Love Struck (7 page)

“That's not it,” I said, holding up my fingers in the Girl Scout pledge. I told him everything. How he was my father, how I inherited his powers, how I accidentally turned him back to his teen self. Everything.

But he didn't buy it. His eyes turned into little slits. “You might have been able to summon me here. But no way you'd be able to do something that big. Not if I were as powerful as you said. Not some little girl. Not to me.”

“Only I did. I'm your daughter. Your powers
are
my powers.”

“I don't have a daughter.”

“You will.”

He shook his head. His hands were tightening into fists and little energy waves were emanating from them. They formed a ball made of light and electricity. He was getting angry. At me! And who knew what this Lou was capable of. “What's your game? Who put you up to this?” he asked.

“No one. Just calm down.” I needed to say something he'd buy. I was actually getting scared of him. Was he going to throw that energy ball at me? At his own kid? What would that do? Transport me to another galaxy? Or worse? “I made it all up,” I said.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because that's what, um, little sisters do, right?”

“I don't have a sister, either.”

The energy waves were getting bigger.

“Wait,” I said, trying to weave together a believable story as fast as I could. “You don't have a sister that you
know
of. But you do
have
one. I'm your half sister, Angel. I grew up on earth and just found out about you and my powers. I called you here to meet you. Honest. Look at the resemblance.” I smiled, showing off the dimples. “And my eyes. See. I just wanted to meet you.”

The energy waves went away. Lou was buying it.

“Trust me. You don't want to be a part of my family. I'm waging war with some powerful people. And I don't need some kid getting in the way. Do not summon me again. Got it?” He looked like he meant it. This Lou was not to be messed with.

“Hey,” Mom said, skipping back into the room.

Lou's whole demeanor changed. He went from standing rigid and ready to attack me to Mr. Relaxed. He gave her a huge smile. He was totally crushing on her. Big time.

“Go back to your normal age, go back to your normal age,” I said over and over again. But it wasn't happening. Mom just kept going on and on about her clothes.

“I was able to find this top in the back of a closet,” Mom said inspecting her shirt. It was the one-sleeve black tee I had created with my powers ages ago. Mom had confiscated it and said no daughter of hers would ever go out of the house in it—that it was too risqué. Apparently teen Mom didn't think there was a problem with it. “But I couldn't find any decent jeans.”

Please return to your normal ages!
I thought, trying to wake my powers up, to force them to undo what I had just done. Focusing had worked for me in the past, but it wasn't doing anything for me now. I tried waving my hands the way Lou had to make Mom all accepting, closing my eyes and wishing, and I even made up a little poem/spell and said it a dozen times: “It's time to get everything on track, to your real ages you must go back. Okay, Mom and Lou, it's back to adulthood for the two of you. So please this time, powers abide by my rhyme.”

My poem didn't work. My parents weren't aging. They were still teens. I couldn't reverse what I had done.

“I could help you find a new outfit,” Lou said, ignoring me and taking Mom's hand. “The world and beyond is at your disposal.”

And Mom was smiling. It didn't bother her that Lou was going to use his devil powers for her. She actually liked it. This was definitely not the Mom I knew.

“Wait. You can't go. What about me?”

“I think you'll be just fine on your own,” Lou said.

And with a wave of his hand, my parents were gone.

I'd just set the devil—the old, well, actually, young incarnation of him, anyway—loose on the world. To do who knows what?!

Lou had finally sworn off taking souls. And what did I do? Sent him back to his old tricks. With my mother as his sidekick. This was seriously wrong.

Where could they have gone? Lou said the world or beyond was at my mom's disposal. What would teen Mom pick? Probably somewhere with a lot of guys so she could toss her hair some more.

I leaned against the wall, banging my head back a couple of times. How could I have been so careless? How could I have let them leave as their young selves? I was at a loss.

My mom's attitude was bad enough. But Lou's was bound to be worse. Having a young devil on the loose put the whole world (as in universe!) in jeopardy. Who knew how many souls he'd try to take? I needed to stop him. To track him down. But how?

Summoning him was out of the question. Not that I knew how to go about it, anyway. But even if I did, he'd probably pulverize me with an energy ball for taking him away from his busy evil deeds and my mom. I needed to go to him. To find him and talk some sense into him. Yeah, because that would totally work. I'm sure the devil loved to be lectured by a thirteen-year-old.

But I couldn't worry about that now. First I had to find him. Then I could deal with how to get through to him.

Okay, how to reach him? His hPhone! The hPhone was like an iPhone, only with otherworldly applications. Lou probably had it with him. I could just call him.

I grabbed my cell.
One hundred twelve missed calls! What? Who could want to reach me that badly?

As I reached to dial, the phone vibrated. I didn't recognize the number. “Hello?” I answered.

“Finally, I've been trying you forever.”

“Max? Is that you?”

“Yep. Turn on channel five. I have a surprise for you.”

A surprise? Surprises never ended well. I raced to the living room, turned on the TV, and braced for the worst. And that's pretty much what I got.

The news was on. Some blond reporter guy was doing a live broadcast from the mall about the Lance signing. There was Max standing behind him, blowing a kiss!

“That's for you, Angel,” he said into the phone.

“You're on the phone with Angel?” someone off-camera asked.

Cole's head popped on-screen. The reporter tried to shoo him away. “I miss you, Angel. I love you. Where are you?”

What was happening? Why were they acting like this?

All of a sudden, a bunch of other people chimed in. They were waving at the camera, sending me their love.

Then I remembered.

They were all smitten with me. When I'd left the mall they had practically bombarded me with compliments and flattery. I hadn't paid much attention, but they were definitely crazed.

Lance's mother hadn't just sent the love spell back at me. It went way beyond that. Everyone standing in the vicinity of the stage was affected! Max, Cole, Gabi, Courtney—gobs of people were now infatuated with me. I had my very own fan club. And no idea how to fix it.

I dropped down onto the couch and just stared at the TV.

What came on-screen next was even more disturbing than my love-struck posse. It was Lou. And my mom.

She sidled herself up next to the reporter and winked at him.

Lou watched her lick her lips at the guy. Then with a wave of his arm, he pushed the crowd, including the reporter, to the side.

Mom laughed and put her arms around Lou. Had she been trying to make him jealous? If so, it was working! He put his arms around her and held her tight. They just stood there for a moment looking at each other. Then Lou planted a huge kiss right on Mom's lips for every channel five watcher, including me, to see.

Gross! If Lou ever got back to normal, I was going to make him erase that memory from my brain. Because watching your parents, even younger versions of them, make out was incredibly puke-inducing.

I had to turn away, only looking back at the screen when I heard Lou speak. “It's my show now,” he said, pulling a grinning Mom closer toward him. If that was even possible!

Then he snapped his finger. And just like that, the TV went black. I reached for the remote. The other channels worked. But the live report from the mall was gone.

“Max!” I screamed into the phone. “What's going on? What's happening there?”

But there was no answer. The line was dead. I tried calling him back. Nothing. The same went for Cole and Gabi.

There was no communication coming from the mall.

Which could only mean one thing.

The devil was up to something.

My calves were on fire, I was biking so hard. I had to get back to the mall. I couldn't believe I was making a second trip there in one day. I don't even like shopping. But this wasn't about shopping. This was about stopping Lou from being Lou.

And that definitely warranted a return visit to the mall.

Who knew what I'd find when I got there? The whole place was probably a mini-underworld. I didn't really know what the underworld looked like, but I always pictured lots of flames and people shoveling coal. My classmates were probably chained together, forced to do whatever the devil said.

And my mom?! What was with her? I wanted to blame Lou—say it was his powers making her act this way. Only I had a feeling that wasn't the case. Lou made her accept her circumstances, but he didn't turn her into a flirt or a troublemaker. That was all her. What happened to the goody-two-shoes woman who punished me for every little thing? Like even sticking my tongue out when I was five? This Mom wore sexy clothes, engaged in PDA, and dated a bad boy. How dare she be so hard on me all these years when I'm way better behaved than she ever was? She had some serious explaining to do.

To get my mind off my parents, I checked my voice mail. The inbox was full. There were messages from Max, Cole, Gabi—everyone who had my cell phone number. Even Courtney, Lana, and Jaydin, who all had it from the three seconds we were friends.

They all thought I was incredible. And I'll be honest, the first few messages were fun to hear. Cole gushing about how he was the luckiest guy ever to get to have me for a girlfriend. How he needed me to come back to the mall for him. And how I was beautiful, smart, funny, breathtaking, inspiring, etc. Basically every nice adjective he could think of before the phone cut him off. But that didn't stop him. He called back and listed a slew more until the message reached the time limit again. I thought I'd never get tired of hearing him say cool things about me. But after a couple of minutes . . . I got bored. He was just saying the same stuff over and over again. The same with everyone else.

There were about three more messages by the time I pulled up to the mall. I didn't bother listening. There was no need. Because unless I could figure out a way to reverse what Lance's mom had done, I was about to hear all the compliments live and in person.

My public was waiting inside just a few feet away.

This was going to be a total mess.

I put the hood of my sweatshirt over my head and pulled the strings tight, making sure to keep my face toward the floor. It'd be a lot easier to deal with this without a group of people following me around.

With a deep breath, I pushed open the door to the mall. I wasn't greeted by flames or a demon army. It was just the mall. Busier than usual. But still, just the mall. I wasn't relieved, though. On television, the devil had said it was his show. Lou had to be up to something. The question was what.

Trying to avoid people was harder than I thought it would be. Staring at my feet made it impossible to see where I was going. Or what was going on around me. I needed help. I needed Gabi.

I made my way to the security desk and begged the guard to page her. A few minutes later, Gabi rounded the corner.

“Ang—,” she screamed.

“Shhh,”
I warned her and grabbed her arm, pulling her into the Juicy Couture store. I pulled a dress off the rack and went back to the dressing rooms. Gabi followed.

“That's going to look amazing on you. But everything does,” she gushed.

“Knock it off,” I told her. I hadn't brought her back there to get compliments. I brought her back there to try and undo the spell so that she could help me with my other problem. My Lou problem. “You've been infected by my powers. They're what's making you think I'm a superstar.”

“You are,” Gabi said.

“Gabi, listen to me. You need to snap out of this. Think about it. Isn't it much more likely that you're under a spell, and I'm still the same regular girl I was this morning? The same girl you were furious at for messing with your love life. Come on, you have to know I'm not some idol?”

I could almost see her processing what I said.

“Nope. You're Angel Garrett, the most fabulous, incredible, wonderful person ever. And trying to convince Marc and Lance to go out with me was sweet. You knew how much I liked them, and you went out of your way to help me. I'm sorry I got angry. That was wrong. I should have appreciated what you were trying to do.” Hopefully she'd remember that statement when I reversed the spell. “You're the best friend ever,” she went on. “How lucky am I?”

Lucky? Not very.

“Now just relax,” I told her. “I'm going to use my powers on you. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it works out better this time.”

“Cool!” she said, opening up her arms, ready to embrace the power. “Bring it on.”

Obviously, she wasn't thinking straight. There were no questions, no lectures, no warnings about what could go wrong, no trying to come up with an alternate solution. She was just happy to help.