Stirring Up Trouble (13 page)

Moments after she left, she returned followed by at least eight people. Dr. McCarter and two of the other vets stepped to the front, and Jake and I moved out of the way.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” the redheaded female vet mumbled.

A man in a white jacket rubbed his chin. “I could have sworn there was internal damage. That kidney—” His comments got lost in the mumbling of the rest of the staff.

Dr. McCarter opened the cage and stroked Indiana’s head. “That’s one lucky dog,” he said. He turned to Jake. “Go ahead and pet his head. Stay away from that leg and his flank though.”

Jake leaned in to stroke Indiana’s nose.

Sheree and Dad must have followed the group in, because the next thing I knew, she was hugging Jake. “They didn’t think he was going to make it. But I guess they’ve changed their minds.”

Dr. McCarter nodded. “We’ll keep him for observation tonight. He’ll need the splint on his leg. The stitches can come out in a week.” He turned to Sheree who seemed to be crying more now than before. “I think he’s going to be fine.”

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to find my dad. He winked.

I grinned. Saving Indiana was worth it. Even if it meant missing the dance.

Mom had her aerobics gear on when Dad dropped me off. “Hey, honey,” she greeted. “I didn’t expect you so soon.”

“Are you going to the gym?”

“Yep. Run up and change, and come along.”

“I don’t know…” Sweating wasn’t what I wanted right now. I really wanted to crawl under the covers in the fetal position and hibernate.

“Trust me. It’ll help.” Mom came over and hugged me. “I take it the dog’s going to be fine.”

I nodded.

“You’ll be fine, too, Zoe,” she said. “I promise.”

“You can’t promise, Mom.” I buried my head in her shoulder. “I really, really wanted that dance.”

“Hey,” she said, backing away and lifting my chin. “I’m not one-hundred percent sure anything will happen. I’ve been doing some research on the loop. Helping an animal is generally okay. It depends on what’s in your heart, whether you care as much about the animal as you do Jake.”

“Well, then I’m screwed. Because I don’t want to date the dog, and I sure don’t want to kiss him.”

Mom grimaced. “Thank God for small favors. We have to hope that that isn’t the test. Now, go change. You may be housebound for a couple of days. You can mope then.”

“You’re such an understanding mother,” I complained. But inside, I felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe helping the dog would be okay. Maybe Indiana hadn’t cost me the dance of my dreams.

Mom smacked me on the butt like a football player. She knows I hate that. “Run along and change.”

I ran. I wasn’t going to risk another swat on the butt. At least I’d be in good shape when I sprouted my horns, or my nose, or whatever.

After all the drama of the day, aerobics totally wore me out. I barely had the energy to take a shower, and I didn’t bother with the conditioner. Rinsing it all out again would take too long. I finally fell into bed with wet, tangled hair. I was too tired to care what would happen to me. I fell asleep almost instantly.

The fierce blare of my alarm woke me up at six thirty Thursday morning. The events of the previous day immediately came back to me in a nauseating rush. Normally, I’d slam the sleep button immediately to silence the painful noise. Today, I couldn’t make myself move. Any movement could reveal some horrible curse on my appearance, and I simply couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t face the ugly truth this early in the morning.

I kept my eyes squeezed tightly shut and counted the buzzes to keep my sanity. At ninety-three, Mom came to my rescue.

“Zoe,” she scolded. “How can you stand that noise?”

I didn’t care how irritated she sounded as long as she turned off the alarm, which, thank God, she did.

“Thank you,” I said, careful to avoid any movement.

“I’ve never seen you act like such a chicken, Zoe.”

My eyes flew open. “Oh my God, Mom! Do I have feathers, a beak, what?” I frantically felt every inch of my face and head as I spoke.

“Relax.” She couldn’t help laughing. “You’re fine! Nothing’s happened.”

“Nothing’s happened?” I squeaked, my hands still on my breasts to make sure one hadn’t grown ridiculously larger than the other.

She shook her head. “I checked on you an hour ago. I think you escaped the wrath of Zeus.”

“You think?” My heart leapt at the possibility.

“I’ve never seen anything take this long. Why don’t you look online for some information about time lapses?”

I usually liked internet research, but the stakes were high, and I really wasn’t sure I wanted to know what was going to happen. “Okay,” I said with a sigh.

Mom left to finish getting ready, and I considered my options. Not knowing was simply not acceptable. I crawled out of bed and padded to my desk. Four passwords later, I was into the alchemist chat room.

Thirty minutes of searching provided answers, but not the ones I wanted. Apparently, there were situations in which punishments were delayed. One instance was where delay would make the punishment even greater. Like if you were already out in public when it appeared, the humiliation factor would be way higher. That way a smaller punishment could have more impact. Like, say going to school and then having something happen with hundreds of cruel teenagers there to witness it.

The other possible reason for delay would be if someone were really nervous about it. I definitely was really nervous.

Lovely. All I’d discovered was that the punishment might be delayed. Or it might not.

Beating my head against my laptop probably wouldn’t solve anything, but it sure made me feel better.

“What’d you find out?” Mom asked, gliding into my room with the scent of freshly applied perfume.

“Nothing good,” I said, recounting my findings.

“Well,” Mom said thoughtfully. “You can stay home if you want, but if I were you, I’d rather get it over with. If something happens, I can come sign you out.”

A quick glance at the screen told me it was already seven. “Can I think about it?”

“Thirty minutes,” Mom said. “Then, I have to get going.”

There is no better place to be miserable than in bed, snuggled into the soft covers. I decided to do my thinking there.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t relax and enjoy the warmth of my bed. The covers couldn’t protect me from the images in my mind. Images of me with six-inch fangs or a second head.

“Crap,” I yelled, tossing the blankets aside.

Mom peeked in the doorway. “Decide you’d rather know?”

“Yes,” I said, getting out of bed and stomping across the floor like a petulant child. “I’d rather get it over with.”

In the bathroom, I sprayed some detangler on the rat’s nest that was my hair and yanked a brush through it. It took two hundred fifty nine strokes. Skipping the conditioner was not such a good idea.

My cell rang while I was washing my face. No one had called me this early since Anya’d gotten mad at me. I ran for the phone.

I leapt over the cat in the hall before skidding around the corner in my sock feet. When I hit the rug near my bed, I jumped it in a well-practiced maneuver and grabbed at the cell phone on my nightstand.

It was already on the fourth ring, so I didn’t have time to look at the number before I flipped open the phone and uttered a breathless, “Hello.”

“Zoe?” A voice that most definitely was not Anya’s asked. A decidedly male voice. “It’s Jake.”

“Oh, hi.” I struggled to breathe normally.

He sounded wide awake. “I hope it’s not too early to call.”

“Oh, no.” Enough with the oh’s, Zoe. I collapsed into my desk chair.

“I just wanted to let you know that Indy’s doing great.” The pure happiness in his voice was contagious.

My lips curved into a grin. “Good, Jake. I know you were worried.”

“Yeah, I was.” He paused. “Thanks, Zoe. For coming down there. It was really nice of you.”

“I’m glad I could help.” Duh. “Well, not help, but um, be there.”

“Mom said we’ll put in a fence next week. She’s bribed someone to move us to the front of the list. That way he won’t be able to chew through the rope again.”

“That’s great. I didn’t think you tied him up much anyway.” I stood up to pace, too restless to sit.

“We usually don’t, but Mom had some workmen coming yesterday.”

There was silence for a moment. “So, I’ll see you at school?” I asked.

“No. Mom and I are going to pick up Indy and spend the day with him. They want us to keep a close eye on him. You know, just in case. But they say he’ll be fine.”

I’m supposed to be glad the dog’s okay, so why am I disappointed that he won’t be at school. “Oh, that’s good.”

“We’re still on for the dance tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah.” If only I knew it would really happen. “Right.”

“Good.” He said over the sound of his mother calling him in the background. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Okay. Good luck with Indy.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

Picturing Jake and Indy together made me smile. Remembering Jake’s kisses made me blush. After a few precious moments on the phone with Jake, the rest of my day was bound to go downhill.

I was in the car with Mom on my way to school when Dad text messaged me and said he’d pick me up after school. He hadn’t done that in a while, so that was good. Of course, a part of me hoped we were going to see Jake. And another part of me would resent Dad spending my time with Sheree. Life really was getting complicated.

Homeroom was dull without Jake. We had a sub in English so that class was a total waste. The heart attack moment of the day came as I was going into the chemistry lab. Susie Maxwell stopped me. “Zoe, wait.”

When I stopped, she came closer and whispered. “You’ve got a tail.”

Of course, I freaked, twisting and turning and trying to see my tail. I should have known it would be something like this. I just hoped it wasn’t a pig’s tail.

I ran back to the bathroom I’d just left while Susie yelled, “It’s not that big a deal, Zoe. Get a grip.”

I felt the toilet paper just as I cleared the door. It came off in my hands. And I realized that my potion had nothing to do with this. I had walked out of the bathroom with toilet paper hanging from my jeans.

Now, a normal person would probably be embarrassed to have caught TP in their panties and walked out in front of people. But, I’m so not normal. Toilet paper was a hundred times better than a zebra tail, or a tiger tail, or any animal’s tail for that matter. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Chapter Twelve

“How’d your day go?” Dad asked as I climbed into his car.

“Okay,” I said. “Thank goodness.”

“Your mother said you were worried. I’m glad nothing happened.” He pulled away from the curb and waited patiently while someone tried to back out in their giant SUV. “New driver, I guess.” He looked at me. “You’ll be driving soon, won’t you? I guess I should start teaching you.”

My fifteenth birthday had come at the very end of summer. I hadn’t had any time to think about it. “We have almost a year before I can get my license. It won’t take me that long to learn.”

“Sheree’s been giving Jake some lessons. I’m sure she could offer some advice.”

Here we go again with Sheree. “Advice for you or for me?”

He smiled. “For me of course. You’ll be fine.”

I hoped so. I was nervous about driving. Clumsiness and driving didn’t seem to go together. Although my dad seemed to manage all right.

“So what are your plans for the night?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I guess I’ll sit around and wait until something happens.”

“Doesn’t sound like much fun.”

“No,” I agreed, thinking of the long night ahead.

“I could help you with your toad slime experiments,” he said.

“That would be great, but I don’t have everything I need. I want to try some fresh fish with the skin still on.”

Dad smiled, his eyes crinkling under his glasses. “See the cooler on the backseat.”

I looked back at the small blue cooler. “Yeah?”

“I got three different cuts of fish.”

“Really? With the skin still on?”

“Yep.” He sounded pleased with himself.

“Thanks Dad. I probably need it room temperature though. What’s with the cooler? Keeping them cold?”

“No. I just put it in there so I wouldn’t have to smell it.”

That’s right. The smell of fish makes Dad sick. “You don’t have to help me, Dad. I don’t want you to be miserable.”

“I won’t be if I’m helping you. It’s okay, Zoe. I want to spend some time with you.”

Even without Sheree? “I could use the help. I wanted to find this substitute before school started back. That puts me almost three months behind schedule.”

“Okay, then,” Dad said. “With two great scientific minds on the case, how can we lose?”

Dad and I were a well-oiled machine setting up for the experiment. He’d helped me so many times in the past. I had three wrought iron cauldrons heating on the gas stove in no time. Dr. Finnegan’s latest essay on potion theory proposed that a witch should limit herself to three pots in order to avoid diluting the magic. I couldn’t risk missing the signs of progress in my search for the substitution. I needed my magic at full power.

Dad set up a recording station on the kitchen island where he could document our results without being right on top of the fishy smell.

Two hours later, Dad and I were still working. Mom called and said she was going out to dinner with a friend. I strongly suspected the friend was a man. Otherwise she would have told me a name. It might even be Dave. But whatever. If Dad could date, so could she. I’d just have to learn to deal with it, but later. For now, I’d just ignore it.

We’d tried virtually every combination of our fish ingredients. I was getting frustrated, but Dad wasn’t discouraged. He scanned the spreadsheet he’d made.

“We should try heating them before we combine them,” he said. “Isn’t that what you do to make the margarine work?”