True love’s kiss
Jack needed to summon
every ounce of energy to go against the spell, to do what his heart intended.
He’d dressed for homecoming dance,
determined to ‘act normal’ as his foster dad would have advised. He’d saved to
buy a real car so instead of merging into various animals in order to arrive at
a destination quickly, he could drive.
But time was important tonight. He knew,
according to Sara’s own notes, he only had thirty-six hours to release Sara and
he’d already wasted most of them. It was hard, going against everything the
voice inside told him – go to Lavinia, Lavinia needs you… He knew it was a lie,
all of it. He could feel it inside, in the place where love and memories meet. He
could feel it in his heart.
When he arrived on the road that took him
to Sara’s place, he realized there was only about twenty minutes until Sara
would be in a trance forever. There was no release from that, at least none
that Sara had written in her chemical romance notes.
It wasn’t fun, but he did it; he merged.
He became a cheetah, the fastest running land animal on the planet and got to
Sara’s van in double quick time. He tied his dinner suit around his collar in a
packet. When he merged behind the trailer back into human form, he was dressed
in the suit he intended to wear to homecoming.
Dewey and Henry were sitting on the steps
of the trailer playing computer games. The boys were taking it in turns to
protect their sleeping foster sister which was kind of cool.
“Okay boys, I have the antidote, it might
be better if you guys go inside now. Your foster mom is looking for you.”
“Is she going to be okay?” Dewey asked.
“Sure.”
“Okay,” Henry said.
“Yeah, I was getting bored with this
anyway.”
It was hard for Jack to walk inside the
trailer. He didn’t really want to kiss her. His mind told him not to. Fact is,
he couldn’t stop thinking about Lavinia with her Barbie princess looks and
perfectly wicked smile. But he told himself, it’s just a hoax, eyes on the prize.
Sara was lying on the cabin couch. Jack
noticed the hem of her blue jeans had water from the ocean, still damp. He
thought that was weird, as if nothing had changed from this afternoon, apart
from the fact that Sara was still breathing.
He looked it up.
“A short kiss… must be on the lips.”
He looked around. This was going to be weird. He leant forward and kissed her lips. Jack
sat back, feeling nothing… almost.
Overcome with a feeling of wellbeing, he
sat back in the couch on the other side of the van. Outside, the night sky
seemed to shine with stars and the familiar feeling crept over him again, the
one he’d been feeling for a while now. It went beyond friendship and towards a
more lasting connection.
Sara opened her bright blue eyes.
“What happened?”
“It’s me… Jack.”
“Why are you dressed like that… did you?”
Jack put his hands in the air.
“It’s a long story. Not exactly a fairy
tale but the next closest thing. You must have been studying trance formulas in
chemical romance. Of course, Lavinia…”
“Now I remember. Lavinia is wicked. She
hates us…”
“Well, not exactly us…”
“I mean she likes you… did you?” Sara felt
her lips with her perfectly unmanicured fingers.
“Before you freak out, it’s here. You
should know, when I kissed you I totally didn’t want to…”
“But…”
“I’m not finished… before Lavinia put a
spell on us? It wasn’t just friendship I felt for you. It says here, true love’s kiss is the only thing that
would wake you.”
“Oh… right. I felt something too.”
They smiled.
“I
have a surprise for you. My car’s outside. I thought you might like to come to
homecoming dance. We have… an
appointment to meet Lavinia there.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“The school dance might be perfect,
neutral territory to put an end to our challenge.”
