Don't Drink the Punch! (11 page)

“You can move faster than I can,” said Tom. “You take charge of the candle. I'll go dump out the punch bowls.”

Although the room was dark and it was difficult to see, Kayla noticed that the purple smoke didn't seem to dissipate the way an ordinary candle's might; it twirled and coiled, remaining suspended in rings and curlicues around the room. Choking and half gagging at the smell, she first carried the candle into the area with the coats,
where her mother was still sitting, halfway through pulling on her boots.

Kayla wafted the candle as close as she could beneath her mother's nostrils, taking care not to get it close to her hair, and watched and waited anxiously.

Some of the smoke seemed to reach her mother's nose, as though her mother was inhaling it. Kayla's every instinct told her to wait and watch her mother, but she knew there were a lot of people's parents who needed her help, and timing could be critical. She hurried into the other room, the candle at arm's length, trailing purple fumes as she moved around the frozen people.

Tom, meanwhile, had picked up the punch bowl. He held it cradled to his chest and looked toward the kitchen, and then toward the front door. “I'm not going to be able to step over that dude,” he called to Kayla, gesturing toward the man she had knocked over, who was lying across the doorway to the pantry. “Front door's closer.”

As Kayla continued wafting the candle smoke beneath the nostrils of the frozen parents, she watched Tom hobble awkwardly toward the front door, sloshing himself with the punch. He opened the door, looked
outside, and shrugged. Then he pitched the entire bowl outside. Even from the other room, Kayla could hear a dull thud and then the crack of the bowl.

“Oops,” said Tom with a shrug.

“I need to check on my mom,” said Kayla, hurrying back to the room with the coats.

Her mother was beginning to stir. Her eyes were now closed, and rather than leaning forward, she was starting to sink backward, ever so slowly, against the coats draped over the back of the couch. Her head began to move from side to side, and a low moan escaped her lips.

“Kay, she's going to be all right,” said Tom gently but urgently. “We need to get downstairs right away.”

Kayla nodded and led the way toward the basement. She stepped gingerly over the fallen man, who was slowly beginning to stir, then turned and helped Tom hobble over him as well. Then they made their way through the pantry, into the kitchen, and down the basement stairs.

CHAPTER 17

The power went back on before they'd gotten to the bottom of the stairs. With eerie suddenness, the music resumed playing. The movie, which they could see through the far doorway, started back up, and the strings of red, heart-shaped lanterns lit up the room in a rosy glow. The frozen kids looked all the more eerie in the sudden festive party atmosphere.

Kayla hurried down the remaining stairs, holding the candle out in front of her, cupping the flame so it wouldn't blow out. She moved from kid to kid and tried to waft the smoke with her free hand so that it floated beneath each kid's nostrils. The sulfurous smell grew even worse down in the basement, where the rooms were less well ventilated and the ceilings lower. It was
easier to see the purple fog now, coiling and twining and then slowly wafting upward, forming a smelly purple cloud near the ceiling.

Tom hobbled over to the table with the punch bowl on it, picked it up, and half walked, half hopped toward the door to the laundry room, where Kayla had told him he would find a sink. He left a trail of red punch on the carpet behind him.

As she continued to move around the room, wafting the candle's fumes under people's noses, she heard a loud splash, and then a thump and the shattering of the other bowl.

“Uh-oh!” she heard Tom's muffled voice say.

Soon he had rejoined her in the main room. They stood, staring from person to person, searching for a sign of movement, the flutter of an eye. But there was nothing. The kids all remained frozen.

“Are we too late?” wailed Kayla, clutching Tom's arm and looking at him wild-eyed. Smoke continued to pour off the candle.

Tom looked grim. “Keep waiting. It's got to happen. The grown-ups took a while. Maybe kids take even longer.” But he didn't sound sure.

They stood, watching, waiting, listening to the music change from one upbeat dance song to another.

And then Kayla heard a cough.

“What is that
smell
?” said someone across the room.

“Gross!” said another.

Kayla's eyes were on Alice. As though someone had unpaused a DVD, Alice suddenly began moving again, running her hands through her hair, continuing her movement from earlier. Then her head snapped to attention, and she looked around. “Yuck! Ick! Did someone try to flush, like, their
coat
down the toilet or something?”

She crossed the room, looking like she was planning to go upstairs to find her mother, when she skidded to a stop in front of Kayla and Tom. She stared at the smoke that was pouring and swirling from the candle. Her hand flew to her nose.

“It's that
candle
!” she cried, half-disbelieving, half-furious.

Kayla had forgotten that she was still holding the burning black candle. Hastily she blew it out.

By now all the kids appeared to be unfrozen, moving around, and seemingly fine. Nearly everyone was
coughing, sputtering, and saying, “Eeeeeew!”

“Oh, sorry about the candle, Alice,” said Kayla, smiling weakly. “I can explain, but you might not want me to right this second. It's about—”

“What's that you've got all down your shirt?” Alice demanded of Tom, pointing. “Are you an
ax
murderer or something?”

He glanced down at the front of his yellow sweater. It was soaked in red punch. He looked back up and grinned sheepishly. “Punch?” he said.

Alice looked around the room slowly. Then she turned back to Kayla and Tom. “What did you do to the punch? It's not there!”

Pria and Jess emerged from the other room. They came and stood on either side of Alice and crossed their arms.

“I know where the punch is,” said Pria.

“Me too,” said Jess.

“They dumped it out,” said Pria.

“It's sloshed all over the laundry sink,” said Jess.

“And the bowl is broken,” said Pria.

“Yeah, sorry about the bowl,” said Tom. “It kind of slipped out of my hands. I was trying to dump it out
while standing on one foot.” He pointed apologetically down at his sprained ankle.

“Alice, we can explain,” said Kayla.

“I know just what you were up to,” Alice said to her in a steely voice. “You told him to dump it out because you saw him talking to me and you were jealous. You knew what would happen, didn't you? And you couldn't deal with
your
crush crushing on someone
else
, namely me!”

“No, it's not like that,” said Kayla quickly.

She felt Tom turn to look at her. She couldn't meet his eye, but she could tell he was grinning, no doubt psyched about being called her crush.

“I've had it up to here with you, Kayla,” said Alice.

Jess and Pria nodded vigorously in agreement. “So have we!” they said, nearly at the same time.

Then Alice noticed Kayla's feet. “You're wearing my boot!” she said. “Where's the other one?”

“Oh. Right. The boots.” Suddenly Kayla realized that the boots she'd taken from the front closet had been Alice's. She'd been with her when she'd bought them! “I think the other one is . . . outside somewhere.”

Alice's mouth fell open. She leaned toward Kayla, her eyes narrowed with fury. She looked like she was
about to bellow at the top of her lungs. But then she appeared to think better of it. She looked around the room at the kids, who had resumed what they had been doing before they'd been frozen, as if nothing had happened. They were dancing, eating, and drinking. One boy was standing on a chair, trying to fan the last of the foul-smelling fumes out of an open window. Kayla knew Alice would do anything not to cause a scene, not to disrupt her party.

“That is just beyond belief,” said Alice in a low voice. “I know you wish you were me. I know you don't have nice clothes and you wish you had my stuff, Kayla. I was so nice to you. I let you into my group.”

Pria and Jess nodded.

“We let you sit with us in the cafeteria,” Pria chimed in.

“We put up with your geeky studying,” added Jess.

“And your ugly clothes,” said Pria.

“And your
refusal
to do anything about your hair,” said Alice. “And then how do you repay me? By
stealing
from me! Taking my
boots
without permission and then
losing
one is—”

“I didn't steal them!” said Kayla.

Alice kept going. “And let's not even get started on
your mother. I mean, honestly. Aren't you embarrassed to be seen pulling into places in that sloppy jalopy she drives, with a backseat full of bratty little brothers? And please. That accent?”

“You leave my mother out of this,” said Kayla in a tone cold as ice.

Alice blinked, surprised.

Kayla flashed with anger. After the horrors she'd suffered that evening, the fears and anxieties, the dreadful race through the storm, the pleading on their behalf . . . she wasn't going to stand for Alice's attitude one minute longer.

“Listen, Alice,” she said in a loud, clear voice. “And you listen too, Jess and Pria. It's time you learned that you are not the center of the universe. Your mean behavior has terrible consequences, consequences beyond anything you can imagine. Your hateful words to other people don't just hurt others, although they certainly do, but they can cause terrible consequences to you, too!”

Alice flipped her hair and rolled her eyes.

“And here's a news flash: There's more to life than shopping and getting your hair highlighted and your nails done. Just for the record, I
like
my mom's car. We've had
it my whole life. I
like
my mom's accent. I
like
my bratty little brothers. And I
like
my hair. And my mom has better things to spend money on than tons of clothes I don't need. Maybe you should spend a little less time worrying about your appearance and a little more time thinking about others around you. Your lives are going to be pretty empty if you keep acting this way.”

Pria grimaced.

Jess looked like she might burst into tears.

Alice was speechless.

“Alice, I'm sorry about the punch bowl,” said Kayla. “We didn't mean to break it. I told you we had a good reason to do it, and I'll explain later, when we're not in a room full of people.”

“Oh, no you won't,” said Alice, who seemed to have recovered from the shock of Kayla's words. “I think you should leave now. And take your little boyfriend with you.”

“Hey, I'm not
that
little,” said Tom lightheartedly. “My feet are size eleven already, so the doctor says I'm going to be tall.”

Alice, Pria, and Jess wheeled on Tom, eyes flashing.

“Just pointing that out,” he concluded.

Suddenly Alice's mother came clattering down the basement steps. Because of her high, wobbly heels, she was obliged to walk down sideways. “Alice!” she said, swaying slightly and catching her balance. “
What
happened to the punch bowl? Someone took it off the table and threw it outside, right down the front steps, and
shattered
it! That was expensive pottery! Do you
know
how much I
paid
for that bowl?”

Alice turned back to Kayla and Tom. She put her hands on her hips.

Alice and Kayla exchanged a look.

“I'll tell you later, Mother,” said Alice, and her tone was cold and steely. “Just
forget
about the dumb punch bowl for now. This will not ruin my party, okay? But Kayla and Tom here were just leaving.”

Mrs. Grafton seemed to recover her manners. She smiled a thin, insincere smile and said brightly, “Well, I hope you two had a nice time. I had a lovely time talking to your mother, Katie. She was very informative about the admissions process at the academy. I look forward to spending more time with her! And I just adore her charming accent!”

“Thanks for a fun party, Mrs. Grafton,” said Kayla.
She and Tom slipped past her and made their way up the basement stairs, Tom clumping up on his crutch.

Kayla's mother was standing in the kitchen, wearing her coat and boots, her hand on the door to the outside.

“Mom!” yelled Kayla, bounding across the kitchen and throwing herself into her mother's arms. “I'm so glad to see you!”

Her mother reared back in surprise, but she hugged Kayla back. “I'm so glad you're glad,” she said.