Dark Realms (31 page)

I shrugged. “I went shopping and then
stopped at a friend’s house.”

She raised her eyebrows.
“
You
went
shopping?”

I nodded. “Yes. Enough about me, what’s
going on with you and Mark?”

Kala smiled. “I’m not sure yet. He’s super
sweet, though.”

“He’s as sweet as a moldy lemon,” I
muttered.

“Whatever,” she said. “He invited me to a
party this weekend and mom said I could go.”

My jaw dropped. “A party? Really?”

“Um, yeah, she said it was fine – if you
come with us.”

I snorted. “Fat chance of that.”

“Oh, please?” she pouted, following me as I
walked towards our bedroom. “She seriously won’t let me go if you
don’t come with us. Pretty please? I’ll do anything.”

“Kala, any party that Mark’s going to will
be trouble.”

She scowled. “What do you mean?”

“Come on! You’ve heard the stories from last
year. You know there’s probably going to be alcohol and drugs. I
heard Mark’s a total lush.”

“No, he doesn’t drink anymore. I asked
him.”

I snorted. “Right…”

“Listen, if I don’t go to this party, my
friends will think I’m lame, and I’ll never live it down. Please go
with me? I will do anything, absolutely anything!”

I sighed.

“This could be good for you, too, Kendra! If
people get to know you, they might be nicer to you at school. Come
on, I’ve never asked you for anything.”

She was right about that. My sister was
always offering to do things for me and never asked for anything in
return.

I owed her.

I sighed. “Fine, I’ll go, but if anyone is
rude to me or I see something I don’t like at this party, we’re
leaving.”

She squealed and gave me a hug. “Thank you!
We are going to have such a blast!”

Something told me I’d be regretting this
decision, but I bit my tongue and decided to hope for the best.

~~~

“So, how was your shopping experience?”
asked my mom during dinner.

“It was okay,” I answered. “I also stopped
by Megan’s on the way home and her mom Adele said to say ‘hi’.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Oh, okay.”

“I didn’t know you even knew Megan’s
mom.”

“I really don’t,” she answered and then
stood up. “Does anyone want seconds on the casserole?”

“Uh, no thanks, mom,” I said, not really
caring for the tofu surprise that night.

“Megan and her family are really weird,”
said Kala.

“Megan seemed pretty nice,” I replied.

“Not very hungry tonight?” asked mom,
pointing to my plate.

“Sorry,” I said. “I’m just not into tofu,
mom.”

“It’s so much healthier for you.”

“Mom, it’s gross,” I said.

She turned to Kala. “So, you actually
managed to talk your sister into going to this party, huh?”

Kala’s eyes lit up. “Yes. I spoke to Mark
and he’s picking us up around seven on Saturday. I’m so
pumped.”

“Just make sure he gets you both home by
midnight.”

“Midnight?” pouted Kala. “Nobody leaves a
party by midnight. Besides, we’re eighteen now!”

“I don’t care. Your curfew is midnight until
you graduate, then you can stay out later.”

“Fine,” mumbled Kala.

“And I want to meet Mark before he brings
you girls to this party.”

Kala’s face looked stricken. “Oh, God, mom.
Don’t make me drag him in here with all of the daycare stuff lying
around. I’d die of total embarrassment if he walked into this
place.”

My mom frowned. “You shouldn’t be
embarrassed about my line of work. It’s the only way we can keep
this place. If he’s turned off because of how or where you live,
he’s definitely not worth seeing.”

Kala sighed. “Can’t you just meet him
outside? I’m sure he’ll be in a hurry to get going, and it would
only take a minute to talk to him anyway.”

Her eyes narrowed. “We’ll see. I’d rather
him be the gentleman and come into the house to introduce
himself.”

“It’s not the seventies or eighties, mom.
Guys don’t do that anymore.”

“That’s the problem,” sighed my mom. “Nobody
has manners anymore.”

“Especially Mark,” I said mumbled under my
breath.

“What was that, Kendra?” mom asked.

“Nothing. Can I be excused?”

“Sure. Make sure you hit the sack earlier
tonight so I don’t have to drag you out of bed again tomorrow,” she
answered as I walked away from the dining room.

I hurried upstairs to my room and took out
the bottle I’d purchased from “Secrets” and the note from Rebecca.
The instructions said “one droplet only.”

I carefully opened the bottle and squeezed
some into the dropper she’d given me.

“Bottoms up,” I whispered.

The potion was really bitter as it went down
and I shuddered.

“What are you doing?” asked my sister,
walking into the bedroom.

I quickly folded the bag up and stuck it
into my nightstand. I grabbed a book about vampires from inside and
shut the drawer. “Uh, just reading.”

She fell onto her bed and
began filing her nails. “Can you believe mom? I’m going to die if
Mark comes in here. The kids have practically destroyed the inside
of our house, and from what I hear, his parents are loaded. I’m
sure
his
house is
immaculate.”

I wanted to scream at
her…
who the heck cares what he
thinks
! But I kept my cool. “So, there’s a
little crayon on the walls and some chipped wood,” I said, opening
up my book. “It’s better than having to move somewhere
smaller.”

Truthfully, when my dad was still alive, the
house had been kept up and in perfect condition. In fact, it had
been my parents’ dream home at one time. But that was before he’d
died. My dad had owned his own construction company and my parents
had designed and built the house exactly the way they’d wanted it.
After he’d been diagnosed with cancer and had undergone many months
of therapy without success, my mom had used what was left of his
life insurance to pay off all the medical bills and then started
doing daycare.

I miss you,
daddy
…

I tried to picture my father’s face, with
his dark hair and warm, loving eyes the same color as mine and
Kala’s, but it only made me long for him even more.

“You okay?” asked Kala.

I nodded, blinking back tears. “Yeah, just
thinking about dad.”

“I miss him, too,” she said in a soft
voice.

I knew that for the both of
us, nights were the hardest, especially since
he used to tuck us into bed, telling goofy stories, and using
those corny voices of his. It had been a ritual, even as teenagers,
and something we’d taken for granted until it was too late. Now,
he’d been dead for only a year and a half, but it already seemed
like a lifetime ago.

“I’m the luckiest man
alive,” he used to say. “Three beautiful angels,
and they’re all mine.”

Now my dad was the angel and we were left
with only pictures and bittersweet memories of him.

Life really sucked sometimes.

“I wish we had our licenses,” mumbled Kala
out of the blue. “Then we could just meet everyone at the party and
I wouldn’t have to worry about anything.”

I nodded. “Yeah, but you need money to buy a
car and you spend all of yours on clothing.”

“I’m getting a job,” she said, opening up
her hot-pink nail polish.

I snorted. “Where?”

She began painting her toenails. “There are
a couple of places in the mall that are hiring. I’m going to see if
mom will drive me this weekend to fill out some applications.”

I put my book down and stared at my pudgy
toes, which hadn’t shrunk one bit.

Potion, right.

I sighed. “Yeah, you know, I’d like a job,
too, but there’s no way I’m working in a clothing store or
boutique.”

“Why not? Then you can get discounts on
clothing and stuff.”

“I don’t really care about clothes. You know
that.”

“Well, whatever. Maybe you can get a job at
a bookstore or something. What about that shop you visited today?
Are they hiring?”

An image of Tyler and I working together in
the shop popped into my head and my heart fluttered. I closed my
eyes and smiled. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”

Chapter Nine

I woke up earlier the next morning; a little
intrigued about what I’d find when I looked in the mirror.
Unfortunately, the same lumpy body stared back at me. I closed my
eyes and groaned.

Come on, what did you
expect? There’s no such thing as a magical potion to
lose weight.

“What’s wrong?” asked my sister, walking
into the bathroom.

“Nothing,” I sighed.

“Mom said it’s going to be really hot
today,” she said, putting her dark hair up into a ponytail.

I pulled out a strappy sundress from the
closet that hadn’t looked too bad on me in the store and put it
on.

Kala nodded in approval when she saw me
dressed. “That looks good on you.”

It was black with lime green and white
dots.

“Thanks.”

“Let me do your makeup?”
asked Kala. “I’ll make you look
gorgeous
,” she drawled.

I bit the side of my lip. “I don’t know. I
usually don’t wear makeup.”

“I know but maybe you should live on the
edge for once, sis. You have beautiful eyes. Why not accentuate
them a little more?”

“Okay, but don’t make it too obvious.”

She smiled wickedly. “When I’m done with
you, the guys will be hypnotized by your sultry eyes.”

I smiled wryly. “I’d settle for them just
shutting their mouths and leaving me alone.”

“Believe me, when they see you, their mouths
will be open and they’ll be panting.”

Right…

I sat down and closed my eyes, trying not to
chicken out. When she was done applying some kind of grayish-blue
shadow, dark liner, and mascara to my eyes, she squealed in
delight. “Wow, you look pretty, girl.”

I looked into the mirror and smiled. My eyes
were definitely more… intense.

“It looks pretty good, thanks,” I said,
standing up.

“Pretty good? You look amazing!”

I didn’t know about that, but I had to
admit, I looked better than I would have thought.

~~~

When we sat down for breakfast, my mom eyed
me curiously. “Wow, look at you all dazzling this morning. I don’t
think I’ve ever seen you with makeup.”

I shrugged. “It was Kala’s idea.”

“Well, you look very pretty today. Your
dress looks nice too, I’m glad I picked it out.”

“Actually,
I
picked this one out,” I
said. “You didn’t like the dots.”

She smiled. “Well, I was wrong. The dots are
working.”

“Mom,” said Kala. “Mark’s driving me home
again from school. We’re stopping at the library again.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What’s with this new
interest in the library? I didn’t think you even liked to
read.”

Kala’s face turned crimson. “Um, we are
working on this project for school.”

“You already have a project for school and
have only been there for one day? What kind of project is it?” she
asked.

“Oh, my God, look at the time,” said Kala,
pointing to the clock. “We’re going to miss the bus if we don’t
leave now. I’ll tell you about the project later, okay mom?”

“Sure. I can’t wait to hear about it,” she
answered with a wry smile.

I followed my sister outside. “Project?
Right. I’ll bet you’re creating your own little project in the back
corner of the library.”

Kala gave me a slow smile. “Actually, we
were on the Internet. Mark was looking up stuff about mind control
and witchcraft.”

“Witchcraft? Did he say why?”

“No, he said it was for a
project that
he
was working on. So, in all reality, we were working on a
project together. I was just giving him… moral support.”

I snorted. “Like he has morals.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You really don’t
like him, do you?”

“He’s a jerk, Kala. He picks on everyone,
not just me.”

“Well, I’ve never seen him say anything mean
to anyone.”

“That’s because he puts on
an act when you’re around. He’s a total
tool
otherwise, ask
anyone.”

She pursed her lips but didn’t respond. The
bus rounded the corner and we waited together for it in
silence.

Chapter Ten

Tyler sat next to me on the bus. Today he
was dressed in black chinos and a white polo shirt with the usual
dark shades.

“What?” I asked, his gaze penetrating me
right through his shades.

He smiled. “Nothing, just trying to figure
out if my mom gave you the wrong potion.”

My eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

“
There’s some kind of
Makeup Potion, for witches without steady hands.”

I laughed out loud. I wasn’t sure which was
funnier – the idea of a Makeup Potion or the fact that he spoke of
witches as if they were real.

“It sounds funny, but you wouldn’t believe
how popular that potion is. And some of those witches need all the
help they can get.”

I was now laughing so hard, tears were
forming. I was suddenly afraid my makeup would run, I held up my
hand. “Okay, stop already with the Makeup Potion talk or I’m going
to bleed eyeliner all over my cheeks and look scarier than any
witch that you could imagine.”

He bit back a smile. “Sorry.”

“Anyway,” I said, wiping a stray tear, “the
Thinner Potion? It obviously didn’t work.”