Trouble's Brewing (Stirring Up Trouble Trilogy 2)

p; “I won’t.”

“Promise.”

“I promise I will never call you my sister again.”

“Unless you never want to kiss me again.”

“I promise.” I could hear the grin in his voice as he said, “I definitely want to kiss you again.”

A warmth started in my chest and rose to my lips, chasing away the cold that had consumed me for the last two days. “Good.”

I couldn’t sleep. Instead, I kept picturing my dad, down on one knee, proposing to Sheree. I saw my mother trying to pretend it didn’t bother her. I thought of the years of family photographs with me, Dad, Sheree, and Jake. Dating Jake while my dad dated his mother was a bit odd. Dating Jake when he was my stepbrother was way into the creepy-weird zone. I didn’t want my love-life anywhere near that zone.

If I couldn’t help my mother find someone special in the conventional way, I would have to search for other options. I knew the punishment for interfering in Dad and Sheree’s relationship would be hefty. And Jake didn’t want me to. I wouldn’t have minded zapping Dad and Sheree with a little magic potion to make them forget this whole dating thing. If I were going to do that, I should have done it months ago. I could try bargaining for a time travel spell, but I didn’t want to risk changing the way things had worked out with me and Jake.

What if Jake and I didn’t get together? I wouldn’t have had the dance, the days at school when he held my hand, the kisses that made my heart pitter-patter just thinking about them.

So instead of brewing a potion to keep Dad and Sheree apart, I needed to concentrate on brewing one to help my mother. I knew she’d find a good guy to date if she had a chance to meet some people. If she wasn’t going to make an effort to find those people, then they were going to have to find her.

I got up Sunday morning and hit the research hard. I had to find something to help my mother. I didn’t want a love potion because I didn’t want to attract any particular man. I wanted something that would give my mother some options.

Three hours later, I had a plan. I could brew a potion, and since Jake planned to go out of town, I’d have five days to recover.

I dialed Milo. “Can you talk?”

“Sure,” he said. “What’s up?”

“Dad might be proposing and Mom won’t cooperate, and she needs a date! I have to do something, so I’m thinking about a pheromone potion.”

“Wow,” Milo said. “A lot is going on. Why do you think he’s proposing?”

I quickly brought him up to date on my father and on my mother’s dateless party situation. “You do see how badly she’ll take it if Dad gets married and she’s all alone.”

“Poor Annie,” Milo said.

“Exactly. You do understand. So what do you think? A pheromone potion should work, right?”

“I guess, but Zoe, are you sure you’re ready for the punishment? After the frogs and the love potion, I’m not sure the Council is going to put up with another problem. What if they send you to Greenland? What if they take your powers?”

“I’ll think about it some more, Milo. I promise. I’m not taking this lightly. I want to get my plan together, and then I’ll decide whether or not to use it.”

“Sounds like a terrible idea.”

“But the pheromones should work, right?”

“Pheromones like in insects?”

“And animals and reptiles. They are chemical messages that evoke a response in others. I’ll brew one for my mother that will attract men. They’ll start noticing her and maybe asking her out.”

“Will it target every man in the room? What if they are married?”

“Good point. I’ll make sure it’s weak enough that men can choose to resist.”

“Can you do that? Can you brew it to exactly the right strength?”

I had no idea. “Sure I can.”

“I can always tell when you’re lying.”

“Probably I can.”

“Do you have a pheromone potion?”

“I found one for rats, and I think I can adapt it.”

“Why would anybody want to attract rats?”

“I know! Actually, it was rather clever. They would spray the potion on one rat and take it out of the city. The others would follow, and the city would be rat-free.”

“Then they used it to lead rats to their death.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“And you think using it on your mother is a good idea?”

“The potion should work for what I need.”

“Your mother is not going to like this.”

“Maybe I’ll go live with my father.”

Milo laughed. “Right. You would never do that, and even if you wanted to, Annie and John aren’t going to let you live in a house with your boyfriend.”

“Don’t you feel the slightest bit sorry for me, Milo? My life is completely nuts.”

Milo admitted, “Your life is not exactly normal, is it?”

“When are you going to Darlene’s again?”

With a snort, he said, “Changing the subject?”

“Not exactly. I need a strand of hair from a man. I don’t want to use anybody Mom knows because it might impact the potion.”

“Can’t you snag some from a teacher or somebody there?”

“I thought it would be pretty easy if you are going to Darlene’s. You could grab a piece out of her dad’s comb or from his pillow.”

“I don’t know, Zoe,” he said.

“Please?”

“I’ll come up with a reason to stop by,” he said. “It won’t be for a day or two though.”

“No problem. Drop it in the mail when you get it.”

“You’re making me an accomplice.”

“Thanks, Milo.”

Now for another hurdle. I had to tell Anya the bad news about the weekend before Christmas. I wasn’t going to let her horn in on my first Christmas with Jake.

I wanted to text her so she couldn’t yell at me or try to get me to change my mind. I didn’t want to hear her whine, or threaten, or blackmail me. I couldn’t dodge her for the next ten days though, so I had to do the right thing. I had to quit being a coward and stand up to my demanding friend. I had to call her on the phone and deliver the bad news.

I went into my room and dialed her number.

“Awesome Anya here,” she said.

That was a new one. “Hey,” I said. “I need to tell you something.” I had to get this out as fast as possible before I got distracted.

“O-kay,” she said. “What gives?”

“You can’t stay with me next weekend. I’m sorry because I know you were counting on it, but you can’t now. Things have changed. You’ll have to find someone else to stay with.”

“What? What? Zoe! What are you talking about?”

“You’ll find somewhere to stay, Anya. I’m sure you will. There are tons of people for you to call.”

“Zoe! You can’t just let me down. Why? What’s going on? Are you okay?”

“I’m sorry! I just found out. Apparently Jake and Sheree have to go out of town on Sunday, and me and Dad are celebrating Christmas with them on Saturday night.”

“Is that all? Don’t be silly, Zoe. I can still stay with you. I don’t mind hanging out with Jake. My party is in the afternoon. I won’t miss it.”

“No, Anya. You don’t understand. You can’t come. You aren’t invited because it’s a family thing.”

Anya snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous, Zoe. You aren’t actually crazy enough to think you and Jake and Sheree and your freak father are a family now!”

The words stung. I had known she’d react badly. I hadn’t expected her to ridicule my father or sneer at my version of a family Christmas.

I didn’t say anything.

“Zoe! You promised I could stay. You are a horrible friend!”

With my voice little more than a whisper, I said, “You can’t stay, Anya. Sorry.” Then I pressed end.

Chapter Fifteen

On Mond

ay, I checked to be sure Finn’s flight had left as scheduled for the symposium, and then I started brewing.

Mom came in from work and said, “Oh, Zoe. I’m so glad to see you back at work on your potions! What’s next? Eye of newt?”

“Yes.” Eye of newt was next, so technically I hadn’t lied. I hadn’t said I was working on it now.

“Do you have everything you need? Should I run to the store for anything?”

“No. I’m good for now.” I ignored the guilty tightening of my shoulder and neck muscles.

Mom put her arm around me and kissed me on the cheek. “My good girl,” she said.

I tried to smile.

“I’ll be in the living room if you need me, Zoe,” she said and left me to my potion. I wasn’t searching for the eye of newt substitution. I was working on modifying the rat potion to work on humans. My first step was going to be to modify it to work on cats. Jasmine would be my first victim, er, test subject.

The potion recipe called for two rat hairs, one from a female and one from a male. I had a hair from Jasmine, and a hair I’d cut from the male cat down the street. I hadn’t hurt him. I had paid him well with fresh tuna.

Surely this would work.

I brewed the cat version of the potion. Then I put it aside to cool. I got another cauldron and added the ingredients again. This time, I reached into my pocket for the plastic baggie with rat hairs. I had visited the pet store in the mall and stolen a hair from each of two cages. One from a male rat and one from a female. I’d gotten lucky that they kept them separated and that the rats had managed to shed a few hairs for me.

I dropped the fine white hairs into the pot.

When I had finished, I compared the two mixtures side by side. Same color, same consistency. After putting aside a small vial of the cat potion, I separated each into three bowls and tested their reactions to salt, water, and cold. Everything looked good. I had done everything I could do except for administering the potion to Jasmine and watching what happened. I decided to wait until morning because cats were less active during the day. I didn’t want my cat getting attacked by hordes of male cats. I’d dose her and then make sure she was safely inside the house when I left for school in the morning. Mom would never know the difference.