“Oh, no—”
So we ended up wedged between Link and Savannah and Ridley and the guy from Summerville, in the last four rows. The credits had barely started before Savannah was whispering and giggling into Link’s neck, which as far as I could tell was just an excuse to get her mouth up near his. I elbowed him as hard as I could.
“Ow!”
“Ridley’s sitting right there, man.”
“Yeah. With that tool.”
“You want her crawling all over him like that?” Ridley wasn’t the kind of girl who got mad. She got even.
Link leaned forward, looking past Lena and me to where Ridley was sitting. The Summerville Tool already had his hand on her leg. When she saw Link watching, she snaked her arm through the guy’s and tossed her pink and blond hair. Then she pulled out a lollipop and began unwrapping it.
Link shifted in his seat. “Yeah. You’re right. I’m gonna have to kick his—”
Lena grabbed the sleeve of his shirt before Link got up. “You’re not doing anything. Just behave, and she will, and then maybe you can actually start dating like normal people and stop this stupid game.”
“Shh!” The Summerville Tool shot us a look. “Shut up. Some of us are tryin’ to watch the movie.”
“Yeah, right,” Link yelled back at him. “I know what you’re tryin’ to watch.”
Link gave me a pleading look. “Please let me go outside and beat the crap outta him, before I miss any a the good parts. You know I’m gonna end up doin’ it anyway.”
He had a point. But he was a Linkubus, and the rules were different now.
“You ready to let Ridley beat the crap out of Savannah? Because you know she’ll do it.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know how much more a this I can take. Rid’s drivin’ me nuts.” For a second, the old Link was back, hung up on the girl who would always be out of his league. Maybe that was it. Maybe he would always think Ridley was out of his league, even though his league had changed.
“You have to ask her to Savannah’s party, as your date.” It was the only way to defuse this particular bomb.
“You kiddin’ me? That’s like askin’ for an open war with the whole squad. Savannah already has me doin’ all this extra stuff—comin’ over early to set up an’ everythin’.”
“I’m just calling it like I see it.” I dug into my Hot Tamales popcorn. My mouth was burning, which seemed like a sign. Time to keep it shut.
I wasn’t giving out any more advice.
By the end of the night, Link had beaten the crap out of the Summerville Tool in the parking lot. Ridley called Link every name in the book, and Savannah stepped in. For a minute, it looked like there was going to be a serious catfight, until Savannah remembered her arm was still in a sling, and pretended the whole thing was a big misunderstanding.
When I got home, there was a note taped to my front door. It was from Liv.
I changed my mind. See you at the party. XO Liv
XO.
That was just something girls wrote at the end of notes, right?
Right.
I was dead.
A Real Bad Girl
It took more than a little convincing to get Amma to let me go to Savannah Snow’s party. And it wasn’t like she wouldn’t notice if I tried to sneak out. Amma never went anywhere anymore. She hadn’t gone home to Wader’s Creek once since she pulled the tarot spread that sent her into a voodoo queen’s crypt. She wouldn’t admit it, but when I asked her why she never went back home anymore, she got defensive.
“You think I can leave the Sisters to keep an eye on themselves? You know Thelma hasn’t been the least bit clear herself, since the accident.”
“Oh, Miss Amma. Quit your fussin’. I only get the eensiest bit confused, now an’ again,” Thelma called from the next room, where she was straightening the couches just so. Aunt Mercy liked one pillow and two blankets. Aunt Grace liked two pillows and one blanket. Aunt Mercy didn’t like used blankets, which meant you had to wash them before she’d let them near her. Aunt Grace didn’t like pillows that smelled like hair, even if it was her own. The sad thing was, since “the accident” I knew more about their pillow preferences and hiding places for coffee ice cream than I ever wanted to know.
The accident.
“The accident” used to mean my mom’s car crash. Now it was polite Southern code for Aunt Prue’s condition. I didn’t know if it made me feel better or worse, but once Amma started invoking “the accident,” there was no getting her to change her mind.
Still, I tried. “They don’t stay up past eight o’clock. How about we all hang out and play Scrabble together, and then I’ll go out once everyone is asleep?”
Amma shook her head as she pulled trays of cookies in and out of the oven. Snickerdoodles. Molasses. Shortbread. Cookies, not pie. Cookies were for delivery. She never fed cookies to the Greats. I don’t know why, but the Greats weren’t much for cookies. Which meant she still wasn’t talking to them.
“Who are you baking for tonight, Amma?”
“What, you’re too good for my cookies now?”
“No, but you took the paper doilies out, which means these aren’t for me.”
Amma started arranging the cookies on the tray. “Well, aren’t you a smart one. Takin’ these down to County Care. Thought those nice nurses might want a cookie or two to keep ’em company, these long nights.”
“So, can I go?”
“You’re simpler than I thought, if you’re thinkin’ Savannah Snow wants you anywhere near her place.”
“It’s just a regular old high school party.”
She lowered her voice. “There’s no such thing as a regular old high school party when you’re takin’ a Caster and an Incubus and a worn-out Siren with you.” Turns out, Amma could even whisper a pretty fierce scolding. Then she slammed the oven door and stood there with an oven-mitted hand on each hip.
“Quarter Incubus,” I whispered back. Like that changed anything. “It’s at the Snows’ house. You know what they’re like.” I did my best impression of Reverend Blackwell. “Fine, God-fearin’ folk. Keep a Bi-ah-ble right next to the bed.” Amma glared at me. I gave it up. “Nothing’s gonna happen.”
“If I had a nickel for every time you’ve said that, I’d be livin’ in a castle.” Amma covered the cookies in plastic wrap. “If the party’s at the Snows’ house, why are you goin’ anyhow? Didn’t even invite you last year, as I recollect.”
“I know. But I thought it would be fun.”
I met Lena on the corner of Dove Street because she’d had even less luck with her uncle and ended up sneaking out of her house. She was so afraid Amma would see her and send her back home that she parked the hearse a block away. Not like her car was hard to miss.
Macon had made it clear no one was going to any parties, not while the Order was still broken—especially not at the Snows’. Ridley had made it equally clear she was going. How did they expect her to fit in as a Mortal if she wasn’t allowed to do normal things with her new Mortal friends? Things were thrown. In the end, Aunt Del caved, even if Macon didn’t.
So Ridley had walked right out the front door, while Lena was left to find a way to sneak out.
“He thinks I’m in my room, sulking because he wouldn’t let me go out.” Lena sighed. “Which is where I was until I figured out my exit strategy.”
“How did you get out?” I asked.
“I had to use, like, fifteen different Casts: Hiding, Blinding, Forgetting, Disguising, Duplicating.”
“Duplicating? You mean you cloned yourself?” That was a new one.