Stirring Up Trouble (19 page)

“Hey guys,” Camille called, coming through the door from the hall. Kent, dressed as Anakin Skywalker, followed.

It took me a minute to realize what she was dressed as.

“You look great Camille,” Jake said. “But shouldn’t you be Amidala instead of Princess Leia? Otherwise, you’re on a date with your father.”

Milo and Anya cracked up.

With a frown, Camille said, “They were out of Amidala costumes.”

“How’d you get those buns on the side of your head?” Anya stepped closer for a better look.

Camille swatted her away. “It’s a hairpiece. It came with the costume.”

They sure had jumped into the whole couple thing quickly. Last month, they weren’t even dating. Now, they wore coordinating costumes. Well, almost.

The situation was really weird. Usually, Anya had the boyfriend and Camille and I tagged along. Unfortunately, Anya was directing her newfound single status at pestering Milo.

“You’re crown’s a little crooked,” she said, and tried to straighten it.

“I like it crooked,” Milo said, but he was forced to stand there for her ministrations.

“Wow,” Camille said. “I love the prince and princess thing. Did you guys plan that?”

“No,” Milo snapped. “We didn’t.”

I couldn’t help smiling. “Come on downstairs, Anya. We can see if anyone new has shown up.”

Her face brightened. “Good idea.”

Downstairs, Sheree had taken a break from her hostessing duties to dance with my dad. A slow dance. For some reason, seeing that was almost worse than catching them kissing. And spotting me watching didn’t make them stop.

I stumbled as the realtor couple bumped into me. They were trying to dance, but their house boxes didn’t make it easy.

“Sorry,” they said. “Maybe next year, we’ll just come as For Sale signs.”

Or people, I thought. But I didn’t say anything.

I felt a hand on my waist and turned to find Jake.

“My grandmother’s here. I want you to meet her.” He motioned toward the other side of the room.

His grandmother looked cute in a flapper dress. She was very nice.

“It’s so nice to meet you, Zoe. I’ve met your father a few times. He’s such a dear.”

A few times? I smiled and concentrated on making her like me. “I love your costume.”

She reached up to smooth her hair. “Thank you. I like to see a young lady in a sensible outfit.” She smiled warmly. “So many of those costumes are indecent.”

My drab costume couldn’t be any more decent.

She turned to Jake. “Although, I must say, makeup looks fabulous on my grandson.”

I laughed at Jake’s discomfort.

“This headband is driving me crazy,” she said. “Jake, aren’t you going to dance with your friend?”

Unfortunately, Milo and Anya joined us then so we couldn’t dance. It wasn’t like we’d get any privacy at the crowded party anyway.

My toughest moment came an hour later when Jake’s grandmother asked me to bring her some punch. Dad wasn’t anywhere close, and Anya was distracting Milo again.

I’d just met the petite woman, and I wanted her to like me.

“Wouldn’t you rather have a soft drink?” I asked. “Or some water?”

“No, dear. I love Sheree’s punch.” She patted my hand. “Will you bring me a cup?”

“I’ll be happy to,” I said as I frantically searched for someone to help me. Scooping out punch could be a fiasco.

Because punch didn’t come straight out of a can. His mother had mixed juice and sherbet and stuff to make it.

I walked towards the punch bowl and turned to see if Jake’s grandmother was still watching me. She was.

Of course.

Helplessly, I continued on my journey, past the realtor couple dressed as houses, past the vampire from next door, and past Jake’s uncle who’d dressed in a toga for some reason.

Still no sign of my dad or Milo.

I chanced one more look at Jake’s grandmother. She was still watching, fingering the long strand of beads around her neck.

I reached for a cup. Timidly, I picked up the dipper. I poured the punch gently into the cup.After turning slowly, I took several steps toward the elderly lady.

One.

Two.

Three.

On my fourth step, a roar filled the room and a gaping vortex opened in the living room wall. The nearby decorations were sucked into the spiral and disappeared.

“Dad!” I shouted.

No one was close enough to be hurt, but I was pretty sure from the shouts and gaping stares that everyone had noticed.

A couple of Jake’s friends started to approach the phenomenon.

“No!” My dad yelled as he entered the room. “It’s dangerous.”

“Cool, Mr. Miller,” Anya said, coming up behind me. “How’d you do that?”

“Is this the last surprise?” Sheree asked in a shaky voice, close on Dad’s heels.

“Yes. It’s a, um, complex blend of light, mirrors, and chemicals, guys. You can’t touch it until the half life, about ten hours.”

Sheree frowned. “It’ll be like this for ten hours?”

“Is there really a hole in the wall?” Anya asked.

“No.” My dad pulled out his reassuring voice. “That would be crazy.” He came up to me and took the punch glass.

“For Jake’s grandmother,” I whispered.

Dad delivered the drink to the slightly shaken older woman. Her flapper headband had gone askew.

Then he returned to my side. “Call your mother to pick you guys up. I’ll run interference here.”

While the party guests admired my dad’s impressive work, I slipped away to call Mom.

I told Milo we’d be going soon. Then I located Jake for some goodbye time.

“I wanted to show you the back yard.”

“That’s right. I haven’t said hello to Indiana yet.”

“Not just that.” He took my hand.

Indiana, looking one-hundred percent back to normal, greeted us effusively at the side gate. Then we went in, and he followed us to the back yard.

The moonlight illuminated a cluster of gravestones.

“You made a cemetery?”

Jake grinned. “Cool, isn’t it? I worked on it all day Sunday. Of course, it can’t compete with your father’s black hole, or whatever.”

“It looks real.” I shivered. “It’s creepy.”

“Well, if you’re scared, maybe I should put my arm around you.”

“I’m not—” Duh. “I am scared. Very scared. Save me, brave pirate.”

He put his arms around me and was about to kiss me.

A rustling behind a gravestone caught our attention.

Indiana ran over there and barked twice.

Camille and Kent emerged, looking sheepish.

“Hi, Zoe.” Camille gave me a weak wave. “We were just heading in to get more punch.”

Even in the dim light, Kent’s red face was apparent. Jake started laughing.

“Who’d have thought there’d be so much romance in a graveyard?” I teased.

We waited until they rounded the corner of the house.

Then Jake pulled me close and kissed me.

And I kissed him back with the knowledge that all was right with the world.

Except for the vortex in the living room.

With any luck, I’d have the toad slime substitution perfected by Thanksgiving. I had the perfect boyfriend, and Halloween wouldn’t come again for another year.

If only I could keep from stirring up more trouble in the meantime.

Footsteps crunched through the leaves, and we pulled apart to see Anya at the side of the house, her tiara glittering as it caught light from the windows.

“Oh, sorry.” She actually sounded sincere. “Have you seen Milo? I thought he came out this way.”

“No,” Jake answered, then leaned in to kiss my cheek.

Anya stomped off.

With Jake’s lips on mine once more, I had a sense that someone was watching. I opened an eye unwilling to stop the kiss. Jake hadn’t noticed anything.

Across the yard, I saw Milo creeping stealthily toward the other end of the house. He’d avoided Anya for now. I fought a grin.

I really should save him, but first I was going to spend a little more time in Jake’s arms.

Milo would understand.

Probably.

Dad poked his head out the kitchen door to tell me Mom had arrived. Jake and I jumped apart, but not quickly enough. Dad pretended not to notice.

“Be right there,” I said.

“Come in and say goodbye to my mother,” Jake said.

He opened the door for me, and I walked inside. I turned to thank Jake, but something caught my eye. Something black was flying toward us at top speed. I screeched as the bat cleared Jake and continued toward me, aiming right for my face. I jumped back, tripping over something and crashing backward into the nachos table. One of Milo’s bats had come back for revenge. It did a fly by, grazing the side of my cheek, as I landed on the floor. The nachos table had tilted and nachos rained down around me. Bowls of guacamole, chili, cheese sauce, and salsa crashed to the floor and formed an ever-growing puddle of mess. I stared in horror as the red mixed with orange and green. Mixing liquids.

My mother and father had rushed toward me. Mom’s eyes met mine, reflecting the fear, the certainty, the inevitability of the impending disaster.

Chapter Seventeen

Dad and Jake each grabbed one of my arms and hoisted me up. I was a mess. The entire room was looking at me. Clumsy. Party wrecker. And the worse hadn’t even happened yet.

Milo’s bats. My vortex. Bile rose in my throat as I waited for the newest disaster.

Then, it came. Frogs. Big frogs. Lots and lots of them. They were suddenly everywhere.

A scream I recognized as Anya’s caught my attention and I turned to see her climbing on the kitchen counter. Milo ran in from the back deck, took one look at me, and paled.

“It’s bad, Zoe. They’re outside too.”

Oh my God! What had I done?

“Get her home,” my dad said to my mom. “I’ll help Sheree with this mess. I should be home before the Council shows up.”

Sheree walked over to my dad.

“This was not me, Sheree. Promise,” he said.

“Zoe,” Milo said, grabbing my arm and pulling. “The car.”

We stumbled through the chaos to the front door. More frogs on the front porch. I stepped around frogs on the sidewalk and climbed into Mom’s car.

She put the car into drive and started down the street. As she drove, I heard an occasional splat as we ran over one of the amphibians.

My mother clutched the wheel, looking sick.

Milo finally spoke from the back seat. “It’s probably not that bad, Zoe. Maybe just the neighborhood.”

Splat.

Mom flinched.

“Okay. My mom says it’s the whole city,” he said, reading a text on his phone. “But it is Halloween, and besides, frogs are no big deal.”

“Stop trying to cheer me up, Milo. It isn’t going to work.” The Council was going to lock me away and throw away the key.

“My parents are going to meet us at your house,” Milo said. “My mother thinks it will help with the Council.”

“Tell her thank you,” my mother said.

Sploit.

Splat.

Splup.

“How many are there?” I screeched. “There must be thousands!”

“A few less now,” Milo muttered.

“We’re almost there,” my mother said before I could tell Milo to keep his thoughts to himself.

We pulled into the driveway. She hadn’t closed the garage door when she left so she pulled in. “I really wish I’d closed that,” she said as we got out of the car and stepped around the frogs that had hopped in.

A moment later, we were in the kitchen. The three of us stood around the peninsula, shell-shocked, weary, and trying to regroup.

“I have to call the Council.” My mother reached for the cordless phone. “They must know by now.”

“Don’t forget the toad slime substitution,” Milo called after her. “It might help.”

Then he looked at me. “Toad slime.”

“That explains why my Halloween Hiccup is frogs.”

“Poetic,” Milo said. Then he laughed. Not a normal laugh, but the half-crazy laugh of somebody who was about to come unglued.

“Seriously!” I poked him in the chest. “You’re freaking out on me. You aren’t the one whose life is over. You aren’t the one who unleashed an amphibian plague! You have no right to break down.” I was struggling to get air into my lungs.

He grabbed my hand to keep me from bruising his chest. “You’re fine. It’s going to be okay. You are brilliant. You of all people can get away with this.”

As he spoke, I started to breathe again. “More,” I said. “Say more good stuff.”

“They need you, Zoe. You’re going to make a huge difference in the world. They aren’t going to take your powers or lock you up or do anything to keep you from the progress you’re making.”

Whoa. Lock me up. Take my powers. “Stop.” I was thinking boarding school, or community service, or a giant fine my parents couldn’t pay. “Lock me up?”

“I said they weren’t going to lock you up,” he said, slowly and carefully as if talking to a child.

“They might lock me up. Frogs are dying all over the city. Jake thinks I’m a clumsy loser.”

Milo sighed. “You’re worried about what Jake thinks? Zoe, you have bigger problems.”

I had trashed Sheree’s kitchen. I couldn’t even imagine the mess. The cheese, the nachos, the frogs.

My mother came back into the kitchen and placed the phone on the charger. “We have an hour,” she said. “Zoe, go change. I doubt the Council would appreciate the witch outfit.” She turned to Milo. “John mentioned your bats. Considering what we’re all dealing with tonight, it’s probably best if you speak as little as possible.”

“Mom!”

Milo nodded. “Right. Good idea.”

“We can’t afford an accidental rhyme, Zoe. Not with the Council here.”

Milo pressed his lips together and made a zipping gesture.

Talking to Milo had been helping. I doubted that Mime-boy was going to do me any good.

With an exaggerated sigh, I left the kitchen and headed to my room. I traded the black dress for a demure sweater set and matching skirt that my mother had picked up last week. She thought the pale blue flattered my complexion. I thought the outfit made me look younger. Hopefully, the Council would get a “sweet and innocent” message.