasters and horror movies can trick couples into thinking they’re falling in love. I think it had something to do with getting the heart rate faster, but I can’t really remember. I wondered if introducing him to the devil would scare him into loving me.

After my gasp, I let out a big sigh. Not on purpose this time. Just because everything I was thinking was bumming me out. Cole finally spoke. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yep,” I lied. The real answer was, “No, I saw the way you looked at me when the masses were trying to carry me away. You thought I was a freak show then. But this is even worse. Now I’m back to just being some girl you feel sorry for and are out on a mercy date with, just like Courtney said.”

After the show, we went to the parking lot. Cole’s mom was waiting there to drive us home. If I had any leftover doubts about whether or not Cole liked me-liked me, they were cleared up in the car ride. He didn’t even get in the backseat with me. He got in the front seat with his mom.

The more I thought about everything, the more I just wanted to cry. How could Cole not remember our kiss? It was really good. I thought it was, anyway. I squeezed my thumb tight. I hoped the pain from that would keep my mind off of the sinking feeling in my stomach.

When we got to my house, Cole turned around and looked at me. He gave me a half-smile. “See ya in school tomorrow. Bye.”

Bye was right. Bye to any chances of having a boyfriend, bye to making everything right with my best friend, bye to getting back at Courtney, bye to everything. My life was over. I waved and slowly made my way into the house.

“What’s wrong?” my mother asked from her seat at the kitchen table. She was eating a Good Humor bar. I walked right by her without saying a word, but she followed me into the living room.

I didn’t want to freak her out with a recap of my evening, but I had to tell her something. “It’s just this whole Lou thing. I don’t know what to do.”

Mom put her arms out. Great. Another exorcism or a Sanskrit blessing. I really wasn’t in the mood.

Only Mom surprised me. She wasn’t giving me a blessing. She was giving me a
hug
. “I love you,” she said. “I understand if you want to let Lou into your life, and I’ll be here for you no matter what.”

“You wouldn’t hate me?”

Mom held me tighter. “I could never hate you.”

As I got ready for bed, I thought about my crazy day. I’d been through so much and I couldn’t even tell anyone about it. I felt so alone.

“I have no one,” I whimpered and threw myself on my bed.

“You have me.” Lou was leaning up against my dresser. “Why don’t you let me help you?” he asked.

“You already did.” I sat up and looked at him. “But that doesn’t mean I’m giving up my soul or becoming some kind of devil-in-training or asking you to grant all my wishes from now on. You did me a favor. It was a one-time deal. I’m done with special powers. They mess everything up.”

“Understood,” he said. “How about some advice then? Can I give you that?”

“Sure,” I said. I was too tired to fight.

Lou moved and sat on the edge of my bed. “Things aren’t as bad as they seem. Cole likes you, trust me. A dad knows. Even a new dad. I saw the way he looked at you. And I must say I don’t approve. But he wouldn’t have ki—”

He cleared his throat. “Well, he just wouldn’t act the way he’s been acting if he didn’t like you.”

Was the ruler of all things evil afraid to talk to me about a kiss?

“When you orchestrated the do-over, the situation changed,” Lou said. “But believe me, he’ll try again when the opportunity presents itself.”

My mind was racing. “Do you really think he’ll try again?”

“Not if I can help it,” he said.

I was about to object, but Lou held up his hand. “Hey, I
am
still your father.”

He gave me a lot to think about. I guess it made sense that Cole wouldn’t kiss me during the show or with his mother in the car. I mean, I wouldn’t have wanted my mom to see us kiss either. It was bad enough Lou seemed to know all about it.

“As for your Gabi situation,” Lou continued. “You need to sit her down and make her listen. But that’s not all. You keep telling her you’re sorry for the movie night incident and that you had nothing to do with it, but Gabi’s not
only
upset about last Friday. She’s been hurt for a while. Once Courtney started paying attention to you, you chose her over your best friend. You owe Gabi a big apology for that, too. But if you can see how your actions were wrong and hurt her, she’ll probably forgive you.”

He made a lot of good points. I never should have let Gabi skip out on lunch or put Courtney ahead of her. And while I didn’t mean to, I guess I kind of did avoid going out in public with her. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be seen with her. It was just sort of easier not to. That way I didn’t have to answer to Courtney about it. I had been an awful friend. I owed her a giant explanation and apology. And I also owed Lou something.

“Thank you.”

“Anytime.” He paused for a minute before speaking again. “So does this mean I can be a part of your life?”

I gripped my comforter in my hand, and kept my focus on it, instead of on Lou. “You’ve been great. But . . . but, I can’t do this again.” I could feel him staring my way.

“Why?” he asked. “Being the devil is not a job you can just walk away from unless you find the right replacement. I keep evil in check. It’s noble work.”

“But what about when you tempt good people to trade their souls?” I met his eyes.

He nodded. “You’re right. And that ends this second. It was just becoming a personal challenge anyway—seeing how many good ones I could rack up in a week. It helped pass the time. But now I’ve got something much more important. I’ve got a daughter.”

Neither Lou nor I said anything for a while. I stood up and turned away from him. “Before I was born, you told my mom you quit taking good souls. You lied then. How do I know you’re not doing it again now?”

“Because look at what it cost me. I lost your mom. I lost you. I don’t make the same mistake twice.”

He walked behind me and turned me around. “Please, Angel. I want to know my daughter.”

I studied the
Poltergeist
DVD lying on my floor.