Twist My Charm (4 page)

I
'm so excited when we get to the library, I'm ready to explode…and it's not just because of my awesome plan—the plan I still haven't gotten to tell Madison. This library is actually a cool-looking place. It's not boxy and boring; it's like an old castle or fortress, with statues built into the building and a colorful mosaic pyramid on the top of a tower. Our teacher, Kevin, says it takes up the whole city block and houses a hundred bazillion books—or some big number. I'm not totally listening; I'm just hoping one of those books has love potions in it!

Kevin leads us into the big main room. It's got a super-high ceiling with chandeliers hanging down and a long desk with four librarians working behind it. Kevin hands out our library cards and says we're supposed to pick two books we'd like to read, and do a report on one at the end of the school year. He tells us to meet right back here in one hour, not a minute later. He reminds us to keep our voices low, to not talk to strangers (unless they work there), and to pair up and always stay with our buddy.

“I never leave my buddy's side,” Ronnie Cheseboro says, draping his arm over Lisa Lee's shoulder.

“Ewww, gross,” Lisa Lee says, squirming away, but I can tell she loves the attention.

Madison's my buddy; we don't even need to talk about it. She knows I have something important to discuss, and we've got eight floors to ourselves for the next hour. As we run to the elevator and the door closes, I spot Samantha and Larry walking up the stairs together, and she's laughing at everything he says.

I knew it! She likes him. All we need is a potion—
with
instructions—so they'll
both
fall in love. I explain it all to Madison in the elevator. “It's obvious that Samantha loves Larry, but if Larry loves her back, she'll have no choice but to become part of our group.”

“Why's that important?”

That part's harder to explain, but I tell Madison the truth, even if it's slightly embarrassing. I tell her how uncomfortable I feel not being able to talk with Samantha, passing her in the lunchroom, and trying to avoid her in Kevin's classroom and in Focus! The fact is, I miss Sam as a friend.

“But we just had fun on the bus with her,” Madison points out as we head toward a computer we can use to search for books.

“Right! Because she was with Larry! Once we get them together for real, she'll be your friend, she'll be my friend, she'll be everybody's friend!” I must have shouted that last part because we get a “Shhh!” from a librarian behind a nearby desk. “Sorry,” I whisper in her direction.

I lower my voice and turn to Madison, who's typing search words into the computer. “All we need is
the right book.
”

Madison lifts her hands off the computer keyboard and turns to me. “No books,” she says, disappointed.

I'm not giving up yet. I need to blaze my own trail! “Come on, there are a million bazillion books here! Look up
spells.
Look up
charms.
Try another language, anything!” Madison's fingers fly across the keyboard. Then they stop. I peer over her shoulder to look at the screen. “Did you find something?”

“Glad you asked.” Madison steps back from the computer and pushes me toward it. I read the title on the screen. Then I read it again. I'm confused. And she can tell.

“It's the only thing they have,” she says.

I look at it again. It says:

¡POCIÓNES FANTÁSTICOS PARA LA VIDA Y AMOR! (Los hechizos y encantos para encontrar el amor, mantener el amor, y crean el amor que antes no existía)

Obviously it's in Spanish. I easily figure out POTIONS FANTASTIC (the nouns and adjectives are backward in Spanish), and the word
amor
again and again and again. I'm hoping that means “love.”

I can't translate it all, but I understand enough to know that this book could change everything.

Now that we've found the listing for the book, we have to find the book itself—which is not so easy in this gargantuan library. First we have to figure out the floor, and we're so busy jabbering in the elevator that we miss it, so we have to go all the way to the top floor and then wait to go back down again.

Finally we spot the room with the Spanish-language books. As we run inside, we happily shout some of our favorite Spanish words (
¡Hola! ¡Adios! ¡Feliz Navidad!
) and are shushed by another librarian. Quieting down (but not slowing down, not at all), we zoom up and down the aisles. I've never seen so many
palabras de español
(words of Spanish) in my life! Shelves and shelves and shelves of words I don't understand. Words like
etéreo, místico,
and
muertos vivientes.
Luckily, the Dewey Decimal system is in numbers, not Spanish, so we finally find
POCIÓNES FANTÁSTICOS.

My hand is almost shaking as I pull it off the shelf. The book is definitely old. The edges of the pages are thick, yellowish, and raggedy. The cover artwork is faded and lame-looking. It's just a simple drawing of a bottle—sort of like my bottle of love potion, but purple—with a hand lifting up its stopper so hearts and flowers can fly out. I could have designed something way more creative. Still, I'm holding this book like it's from ancient times, as if any page could turn to dust with the touch of my dirty fingertips.

Madison shakes me. “Let's look inside!”

I carefully open the book. There are illustrations inside on every couple of pages, but there are also lots and lots of words. “Wow,” I say, overwhelmed. “It's
todo español.
”

Madison nods. “It doesn't look easy.”

“I guess we could pick a potion and I could…translate it,” I offer, knowing I don't really want to, no matter how excited I am. I've got enough homework already.

“
You'll
translate?” If this were the Madison I used to know, I'd say she was being mean or judgey, but she's just joking because she knows I'm pretty slow at Spanish.
Muy despacio,
as a matter of fact. And that means
really slow
!

We sit on the floor with the book open between us. I concentrate for a minute and, to my surprise, I get an idea. “I know! I'll pick the pages that look the best and scan them on my dad's printer. Then I can email them to myself and translate them online.”

“Perfect!” Madison says. “I was going to say Yvonne could help me, but I don't need her telling my mom or dad that I'm translating love potions. They're already worried about how much I like Ryder Landry.”

I stand up, ready for action. “Well, once Larry falls in love with Samantha, I want to use one on my dad and Terri. Then maybe you and Ryder can be next.”

“Ha ha,” Madison says. Suddenly there's a ringing noise from inside her backpack. She jumps back in surprise. “Oh no!”

“What is it?” I ask.

“I set my alarm for when we have two minutes left,” she says.

“Two minutes? You couldn't have given us more time?”

She stares at me. “How much time did you set
your
phone for?”

Good point.

We haven't even looked for any other books, and we definitely don't want any from the Spanish-language section. We rush out of the room with
POCIÓNES FANTÁSTICOS,
shouting
“¡Gracias!”
at the librarian. We're gone so fast, we can barely hear her shush us.

We wait all of two seconds after pressing the elevator button, then scramble down the stairs instead. When we get to the first floor, we see Kevin in the distance, standing by the main desk. No one else is around him.

“You're late, ladies! Check out your books and let's go!”

“Grab anything!” Madison says, but I'm already doing exactly that. I pick the thinnest book I can find off a random shelf. Perfect for a book report!

Madison and I toss our books on the desk. The librarians slide them over a scanner, and we cram them in our backpacks. Kevin leads us onto the crowded bus. As we look for seats, kids grumble about us being late. “What were they doing anyway?” Ronnie Cheseboro says to Lisa Lee.

“Madison was helping Cleo learn to read,” she suggests, and they laugh.

I glare as I pass their seat and squeeze in with a kid I don't know. When the bus gets moving, I look around and see Larry and Sam still together—even now, when they don't have to be buddies! It will only take one small sip of love potion to push them into boyfriend-girlfriend land for sure.

I open my backpack. I touch the rough edges of the potion book, promising myself I'll translate something as soon as I can. Then I pull out my other book. I'm hoping it will be easy to read, but I'm not that lucky.

Quantum Physics, Biocentrism, and the Universe as We Know It.

That sounds like a lot of stuff for a little book.

I'm going to have to work out a deal with Kevin. I'll start on that after he gets over us being late for the bus.

After school, instead of doing homework, I lie on my bed with
POCIÓNES FANTÁSTICOS
and try to pick my favorite potion. Since I only know a few of the words, I do my judging by looking at the drawings. They're all so lame and basic: men's and women's faces with hearts in between them, bottles that look like they hold potion, cups you might drink from, jewelry, scenery, and even toys. (I decide right away to avoid anything that looks even close to a voodoo doll.) I read some of the Spanish words aloud, as if saying them could help me figure out what they mean.

I'm mumbling to myself
en español
when Dad knocks on my door and walks right in before I can even tell him to wait.

“Dad!” I shout, slamming the book shut and turning it over so he doesn't see the title. He doesn't know Spanish, but he might be able to figure it out.

“Oh, good, I'm glad you're doing your homework,” he says, then tells me he's going to take Toby on a jog around the lake. I'm glad, because since Terri broke up with him, he hasn't gone on any hikes or ridden his bike or even walked very fast. But I'm even gladder because this will leave me alone for a while—with his computers!

I follow Dad to the front door and send him off with an overly happy wave. “Have an awesome time! Say hi to Red Shorts!” Dad looks confused by my enthusiasm, but Toby barks happily like he agrees.

Once I see them turn down the dirt path that circles the lake, I run to the dining room and sit down in front of Dad's biggest computer. As long as I keep his piles of folders and junk and wadded-up papers in the places where he left them, he'll never know I was there. I carefully use one of his printers to scan my favorite-looking potion so far—the one called
COSAS DULCES PARA TU DULCE CORAZÓN.

Judging by the pictures, it looks like you have to cook a bunch of ingredients in a pot on a stove. Until recently, Dad only trusted my cooking skills with the microwave, but lately he's let me be more independent. Not only will he leave me alone, like today, he also lets me boil water and make sure the oven is preheated properly.

Once the potion recipe pops up on his computer, I email it to myself, then erase the evidence that I was ever there. On the computer in my room, I copy the recipe into a translation program, and a few seconds later it's in English—though some of it is a little off.

The potion is called STUFFS SWEET FOR YOUR HEART SWEET.

I guess the translator who created the program forgot the adjectives-before-nouns rule in English.

Start with a pot sturdy on stove hot. Make water boil gently. Melt chocolate tasty and strawberry ripe to create a mixture bold. Add seven drops of honey sweet. Stir several times. Breathe in the aroma. Delicious, no? But wait! This is not enough to make a person of interest love you. We must be realistic. Love is not always sweet! Love is full of surprises strange! Another flavor unexpected must be added. Chop onion and crush into pieces small. Add to liquid for a surprise zesty. Even a fool cannot prove it wrong. It is foolproof! Foolproof, I say with vehemence!