Careful What You Wish For (6 page)

“What's with you?” he asked, reaching for her hand. “Since when are you champion of the charity cases?”

Okay, this was weird. Why wasn't D.L. on the Max bandwagon?

I wasn't the only one wondering . . .

“What did I just tell you?” Courtney yanked her hand away from him. “Quit being so mean. Why can't you be more like Max?” She stomped out of the room with D.L. following close behind.

“Whoa,” Gabi said.

I had to second that. Courtney just dissed the hot school bad boy—her very own boyfriend—to stand up for the freaky school dork. I really did use my powers for good.

Max stood up and walked right past us.

“Wait up,” I called out to him.

He stopped, but he wouldn't look at me. Just at his feet.

Okay. I wasn't looking for a “thank you” or anything like that. After all, Max had no idea that I was responsible for his fabulous new reputation. But I would have liked to have seen a smile. A little bounce in his step. Something to prove using my devil powers was worth it. That it had meaning. But nope. Max looked gloomier than ever.

“What's wrong?” Gabi asked.

“Everything,” he muttered.

“Everything?” I repeated after him. “What do you mean everything? Everyone is crazy about you. It's like the perfect day.”

“Yeah,” he said, kicking his foot over a scuff mark in the floor. “Just perfect. Now the whole school is out to get me.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. This was crazy. Was he living in some parallel universe? Our classmates were treating him like a superhero. Gabi's wish made sure of that.

“You've seen it. They're all pretending to like me. It's a big set-up. They're planning something. I'll probably wind up taped to my locker at the end of the day if I'm lucky. It's probably much worse than that. Like this whole president thing. It's some elaborate scheme.”

“No,” I said. “Max, they just like you.”

“Right.” His foot moved like crazy over the floor. “All of a sudden, just like that,” he said, snapping his fingers, “they start liking me. No way.”

I chewed on my nails. This was not what I imagined.

“It could happen,” Gabi said, nodding wildly.

Max gave her a weak smile. “No it couldn't. What's worse, even people like Cole and Reid are in on it. It wasn't like we were friends, but at least they never tried to torture me before. Now they're helping Courtney and everyone set me up.”

“Cole wouldn't do that,” I protested.

“Then why all of a sudden did he offer to help me get ready for basketball tryouts? He barely ever speaks to me. Now he wants to be my friend? He's probably in charge of luring me somewhere.”

“It's not like that, Max. It's—” I cut myself off.

“It's what?”

What could I say? “It's because of me and my devil powers”? That “I made everyone want to be friends with you”? So I just told him that I didn't know.

Max didn't say anything else. He just walked out of class.

“This is awful,” I said to Gabi. My nails were now nonexistent.

“It's not that bad,” she said. “Eventually he'll realize everyone's sincere, and he'll be happy.”

Eventually? I didn't want eventually. “But
now
he feels worse about himself. And I caused that.”

“It'll all work out,” Gabi said. “Now come on, let's go. Maybe we'll get to see Marc on the way to class!”

How could she think about boys when Max's future was at stake? “Gabi, this is major. Look how upset he is. He'll probably drop out, beg his mom to homeschool him, and if she says no, he'll just run away from home.”

“You're way overreacting,” Gabi said.

“I'm not! It could happen. Max needs to know this is real.”

“Getting him to believe that right now is going to be hard,” she said. “I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I wish he was more like Courtney. She has enough confidence for the both of them.”

“Seriously.” My head was pounding. What good was granting Max popularity if he completely misinterpreted it?

“I think he smiled at me,” Gabi said as we passed Marc on our way to class. “Or maybe it was meant for Brooke. She was right behind me. Did you see it? What do you think? 'Cause if he did smile at me, then he probably was the one to give me the cupcake.” Marc was all Gabi could talk about.

I, on the other hand, was more concerned about Max.

“Groups of four,” Miss Simmons said. Everyone clamored around Max begging him to be in their group.

“Max,” I called out. “Come work with us.” I figured it was the least I could do. He knew Gabi and I would never be part of a scheme to set him up. And it would give me time to make him understand that everyone really did like him.

“Riiiight,” a voice said back. A voice that sounded like Max's, if Max's voice was sarcastic, evil, and totally condescending. I had to be hearing things.

Only it didn't stop. “No one wants to work with you, Double-A!” the voice that sounded like Max's continued. “Except maybe your nerdy sidekick.” Courtney and Co. laughed like they were watching a Will Ferrell movie.

Was this really coming from Max? The Max who has been crushing on me since forever? The Max who tried to carry me home when I fell off my bike in sixth grade? The Max who gave me a homemade present for Christmas every year since I've known him? The Max who was the kindest person in all of Goode? The Max who just moments ago thought the whole school was out to get him? Were the insults really coming from him?

“No way I'd work with you,” he said. “Or your spazzy best friend.”

Yep. They were. I felt like the Easter bunny just spit on my sneakers.

“Hey,” Cole said, stepping up to my defense. “Cut it out.”

Max put up his hand. “Look, Cole. We all know you're into doing charity work, and Angel's your pet project, but it doesn't mean the rest of us need to be nice to her. You're lucky we still include you at all.”

Cole opened up his mouth to say something else but stopped himself. He just backed into his seat. Then he said sorry. Only it wasn't to me. It was to Max! Apparently nobody talked back to the new Max. Not if they wanted a social life.

“Max?” Gabi said, gripping her braid.

“Gabi?” he said, mimicking her.

“What's going on?”

“Well, at this very moment, it seems I'm having a conversation with the queen nerd's number one subject.”

Gabi's mouth fell open and Max laughed. He didn't care that he had just majorly insulted us both. It didn't bother him at all. In fact, it was the opposite. He seemed to stand a whole foot taller.

“Enough,” Miss Simmons said. “Groups
now
. Or I pick them. Max, go ahead and choose your partners.”

King Max eyed every student, each of whom seemed to be holding their breath.

“Pick me.” Courtney broke the silence. “We can go over your election campaign.”

“And me,” Jaydin added. “I have the best grades in the class.”

“No, I do,” Kyle Manning countered. “Pick me.”

The whole class erupted again trying to point out why they should be chosen. “I made my decision,” Max said. Everyone got silent. “Courtney, Jaydin, and Kyle.”

There were a bunch of groans. Kyle pounded his fist into the air and yelled “Yes,” and Courtney and Jaydin actually squealed. And not tiny ones, either. It was like they just won a Teen Choice Award and an actual Jonas Brother was handing them the surfboard trophy.

“Courtney,” D.L. said, running his hand through his hair.

“What?” She looked annoyed that he'd interrupted her before she had a chance to give her big acceptance speech. And Courtney was no Taylor Swift. She'd put anyone in their place.

“Aren't we working together?” D.L. asked.

“We don't need to do everything together. I'm working with Max.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?” D.L. asked.

Courtney shrugged her shoulder. But Max gave him an answer. “Join the nerd herd.” He gestured toward me and Gabi.

“Yeah, right.” D.L. said. Instead, he tried to team up with a group of guys in the back. But they wouldn't take him.

“Sorry, dude,” one of them told him. “What Max says goes. And he wants you to work over there.”

D.L. flung his backpack over his shoulder and made his way over to me. He did not look pleased. At all. “Garrett,” he said, slamming his bag on the table next to mine. He was so upset about the whole Courtney/ Max situation he didn't even bother to insult me.

My group, Gabi, Cole, and D.L., stood there not saying a word.

Can you say awkward?

Gabi finally chimed in, trying to break the tension. “We'll get the microscope.” She dragged me from the table. “Okay, what is going on?” she asked me when we were away from everyone.

I shook my head. “Uhh. We created a monster.”

“But how? Just last period he was all ‘poor me.' Now he's all Freddy Kruger. But meaner.”

“Yeah. I don't get it. He even makes Courtney seem nice.” Then I had a thought. A bad one.

Popularity hadn't gone to Max's head. Powers had.

“What?” Gabi asked. “You look like you just saw Godzilla.”

“He's
like Courtney
,” I whispered, practically choking on the words.

“No kidding.”

I gripped her wrist hard and squeezed. “You don't get it. When we left class you wished he was more like Courtney—and now your wish came true.”

“Oh my—” Gabi wrapped her arms around herself. “We turned Max into Courtney!”

I nodded, although it was more me than her. If I didn't have devil blood running through me, none of this would have happened. There'd be no wish granting. No chances for someone nice and kind to be transformed into a monster.

“Okay,” Gabi said. “It was just an accident. We must have both been wishing for the same thing at the same time and kicked your wish-granting powers into gear again. It's not a big deal. We'll undo it. Put him back to normal.”

But we didn't get a chance. Just then D.L. called us over. “What's taking you so long? Come on.”

As much as I hated the idea, Max was going to have to stay Mean Max until lunch.

Science dragged on, and I couldn't stop watching the clock. Counting the seconds until I could undo my mistake.

“Perfect,” Miss Simmons said, studying Max's worksheet. “Class, look over here. Now this is the epitome of an amazing student. You should all strive to be more like this young man. Even when his answers are wrong, you can tell thought and effort went into them.”

D.L. snorted. Almost everyone gave him a nasty stare. “Okay, what am I missing?” he asked. “Is everyone in a trance or something? Why is everyone all about Max? Even Simmons is gushing.”

The bigger question was why wasn't D.L.? Once I took a moment to think it through, I realized he'd been on Courtney that whole time for the way she was treating Max. Gabi and I weren't affected by the wish because we were the ones responsible for it. But D.L.?

“Cole?” I said, my fingers crossed. “Why do you think everyone likes Max?”

“Because he's awesome. I hope he joins the basketball team. It would be so cool to ha—”

I stopped listening as he blathered on about Mr. Wonderful and turned my attention back to D.L. “You really don't think Max is cool?”

“No. I don't get why anyone else does, either. I swear I'm absent one day, and it's like I come back to the Twilight Zone.”

“You were absent?”

He didn't need to answer. I knew the answer. I remembered Courtney mentioning it. She was all upset that he wasn't in school the other day.

Then it all started to make sense. Gabi had wished for everyone
in
school to think Max was amazing. But D.L. wasn't here, so the wish didn't affect him.

It was the first piece of good news. At least the whole world wouldn't be bowing down to some eighth-grader from Goode, Pennsylvania. Since I barely spoke to my mother last night, I never had the chance to see if she, or anyone outside school, had been sucked into the vortex of Max worship. This was a relief. Only people who were in the building were stuck that way. At least until I could fix it.

A roar of laughter came from Max's table. “I can't believe I never knew how funny you were before,” Courtney told our school's new ruler.

“There's a lot you don't know.”

It was clearly a dig, but Courtney just beamed at him.

D.L. put his elbows on the desk and rested his head on one of his hands. “I don't get it. Why would she want to hang out with him over me? I mean, look at him.”

It was hard to feel sorry for someone who was even conceited when he was sad. I shrugged a shoulder. “Maybe everyone is finally realizing how great Max is.”

But as I watched Max point to Gabi and laugh, I felt like I got punched in the stomach. Max wasn't great. He was awful. And he had the devil's daughter to thank for that.

“That better have worked,” I said. Gabi and I were sitting at our table in the cafeteria, and I had just finished trying to reverse her last wish. We both chanted “Make Max nice again” about thirty times. I couldn't take another minute of his meanness. I actually missed the clumsy old version of him shuffling up behind me on my way to class.