Stirring Up Trouble (20 page)

Mom nodded her approval when I came downstairs.

Milo’s parents had arrived. His dad was busy on his iPad while his mother talked quietly with mine.

Dad came in through the kitchen a few minutes later.

I ran over and hugged him. “I’m so sorry. Did you get Jake’s house cleaned up.”

My dad nodded. “All but a couple of frogs. Some of the kids are still there. Their parents aren’t willing to brave the frogs yet.”

I grimaced. “Was Sheree mad?”

“Not at you,” my father said.

“John,” my mother called. “Come over and help. We’re on damage control.”

Milo’s dad looked up from his iPad. “Looks like the frogs are all over the Southeastern U.S.”

I swayed and Dad steadied me. “Hang in there, Champ. We’ll be okay.”

The whole Southeastern United States! I thought the city-wide infestation was bad.

Milo had come up beside us. “We probably needed the frogs. Like when we finally get rain after a drought.”

“You aren’t supposed to talk,” I snapped.

“Uh oh,” Milo’s dad said.

“What?” I asked tersely.

His dad glanced at my mother. “I’m not sure I should—”

Mom sighed. “She may as well know.”

Milo’s dad turned to me. “It’s worldwide.”

The emissaries from the Council rang the doorbell soon after. My mother led them into the living room. Three of them wore long black, judge’s robes—a middle-aged man with a large hook nose, a middle-aged woman with short red hair, and an elderly African-American gentleman with sunken eyes. A younger person in a suit trailed behind each of the distinguished Council members. Each of these twenty to thirty-year-olds carried two leather-bound books the size of pizza boxes, and they kept their heads down and did not make eye contact with us. I had no idea who they were, and I made a mental note to learn more about the Council as soon as I could.

“I am so sorry about this,” my mother said. “We can meet in the dining room if you’d like.”

The three Council members just nodded and everyone followed my mother into the other room.

They sat along the far side of the dining room table. Then they motioned for the rest of us to sit. The younger three took chairs along the side of the room. Mom, Milo’s mother, Dad, and I sat side-by-side. I wanted to crawl under the table, but I sat up straight in my chair because I knew that was what my mother wanted. The three in black loomed like grim reapers, seeming to suck the oxygen right out of the room. I struggled to breathe in shallow, rapid inhalations.

“Miss Miller,” the man with the hook nose said. “I’m Lionel Shannon. Bob Kavanagh and Midge Torbett complete our panel this evening.” Having dispensed with the introductions, he folded his hands on the table in front of him. “Miss Miller. Do you fully appreciate the gravity of this situation?”

I nodded, and tried to slow my breathing.

“Tonight’s incident was a serious breach of our Code of Conduct,” Judge Torbett said. “We have hundreds of containment officers working alongside local first responders. You could easily have compromised our secrecy provisions, and your Halloween Hiccup could still have catastrophic consequences. You should never have been in a situation where you could mix so many ingredients by accident.”

“Zoe understands that,” my mom said, giving me a look I’d long ago learned meant ‘sit still and keep your mouth shut.’

“The issue, I’m afraid, is whether Zoe’s conduct was reckless. A young witch. One with Zoe’s talent. And we cannot overlook the fact that you delayed in informing us of her toad slime substitution.” He gave my mother a hard look. “I don’t think there is any question that Zoe’s conduct was, in fact, reckless.”

This was not going well.

“Your honor,” Mom said. “I’m so sorry that this has happened, but there must be a way to punish Zoe without suspending her magic. She’s worked so hard. And she has such potential.”

“We’re well aware of Zoe’s talent, but we fail to see sufficient extenuating circumstances to excuse this behavior. I’m afraid that Zoe must lose her magic,” the female judge said. “We have been quite tolerant in light of the family history.”

Lose my magic? Family history? What were they talking about? I tried to catch my mother’s eye but she was focusing on the Council members.

“Of course there is the option we’ve been discussing with you over the last few years. Zoe could apprentice in Greenland with Dr. Macmillan.”

I was doomed. Greenland? That’s the one with all the ice.

Milo’s mother finally got up the nerve to speak. “Would you consider having someone tutor her here? Perhaps Dr. Finnegan? I was reading about his, er, predicament.”

Dr. Finnegan was legendary, but I didn’t know anything about a predicament. What had I missed?

Judge Torbett shot her a cold look. Dad shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

Judge Kavanagh finally spoke. “Not a bad idea.”

“I do like solving two problems at once,” Judge Shannon said.

“We’ll consider it,” Judge Torbett announced. “In the meantime, the girl’s magic will be suspended.”

My parents led them to the door.

Two hours later, Milo’s mother said, “We should go too. We’ll call in the morning.”

“They think they got all the cane toads,” Milo’s dad said, glancing up from his iPad.

“Aren’t those poisonous?” my dad asked.

“Oh, yeah. Especially to pets.”

Yikes.

“The Council has worked fast. They reduced their natural populations to a bare minimum while they were at it. Maybe some good will come of this.”

I tried to smile but didn’t manage.

Mom finally sent me up to bed.

I couldn’t sleep. Instead, I kept logging on and checking for news about the toads and frogs. Stories had started popping up on the national news sites. I couldn’t find anything locally, but the croaking outside the windows of our house was unbelievably loud. At around three, I was starting to wonder if they were going to come after me for revenge.

Mom popped her head in, and I voiced my concern.

She hugged me. “You’re getting paranoid because you’re sleep deprived. Plus, the frogs wouldn’t be mad at you, Zoe. They’d be grateful. You’re saving them from captivity. I really doubt they enjoy having their slime harvested.”

True. “But aren’t the ones from the Halloween Hiccup in danger?”

Her voice was a little too upbeat as she said, “Your actions created them, Zoe. They’re just as likely to be happy. Plus, the Council is working to get them contained.”

“There must be millions.”

Mom’s smile faltered. “Just be glad your Halloween Hiccup didn’t involve zombies.”

I guessed that millions was a serious underestimate.

“Go to sleep, Zoe. We’ll get an update in the morning.”

My cell rang and woke me at nine. Jake!

“Zoe! Did you hear about the frogs? It’s crazy!”

“Yeah,” I said, propping myself on my elbows. “I did.”

“I caught thirty-seven in our house after the party.”

“You didn’t kill them, did you?”

“No,” he said, sounding offended. “I took them outside. You just disappeared last night. Your dad said you went with your mother.”

“Yeah. Sorry, I didn’t get to say goodbye. Once those frogs showed up,” the ones that I’d conjured, “Mom dragged me out of there. What’s going on with the frogs now?”

“I don’t know. I don’t see any outside anymore.”

“Jake, I’m so sorry about the mess at the party. Your mother is probably furious with me.”

“For what? The nachos? Good grief, Zoe, between the bats, the frogs, and the vortex, she barely noticed. She’s a little ticked at your dad though for going so overboard with the Halloween thing. And with Kent. He kept tossing frogs into the vortex, and they… Never mind. You don’t want to know.”

Poor Dad. Poor frogs.

“Can you hang out later today?” he asked.

He wanted to see me despite my clumsiness. Hurray! I grinned at my pillow. Only, there was no way. “I don’t think today will work,” I admitted. “We’ve got a lot going on around here.”

Mom was still cooking breakfast when Milo and his parents came back over.

“They got about three-fourths of the frogs rounded up,” his dad said. “They’ve removed all frogs and toads from climates where they would perish. Some of the areas had a serious decrease in the frog populations of late, so those creatures were allowed to stay. They decided to sterilize half of the world’s frog population, since we had difficulty identifying the invaders from the long-time residents.”

“What about the world’s ecosystems?” Mom asked. “Will this devastate them?”

“Our scientists are predicting a decrease in mosquito-borne disease, a significant decrease in the roach population, and of course, an increase in a rather unusual source of food for humans.”

“That’s all good.”

“Yes, but we predict a huge increase in the rodent population, particularly rats, with such a convenient new food source. We’ve taken measures to ‘vaccinate’ the rats in order to prevent the propagation of new disease. In a few months, we’ll wipe out half the rat population. We’ll keep monitoring it in order to prevent a situation with the rats. No one wants to see them roaming the streets in droves.”

Ewww. Frogs were so much better than rats.

“The Council estimates a million man hours plus a huge portion of the budget for the next decade will go to what they are now terming the Frog Fiasco.”

“They aren’t billing us for it, are they?” Mom asked.

“Don’t be silly,” Milo’s mom answered. “They wouldn’t do that.”

Camille and Anya were texting me like crazy.

Anya swore she wasn’t leaving her house until the epidemic was over.

Two hours later she texted that she was headed over to Brad’s to play games. So much for that resolution.

Camille texted me that she was adopting several of the frogs. Her dad was allergic to fur, so these proved to be the perfect pets. She had found a couple of websites explaining how to care for the frogs. She texted me again to let me know she was going to have to actually raise bugs as their food. Oops.

News updates kept flashing on the television. Despite the Council’s hard work, the world had experienced a ridiculous boom in the toad and frog population. The scientific community expressed concern. Doctors and veterinarians were warning people to avoid contact due to the threat of salmonella. They were finding quite a few species of frogs on the wrong sides of the planet, and there was fear of an outbreak of illness among the frogs. The non-magic world hadn’t figured out the rat stuff yet. Luckily, the Council was on top of it. The news channels also talked about a scarcity of insects. I’d have to make sure the Council had a plan for the bugs.

Milo’s dad called us over for an important update. “The good news is that frog and toad jokes are making a resurgence. Oh, and so far there are no human fatalities associated with the phenomenon. In other words. Nobody has croaked!”

“Dad,” Milo said.

“Uh oh,” Mom said after checking her email. “They’re talking about banning magic and travel on Halloween again.”

“Everybody is going to hate me,” I said, holding my head in my hands.

“The snakes will like you,” Milo said. “They love to eat the yummy frogs.”

“Snakes,” Milo’s mother said. She jotted something down on the notepad she had carried around all morning. “We should check into the snake issue.”

“Please,” Mom said with a shudder.

“This is like a huge biology project,” Milo said.

“That sure was one Hoppy Halloween,” Milo’s dad said.

We all glared at him.

Milo and his family finally headed out late Sunday afternoon. I gave Milo a big hug. “Come back soon.”

At school Monday, everybody was buzzing about the crazy frog situation, except Anya. She just babbled on and on about Brad.

Mrs. Amburn had filled six aquariums with various frogs and toads. I guess I’d be reminded of my Halloween Hiccup forever.

Jake caught up with me at my locker after first period. “What’s wrong, Zoe? You seem distracted.”

I looked up into his green eyes. “I’m okay. It’s just been a weird couple of days.”

He glanced up and down the hall and then put an arm around me. “Maybe this will help.” He touched his lips to mine, and suddenly I didn’t care one bit about the Frog Fiasco.

He hugged me tightly and whispered against my ear. “Better.”

I nodded.

He released me and flashed a confident smile. He was entirely too smooth for a fifteen-year-old boy. “So can we study together today?”

If only. My parents had been very clear. Get home and stay home. We still didn’t have a final verdict from the Council. “Tomorrow?” I asked.

“Really? Tomorrow then, and don’t even think about trying to back out.”

“Tomorrow. I promise.”

Once I got home, I realized that I didn’t know what to do with myself. I had no magic. I could feel its absence. Like the empty space in my heart when my friend Selena moved to Florida after fourth grade.

My dad had texted me earlier. He knew how miserable I was, and he was trying his best to distract me. He was expecting the results from his friend today about the different tuna brands.

Any progress I could make on the toad slime substitution would really help.

I tried to make myself find something to do. Instead, I sat on the couch and stared at the wall.

Dad finally called. “I got the results, Zoe. Compared to the other tuna brands, Fish Man has less mercury and more artificial coloring. I’ll bring the complete breakdown over in the morning.”

Okay. We’d need to add coloring and extract some of the mercury from the other brands. “Can’t you bring it now?”

“Sorry, Zoe.”

“Mom is supposed to call with the Council’s verdict as soon as she knows. She still hasn’t called.”

“It could be days, Zoe. You need to be realistic.”

I just sighed. “Thanks anyway, Dad.”

“Love you, Zoe.”

“Love you too.”

When Mom’s car pulled into the garage, I was still sitting there. I would have turned on the television, but I was afraid of late-breaking frog updates. I didn’t want to see an interview with a kid who had salmonella or a man eating a giant frog sandwich.