The Popularity Spell Read Online Free PDF Page B

buys me a millipede. Actually two! I’m thinking it’s so Millie can have a friend, but Dad tells Lyle it’s “for backup.” I’m sitting behind Dad again as we drive back, but I don’t care because I’m holding my millipedes in their new home—a small plastic terrarium with special soil and pieces of bark for them to hide under. Dad says he’s sorry to Terri a few times, but I don’t know why. Terri’s the one who screamed and threw a cat in the air. And she said she
loved
cats. I wonder if we can believe anything she says.
    We drive to Terri’s house. She turns around to me before she leaves. “Have fun with your millipedes, Cleo,” she says.
    “They’re not for fun,” I tell her. “They’re for research.”
    She laughs and gets out of the car. Dad walks up to her front door with her as I get out to sit in front. Before I get back in the car, I see them hugging. Yucch. And after they stop hugging, they kiss. Not a big, long, sloppy gross one, but definitely more than a good-night kiss. Why would any father find it appropriate for his eleven-year-old to see this?
    Dad waits for her to walk inside, then comes back to the car and sees me frowning. “Cleo, I’m sorry…,” he says.
    Yes! An apology!
    “I’m sorry I brought Terri along like that tonight without preparing you. But she’s going to be around a lot, and I’m going to make sure I have time for each of you. Individually and together. Okay?”
    I nod, but I don’t like the sound of this. Terri is not one of us, and I just don’t think she’d add that much to our lives. Why can’t Dad see that?
    “So next time we see her, I expect you to be a lot nicer, kiddo.”
    “Okay,” I say, but in my mind I’m not promising anything.

I wake up on Monday morning feeling different. At the beginning of every week since I started at Friendship Community School, there’s always been an icky feeling in my belly. It knows something is going to go badly—that I’m going to do something dumb, or someone like Madison is going to make fun of me.
    But today my stomach feels okay, all because of the hex Samantha and I did. I’m not truly expecting anything to happen, but it’s still new and exciting and something to look forward to. Before I leave for school, I pat the voodoo doll on his head and straighten his tutu. And when I’m in the car—in the front where I belong—I can’t help bouncing around in a way that I never would if someone like Madison was watching.
    “You’re in a strangely good mood,” Dad says. “Why’s that?”
    I can’t tell him the truth:
Well, Samantha and I decided to use the voodoo doll Uncle Arnie sent me—the voodoo doll you told me not to play with—to put a positive voodoo charm on her, and I can’t wait to see if it works.
So I quickly come up with something that’s true but not
quite
as truthful: “I’m glad I got two millipedes. And I had fun with Samantha when she came over.”
    I look at Dad to see if that story is good enough…and I can tell it is by the reaction on his face. “Her mom called afterward and said Sam had a great time too. She invited you to her house this coming weekend.”
    “Woo-hoo!” I shout, bouncing, until Dad tells me to calm down. When he drops me off and I run into the courtyard at school, I’m thinking this is going to be a pretty good day.
    And it’s okay, I guess—but nothing special happens to Samantha in our first class, history. I’m hoping something might go down at morning break, but it’s nobody’s birthday, so we don’t get any sort of treat there. Instead we just sit at our desks like usual, eating our nutritious snacks and enriching our lives in our own personal way.
    I’m quietly munching my pita chips when I hear a whisper from Madison. “Mmmm, yum yum yum,” she says, making fake chewing sounds. “Cleo, don’t you want any carrots?”
    Sure enough, when I look over at Scabby Larry, he’s chowing on his favorite little vegetable. Can’t he eat