Charmed Forces #19 Page 16

  “It has nothing to do with you,” Candace said. “If I were going to go with any boy, I’d want to go with you. But I just don’t want to do the boy thing this summer. My parents are pressuring me about college already, and I need to concentrate on sailing and summer reading and all that stuff. If I started going out with you, I’d probably fall for you so hard I wouldn’t be able to remember my own name.”

  She smiled at him. She didn’t think what she’d just said was true, but she hoped it made him feel better.

  He looked up again, smiling ruefully. She could tell he was disappointed. “I thought maybe if you won you’d change your mind,” Donovan said.

  Actually, it was the other way around, Candace thought, but she didn’t let him know how close he’d come to getting a different answer. It might annoy him that she’d left his fate up to a sailing race. But now that it was over, she realized she was glad she’d won the race, and glad she wouldn’t be going to the dance with a date. She just didn’t feel it.

  “I’m sorry, Donovan,” she said. “Maybe next year.”

  “I understand. I actually felt the same way last summer. There was this girl who liked me, but all I wanted to do was sail . . . Anyway, look out. Gaby and I are going to kick your butt next time.”

  “Kick our butts? Just try it.” Candace laughed, relieved to see that he wasn’t too heartbroken. “Friends?” she said.

  “Friends.” He walked out to the dock, leaving her alone in the boathouse.

  In a show of sportsmanship, Gaby went to the soda machine and bought four celebratory sodas for the two winning boats. When she returned to the boathouse, she found Candace and Valerie standing near the dock. She gave each girl a soda. Donovan sat slouched at the end of the dock, his feet dangling over the water.

  “Look at him,” Valerie said. “He looks so sad.”

  “What happened?” Gaby asked.

  “Candace told Donovan she couldn’t go to the dance with him,” Valerie said.

  “You did?” Gaby nearly dropped a can of soda on her foot. “Why?”

  Candace and Valerie exchanged a glance. “We can tell her,” Valerie said. “It’s over now.”

  “Tell me what?” Gaby said.

  “I couldn’t decide what to do about Donovan,” Candace explained. “So I made a kind of deal with myself. If I lost the race, I’d go to the dance with Donovan. But if I won, I wouldn’t.”

  Gaby gasped. “And you won! So you’re not going.”

  Candace nodded. “So he’s up for grabs.”

  So that’s what Candace meant by there being an upside, Gaby thought.

  “I’m glad we won,” Valerie said. “But I do feel sorry for Donovan.”

  Gaby watched him. He did look sad, and she felt bad for him, too. Not only had he lost the race by a hair, he’d lost his date to the dance. In a way, Gaby thought, the way Candace had handled the whole thing was kind of heartless. Only a girl who wasn’t crazy for Donovan could have treated the matter so lightly.

  “Do you think I did the wrong thing?” Candace said.

  “It wouldn’t be fair to go out with him if you’re not that into him,” Valerie said.

  “I guess not,” Candace said. “But I feel guilty.”

  “You’ll get over it,” Gaby said.

  “Gaby,” Candace said. “Why don’t you go over there and make him feel better?”

  “Me?” Gaby said. “How can I make him feel better?”

  “You guys have gotten pretty tight since you’ve been sailing together, haven’t you?” Candace said. “Maybe you can commiserate about the race.”

  “I have an even better idea,” Valerie said. “Maybe a date to the dance will cheer him up. Why don’t you ask him if he’ll be your date, Gaby?”

  “Me? Ask him?” Gaby hadn’t thought of that. Everyone had been so focused on wondering who he would ask, it hadn’t occurred to anyone to ask him. But it wasn’t a bad idea.

  “Why not?” Gaby said. They really had grown closer through sailing. They’d become a team. Gaby looked at him sitting out there on the dock and she realized she no longer thought of him as a boy to be caught like a mouse in a trap. She thought of him as a friend—a friend who happened to be extremely gorgeous.

  “Go on.” Valerie gave her a little shove. “It can’t hurt.”

  “It’s your job as first mate to cheer up a mopey skipper,” Candace added. “That’s maritime law.”

  “Okay, but don’t watch,” Gaby said. “You have to leave, or I’ll feel self-conscious.”

  “All right, all right, just go already,” Valerie said, shoving her again.

  Gaby walked slowly down the dock. Donovan must have heard her footsteps, but he didn’t look up. He just stared at the water under his feet. Gaby sat down next to him.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “Hey.” He finally looked up and gave her a halfhearted smile.

  “We were great out there,” she said. “But Candace and Val are great, too. It’s not easy to beat them. But we can, you know. The summer’s not over. We’ll race them again.”

  “I know,” he said. “You’ve turned into a pretty good sailor. Remember a few weeks ago, when you first started?”

  Gaby laughed. “Remember when I got knocked into the water by the boom?”

  “Remember when you capsized about fifty times?”

  “How could I forget?” Gaby said. “The sneakers I wore that day are still wet.”

  “You’ve gotten a lot better, though,” Donovan said. “You respond so fast now. You’re really getting the hang of it.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “We’re a great team.”

  “We are, aren’t we? Next time, Candace and Val don’t have a prayer.”

  At the mention of Candace’s name, he dropped his head and stared at the water again.

  “Hey,” Gaby said. “I was thinking. I don’t have a date to the dance, so . . . I was wondering if you’d go with me.”

  He looked up, and his face brightened. Gaby took heart. There was hope. He actually seemed interested in her suggestion.

  “You know what, matey?” he said. “That’s a great idea.”

  Gaby froze for a second, stunned. Did he just say yes?

  “That means yes,” Donovan added, laughing.

  Gaby laughed too. “Great!” Wow. She still could hardly believe it. She asked him, and he said yes. That was easy.

  “Are you a good dancer?” she asked.

  “Terrible. How about you?”

  “Pretty good,” Gaby said. “I’ll have to teach you.”

  “Just don’t yell at me if I mess up,” Donovan said.

  “I’ll yell at you if I have to,” Gaby said. “That’s just what happens at dances.”

  Gaby couldn’t wipe the wide smile off her face. She walked back to the bunk to make her huge, major, earthshaking announcement. She did it! She got the guy for once. The perfect, heart-meltingly great guy that she really wanted! And she got him in spite of everything, in spite of all she’d done wrong.

  Sometimes fate is on your side, that’s all there is to it. Even when it looks as if it isn’t.

  Alyssa was working in the arts and crafts room, making a small box with slots to hold various mystical gems, when Valerie burst in. “Did you hear the incredible, stunning news?” Valerie said. “Donovan is going to the dance with Gaby!”

  “Wow,” Alyssa said. “How did that happen?”

  “Candace turned him down,” Valerie said.

  “And then Donovan turned around and asked Gaby?” Alyssa found that hard to believe. “That was awful quick.”

  “She asked him,” Valerie said. “And he said yes.”

  “Good for Gaby,” Alyssa said.

  Valerie moved aside bottles of glitter and glue and sat down at the table with Alyssa. “You know, Alyssa . . . that means you and Amy were wrong. You predicted Donovan would go to the dance with Candace, not Gaby.” She glanced at the purse over Alyssa’s shoulder, and Alyssa’s face went red. She stil
l hadn’t returned Amy to Gwenda, though she planned to do it any minute now. “So maybe Amy’s not so powerful after all.”

  “I know what you’re getting at,” Alyssa said. “But you’re wrong. Technically, Amy was right. If you’ll recall, my exact words were, ‘Donovan will ask Candace to the dance.’ That was the way I read the message Amy sent me. And it was correct. Donovan did ask Candace. But I never said Candace would say yes. I never said she’d actually go to the dance with Donovan.”

  “But you did advise her to,” Valerie said.

  “That’s different,” Alyssa said. “Candace is free to take my advice or reject it.”

  “I don’t know,” Valerie said. “That seems like splitting hairs. Isn’t it the spirit of the prediction that counts?”

  “No,” Alyssa said. “When dealing with mystical phenomena, you always have to be careful and precise. Like in those fairy tales where some foolish boy gets three wishes, and the genie grants each wish according to the exact words the boy used when he made the wish, and all the wishes turn out bad?”

  “Like when someone wishes to be rich, and the genie makes him rich but he’s in jail so he can’t enjoy the money?” Valerie said.

  “Um, I don’t remember that one—”

  “Or when a girl wishes to rule the world, so the genie makes all the people in the world disappear so there’s nothing in it to rule but plants and rocks?”

  “I guess,” Alyssa said. She had no idea what Valerie was talking about. “Was that a Twilight Zone?”

  “People should always just wish for unlimited wishes,” Valerie said. “I don’t know why no one ever thinks of that.”

  “Very true.” Alyssa tugged on her purse and remembered the race prediction she’d made. “Anyway, if you doubt me, look at this.” She pulled the slip of paper from her purse and gave it to Valerie.

  Valerie read it. “You predicted that we would win the race? When did you write this?”

  “Yesterday,” Alyssa said.

  “You could have written this prediction five minutes ago,” Valerie said.

  “But I didn’t,” Alyssa said. “I wrote it yesterday. I swear. I superswear.”

  “I believe you,” Valerie said. “I know how seriously you take your superswears.”

  Alyssa patted the amethyst in her purse. “I’m going to miss this little rock.”

  Valerie frowned in sympathy. “We all will.”

  chapter SEVENTEEN

  Alyssa stopped at the threshold of the nature shack and peered into the room. Sitting quietly at a table with her back to the door was Gwenda. She appeared to be working intently on a special project. Probably building a robot to help her take over the world, Alyssa thought.

  Okay, not fair. Alyssa patted Amy nervously. Gwenda wasn’t really so bad. And after all, she was going to be Amy’s new Keeper. Her new home. Alyssa sighed. She was going to miss feeling the weight of the stone in her hand. But it was time to face the music.

  Alyssa stepped into the shack and cleared her throat. “Gwenda? Hi.”

  Gwenda turned around and smiled at her. “Hi, Alyssa. Here to work on your project for the nature fair?” On the table in front of her was a display case for her collection of rocks and minerals, with labels and detailed descriptions of their properties.

  “Uh, no,” Alyssa said. “I have something to give you. Or rather, to return to you.” She took off her purse and held it out for Gwenda, who opened it and looked inside.

  “My amethyst! Where did you find it?”

  “On the ground near the camp entrance,” Alyssa said. “On the very first day of camp.”

  “I’ve been looking for it everywhere,” Gwenda said. Alyssa flinched at hearing Gwenda refer to Amy as “it.” She was so used to thinking of the amethyst as “she.” Maybe that was a little nutty.

  Gwenda took the amethyst out of the purse and held it in her hand, jumping just a little with excitement. “I’m so glad you found it! Thank you so much for returning it to me. It’s a great specimen, isn’t it?”

  Gwenda held the amethyst in the light. The purple parts sparkled.

  “Yes,” Alyssa said sadly. “It’s a great specimen.”

  “I’m so psyched to have it back!” Gwenda said. “I need it for my nature project. See?”

  Gwenda showed Alyssa the display box she was making. At the top was a label reading THE QUARTZ RAINBOW. Inside each small section nestled a different variety of quartz, arranged by color from lightest (rock crystal) to darkest (black onyx). The box labeled AMETHYST was empty.

  Two very different girls making two oddly similar boxes. What was that about?

  “I started planning this project before I even left for camp,” Gwenda said. “But it’s incomplete without an amethyst. I need a purple stone or the rainbow idea doesn’t work at all. And they’re hardly indigenous to this region.”

  “Right.” All the quartzes were so beautiful, from smoky to rose to citrine. But Amy was the most beautiful of all.

  “I was afraid my project was ruined,” Gwenda said. “I tried to remake my quartz display box so Roseanne wouldn’t realize that the purple rock was missing. But anyone who knows minerals would notice the omission.”

  “That’s all the amethyst is to you—a purple rock?” Alyssa said.

  “Of course not,” Gwenda said. “An amethyst is a macrocrystalline quartz, a low-temperature stable form of silicon dioxide. The purple color comes from the presence of iron during formation.”

  “That’s heartwarming,” Alyssa said.

  Gwenda gave her a funny look, and Alyssa immediately felt bad for making a snarky comment. She’d obviously touched a nerve.

  “You know what?” Gwenda said. “To me, science is heartwarming. I know some people don’t get it, but I love science, and I think it’s beautiful.”

  “You’re right,” Alyssa said. “I’m sorry. A lot of people don’t get the stuff I’m into, either.”

  “What are you doing for your nature fair project?” Gwenda asked.

  “I don’t know yet,” Alyssa said. “I still have to figure a few things out.”

  “Well, thanks for returning my amethyst to me,” Gwenda said. “You saved my project.” She put Amy into her slot in the box of quartz minerals. Now the collection was complete.

  “You’re welcome,” Alyssa said.

  Alyssa knew she’d done the right thing. Still, leaving the nature shack and heading for dinner, she felt as if a part of her was missing. Maybe it was just Amy, but Alyssa was afraid it could be her psychic gift as well.

  “Are you okay?” Gaby asked Alyssa as she sat down at bunk 6B’s table in the mess hall that evening.

  “Yeah, you look like your dog just died,” Chelsea said.

  “Hey,” Natalie said. “Don’t say that. I’m touchy on that subject.”

  “I thought Tumtum was okay,” Gaby said.

  “He is okay,” Natalie said. “And I want him to stay that way. No jinxing.”

  “Jinxing?” Chelsea rolled her eyes. “I can’t say anything around here. You’ve heard of political correctness? Well, this bunk is cursed by mystical correctness. Nobody can make a move for fear of bringing on bad luck.”

  “We don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Alyssa said. “Amy is gone. Back to her original owner, Gwenda of bunk 5C.”

  “Let’s all bow our heads for a moment of silence,” Sloan said.

  Everyone at the table bowed their heads. Well, almost everyone.

  “Oh, please,” Mandy snapped. “It was a rock!”

  “A mineral, actually,” Alyssa said. “Quartz, to be exact. Silicon dioxide.”

  “You can always buy another amethyst when you get home from camp,” Natalie said.

  “I know,” Alyssa said. “But there will never be one like Amy.” She sighed. “It’s a shame. Gwenda doesn’t know what she has. She’ll never connect with Amy the way I have. There’s about as much chance of that as there is of snow in July.”

  A few of the girls laughed. �
�Snow in July,” Candace said. “Now that would be really weird.”

  “If you can make it snow in July,” Mandy said, “then I’ll believe in magic.”

  “It’s a deal,” Alyssa said.

  “You’re not really saying it’s going to snow, are you?” Brynn said.

  Alyssa shrugged and smiled mysteriously. Of course it wouldn’t snow. But now that the words were out of her mouth, she couldn’t take them back. “Who knows?” she said. “Anything could happen.”

  Brynn sat on a stone bench near the campfire that night, waiting for her bunkmates to join her. Instead, Jordan plopped down beside her.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “Hey,” he said. “Listen—I wanted to apologize to you about Winnie. I know she apologized in the paper, but I wasn’t sure what you were thinking. I mean, she and I were working on a story together when she invaded your bunk’s privacy, and I wanted to make sure you knew I had nothing to do with it. I’d never tell a reporter to prank somebody or go through someone’s personal stuff—”

  “I know that,” Brynn said. “Don’t worry, Jordan. I don’t blame you for any of that. Anyway, it’s over now.”

  “Phew. Good. I’m glad you’re not mad at me.”

  “I’m totally not.”

  “You did some great investigative work,” Jordan said. “Figuring out what Winnie was up to and everything.”

  “Well—” Brynn hated to admit how she found out who’d pranked them—sneaking into 5C wasn’t exactly a sterling example of journalistic ethics. “Gaby should get most of the credit for that.”

  “It was you, too,” Jordan said. “Anyway, I thought it was cool.”

  “Thanks.”

  “So, you going to the dance tomorrow night?”

  “I was planning on it. Isn’t everyone?”

  “I guess so,” Jordan said. “Are you going with anyone?”

  “Just my buds.”

  “Oh.” He paused. She could hear him swallowing his nervousness even over the crackling of the fire. “I know this is kind of last minute, but would you like to go to the dance with me?”