She was something all right. If Anya knew the whole story, she might not be so complimentary. “She’s a better person than Dad,” I compromised.
Anya’s icy blue eyes, courtesy of contact lenses, widened with pity. “Poor Jake,” she said. “Maybe I should call him.”
Of course, I thought. What could be more perfect than Anya and Jake getting back together because of my dad?
When I got out of school, I found four text messages from Milo on my cell phone. He really needed to work on that whole patience thing.
Milo used his spells to work on feeding the homeless. He’d never admitted to using any spells on animals. Although, his guinea pig had been alive for eight years. Either he was using the potion, or his mom and dad had been replacing him at regular intervals. I wasn’t sure which was more likely.
He’d only been waiting a week. But he knew the results were coming today, and he was apparently freaking out.
Milo had discovered a way to combine spells and multiply objects, including cans of food, by ten. His goal was to help the poor. A month ago, he’d managed the spell. But it had taken a while to get my dad in touch with his old chemist pal who could evaluate the nutritional value of the food. We were a little fearful that the multiplication process robbed the vegetables of some nutrients. Milo really didn’t want to feed vegetables with fewer nutrients to the poor. They had enough problems already.
The fourth text message indicated that Milo was coming a little unglued. He’d spelled two of the words wrong. Since there were only four in each message, two was a lot. Milo, the champion speller, had messed up half the words in “R they there yet?” He’d written “S the there yet?”
I turned the power off on the phone. No way was I talking to him until I had the results. And they’d better be good.
After the bus let me off at my stop, I turned the phone on again. I hated feeling cut off from the world.
I found a text from my dad. He had the results for Milo. He’d emailed them to me. I didn’t pull them up on my phone. Instead, I unlocked the house and ran up to my room. The results were great. Milo’s spell worked like, well, a charm. He’d turned one can of vegetables into ten and hadn’t lost any of the nutritional value.
I pressed “2” on my cell and waited for it to dial Milo.
“Do you have them?” He sounded so anxious.
“Of course, I do. Otherwise, I’d still be dodging your calls.”
“Tell me.”
Overlooking the possible rude factor wasn’t hard. I knew he was excited. “Okay, Okay. They were perfect. The potatoes, the carrots, and the beans. They all had the right vitamins, fiber, everything.”
“And the corn?”
“Same thing. No problems. I already forwarded you the spreadsheet.” I stood and picked up my laundry basket full of dirty clothes. Doing laundry was a lot less boring when I talked on the phone. Besides, I needed some clothes to pack for Dad’s.
“I can’t believe it.” I heard a touch of the shy child in his voice.
“Well, believe it. You just found a way to feed ten times as many people at the food bank.” I grinned. “If there’s a nuclear war, I definitely want you in my bomb shelter. We’d never run out of canned food.”
“Do you realize what this means?”
“Yeah, I just said so.” Padding down the stairs, I tried not to drop the phone or the laundry.
“I took two charms and blended them, and came up with a third. And it works. The possibilities are endless.”
“Amazing, isn’t it. Whoever gave you the idea?” I gave myself a mental pat on the back for clearing the laundry room door without dropping anything.
“You did, you big dork.”
The idea had come to me about two months ago. I figured that he might be able to mix his spells like I mixed my potions. “Big dork? Or brilliant dork?”
“Neither,” he said. “Thanks for the idea. But the spells were all me.”
“I’m proud of you.” A quick check told me the washer was empty. I dumped my jeans and darks into the machine.
“My parents are going to flip out.”
I pictured Milo’s parents. “They’re going to be really proud of you.” His mom ran a food bank, and his dad was a youth minister. They didn’t use magic much, but they wanted Milo to master his spells.
“I’m not going to tell them yet.” I could almost hear Milo rubbing his hands together like a genius hatching a plan. “I’m going to run out later and multiply all the food at the food pantry. Then, she’ll find it when she opens in the morning.”
“Do it. It’ll be great.”
I could hear his smile as he spoke. “I think I will. Tell your dad thanks for me. You’re so lucky to have a scientist for a dad.”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up your dad.”
He knew I wasn’t dealing well with the separation situation. “It’s okay. I am lucky he’s a scientist. I just wish I were lucky in some other ways too.”
“I forgot to ask you. Did you try that potion to multiply food?”
“Yeah,” I admitted. Next stop, the kitchen for some caffeine.
“I take it that your potion didn’t work.”
“It worked.” I’d turned one small can of asparagus into a big restaurant-sized container. Like the world needed more asparagus anyway. “The asparagus had a funny taste though.”
Milo gagged into the phone. “Asparagus. How could you even tell it didn’t taste right?”
“I couldn’t. Obviously. I had my mother
try it.” We were down to one can of Coke. I hoped Mom was on top of the grocery situation.
“Are you sure it tasted funny?”
“My mother has very reliable taste buds.” She did. Even if she did eat something as gross as asparagus.
“Too bad. We could have done a lot between the two of us.”
“You still can.” I popped open the can and chugged.
“Hang on,” Milo said. A few seconds later, he was back. “Zoe. I have to go. It’s Darlene.”
“Darlene?” I tried not to show my surprise. “Isn’t that the cheerleader you like?”
“Yeah.”
“You dog!” I teased. “Good luck.”
“Bye.” He hung up.
I pushed end. Milo really liked this girl, but I never thought she’d like him. Oh sure, he’d changed since elementary school. He’d grown to almost six feet and slimmed down. And he’d gotten contacts last year. I knew he looked good, but I didn’t trust anyone to appreciate him like I did. As a friend of course. I’d never considered him as anything other than a friend.
Darlene apparently had. I groaned. If Milo started dating Darlene, I’d be the last of my friends to find a boyfriend. Well, in Milo’s case, a girlfriend. I really didn’t like the idea of being last, or put succinctly, the biggest loser of all my friends.
“I’ve got a good feeling about this one,” Dad said later that night when he picked me up in his Prius. “I think you’ll like her.”
“Okay,” I said. I just didn’t feel like telling him that I knew her yet. I didn’t feel much like talking at all. I pretended not to notice that Dad had dressed up in a nice sweater with his khakis instead of his usual sloppy, untucked shirt.