Love Struck (9 page)

Jaydin wasn't giving up. That girl was thorough. She looked under every nook and cranny until she spotted me. “Found her,” she yelled.

That was all it took. Pretty soon everyone crowded around me in the store. There was no way to get away from these people.

“Sorry,” Cole said.

So was I. It royally stunk. Why couldn't these people go back to thinking I was a nobody? Even hating me would be better than this. Then they'd stay away. It was certainly keeping my best friend far from me.

Gabi!

If I was able to make her hate me, I could make
anyone
hate me. Sure, it wasn't the ideal solution. But it beat being shadowed. And it would let me find Lance by myself.

There was no other answer.

It was time to turn my fans against me.

I got out from under the table and yelled at the crowd. “You all hate me!”

“No, we don't,” someone shouted back. That was followed by, “We adore you,” “You're awesome,” and “Angel forever.”

“I couldn't hate you,” Cole said. “I'll prove it. I'm going to take all of the money I get from my Bar Mitzvah and have the words
I Love You
written in the sky.”

A skywriter? Sweet. But no thanks. They needed to stop loving me so much. I closed my eyes and focused.
Stop loving me so much. Stop loving me so much. Stop loving me so much.
But when I peeked through my lashes, everyone was still grinning at me. That wasn't hate. It was awe. They were just as crazy about me as ever.

“Seriously people, listen!” I said.

But they all started chanting. “Angel, Angel, Angel.”

If they were all so into me, then why didn't they even pretend to care about what I wanted?

And why weren't my powers working? They had gone off in the dressing room. Maybe because it was quieter in there. There were dozens of people in the bookstore and they were all talking. I just needed to focus more. Tune everyone out.

I jumped on a table and raised my arms as if to engulf everyone around me. I concentrated like my life depended on it. Because it did. If I couldn't get to Lance, then an evil Lou was set loose on the world with no one to stop him. And everyone was in danger. And it would be all my fault! “You don't love me,” I said, my voice steady. “You want nothing to do with me.” I felt the words run through my body. I imagined everyone turning on me. I pictured it, I felt it, I hoped for it.

“Get off the table,” Lana said. “No one wants to look at you.”

“Yeah, what are you doing?” Courtney asked. “Posing for the cover of a fashion
don't
book?”

They stopped loving me! My powers had worked!

Maybe too well. Because a book came sailing right at me. People were throwing them in my direction! Even Max who had the biggest crush on me was in on it! I ducked just in time. Three books flew right over my head. But another one followed and got me right in the gut. And it hurt! They couldn't have used a paperback?

“I should have listened to Gabi,” Cole said. “She was right about Angel. She's totally gross.”

“You're the one who kissed her,” Reid said.

“Don't remind me,” Cole answered. “Does anyone have one of those hand-sanitizer wipes? I need to disinfect my lips.”

It was one thing to hear Courtney sling insults my way, but Cole? It hurt more than twenty books with sharp corners whacking me in the gut.

“You,” the saleswoman said, approaching me, “need to leave now.” Her face had a huge scowl on it. Bigger than the one Courtney was giving me. And that was saying something.

“Me? I wasn't the one throwing books.”

“Doesn't matter. You're not welcome here.” She pointed toward the exit. And the rest of the crowd applauded her.

The woman hated me. Just like everyone else in the store.

Which was just as well. Because I had more important things to worry about. Like saving the world from a certain teenager.

I forged straight ahead, right out of the store, making sure not to glance back at Cole and the others.

None of it mattered. I just had to get to Lance.

I continued on to the stage area. As I got closer a familiar sound filled the halls.
“Who am I, without you—you, you, who who who?”
Lance Gold was singing! Finally, something was going right. He had begun his mall appearance. Now I didn't have to break in to see him. I could just walk right up to the stage.

“Lance,” I called out to him. But he couldn't hear me over the speakers and the cheers from the group that had gathered. I was just another voice in the crowd.

“Lance!” I jumped as high as I could, waving my hands in the air. “It's me, the girl from the backstage area. I need your help. It's important.” Still nothing. Being short was not helping my situation.

How could I get him to notice me? I tried to elbow my way to the front, but no one would let me get through. They just kept bopping up and down to the music. If I stepped left, someone shimmied to the left. If I moved to the right, someone swayed to the right, blocking me. The only way to get to him was to get rid of the crowd. Which meant I had to use my powers.

I closed my eyes. “I need the crowd to leave. To scurry off like little mice.” It took hearing myself say the words three times before realizing what an unfortunate word choice I had made. I stopped, but it was too late. I was already feeling fur grazing across my legs. I opened my eyes and sure enough—Mice! Dozens of them scurrying around! How could I have been so stupid as to use a word like
mice
while trying to summon my powers? Hadn't I made enough mistakes to start learning from some of them by now? It was so gross! My mind told me they were people. But my eyes told me they were rodents.

It got worse. When I looked on stage, I hadn't just changed the crowd, I had changed Lance! Where he had been standing, rocking out on a guitar, was now a mouse scurrying up and down the strings of the instrument.

“Why'd you stop playing?” Harmony Gold asked, emerging from backstage. Then she saw all the mice. “What the—,” she yelled. She scanned the crowd. That's when she caught sight of me. “You,” she said looking me right in the eye.

I waved and gave her a small smile. It was not returned. She was clearly not my biggest fan. A rodent that I'm pretty sure was Lance climbed up her leg. She moved her arm to swat it away.

“No!” I shouted. “It's your son.”

“It's my what?” she said, glaring from me to the mouse, stopping her hand mid-swing.

I hoisted myself onto the stage, trying not to squash—or even touch—any rodents. Or their droppings. Then I grabbed Lance. I'd always dreamed of holding him, but not like this. This was gross. He was so squirmy.

Harmony closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. But it didn't seem to be calming her down. Not one bit.

“Angel,” she said through clenched teeth. “Give me my son now.”

I was a little afraid to hand him over. She went from rubbing her head to wringing her hands together. She looked like she could accidentally squeeze poor Lance to death. “What is going on here?” she asked.

“I was trying to get Lance's attention.”

“You got it,” she said, dropping her son into the pocket of her blazer.

“I hadn't meant for it to happen this way. I just wanted his help. I know he's a guardian angel . . . and you are, too.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.” Harmony turned and walked off, careful to avoid stepping on rodents as she left.

“Wait,” I yelled after her. “You can't just leave. What about all these people?”

“I don't see any people.”

Why was she playing games? Why wouldn't she just admit who she was? “Please. I need your help. I need a guardian angel.”

She gave up her charade. “I don't want to get involved,” she said, plucking a mouse off Lance's guitar. She took it by the tail and threw it a few feet. It scampered away.

“But I messed up. Big time,” I explained. “My powers have been uncontrollable today. First I turned Lou and my moth—”

Harmony cut me off. “It's your mess, Angel. You need to get out of it. I have my own clients to deal with.”

I couldn't believe this. What kind of guardian angel was she? She didn't want to help. “Then let me talk to Lance. He'll help.
He's
a nice person. I read about all the good deeds he does.”

She looked toward her pocket. “Lance is not in any condition to help anyone.”

“But he could be, if you changed him back.”

Haromony's eyes got wide. I quickly discovered the cause. A mouse was hanging from the light fixture. And then suddenly it was falling. Right on TOP OF MY HEAD.

I let out a wail and shook my hair like crazy, trying to get the thing out. It was so nasty. “Seriously,” I cried, “you're not going to do anything?”

“Okay, fine, I'll help you with your rodent problem,” Harmony said, shielding her head from mouse droppings. “But then you need to leave my son and me alone.”

“But,” I protested, “you don't understand. Lou is on the loose. I changed him—”

She cut me off again. “I don't want to hear it, Angel. If you want my help with the mice, that's my condition.”

“Fine,” I said. Besides, I didn't need her help with Lou. Once she fixed Lance, I'd get him to help. He was a decent person. He obviously took after his father.

“Now go.” She shooed me away like I was one of the rodents.

As I hopped offstage, I saw her place Lance in front of his guitar. Then she snapped her fingers together. The crowd, including her son, morphed back. Little rodent bodies expanded and grew until they were normal-sized, little mouse faces and beady eyes became human ones, and tails and whiskers disappeared until everything was back to the way it was supposed to be. Well, with one exception. People were all over the place. A few were onstage, a couple underneath it, one hanging off the curtain, a few munching on trash from the garbage can.

But Harmony took control. “
You.
Off the stage,” she said, pointing at a guy standing in front of her. Probably the same one that had been sniffing at Lance's guitar.

“Come on,” she told her son. “What are you doing just standing there? Everyone is waiting for you to play.”

Lance looked confused. So did the crowd. They didn't seem to remember being rodents, but they didn't know why they were holding on to empty soda cups and M&M's wrappers. They just stared at Lance as if he'd have an answer.

“Quit joking around,” Harmony told Lance. “Start playing.”

He did as he was told.

And hopefully, when he was done with his set, he'd do as he was asked—by me.

I watched Lance sing, waiting for his mother to leave. But she was glued to the stage. Probably afraid that I'd try to worm my way back to her son. She was right, of course, but she was making my job a lot more difficult.

I needed help. I needed to create a diversion.

“Look who it is.”

I knew that voice. Normally it would have meant help was there. But not this time. This time it meant my best friend was there to torture me.

“Hi, Gabi,” I said, turning around.

She was standing next to Cole. How come whenever my powers messed up, it brought my boyfriend and best friend closer together?

“Don't tell me,” she said. “You're trying to break in to see Lance again. I'll save you the time. He's not going to want anything to do with you.”

For her sake I hoped she was wrong. “I'm going to make everything better,” I told her. “Lance is going to love you.” Not to mention undo all my mess-ups.

“How many times do I have to tell you?” she yelled. “Stay out of my life.”

“Mine too,” Cole butted in.

His words put me on the defensive. “Then go! I didn't ask you to come over and bother me. Just leave!”

“We're not going,” Gabi answered. “We're here to see Lance. Right, Cole?” She put her hand on his arm as she spoke.

“Right,” he said. “If anyone should leave, it's you,” he told me.

Gabi nodded in agreement. Then she whispered something in Cole's ear, and they both started laughing. I didn't like Mean Gabi. Nothing was going right. My friends were my enemies, Harmony wouldn't help me, and I couldn't get close to Lance on my own.

Which was exactly what I was—on my own.

I couldn't watch Gabi and Cole for one more second, so I left and wandered the mall. My nails were practically nonexistent. I had chewed them as low as they could possibly go, and I still hadn't come up with a way to get to see Lance.

“Bull's-eye,” Lana called out as a french fry bounced off my head. At least it wasn't a mouse.

“Big deal,” Jaydin answered. “Her head is ginormous. There was no way you could have missed. Now if you had managed to hit her boobs, that would have been impressive. They practically don't even exist.”

So much for leaving me alone. I had wound up in the food court with a slew of my haters ready to bring on the ridicule.

More fries came at me.

“Told you that you wouldn't hit the target,” Jaydin said.

“I can't believe I wasted my fries on her,” Lana complained. The two wandered off, going on and on about how it was all my fault that they were going to be hungry now.

“You are the strangest girl I know,” a voice called out to me.

I turned around. It was D.L. He was sitting about three tables back in front of the McDonald's.