Chapter 11

“You just walked right by me and took two boys up to your bedroom.” Nora Minsk looked a lot like her daughter Kristi. She was slender, fair, not quite as redheaded, and had the same little smile. “You’re damned right I’m getting my nose in your business.”

“Hi Mrs Minsk.” Curtis strode forward and offered his hand. “I’m Curtis, this is David.”

“And you met my daughter at school?” She squeezed tightly Curtis’s hand.

“Walked right into her,” he laughed. “And then I introduced her to David.”

“Mom, can you give us some room please?” Kristi pleaded. David just kept up a weak smile.

“Alright. David. Curtis.” Nora smiled. “But the door stays open Kristi.”

“I’ve got two boys here! Do you really think I’m that kind of girl?” Kristi snapped.

“By the way these boys ears both turned redder than your hair,” the mother laughed. “That might be the goal. Treat my daughter like a lady.”

“Nothing less,” Curtis assured her.

“Of course,” David hurriedly added.

“I’m shutting the door, Mom!” Kristi stomped over and slammed the door behind her mother walking away. Kristi blushed. “Dammit!”

“Kind of embarrassed you freaked out so much?” Curtis empathized. “Avery and Victoria flip out on Mom and get horribly embarrassed for how far they took it.”

“What about you?” Kristi accused.

“I’m immune to embarrassment.”

“That’s a superpower I want,” Kristi laughed.

“I’m sure you’ll find it in one of your binders,” Curtis shrugged. “For the moment, I really like turning every girl in the room on.”

“You would!” Kristi laughed. David hadn’t spoken. He was embarrassed too. Especially for his encounter about an hour ago with Natalie. He had felt like that before. He did with Avery every night. He had been energized with Eiko inside that changing room. He had felt that good with Curtis while David was Dee. Kristi always made him feel invincible. He didn’t want to talk about it. He wanted it to stew, to morph, to be something he understood. No, they had to be told. They had to know. They were here to discover what had happened.

Sunday evenings were family time. Leanne lifted her little brother’s dishes from the table. Candace picked up her father’s. Silas carried the serving tray after their mom into the kitchen.

“I know you were hoping for some of my jelly buns, Candace,” Shaylee said as she pulled down the door of the dishwasher. “I just hadn’t had time all weekend. You’re dad did get to Alice’s to pick up a pecan pie for dessert.”

Leanne frowned, the jelly buns were her favorite too.

“I think I’m going to pass on dessert tonight,” she said. Silas had taken the plates from her. Leanne started the coffee machine for her father.

“David making you watch your weight?” Shaylee shot her daughter a crooked smile.

“He’s not making me do anything!” Leanne blushed to her ears.

“He could though,” Candace snarked.

“Candace, don’t insult your sister like that,” Shaylee replied.

Silas, hands empty, retreated from the estrogen filled kitchen. “Do you want a cup of coffee, Si?”

“Yes, please, Leanne,” he called back.

“I wasn’t saying David was bullying you into a diet,” Shaylee shook her head, “I was saying you wanted to stay beautiful for him. I feel the same for your father. Even though I know he’d love me to death if I finally let go and ballooned up like a walrus.”

“Ew!” shouted Justin, the youngest Corkwood.

“Don’t be like that, Justin,” said Adam, the father. “You’ve had your mom’s cooking, there’s no excuse that we aren’t a great big family of walruses. Walrii.”

Leanne blushed hard again, knowing her brothers and dad could hear their conversation about David.

“So, Silas, another year on stage for you?” And she could hear her dad comment. He was supportive as always, though he never sounded thrilled by his son’s extracurricular choice. He’d be front seat opening night. He always sounded a bit more gruff until coffee and pie. Which, to Leanne, was a fair way to live.

“Yeah,” He nodded, “Sloane nailed Juliet as we all expected. Should be fun, though I liked doing The Merchant of Venice last year. It’s a bit of a better play.”

“Yes, Sloane was a terrific Shylock. She sounded like she really hated you as Antonio.” Adam suggested.

Leanne stepped across the kitchen and poked her head in. “Hey, Si, how did Gia’s audition go? She figured Sloane would get Juliet but--”

“Gia was terrible,” Silas grumped. “She didn’t know the play--she hardly knew Romeo and Juliet die at the end.”

“You’re going to die!” Justin’s eyes went wide. “I wanna see!”

Thomas, the last brother just scowled at his younger sibling. It was adorable on a 10 year old.

“She might get a place on stage because the school can’t really turn people away, but I’d be amazed if she gets a line,” Silas shrugged.

“Wow, I uh,” Leanne was pulled aside so Candace could carry in the first slices of pie to her brothers. The front door banged open.

“Hello Natalie!” Shaylee crossed the kitchen. The kitchen opened at two ends, one into the front step and two into the dining room. Natalie and Eiko stopped inside on the “Blessed Be Our Home” welcome mat. “And Eiko. You’re just in time. Let me cut you a slice of pie.”

“Uh, no thank you, Mrs Corkwood,” Eiko demurely murmured.

“Oh, it’s no trouble. Do you take it with coffee? A glass of milk? Red wine?”

“What?” Eiko burned red. She muttered, “I’m lactose intolerant.”

“I’m kidding about the wine,” Mrs Corkwood laughed.

“Do I need to pull more chairs up to the table?” Adam shouted back into the kitchen.

“No, thank you very much, Mrs Corkwood!” Natalie smiled broadly, “Can we take Leanne? We’ll bring her home in no more than three pieces.”

“You did say you were planning on skipping dessert,” Shaylee was carrying three cups over to the near finished coffee pot.

“Is it important?” Leanne adjusted her frown. “I have schoolwork I haven’t started.”

“It’s huge,” Natalie talked with her hands. Eiko had to take a step backwards. “We were at the hospital and something went wrong. David was there and--”

“David’s in the hospital!” Leanne went white.

“He’s fine, but we need to get Gia and Avery,” Natalie growled at Leanne interjecting.

“You’re excused. But I don’t want to hear you didn’t make time for that schoolwork, young lady.”

“I promise Mom,” Leanne smiled for her and scowled for her friends.

“Give a call if you’re not home by 10!” Her dad shouted after her. It was all Leanne could do, to pretend she was cheerful when she said good-bye.

The three teens sat on Kristi’s bed in the lotus position. Curtis flipped through the black binder. David swept through the green and blue for the nth time. Kristi scratched her head with an mechanical pencil as she mulled over a page in the red binder.

“One human eyeball, mashed. Broken to dust mirror. Mucky water. Black felt from inside a man’s hat. Stir in perfect darkness.” Curtis announced, “For nearly four minutes of invisibility. Ew.”

“Yeah,” Kristi shuddered, “I can’t imagine sharp mirror bits running down my throat.”

“And now I can’t stop imagining it,” David cringed.

“I think I found something though.” Kristi pushed forward the brown binder that was open to Shadow Dreams. They couldn’t figure out something else to keep Quinn in a coma. That hardly explained Natalie’s stark loss of weight. Honey Calling was open.

“Moon blood is exactly what I think it is,” Curtis commented with a frown. Kristi tried to sneer at him but she found it pretty gross too.

“Sounds like something Avery would do at a sleepover for a game,” David mentioned. His friends looked at him with very interested smirks. “She’d love to debunk this kind of voodoo. She’d do it by diving right into it. Right?”

Curtis didn’t jump in, enjoying watching David squirm under Kristi’s consideration. She grumped, furrowed her brow, and wobbled her lip. “Where would she get the magic mushrooms?”

“Gia,” both the boys answered her.

“I should talk to her,” she nodded. The boys scrutinized her until she noticed. “I want to try drugs. Plus, there’s a few spells in here that call for mushrooms, cocaine, or roofies. I’d want to know what the drugs feel like before I try the spell so I don’t get confused.”

“You want to be roofied?” Curtis smirked. Kristi smacked him and then brushed a few stray hairs back over her left ear. She was lit up red and giggly. Her bedroom door swung open.

Natalie stopped talking. The girls, gathered together in Gia’s bedroom because she was grounded from leaving with them, all waited to talk.

“The wish can fail,” Gia worried.

“And in that failure you fucked my boyfriend!” Leanne snarled at a low whisper because she’d be screaming if she spoke any louder. Her words were a burning roar. Avery’s hand held her wrist. There would be no diving across the bed and strangling the taller girl. Leanne would kill Natalie if it came to it, though the big blonde had no idea what she had admitted to.

“Yeah, and then the spell came back on and he got the fuck out of there,” Natalie refused to apologize. “You should fuck him, Leanne. You’ll feel better.”

“I’m not--”

“My wish hasn’t started yet,” Eiko overran the conversation. “My mother is just as horrible and strict as she’s always been.”

“ScarJo said it would take time.” Avery said itching for a moment. She had fallen into a brutal sneezing fit about the time Natalie said she was fucking her man. Her best friend’s man. She looked over Gia.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Gia demanded. She huffed and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Your hair finally does what it’s told,” Avery declared. “Eiko’s tits are huge. Leanne’s got beautiful skin and no acne.” And my nose hardly looks like a beak anymore.

“Looking better was my wish.” Natalie rejected that out of hand. “You don’t see any of us but Gia wanting to commit suicide with Silas.”

“If we all look better,” Leanne snarled, “how do you feel about David?”

“I’m hot. For the first time, I can fuck any boy I choose,” Natalie growled. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“She’s got a point,” Avery agreed.

“I’m not thinking about David,” Eiko rallied quickly.