“Oh, sorry.” She actually sounded sincere. “Have you seen Milo? I thought he came out this way.”
“No,” Jake answered, then leaned in to kiss my cheek.
Anya stomped off.
With Jake’s lips on mine once more, I had a sense that someone was watching. I opened an eye unwilling to stop the kiss. Jake hadn’t noticed anything.
Across the yard, I saw Milo creeping stealthily toward the other end of the house. He’d avoided Anya for now. I fought a grin.
I really should save him, but first I was going to spend a little more time in Jake’s arms.
Milo would understand.
Probably.
Dad poked his head out the kitchen door to tell me Mom had arrived. Jake and I jumped apart, but not quickly enough. Dad pretended not to notice.
“Be right there,” I said.
“Come in and say goodbye to my mother,” Jake said.
He opened the door for me, and I walked inside. I turned to thank Jake, but something caught my eye. Something black was flying toward us at top speed. I screeched as the bat cleared Jake and continued toward me, aiming right for my face. I jumped back, tripping over something and crashing backward into the nachos table. One of Milo’s bats had come back for revenge. It did a fly by, grazing the side of my cheek, as I landed on the floor. The nachos table had tilted and nachos rained down around me. Bowls of guacamole, chili, cheese sauce, and salsa crashed to the floor and formed an ever-growing puddle of mess. I stared in horror as the red mixed with orange and green. Mixing liquids.
My mother and father had rushed toward me. Mom’s eyes met mine, reflecting the fear, the certainty, the inevitability of the impending disaster.
Chapter Seventeen
Dad and Jake each grabbed one of my arms and hoisted me up. I was a mess. The entire room was looking at me. Clumsy. Party wrecker. And the worse hadn’t even happened yet.
Milo’s bats. My vortex. Bile rose in my throat as I waited for the newest disaster.
Then, it came. Frogs. Big frogs. Lots and lots of them. They were suddenly everywhere.
A scream I recognized as Anya’s caught my attention and I turned to see her climbing on the kitchen counter. Milo ran in from the back deck, took one look at me, and paled.
“It’s bad, Zoe. They’re outside too.”
Oh my God! What had I done?
“Get her home,” my dad said to my mom. “I’ll help Sheree with this mess. I should be home before the Council shows up.”
Sheree walked over to my dad.
“This was not me, Sheree. Promise,” he said.
“Zoe,” Milo said, grabbing my arm and pulling. “The car.”
We stumbled through the chaos to the front door. More frogs on the front porch. I stepped around frogs on the sidewalk and climbed into Mom’s car.
She put the car into drive and started down the street. As she drove, I heard an occasional splat as we ran over one of the amphibians.
My mother clutched the wheel, looking sick.
Milo finally spoke from the back seat. “It’s probably not that bad, Zoe. Maybe just the neighborhood.”
Splat.
Mom flinched.
“Okay. My mom says it’s the whole city,” he said, reading a text on his phone. “But it is Halloween, and besides, frogs are no big deal.”
“Stop trying to cheer me up, Milo. It isn’t going to work.” The Council was going to lock me away and throw away the key.
“My parents are going to meet us at your house,” Milo said. “My mother thinks it will help with the Council.”
“Tell her thank you,” my mother said.
Sploit.
Splat.
Splup.
“How many are there?” I screeched. “There must be thousands!”
“A few less now,” Milo muttered.
“We’re almost there,” my mother said before I could tell Milo to keep his thoughts to himself.
We pulled into the driveway. She hadn’t closed the garage door when she left so she pulled in. “I really wish I’d closed that,” she said as we got out of the car and stepped around the frogs that had hopped in.
A moment later, we were in the kitchen. The three of us stood around the peninsula, shell-shocked, weary, and trying to regroup.
“I have to call the Council.” My mother reached for the cordless phone. “They must know by now.”
“Don’t forget the toad slime substitution,” Milo called after her. “It might help.”
Then he looked at me. “Toad slime.”
“That explains why my Halloween Hiccup is frogs.”
“Poetic,” Milo said. Then he laughed. Not a normal laugh, but the half-crazy laugh of somebody who was about to come unglued.
“Seriously!” I poked him in the chest. “You’re freaking out on me. You aren’t the one whose life is over. You aren’t the one who unleashed an amphibian plague! You have no right to break down.” I was struggling to get air into my lungs.
He grabbed my hand to keep me from bruising his chest. “You’re fine. It’s going to be okay. You are brilliant. You of all people can get away with this.”
As he spoke, I started to breathe again. “More,” I said. “Say more good stuff.”
“They need you, Zoe. You’re going to make a huge difference in the world. They aren’t going to take your powers or lock you up or do anything to keep you from the progress you’re making.”
Whoa. Lock me up. Take my powers. “Stop.” I was thinking boarding school, or community service, or a giant fine my parents couldn’t pay. “Lock me up?”
“I said they weren’t going to lock you up,” he said, slowly and carefully as if talking to a child.
“They might lock me up. Frogs are dying all over the city. Jake thinks I’m a clumsy loser.”
Milo sighed. “You’re worried about what Jake thinks? Zoe, you have bigger problems.”
I had trashed Sheree’s kitchen. I couldn’t even imagine the mess. The cheese, the nachos, the frogs.
My mother came back into the kitchen and placed the phone on the charger. “We have an hour,” she said. “Zoe, go change. I doubt the Council would appreciate the witch outfit.” She turned to Milo. “John mentioned your bats. Considering what we’re all dealing with tonight, it’s probably best if you speak as little as possible.”
“Mom!”
Milo nodded. “Right. Good idea.”
“We can’t afford an accidental rhyme, Zoe. Not with the Council here.”
Milo pressed his lips together and made a zipping gesture.
Talking to Milo had been helping. I doubted that Mime-boy was going to do me any good.
With an exaggerated sigh, I left the kitchen and headed to my room. I traded the black dress for a demure sweater set and matching skirt that my mother had picked up last week. She thought the pale blue flattered my complexion. I thought the outfit made me look younger. Hopefully, the Council would get a “sweet and innocent” message.
Mom nodded her approval when I came downstairs.
Milo’s parents had arrived. His dad was busy on his iPad while his mother talked quietly with mine.
Dad came in through the kitchen a few minutes later.
I ran over and hugged him. “I’m so sorry. Did you get Jake’s house cleaned up.”
My dad nodded. “All but a couple of frogs. Some of the kids are still there. Their parents aren’t willing to brave the frogs yet.”
I grimaced. “Was Sheree mad?”
“Not at you,” my father said.
“John,” my mother called. “Come over and help. We’re on damage control.”
Milo’s dad looked up from his iPad. “Looks like the frogs are all over the Southeastern U.S.”
I swayed and Dad steadied me. “Hang in there, Champ. We’ll be okay.”
The whole Southeastern United States! I thought the city-wide infestation was bad.
Milo had come up beside us. “We probably needed the frogs. Like when
we finally get rain after a drought.”