"I got a D?" I screamed, looking at my first written essay of the school year. Sure enough, there was a big fat red D on the top of the paper, right across the title: My Boring Life.
It was a week and a half later, and my dad hadn't noticed anything so far about his behavior about going to Oz after my birthday. I suppose the spell had worked, yet he hadn't said a word about it since.
I was walking down the hall of Fairy Tale High with Crimson, Feather, and Hona by my side. Hona took my paper and started to study it.
"I'm sure it deserved at least a C-, Meep." Crimson said.
"How bad could it be? I mean, we're bad to the bone, but we don't want failing grades or we have to do the whole grade over again." Feather assured me, but it didn't feel much like a compliment. Hona finished reading it and gave it back.
"Well, it's kinda short, and it's a little boring." Hona said.
"Gee, thanks, that makes me feel so much better." I punched her in the arm.
"What do you expect, Meep? It's called "My Boring Life." It's not exactly a page-turner.
"What else was I supposed to write about? My dad hardly lets me do anything." I said, shoving the paper in my carrier's bag around my shoulder. While my hand was inside, I made sure that my mom's spell book was still safely in the secret compartment of my bag where I had put it that morning.
"What about the time that....." Crimson started, then cut herself off.
"Don't forget the time he........" Feather did the same. It was true, my father never let me do pretty much anything.
"Well, I'm not settling for this." I said, taking a sharp turn into the girls's bathroom and making sure no one was in it. The crew followed me in and I shut the door and locked it when I knew no one was in the room. "We're gonna get some payback."
"How?" Feather asked.
"With this." I said. I reached into my bag and pulled out the spell book.
"Is it your mom's?" Hona whispered. I nodded with a grim smile plastered across my face.
"If you get caught, you'll never be able to use your magic at school again!" Feather said.
"How are you going to do it?" Crimson asked, all of us ignoring Feather's warning. I smiled harder and opened the book. It's pages were so much more colorful in the light, shimmering like they were translucent fairy wings. Pink and green and yellow splatters of glitter were all over it, and that's how I knew it was my mother's the first time I saw the book.
"Let's see, L, L, We're looking for the letter L." I said, fingering through the contents. Yes, my mother made an alphabetical table of contents for her spell book. "Ah! Here it is, page 52."
I flipped to page 52, showing my friends the title of the spell.
"LOVE POTION?!" All three of them screamed. I put my fingers to my thumb and shot them a look, my magic shutting their mouths automatically.
"Shh! They can hear you outside the bathroom!" I whispered. All three of them nodded and I let them go. "He'll be so in love with me, he'll have to raise my grade! We'll make it here and give it to Mr. Hansel tomorrow right before lunch. Got it?" I said. They all nodded and smiled, following me out of the bathroom to our next and final class for the day.
I replaced the book in my bag and zipped it shut, heading to the gym for PE.
-------------------
The next day, right before lunch, I met Feather and Hona in the bathroom. When I walked in, Crimson was no where in sight.
"Where's Little Red Late Hood?" I laughed.
"She said that she'd be late, she got lunch detention yesterday by pouring paint all over Pistachio in art class." Feather explained. Pistachio was Pinocchio's son after Pinocchio became a 'real boy.' I rolled my eyes and laughed.
"I guess we can get started without her then." I said, bringing the book out. I set the book on the floor and knelt down next to it, Feather and Hona doing the same. Getting into my bag, I brought out all the ingredients. "Frog's tongue, buttered fingers, boils from a troll..."
"Eww!" Feather said, scooting back a few inches. Hona seemed interested, I guess being an Indian meant that she saw these kinds of stuff all the time. I would expect that Feather would too, and so would Crimson, but apparently not.
"Okay, Hona, did you bring the kettle?" I asked. Hona got into her own backpack and brought out a small bowl with a stirring rod.
"Feather, can I have the light fairy's dust please?" I asked. Feather got into her pouch and got out orange fairy dust, engineered to mimic the talent of a light fairy. She put some on her hands and bent the light to the kettle, which Hona had filled with water. The water was boiling now.
"Hey guys!" Crimson said, coming into the bathroom and shutting the door, locking it. "Sorry I'm late, I was at-"
"Lunch detention, we know." I said, focusing on my book.
"What can I do?" Crimson asked.
"You can read me out the ingredients as I put them in." I said. Crimson shrugged and knelt down with us. She started to grab the book, but I clasped her hands in mine before she could tough the bindings. "Just leave it on the ground." I said.
"Okay, Mrs. Over-Protective." Crimson snorted. She bent down so she could see the small handwriting. "Two pinches of reptile scales."
"Okay, got it." I said, putting two pinches in.
"Three buttered fingers." She read. I reluctantly picked up the dead fingers and put them in the kettle as quickly as I could, not wanting to touch the dreadful coolness of their flesh. "One frog's tongue, a teaspoon of frightful screams, and a single boil from a troll. Eww, these ingredients are disgusting!"
"I know I know!" I almost yelled, tired of their whining. Feather kept the kettle boiling as I dropped in the ingredients.
"Two more things." Crimson said. "You need something you love to soak into the kettle for five minutes, and then you can take it out. It says that the more personal it is, the more likely he'll fall in love with the owner of the object."
"I got that covered." I said, unhooking something from around my neck.
"Meep, no." Hona said, stopping my hands. "That's your mom's necklace, if it's ruined, you'll have nothing left."
"That's not true, I have her book." I said, pointing to the spell book at Crimson's side. "And besides, it said to soak it in it, I'm not melting it down for scrap metal." Before Hona could stop me again, I dropped the necklace into the kettle with the wand charm hanging around the chain.
"Okay, just wait five minutes until the liquid turns purple." Crimson instructed. Because of the ingredients and of the black substance of the frightful screams, the water had turned a murky grey.
"We can put the potion into his coffee, the purple would disintegrate into the black and it would be like coffee creamer." Feather suggested.
Five minutes later, I was fishing out my necklace and put it back on my neck after I had dried it off.
"Are we almost done? My arms are getting tired." Feather said, who was still heating the bowl by bending the light straight into the kettle.
"One last thing." Crimson said. "You need exactly a drop of lust."
"Where did you even get this stuff, Meep?" Hona asked.
"My house has an experimenting room, I snuck into it last night and got what I needed." I replied, grabbing the small bottle of red liquid labeled: Lust. "Okay, quiet, I need only one drop of this stuff, it's dangerous."
Carefully uncorking the bottle, I started to tip it over the kettle. Just as I was about to pour it....
RRRRRIIIINNNNGGGG! I was so startled by the lunch bell, I jumped and poured half of the bottle into the kettle. I quickly grabbed the bottle and put it upright again, shrinking in my short red dress.
"Meep, you can't use this!" Hona said, getting up with the rest of us. I quickly grabbed my bag and fished out the empty bottle I had brought for the potion.
"I have to, it's Friday and my dad'll see the grade this weekend if I don't!" I said, pouring the potion into the bottle. Feather clapped the orange pixie dust off of her hands.
"Meep, it's too dangerous!" She said. I ignored her and picked up my book, shoving it into my bag and walking out with Crimson.
"Go get em'!" Crimson said. I smiled at her.
"Thank you!" I yelled, making sure that Hona and Feather heard my sarcasm. "Well, here I go!" I said, heading to my English class.
--------------------
When I got there, the bell had already rung, but I slipped in unnoticed by any of the students nor Mr. Hansel.
Since my last name was obviously Oz, I was in the middle of the call sheet.
"Oz?" Mr. Hansel called out.
"Here!" I yelped, excitedly, knowing that I didn't get a tardy. I was also lucky enough to get a seat right next to Mr. Hansel's desk in the back row.
He went through the rest of the call sheet, and while he was distracted, I got into my bag and brought out the bottle of potion. I started to unscrew the top and reached over, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw him look up. I quickly drew back and pretended like I was getting a pencil out of my bag.
"Okay, your next assignment will be due next Tuesday..." He said, turning to the board. I reached over again, about to pour it. I was too far away from his coffee, so I tried to scoot my chair closer, but it made a loud scratching sound across the floor. Mr. Hansel looked back and I instantly bent down underneath my desk. I reached up with a pencil in my hand.
"Found it!" I yelled. I started to sit up again, but I hit my head on the desk. People chuckled underneath their breath.
"Meep, please try to be quieter." Mr. Hansel said. I nodded while I rubbed the back of my head. He turned back to the board and began writing again, and I inched closer to his coffee. Just a few centimeters more.... I thought. Then suddenly, I found that the tilted chair beneath me didn't like to be tilted, and it slipped out from underneath me. I fell to the floor. Mr. Hansel looked back, including the entire class, knowing that the noise came from me. I put my thumb up in the air.
"I'm good!" I shouted, getting up from my fallen chair.
"Meep, please!" Mr. Hansel said. "Be more careful and pay attention!"
"Got it." I said, putting my chair upright and sitting on it properly. The class returned to learning, but I smiled grimly. Underneath my desk, I put the cork back on the empty bottle of potion and put it back in my bag. I had poured all of it.
--------------------
When the class was reading or doing their assignment during the free time of the class, I kept looking over at Mr. Hansel. Why isn't he falling head-over-heels for me yet? I thought. I had seen him take three sips of his coffee since class started. Nothing.
Angry, I got into my bag and brought out my spell book, covering it with an old book cover called War and Peace. I flipped to page 52.
Warning: Potion might take a day or two to activate. It said.
Crap. I thought.