“Well,
”
o
ne of the D
Q
’s said with a
theatrical
pause to guarantee full effect. “She never made it home from the dance last night.” She lowered her voice. “The three of them just disappeared.”
Mercy’s stomach did a tumble and roll. “D
is
—disappeared?”
Drama Queen Number
O
ne nodded, importantly. “The sheriff
and his deputies
are
searching everywhere. They’re going to question all of the people who were at the dance to see if anyone noticed anything weird.”
“They must have been kidnapped,” Dr
ama Queen Number Two whispered.
Felicity
stood with her mouth agape.
“Hmpf!”
Kelli
snorted. “They probably ran away just for attention.”
There was a babble of vo
ices, one talking over another.
Mercy stepped away, the smell of the chili dog suddenly less appealing. She followed
Kelli
and
Felicity
into the stands
,
but couldn’t focus on the game. The pictures rolling through her head of Lindy, sneering and smug, with Becca following her lead and Amy going along with whatever the oth
ers plotted.
Why would anyone kidnap three obnoxious teens? They seemed to live for the sole purpose of making
her
life miserable. If Lindy was involved there had to be some major manipulation
going on
.
Mercy
took a bite of her chili dog.
A
t least for the moment Lindy wasn’t around to torment her, so she thought she might as
well enjoy it while it lasted.
Kelli
and
Felicity
buzzed about the missing girls, but Mercy felt nothing but relief.
When they get tired of their game they’ll come home
. Maybe I'll have a couple of days of peace
.
Greg was up at bat
and hit the ball to left field.
“Yes!” she screamed and rose to her feet. “C’mon Greg!” A rush of excitement swept through her.
At least for
this afternoon
, s
he didn’t have to look around to see if Lindy was censuring her every move.
Wherever Lindy was hiding out, she was probably making someone else
's life
miserable.
Mercy
jumped and squealed
as Greg made it to third base.
“I didn’t know you were such a baseball fan,”
Felicity
said.
Mercy grinned.
“I didn’t either.”
~*~
After the game, Greg invited Mercy and her friends to join him and the other team members for a pizza party to celebrate their win. The girls were excited,
Felicity
’s eyes shining at the prospect of spending time near Arthur.
Kelli
sat
between two of
the boy
s
she had danced with the night before. Everyone
appear
ed to be happy.
It was as though a
huge
black cloud had lifted and suddenly there was sunshine. Mercy knew she shouldn’t be feeling so greatly relieved
,
but the absence of her three tormentors felt as though a giant weight had been lifted. They had to be playing some sort of game designed to bring attention to themselves. And when they returned, she was sure there would be a fantastic story to go along with their absence. She did wonder idly where they might be holed up. Perhaps with a friend or a relative.
Probably on a
pricey
shopping trip
in
some
exotic
place
.
Maybe their mom
s had sprung for a spa weekend.
With a jolt, Mercy
envisioned Mrs. Boyd's perpetually arrogant expression. She couldn’t imagine Lindy’s mother with a smile on her face. She seemed to think that her position as the mayor's wife entitled her to be the queen of the whole wide world...an attitude she had passed on to her daughter...
Mrs. Boyd
was
also
the president of the
Tannersville
L
adies
C
lub.
A
little shiver play
ed
around
Mercy's
spine.
In fact, all three girl
’
s mothers were staunch members of the ladies club.
But
Lindy’s mother had
the
most imposing air. She always seemed to be looking down her nose at everyone in her path
,
with her brows permanently
fused
together.
Likewise, Mrs.
Hoffman
and Mrs.
Mandrake
seemed to have the same relationship with Mrs.
Boyd
that
Becca and Amy had with Lindy.
That is, they were followers who hung on her every word and laughed when she laughe
d and frowned when she frowned.
“Mercy, are you all right?”
Kelli
leaned toward her, peering
into her face over her glasses.
Mercy nodded, trying to quell the queasy feeling in her stomach.
She had the strangest feeling that something huge and horrible was hovering just outside her frame of knowledge. Some un
see
n monster was waiting to gobble her up if she didn’t watch her step.
What c
an
it be?
She considered the recent changes in her life. Her grandmother was living on the other side of an antique mirror. Her guardian was a cat. She was lying to everyone about her living situation.
She
had become
a Witch-in-Training
and
receiv
ed witching
lessons from a television hostess. She
had gone to her first dance, which ended in disaster, but she had also experienced her first kisses and oh, by the way, she had a boyfriend. But today, the big change was that Lindy Boyd, her nemesis since grade school, had supposedly disappeared under mysterious circumstances and taken her two
groupies with her.
Greg swiveled around to wink at her. He gave her the cute smile that almost made her forget about the unseen monster
smacking its chops. Almost…
She reached for another slice of pizza. Might as well enjoy herself until Lindy returned to make her life miserable
.
~*~
When Mercy and
Felicity
arrived at school the following Monday, they walked together under the archway and down the hall toward their first period class. Mercy stopped by her locker and Greg came up behind her.
“Hey. Did you hear?”
She turned, expecting to see a smile on his face, but he wore a frown. “No, what’s up?”
“The whole place is buzzing with the news. Lindy Boyd, Amy Hoffman and Becca Mandrake are
really
missing.
Apparently it wasn’t a hoax.
They didn’t make it home
after the dance Friday night
.
They found Lindy’s car abandoned a few blocks from school.
”
Mercy dropped her
a
lgebra book and she stooped to pick it up at the same time Greg did. Their hands grasped the book together. Greg relinquished it and they stood, staring into each other
’
s eyes.
She swallowed hard. “But they were
there when we left the dance
.”
He nodded. “None of the girls made it from
Lindy’s car to their own fr
ont door
s
. They just
evaporat
ed.”
“Oh!” She couldn’t stand Lindy and her friends, but she wouldn’t want something
really
bad to happen to them. “Where could they have gone?”
Greg shrugged. “Nobody knows, but the police are going
around
question
ing
all the kids who saw them last.”
“T-that would be us.”
The warning bell sounded and
Felicity
returned with her
a
lgebra book and homework in hand. “Have you heard the news? Lindy, Becca and Amy have
really
run away from home.”
Mercy’s stomach tightened. She somehow knew this wasn’t right. Why would a stuck-up girl like Lindy run away from home? She had it all. Her parents were wealthy and bought her everything she wanted. She was pretty, when she wasn’t glaring, and no matter how mean she was, she never seemed to get in
trouble.
Becca’s parents were divorced and they both showered her with gifts in an attempt to be her favorite parent. She was turning sixteen the next month and was already bragging about the kind of car her father was going to buy her.
Amy’s father was an orthodontist. He had applied braces to all the kids with crooked teeth, including
his daughter.
Amy was pleasant enough unless she was in Lindy’s company
. That’s
when she turned into a Lindy-clone with attitude to match.
Mercy frowned. She couldn’t believe that all three had
vanish
ed.
“Let’s go. We don’t want to be late for class,” Felicity urged.
Mercy fell into step between
Felicity
and Greg. Apparently he was going to walk with them to
a
lgebra, although his class was in the other direction. He rested his hand on the back of
Mercy’s
neck as they walked down the hallway.
A little rush of pleasure tingled at
the spot he was touching.
He really likes me
.
Other students watched them, some raised a hand in greeting; others called out as they passed. Greg liked Me
rcy and he was making it clear.
Felicity
walked just
ahead of
them, still talking about the three runaways.
“I mean, those girls are so
hateful
, nobody in their right mind would want
to kidnap
them. Who could have taken them? Gyps
ie
s?” When they reached the classroom,
Felicity
ducked inside
still muttering to herself
, leaving Mercy standing
outside
the
door with Greg
.
Mercy
turned to him with a smile. “Thanks for walking with me, Greg.”
He flashed a grin. “Sure. Be careful, Mercy. I don’t want you to disappear.” He turned and walked back down the hall as the hairs on the back of her neck went on alert.
~*~
CHAPTER SEVEN
Two days went
by and no more disappearances.
Gran had not returne
d. Nor had Lindy, Amy or Becca.
The local
s
heriff’s
d
eputies
were parked outside the school and a patrol car followed each of the busses as they dropped off students. Still no trace of the mean girls and Mercy had not informed anyone that her grandmother
had
also
been misplaced
.
She thought about the three
absent
girls, wondered fleetingly where they might be, but reflected that it had been a pretty good couple of days for her. No one had bullied her
i
n
th
e
school yard
. No one had bounced a basketball off her head in gym class. And no one had taunted her, glared at her, made ugly faces or called her any
unsavory
names.
It had been a remarkably pleasant few days
. If only Gran would come home.
Mercy gathered eggs after school and
finished
her homework.
P
rowl
ing
through her grandmother
’
s
belonging
s
, she
discover
ed
more in the journal. She
read
that her gran
dmother
had
intended to
personally deliver Mercy’s
lessons
and teach her
to control her powers.
But
,
that was before she got zapped into a mirror.