Ridley Pearson - Power Play

They stopped in front of the familiar blue house with yellow trim. The twenty-minute walk had felt more like five. Time was all messed up for him. Many of the other houses on the block were Spanish influenced and one story tall. Mrs. Nash’s house looked older, and it was two stories.

Finn slapped the kickstand down and faced Amanda. He knew exactly what he wanted to do-he’d just never done it exactly like he was about to do it.

Jess stepped out the front door, looking panicked.

Finn stepped up to Amanda and grabbed her by the shoulders. It was almost as if he was compelled to do this, as if he’d been told step-by-step what to do.

Much to his surprise, Amanda made no effort to pull away from him. He’d expected maybe a slap in the face.

“My shirt!” Jess hollered, making it sound like a crime.

Something was wrong. Finn knew it. He knew Jess was running to stop them from kissing, but he didn’t want to be stopped. He saw Luowski in the lavatory mirror and it just as quickly slipped out of his thought, like a wet bar of soap in the shower.

Jess’s shouting about her shirt turned Amanda’s head in her direction. A conspiracy to stop him from doing what he had to do.

He reached out, took Amanda’s chin in his fingers, and turned her toward him.

He brought his lips to hers and, as their lips met, it wasn’t just any kiss, but a ringing-in-your-ears, blinded-by-the-light kind of kiss that went on much longer than he’d expected. Amanda’s eyes opened and there was a world in there. A place he’d never been.

He drew back. He saw Amanda standing there looking stunned and all dreamy as well, but he suddenly couldn’t remember what he was doing there. Couldn’t remember how he’d gotten there. He felt startled, dizzy. Then he spotted his bike and wondered if he’d ridden here. Or had he walked the bike?

Why am I here? he thought.

Jess skidded to a stop.

“No!” she roared.

Amanda’s knees went out from under her. She’d fainted. For a moment, Finn remembered the kiss and he felt…proud-the kiss that knocks them off their feet. But there was something about Jess’s panic that pulled him out of it. Something about the way Amanda collapsed so suddenly.

What have I done?

Jess’s face went ashen. She said, “That’s my shirt!” as if that explained anything.

“What’s going on?” He felt as if he had been shoved out onto a stage and didn’t know his lines, didn’t know the role. It was some kind a nightmare he’d walked into. He tried to wake himself up.

“ She’s wearing my shirt! Not me.”

“I…don’t…understand.” Finn shook Amanda, praying it was a practical joke, but sensing there was nothing funny about it.

Then Jess shook Amanda’s shoulders and it was clear this wasn’t a joke. Her body was slack, like she was asleep. She was definitely not moving. Her breathing was incredibly slow and lethargic. All of Jess’s shouting and crying wasn’t going to change things.

“Wake up!” Finn said desperately, not knowing if he meant it for himself or for her. He went woozy; could barely keep his balance.

Amanda was unresponsive.

Jess looked up at Finn and said, “What have you done?”

Finn blinked and looked around, terrified. He remembered Luowski in the lavatory, the kiss, but not how it all connected. Why had he come here in the first place?

Jess looked up with tears in her eyes, kneeling by Amanda.

“I…” Finn said, “don’t know what happened…I didn’t mean…”

“Help me,” she said, pulling Amanda’s arms toward her. “Mrs. Nash will be back at four. We need to get her inside, upstairs, onto her bunk.”

“Wake up…” he muttered.

“Finn! I need you now !”

Finn’s senses were dulled, his head thick. “I didn’t mean it,” he said.

“WE HAVE TO GET HER INSIDE,” Jess said, tears running down her face. “RIGHT NOW!”

Finn took Amanda’s legs, Jess her arms, but Jess was crying too hard so Finn scooped Amanda up in his arms and carried her.

“I’ve got her.”

He staggered toward the front steps, still trying to grasp what had happened.

The door opened as several girls hurried out to help. They got Amanda upstairs and onto the lower bunk.

He had so much he wanted to say, but the horrified expression on Jess’s face said it all.

“We’ll tell Nash,” Jess instructed the other girls, “that Amanda’s sick and is sleeping off a headache. That’ll cover her at least for tonight.”

“What’s up?” one of the girls asked. “So she fainted. So what’s the big deal?”

Jess and Finn met eyes. Jess said, “She bumped her head when she fell. She’ll be all right, but she might sleep through the night.”

Finn’s heart stopped: The surprise hologram of the Evil Queen; Luowski’s sudden change in attitude. He’d been so certain he’d escaped the Queen’s spell, but now her words returned to haunt him:

As soft as a whisper

No one will tell

The curse, reversed

Seen by the sister

When kissing Jezebel

“You…” he muttered, looking at Jess. It felt like a bomb going off. The pieces of a puzzle forming in your mind and finally fitting. “It was supposed to be you!”

Jess paled considerably.

She knows, Finn thought.

“It’s Nash!” came a voice from the hall.

“Back door!” Jess to Finn. “Hurry!”

Finn hesitated, looking down at Amanda, feeling horribly responsible.

“You can’t stay! GO!” Jess said. She pushed a folded piece of paper into his hand. He stuffed it into his pocket. “Take this. I thought it was me, too.”

Finn moved for the stairs, but a girl waved him back. Finn stopped, teetering on the top step.

“ Pssst! ” Behind him, another of the girls had opened a window leading onto the roof. She motioned out the window.

Finn had the sneaking suspicion he wasn’t the first boy to be hurried out of Mrs. Nash’s house.

The girl at the window pressed her finger to her lips. He was to go quietly. She pointed to the far right of the roof.

Finn looked back. Jess had dried her tears, but her color had failed to return. She hurried to him and handed him a folded napkin. He pocketed this as well.

She knows it was supposed to be her , he thought.

He ducked out and was gone.

They met at five pm in the back room of Crazy Glaze. Maybeck’s aunt left them alone, wearing a worried face; she knew better than to ask what was going on.

Philby’s time was limited. His mother was waiting in the car outside; she expected him out no later than six. Charlene had Willa on speakerphone, which sat on the table next to a dozen glazed, but unfired, coffee mugs.

The collective mood was anxious. Maybeck was not tossing out his usual jokes.

Finn started off by confessing to them about the video chat where Wayne had transfigured into the Evil Queen, his going all clear , and her attempt to put him under a spell, which he recited word for word. He told them about the second encounter with Luowski in the boys’ room, and about his kissing Amanda, and her collapse.

No one openly criticized him, but their disappointment in him was obvious. The Keepers were a team, and by not telling them earlier, he’d effectively gone solo. He didn’t need to be reminded where that had now gotten them.

“First Charlene, then Willa. Now Amanda,” he said. “But it was supposed to be Jess.”

“So the Evil Queen got you with the spell,” Willa said. “And then the mirror in the bathroom. The Evil Queen is all about ‘mirror, mirror.’ Maybe Luowski reinforced the spell or something.”