Homecoming
In a split second, Jack found himself
seated beside Sara who was lying on the couch in her van. Eyes closed,
seemingly fast asleep, Jack’s cell was in his hand. He’d been fielding texts
from Lavinia.
It was almost evening, Jack reasoned. He
had no memory of the afternoon that had preceded the darkness. All he remembered was Lavinia and her
concerned face. Lavinia was their friend, wasn’t she? He and she were going to
homecoming dance together, weren’t they? That was all he knew.
Sara breathed deeply on the couch in her
trailer. He thought he better let her sleep.
It was strange that there were no lights on
in her van, the dirty dishes were stacked in the sink, the bed had been left
unmade. The place was a mess. Sara’s magic was far stronger than that. He
wondered what had happened. Then he realized it was late. He had to get dressed
and drive to Lavinia’s house. They had a date to go to homecoming dance, didn’t
they?
That was when he heard a rap on the wall of
the van.
He opened the door and six boys, all
between the ages of eight and twelve, all staring up at him, stood outside.
“What’s happening?”
“Huh?”
“We’re Hughey, Dewey, Henry, Matty, Donny
and Lonny. We’re Sara’s foster brothers. We have to be quick or our foster mom
will notice we’re not in our rooms. Sara sent us a text before she went to that
wicked Lavinia’s house. You must be Jack.”
“Yeah.”
Dewey continued, “We know all about
Lavinia.”
Henry added, “She’s pretty powerful.”
Matty said, “She used to be our student
adviser in elementary school when we were only six years old.”
“Lavinia blamed us for all her wicked
schemes,” Donny added.
“She causes trouble wherever she goes,”
Lonny confirmed.
Then, the boys added in unison: “She’s mean.”
Jack’s skin itched, his memory was
returning. Lavinia was wicked but she wasn’t as good at chemical romance as
Sara. She couldn’t, for example, stop the formula properly. It was wearing off.
Jack was returning to his senses. He had an idea. He couldn’t remember that
afternoon, but he could remember he knew how to merge, back in time, back to
yesterday. So he did.
Instantly, he was back in chemical romance
class, after it had ended. He got up from his desk, walked past Lavinia who
smiled at him. Strangely, he ignored her. He felt himself doing this and couldn’t
stop. It was weird because they were in love, he was sure of it. They were
going to homecoming dance, weren’t they?
This time, when class ended and Lavinia
grabbed his hand for lunch, he made an excuse and ran back to the empty
classroom.
He searched Lavinia’s desk and found Sara’s
chemical romance notes. There were trance formulas and love formulas and
forever potions all written over Sara’s handwriting in Lavinia’s scrawly hand.
Lavinia’s wicked formulas were scrawled over Sara’s initial equations; all
things that were too advanced and banned in school.
It occurred to Jack: Lavinia was a hot
mess. Her ‘love’ was trickery. He’d been played. Sara was the girl he really
loved. Sara was under a spell that only… it said here in Lavinia’s handwriting…
true love’s kiss could break.
