Enchanted, A Paranormal Romance / Fantasy (Forever Charmed) (16 page)

“The cafeteria? Is it cursed or something I don’t know about?” Stephen made a face, obviously teasing Mandy.

“No, you know…the cafeteria will be filled with a sea of unfamiliar faces. Will I find someone to sit with or will I be forced to eat by myself…easy road to an anxiety attack,” Mandy shrugged.

“What do you mean will you find someone to sit with? You’ve got me and Ally, and everyone else. So, see, you’re really worrying about nothing! Your actual worry should really be about whether or not it’s safe to eat the unknown substances you will find on your cafeteria tray!” Stephen laughed easily and Mandy found herself joining in, any tension that had threatened to overtake her mood suddenly dissipated.

“53? 53!” A voice called out over the loudspeaker jolting Mandy and Stephen’s attention away from the ominous cafeteria to reality.

“That’s us, I’ll be right back,” Stephen slid out of the booth and headed towards the counter. Mandy watched him walk away thinking that he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. He returned after a moment placing a cheeseburger, and a Coke and fries as promised, in front of Mandy. “Ketchup? Napkins?” Stephen offered politely.

“Yes and yes, please,” Mandy nodded. The burger threatened to be messy, but that’s exactly how Mandy liked them. She added extra ketchup on top for good measure and took a big bite. The ketchup oozed out the bottom end of the sandwich falling without remorse onto Mandy’s jeans. Mandy groaned and Stephen started to laugh. “That would happen to me,” Mandy sighed, scrubbing at the spot. “Slightly embarrassing.”

“Just a little ketchup. Here, we can match. We’ll tell people we’re part of the Ketchup Gang,” Stephen teased. Before Mandy realized what he was getting at he had turned over a little paper cup filled with ketchup onto his pants.

“Stephen!” Mandy gasped.

“What? Now you’re not the odd man out. Besides, it would have happened on its own anyway. Another five minutes and I would have beat you to the punch,” Stephen said agreeably scrubbing at his pants with a napkin. “There, are we sufficiently scrubbed to the same shade of ketchup?” Stephen smiled at Mandy.

Mandy shook her head in disbelief, but leaned over to check the color of the ketchup stain. “Yeah, looks about right,” she admitted. The rest of dinner was easy and free of anymore stains. The conversation rolled without any awkward pauses. By the time they were ready to leave Mandy felt like she had known Stephen for much longer than just the last month. Stephen grabbed the tray and emptied it into the trash can by the door leaving it on top. They stepped out into the summer evening and were greeted by the sultry feel of the late August air.

“Arcade?” Stephen offered.

“Of course,” Mandy agreed. She turned left and was surprised as Stephen caught her hand in his. The butterflies were suddenly back in full force in Mandy’s stomach. Actually they felt more like grasshoppers. Mandy felt the corners of her mouth pulling up in a small satisfied smile as she snuck a peek in Stephen’s direction as he led her towards the arcade. He was smiling too. Mandy felt a blush start as he looked down at her and caught her peeking shyly at him. It didn’t seem to phase him, he just smiled bigger, radiating his happiness at her as he looked her in the eyes.

“You know what? I like you,” Stephen said simply.

Mandy felt the blush darken in color. “I like you too,” she laughed. She felt like she was floating along besides Stephen instead of walking. This was what a date was supposed to feel like.

They entered the arcade and were swallowed up by the noise bouncing back and forth across the space. “Where to?” Stephen practically had to yell in order to be heard over the noise.

“Skee-ball?” Mandy suggested.

“That’s my favorite,” Stephen agreed happily.

“Mine too. It’s the one thing I’m good at,” Mandy smiled. The pair headed over towards the left side of the building which was lined with row after row of skee-ball lanes. Luckily they found two open ones next to each other. Mandy pulled two rolls of quarters from her pocket and handed one to Stephen. “Here. You promised,” she reminded him.

“I always keep my promises,” Stephen said, accepting the roll. The next hour passed unbelievably fast. They played skee-ball until they had amassed what they considered a sufficient amount of tickets, had their fortunes read by Madam Zha-Zha (the scary looking mannequin head in a box), and made faces in the photo booth. They saved the ticket counter for last. There was always a long line of kids waiting impatiently to claim their dime store prizes. They chattered easily until it was their turn to pick out their mementos. “Well, what do you want?” Stephen offered.

“You can pick,” Mandy nodded.

“Turn your back then, I’ll surprise you,” Stephen laughed, making an occasion out of their silly ticket shopping. Mandy laughed but did as she was told. A couple of minutes later Stephen tapped her on the shoulder. “Mandy?” he asked, his voice suddenly sounded serious and formal.

Mandy spun around wondering at the change in his voice. Stephen was down on one knee with his arm extended towards her. He was holding a very cheap, very gaudy ring. It had a bright red plastic stone on top. “Will you be in the Ketchup Gang forever?” he mocked, voice still somehow serious even as the absurdity of the moment left Mandy breathless from laughter.

“Yes!” Mandy agreed, accepting the ring.

“The color of the gem will forever remind you of our gang,” Stephen continued seriously, although a smile toyed about his mouth. “Does it fit? If not, I can adjust it with my superhuman strength,” he laughed.

“I’m good like that,” Stephen said proudly. He reached for her hand and they headed towards the exit. It was dark out now. The moonlight reflected its white face on the water, lending an almost appealing feel to Shortsands Beach. “I had fun tonight,” Stephen said breaking the silence.

“Me too,” Mandy said, giving Stephen’s hand a squeeze. He squeezed back and the grasshoppers began going wild again. “We should do it again sometime.”

“You don’t have to say that,” Stephen said.

“What do you mean? I’m serious.”

“I just mean don’t feel bad if it doesn’t happen. Girls have said stuff like that to me before, but somehow the sometime part never happens. Besides, Ally told me you went out with Lucas, so I just mean I understand if you…”

“I went out with Lucas once,” Mandy cut Stephen off. “And believe me, that was nothing compared to this! Lucas is nice, but I like you,” Mandy said squeezing Stephen’s hand again, but this time for emphasis.

“Well, shucks, you’re making me blush,” Stephen teased, but Mandy could see he actually was turning a rather pretty shade of pink.

“Finally, someone else besides me!” Mandy exclaimed. They were at her car now. “Well, I guess I’ll see you at school Monday then?”

“Yeah, actually want me to pick you up? You know, so you’re not lost and alone on your first day?” Stephen poked Mandy in the ribs.

“Um, yeah, that’d be great.” Mandy felt secretly relieved at not having the whole school know she drove a boat around in her spare time.

“7:30 ok?”

“Sounds good,” Mandy nodded. She looked at Stephen and he seemed hesitant for a brief second, and then his face was suddenly serious again. He leaned in towards Mandy and kissed her on her cheek, but not because she turned her head. He was just being a gentleman. The grasshoppers in Mandy’s stomach felt like they were having a long jump contest. “Bye,” she managed to squeak out as she slipped in the door to her car. Stephen waved, his ever present smile back on his face. He stepped back and watched as Mandy drove away towards home. The grasshoppers flung themselves endlessly around, showing their approval. Mandy sighed from satisfaction and for once felt warm and happy in York.

* * *

Chapter 15

The remainder of the weekend flew by as Mandy had known it would. That was the way it always worked-if she was dreading something it always seemed to arrive that much quicker and if she was looking forward to something, time dragged on. Mandy supposed that was true to everyone.

Mandy had to work Sunday afternoon. She had been feeling ambivalent about going in for her shift. She was really itching to talk to her grandmother about the letter she had found, wondering what her Nana had planned for it. On the other hand, for no reason at all, she had a nervous knot in the pit of her stomach when she even thought about asking Nana about its fate.

Nervous or not, Mandy decided she couldn’t put it off any longer. She needed to know what Nana was planning on doing with the letter, and the others for that matter. Mandy would ask her right away, she decided as she cut the engine to the boat. If she put it off at all, she knew herself well enough to know that she might be able to talk herself out of it or just flat chicken out.

Mandy pushed open the door to the shop. Her entrance was announced as always by the pleasant tinkling of the copper bells on the door. The noise was quite a contradiction to the tension Mandy was feeling at the moment. If she had a soundtrack to her life something more ominous would be playing right now. Mandy sighed and forced herself to trudge into the back of the shop, where she knew she would find her grandmother. “Hey Ally,” Mandy shot a quick greeting at her friend who was covering the counter. No customers were in the shop and Ally was lounging against the counter flipping through some celebrity gossip magazine.

“Hey,” Ally returned the greeting. “Hope you brought something to read. This place is boring central today.”

“Huh. Well, I’m gonna go say hi to Nana. I’ll be out in a sec.”

Ally nodded absently in acknowledgement and went back to her magazine lazily. Mandy pushed open the door to the back where she found her grandmother arranging bouquets. “Nana, I…” Mandy stated to say but was quickly cut off by Nana.

“Oh, Mandy, I’m so glad you’re here! I’ve got some exciting news!” Nana’s eyes crinkled up until they were just little crinkly semi-circles.

“Um, ok, good. But then I need to talk to you,” Mandy forced out.

“You remember Doris, don’t you?” Nana started.

Doris was one of Nana’s oldest friends. She wore her hair in an impeccable white pageboy cut. She had red cat glasses with rhinestones on the corners and her fingernails, more like talons, were always perfectly painted in a glossy red lacquer. She was outspoken and to the point. She was hard to forget. She was five years older than Nana and had a column in the little local newspaper,
The York Weekly
. People got a hoot from Doris, who may be wrinkled and old, but somehow hadn’t lost herself or her voice. As is the way with many older people, she got away with saying whatever came into her mind without a second thought. She was too old to be criticized or talked back to, and Doris knew this. Anytime anyone had tried to argue with her, feisty Doris would bark back to “Mind your manners, Sonny!” or “Respect your elders, Missy!” Her rants and raves had landed her this latest gig on the town paper. Her column was titled “Doris Dishes” and basically she had been given free run over it. Doris wrote about whatever or whomever she wanted to as her struck her fancy. And God help you if you were the topic, because there was nothing you could do to change whatever she might have to say. You had better just hope Doris liked you and had nice things to say, because if it was the other way around, your reputation would be done for quicker than a lone crab crawling across the beach against an army of seagulls. Yes, Mandy remembered Doris.

“Doris? Yes, why Nana?” Mandy asked not sure as to what Nana was getting at.
Did she finally croak or something?
Mandy snickered to herself in her head.

“Well, you know Doris has her own column now in the paper?” Nana smiled at this, clearly proud of her friend’s achievement.

“Yeah, who’s she ripping apart this week?” Mandy snorted.

“Not ripping apart, Dear. She’s putting back together, rather straightening out a little matter for me. And for you,” Nana winked at Mandy.

“Nana, I’m not sure I’m following you,” Mandy shook her head at Nana.

“Mary Nasson, Dear! I’ve been to see Doris. She had me over for a very nice little tea on her porch just yesterday. Mint tea, my favorite, you know. Her daughter was there visiting and made us some wonderful little sandwiches. It was all very fancy. I felt like I was back in my hey-day once again. But I digress…what I am trying to say is that I brought the letters you found in the trunk, all of them. And I told her the whole story. Mary Nasson needs her name cleared and I knew Doris was just the gal to take care of it!” Nana finished, palms up in the air, clearly proud of herself, beaming like a ray of sunshine. Mandy just stared at her grandmother, her mouth agape.

“But Nana, what exactly did you tell her?” Mandy sputtered out.

“The whole thing, Dear,” Nana said proudly, turning back to her flowers.

“Everything? I mean, about us, being her ancestors and Lucas and his great great great however many grandfather?” Mandy said, not quite ready to think of the consequences of that kind of a confession in Doris’s column.

“Mmm hmm,” Nana said, distracted now by the blooms. “What do you think Dear? Mums or carnations alongside these daisies?” Nana motioned to the bouquet she was arranging.

“Uh, carnations. No, those are for death…mums,” Mandy shook her head, disgusted with herself for letting Nana sidetrack her like that. “Nana, do you know what you’ve done?”

“Yes, but Nana, did you have to drag
us
into this?” Mandy pleaded with her eyes for some understanding from Nana. “And Lucas? I mean, what do you think his family is going to say about this? Shouldn’t you have asked them first, or at least warned them?” Mandy cringed, not even letting her mind wander down that road.