Spell Check (14 page)

That afternoon, an hour before we were supposed to meet, I was deep into studying Teen Wytche, wearing the pentacle necklace hidden beneath my shirt. The phone rang. “Hello?”

“Evie, it’s Zhù.”

I sat up straighter in the beanbag chair. “Hey. What’s up? Are you still coming over?”

“Yeah.” His voice sounded funny, like he was running or something. Then I heard a small thud. “I just wanted to make sure you’d be home. Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner.” His voice caught again, and I heard another light thud.

“What are you doing?”

“What? Oh, just jumping over some stuff my sister left out. Your house at four?”

“Sure.”

“Great. Thanks.”

I pushed up Dad’s cap and scratched my head.

****

An hour later, the doorbell rang. Mom got to the front door before me and greeted Zhù. She waved to his mother, who sat behind the wheel of a blue, older-model BMW. A stiff autumn breeze blew red and yellow maple leaves across the driveway as Mrs. Wong drove off.

Zhù’s hair was wet and shiny and he smelled yummy, like he had just gotten out of the shower. He wore jeans and a crimson Stanford sweatshirt. I wore jeans and my navy Cal hoodie. This does not bode well. The two schools were bitter rivals.

Since there was no Plan B, I forged ahead. “Come in out of the wind,” I said. Mom opened the door wider so Zhù could enter. I held Baby by the collar. “Hola.”

“Hola.”

Mom closed the door behind him. “I’ll be in my bedroom if you need anything.” She wore a blissful expression, as she always did after a shipment of cards went out on time. I figured she’d spend the next two days immersed in a romance novel.

“Okay. Thanks.” I led Zhù into the kitchen.

His chest puffed out as he inhaled the warm scent of baked chocolate goodness. Just as I’d hoped, he eyed the pan of steaming brownies. I’d babysat enough times to know how to woo kids—how much harder could it be to bend a male math geek to my will? Judging from Zhù’s hopeful expression as he laid his backpack on the kitchen table, the answer was, not too hard.

“Would you like a brownie?”

“Sí. Gracias.” Zhù pulled out a chair and sat down. His back stayed board-straight, not touching the chair, the same perfect posture as Parvani.

I placed three brownies on a plate for him. Teen Wytche said three, seven, nine, and twenty-one are lucky numbers. He inhaled two before I could even open my textbook. “I didn’t have time to eat after my workout,” Zhù explained.

“Would you like some water or milk? Hot apple cider?” Mom doesn’t allow soda in the house, so his options were kind of limited.

“Water, please.”

“Sure.” Since I was already ruining my appetite for dinner, I threw a bag of popcorn in the microwave. Popping sounds filled the kitchen, and the theater-like odor of butter and salt overlaid the rich chocolate scent. At Zhù’s feet, Baby salivated.

I handed Zhù tall tumblers of water for both of us, and then poured the popcorn into the blue snowman bowl. “Have you read the vocabulary list?” I asked.

A few kernels spilled out of Zhù’s hand and left grease marks on his binder paper. “No. I haven’t had time to check online yet.”

He did look kind of tired, in an otherwise-fit way. “Here. I made you a copy.”

“Thanks.”

I was so going to earn my seven bucks an hour.

We reviewed pronunciation and memorized which way the accent marks should slant. Then we moved on to expressions.

“
Me gusta béisbol
. I like baseball,” Zhù said.

“Bueno.” I decided to sneak in a reference to Parvani. “
Parvani gusta escuchar música.
”

“I know. Sometimes we share her ear buds.”

“Her list is a little heavy on classical. Probably because she plays piano, and used to dance ballet.”

“Yeah. Me too.” He stared down at my notes.

I was pretty sure he just meant he liked classical music, but maybe he played piano as well. I’d heard music and math used the same part of the brain, which may have been why I couldn’t do either. “Of course, she also likes a lot of modern stuff,” I added. “You know, stuff you can dance to.” Hint. Hint.

Zhú bit into his third brownie and nodded.

“You know, she’s been kind of worried about you.”

He stopped mid-chew. “No way. Why?”

“Because you keep missing your afternoon classes. She’s afraid you might have a dread disease.”

Zhù resumed chewing. And blinking. For a smart guy, he sure appeared dumbfounded. “I’m surprised she noticed.”

“Oh, she noticed.” And she’d kill me if she knew I’d said anything.

A long moment of silence descended. I hoped Zhù would tell me why he’d been absent. Instead, he grabbed a handful of popcorn and studied my notes. I gave up and spent the next hour sprinkling in Parvani’s name as much as I could without seeming too obvious. I swore I could see Zhù taking mental notes. He must have a huge file in his head marked Parvani.

“You two sure have a lot in common,” I said as our time ended.

He blinked at me from behind those rimless John Lennon glasses. “Yeah. Too bad opposites attract.”

“Not always. Besides, I hear that never lasts.” At least I hoped it didn’t, in Parvani’s case.

The doorbell rang, setting off gruff barking from Baby. “Must be my mother.” He handed me a ten. “We went over a little.”

“You sure you don’t want change?”

“Nah. Thanks for all the help. Same time next week?” The bell rang again. Mom must have been in the bathroom, or immersed in her novel. I opened the door. “Parvani!”

“Hey.” Her triumphant expression dissolved when she noticed Zhù standing behind me. Her head jerked, as if her world had upended. “Zhù! What are you doing here?”

Zhù and I gaped at each other, trying to come up with a plausible explanation.

“Yearbook,” I blurted out.

Zhù exhaled a long, raspy breath. The boy sucked at acting.

Parvani narrowed her eyes, as if we were an algebra equation where x didn’t quite equal two. Which happens to me a lot, but not to Parvani. Her nostrils flared. I had the terrible feeling popcorn and brownie smells clung to us. I checked the front of my sweatshirt for crumbs.

“Wouldn’t a phone call have been easier?” Parvani asked, her voice cold.

“Um.” Well, she had us there.

Zhù fished a turquoise flash drive out of his backpack. “You should make a copy of this.” He handed the device to me. “It has all the photos we worked on.”

“Oh, right.” Quick thinking. I slipped the flash drive into my pocket. “Good thing you remembered. We could do it now…”

Over the almost-silent purr of Dr. Hyde-Smith’s Lexus came the unmistakable sound of a skateboard rolling over blacktop. The rhythmic noise grew louder. Jordan maneuvered into view, eddies of wind-tossed leaves swirling at his feet.

Jordan jumped the curb. For a split second he sailed in silence, then slapped down hard. The wheels rolled across the concrete, sounding coarse and gritty. Then he picked up speed, skating full out, and shredded the air, going higher than I had ever seen. I held my breath until he landed safely on the driveway. He slowed to a stop and stomped on the back tip of his board. The front end catapulted into his hand.

Zhù stiffened. Parvani blinked several times. My insides did a quick rollercoaster dive.

“Hey.” Jordan knuckle bumped Zhù, then flashed an ingratiating grin at Parvani and me. Unbuckling his helmet, he glanced down at the small bag Parvani held in a white-knuckled grip. “Someone’s birthday?”

“No.” Parvani glanced at her dad. He gestured for her to hurry up.

“Actually,” Parvani said in her most clipped British way, “I wanted to show Evie something.”

I peeked at the bag and recognized Sage Mage’s blue tissue paper and the lingering stench of incense. “But since you have company,” Parvani continued in a strangled voice, “it can wait.”

“What did you procure?” Zhù asked.

“A Buddha statue.”

“Cool,” Jordan said.

Parvani adjusted her glasses. “I want to pick up the stuff I left here the other day.” Icy fury and wasp-like determination laced her voice. She pushed between Zhù and me.

“I’ll be right back.” I threw Zhù a pleading glance, then flew back to my room. Parvani knelt on the floor, stuffing the black handled knife and the pink candle into the bag with the river rocks.

“You told me to check on Zhù. Why are you mad?”

“I told you to call him, not date him.”

“This wasn’t a date!”

“I thought I could trust you.”

“You can. I have no interest in Zhù.” Just Jordan.

“Right.” Parvani peered under my math book and some papers on my desk. “Where’s Teen Wytche?”

“We need to talk. The book says there are serious repercussions if you direct a love spell at a particular person.”

“Is that why you directed your spell at two people?” She picked up a dirty blouse and a pair of mud-stained jeans, unearthing the spell book. At least she hadn’t noticed the willow wand.

“What are you talking about?”

“You know what I mean. Zhù and Jordan.”

“Are you crazy? I didn’t perform a love spell on either of them.”

A knock on my bedroom door silenced us. I turned my back on Parvani and opened it.

“Hey,” Jordan said. “Parvani, your dad looks like he’s going to have a fit or something. You better get out there.”

“He can wait another minute. He and my mother are headed off on one of their little vacations from the kids.”

That might partially explain why she’s so mad.

Jordan stepped back so Parvani could storm past. He glanced up at my Shay Stewart shrine and his eyebrows bounced toward his shaggy bangs.

With humiliation blazing across my cheeks, I ran after Parvani.

“I expected more from you,” Parvani scolded Zhù. Her voice cracked as she shouldered past him.

“Parvani…” Zhù reached out, but she shrugged him off. Bent beneath the weighty magical objects, she speed-walked to the Lexus. She climbed into the cream-colored interior, closed the door, and didn’t look back.

Behind me, the cracked entry tile made a wretched scraping sound. “Did I, like, miss something?”

I shook my head and breathed in the lingering odor of incense. Realization sucker-punched me. Buddha. Parvani had her god figure. If she got her hands on a goddess, a wand, and a pentacle, she could perform the spell. She’d be unstoppable.

Jordan stood so close behind me I could feel the heat radiating from his body. I inhaled his outdoorsy scent, longing to wrap my arms around him and keep him from slipping away again.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Dad had told me about men and women he’d seen in war—normal, decent human beings who’d cracked under the pressure. Like soldiers on recon that stayed too long in a window, when they should have ducked. He told me how being under fire changes you, erodes your soul.

I wondered about Parvani’s pressure to get straight A’s. All the activities designed to help her either get into a top college or forget about ballet. And there was Jordan, seemingly filled with ease, a commodity Parvani desperately needed and longed for.

Zhù drove off with his dad. Jordan headed for the kitchen. I hung back, my mind on Parvani. We’re best friends. She should know I’d never steal from her, even if I did think she was trying to take Jordan from me
.

“Can I have a brownie?” Jordan called out.

“Sure.” I hustled after him. Forget sneaking makeup. I should just walk around with a plate of chocolate.

Baby trotted ahead of me and made a beeline for the floor beneath the kitchen table. Snuffling like a pig hunting truffles, she tracked down a couple of popcorn kernels. Jordan glanced at the table littered with Spanish worksheets and notes. He blinked a couple of times, taking in the incriminating popcorn bowl and the two water glasses.

“Are you and Zhù study partners?” He sounded surprised, and kind of hurt.

This is why I hate to lie. One always leads to another.

I handed Jordan a brownie. “I was working on Spanish when Zhù stopped by to go over some stuff for Yearbook. Our first set of pages is due on Wednesday.”

“Oh.” Jordan sounded relieved. “Which reminds me.” He polished off the brownie in two giant bites then slid his backpack off his shoulder and unzipped it. He pulled out a folder marked Biology. He had drawn a skateboarder flying over the L. “We have a lab report due on Monday.”

I groaned.

“The good news is you missed yesterday’s quiz.”

“Which I’ll have to make up at lunch on Monday, along with the quiz I missed in math.” Don’t my teachers realize I have karmic issues to deal with?

“Don’t worry. I’ll help you. There’s no football practice tomorrow, so I’ll come over after I take Grandpa to the VFW breakfast.”

The knot of fear in my stomach loosened several notches. I poured him a glass of milk. “Awesome. Thanks.”

He handed me a worksheet. “Here’s our next assignment. We’re supposed to create a population growth model and predict the outcome.”

I predict Parvani will do the love spell and ruin all our lives.

Jordan downed half the milk. “Are you, like, burned out? We can wait until tomorrow.”

“No, let’s get it over with. Just give me a sec to clean up.” I stacked the Spanish stuff together and moved it to the desk, and then cleared away the popcorn bowl and Zhù’s glass. I unearthed my Bio book, which weighed over five pounds, and thudded it onto the table.

“Okay, I’m ready.” I sat down and reached for my water. “What do we need to do?”

“Make lots of babies.”

I had just taken a sip of water and nearly spit on him, covering my mouth just in time. Liquid dripped down my chin as a blush flamed my cheeks.

Jordan laughed. “Got you.”

I grabbed a napkin to sop up the mess then threw it at him. Jordan deflected the wet missile with a well-timed swat. Athletes. Still, it was nice to see him smile.

“Rabbit babies,” Jordan explained, his lake-blue eyes twinkling. “It seems”—he studied the worksheet for a moment—“two rabbits got swept out to sea, but managed to scramble up onto a piece of driftwood. It carried them to an island.”