“Moving?”
“Yes, one of the inquiries worked out.”
“But it’s only been a few days.”
“I know, isn’t it great? The University of Oxford’s library was very excited to get my résumé. They’ve been looking for a medieval collections specialist.” She smiles, lowering her eyes modestly to her keyboard.
Her résumé. Here I had thought she was on a manhunt, not a job hunt. “That’s great.” I rock forward on my toes and back again, marveling at how just when you think you’ve found the answer, it turns out you were asking the wrong question. Whether Ms. DiCarlo finds love, or moves into an English castle hemmed in with coralbells, I hope she enjoys her journey. Isn’t that why I went to high school, despite knowing I’d be an aromateur in the end? To experience everyday life on the other side of the briar. I didn’t realize I could foul it up so completely. But if I could do it all over, I might not change a thing. Mostly.
In algebra, the sight of a substitute teacher at Mr. Frederics’s desk launches new worries in my head. Is Mr. Frederics’s absence due to Alice? My pencil draws zigzags in my notebook. Maybe it’sgood that he’s absent, as I still haven’t figured out the best way to tell him about the elixir-gone-wrong.
The substitute teacher knits while we do independent study, which for Drew and Vicky means passing each other folded-up pieces of paper—probably love notes.
I pass Drew a note of my own. “Meet me by the drinking fountain.”
Then I take one of two hall passes and hurry around the corner to the designated place. Moments later, Drew appears. He peers through a curtain of his greasy blond locks, blue eyes bright with curiosity. “What’s up?”
“Do you, um, like Vicky?”
“Yeah, why?” He lowers his freshly scrubbed face closer to mine.
“Sometimes love isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.” I rub my arms, which have gone rubbery.
“You brought me out of class to tell me that?”
“Yes.”
“Well, thanks.” Unlike mine, his laugh sounds genuine. He cocks a blond eyebrow at me and leans in again. “Actually, it’s not like that between us. She doesn’t like me. Like a boyfriend, I mean. I asked her to the homecoming dance, and she said no.”
My jaw rolls open. “She did?”
“Yeah. And it’s okay, because I don’t like her that way either. I mean, I thought I did. But hanging out with her is just like, fun, you know?”
“It is?” Fun? Vicky?
“Yeah.”
But the elixir worked, I saw it with my own eyes. Everyone saw it. My aunt’s words echo in my head.We’re not as powerful as we think.Elixirs, after all, only open the eyes to the possibility of love. The individuals, both target and client, still have a choice on whether to act on those feelings. Sometimes romantic love isn’t the end point, only the beginning.
Drew’s still looking at me expectantly as he scratches his back with the hall pass. “You’re kinda weird, but I like you.”
“Thanks, I, er, I feel the same.”
The lunch bell rings an hour early to give everyone a chance to get his or her cheeseburgers, which are sold by an outside vendor. With the cafeteria closed today, Kali should be on the field with the rest of the school.
After I stuff my things into my locker, I remove the iris I stored there. Irises say, “Your friendship means so much.” Things might not be the same between us anymore, but I want Kali to know I will always be there for her.
I head into the cluster of students buying cheeseburgers in the parking lot from one of two Cowboy Cheeseburgers food trucks, each shaped like a cowboy hat with a brown awning for the brim.
Something’s different today. The sea doesn’t part when I walk through it. Either people are too excited about CheeseburgerMonday, or they’re getting used to me.
Cassandra’s soprano catches my attention. From somewhere nearby, she’s singing “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” Craning my neck, I spot her, sitting thirty feet away. As she sings her last note, she stretches her arm toward Kali, sporting her Twice Loved Vans, and munching a cheeseburger. Who bought her that?
Stunned, I think back to the drive home from Meyer. Court had said,Cass is just a friend, you know. I mean, obviously. At the time, I thought he meant, of course he wouldn’t have a girlfriend if he liked me. He meant something else. Something obvious to everyone but the love witch. If falling in love had a smell, Mother never mentioned it. It occurs to me that we can detect heartache, a crush, admiration, and a hundred other love-related scents, so why not falling in love? Perhaps the note of a heart in free fall is too fleeting to notice.
Cassandra pulls out a pickle from her burger, and Kali opens her own bun to receive it. Her expression is happy, relaxed, the way I will always remember her.
A group of passing girls yell, “We voted for you, Kali!”
