No, no, no, no! I gritted my teeth and focused harder, forcing it to stop retreating.
“Naida?” Maude’s high-pitched voice sounded more strident.
I couldn’t respond, or I’d lose what I’d built. My body shook, and I realized I’d clenched every muscle in my body trying to hold onto the untrained magic. Still, it hovered, on the verge of retreating back to my core, unused. If I didn’t get it out, I was going to lose it.
So I took a deep breath and forced everything to relax, and my mind formed a single word that slid from the depths of my consciousness.
Locate.
The word served as a focus for the power. It tore from my fingers on a hiss of displaced air, shooting toward the ceiling. Just before the energy smacked into the ceiling, it stopped, throbbing there for a couple of beats and then dissolving into several slender ribbons that dispersed along the hall and into the darker recesses of the big building.
More pounding shook the front door and several voices called out, sounding angrier by the moment.
“Naida!” Maude sounded frantic.
I glanced her way as the first chime sounded, relief flooding me. A second chime sounded a bit farther away. The sound of something whirling through the air brought my head up, and I reached for the item flying toward me. To my dismay, the object glanced off the heel of my hand and flew away. It hit a locker down the hall and landed in a clatter on the floor, skidding over the slick surface until it bumped against Maude’s boot.
She looked down and gave a squeal.
I flinched, certain that scream meant I’d retrieved a dead mouse or something equally repugnant to a teenaged girl.
Like a history quiz.
But she reached down and scooped up a hairbrush, holding it in the air for me to see. “You’re the best!” Then she waved her hand over the bars and shoved both hands into them to open the doors. “It must have been stuck,” she said to a group of angry teens.
I felt the whisper-soft touch of something against my back. Reaching over my shoulders and around my back, I groped around as best I could but couldn’t find anything. It had probably just been a breeze from the opening doors.
The lights in the hallway flashed on and I started quickly forward, hoping I could slide through the doors without being seen by the crowd.
“Naida!” Maude called out as I tried to slip unseen past the roiling crowd of hormones and emotions.
Bear boogers! I’d almost made it.
Then somebody giggled.
Somebody else guffawed.
Hilarity exploded all around me.
My nightmare blossomed into real life. Everyone was tittering and pointing at my backside.
Or maybe it was at my mom jeans. Either way, I wanted to turn and run as fast as I could into the early morning freedom beyond the doors.
I whipped around, pressing my back to the door frame, my gaze searching frantically for a way out. But I was trapped.
Surrounded by a sea of laughing, mean-eyed teens, all focused on me.
It was every naked school dream ever dreamed, all tied up into one horrible, beyond-embarrassing moment.
Maude walked up and frowned, her gaze similarly fixed on my wide back end. “What in the world?” To my horror, she reached toward my bottom. “Naida, why do you have a pair of men’s boxers attached to your backside?”
With every blood molecule in my body racing to my face, I snatched up the boxers and made a run for it, shoving my way through the cackling crowd like my mom jeans were on fire.
I’d made it to the street by the time Maude caught up to me.
I could be fast when I wanted to be, but she was apparently faster.
“Naida!”
I reluctantly turned, wishing she’d just let me slink miserably away. Her gaze slid to my hand, and I realized I was still holding the boxers. My cheeks burned even hotter. I hadn’t thought that was possible. I reached behind me and opened the door of Alice’s ugly sedan, flinging them inside. “Evidence,” I said stupidly. I had no idea what they were evidence for unless someone wanted to prove the preference for boxers over briefs in the teen population.
She nodded, her face filled with understanding. “I wanted to thank you for finding my brush for me.”
I nodded. “No problem. It’s kind of my job.”
“I want to pay you for your work.”
I shook my head. “No need. I’m already paid to do this for people.”
“Oh, who pays you?”
I opened my mouth and then closed it, having no idea. “Um, I’m not at liberty to say?” That the statement ended in a question was unfortunate. But it just seemed to work anyway.
Maude gave me a quick hug. “I’m going to find some way to repay you,” she said, and then took off running as the bell rang inside the school.
I sagged in weariness and relief. “I’m glad that’s over,” I murmured to myself. Then I climbed into the ugly sedan, plucked the boxers off the rearview mirror where they’d landed, and left Enchanted High in my dust.
20
Blessed Oblivion, Take Me Away!
I turned onto Arcane Avenue and headed slowly toward Croakies. The traffic was light at that time of the morning, most shops not opening until ten a.m. or later. I was tired. My bones weary and my eyes heavy, and I wondered if I could sneak in a little nap before I needed to open Croakies.
The thought made me smile. I was quickly becoming comfortable with the concept of being a store owner. Which was good, because one day, probably much sooner than I’d expected, I was going to own Croakies.
My stomach did a little flip at the thought. I was going to have my own business. Somehow, that fact had gotten lost amid the worry and challenges of the other side of Croakies. The Keeper of the Artifacts side.
But I loved books, and I loved the idea and practice of having a bookstore. I was pretty good at it, too.
