“I don’t know anything about that,” I protested—which was honestly the truth. I had no idea how the butts had turned into a golden coin in the first place or how they had changed back again either. It had just…happened.
“Don’t lie to me!” Groperson barked. He glared at me menacingly. “You gave me some kind of trick coin or something to make a fool of me!”
I felt my fear and worry turning into something else—anger.
“First of all, I didn’t give you anything,” I snapped back. “You took that coin right out of my hand without my permission! And secondly, it’s not my fault if you lost it and somehow got a, uh, handful of cigarette butts instead. You can’t blame me for what you did.”
Groperson narrowed his piggy little eyes and fixed me with a malevolent glare.
“Oh yes I can blame you, girly. I’m the Goddamned landlord around here, or did you forget it?”
“Like you’d let us forget!” I snapped back. “If you’d waited for the rent at the time it was due, maybe you wouldn’t have ended up looking like a fool at the pawn shop, or wherever you went!”
I knew the moment I spoke the words that I had gone too far. But after years of Groperson raising our rent and being nasty to my mom, something in me just snapped and I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Speaking of the rent, girly, it’s overdue now that your little fake coin trick flopped,” the nasty landlord snarled at me. “And I’m charging you double to make up for it.”
“What?” I demanded, thinking I must have heard him wrong. “But you can’t do that! My mom and I barely make enough to pay the rent as it is, since the last time you raised it!”
“Too bad,” Groperson sneered. “I better have double the rent in my hand by this time Saturday morning or you and your lazy, chain-smoking mother are out on your asses! Do I make myself clear?”
“My mom is not lazy!” I exclaimed (I couldn’t exactly refute the chain-smoking part.) “And you can’t do this! We…we’ll sue you or something!” I added, not sure how I would do this but thinking that there must be laws against a landlord suddenly doubling the rent like he was threatening to do.
“Oh yeah?” Groperson smirked at me. “And how you gonna pay the legal fees, girly? You know most lawyers want at least five hundred bucks to even walk in the front door, right? How you gonna come up with that and get me into court in time before I kick you and your mom out?”
I didn’t have an answer to that. And to be honest, I didn’t even know any lawyers. Come to think of it, I didn’t think there were any kind of legal services in Frostproof at any price—let alone five hundred dollars.
The landlord could tell by my silence that I had no way to refute his claims and he gave me a nasty, yellow-toothed grin.
“Double the rent,” he said, jabbing a pudgy finger at me. “By this time Saturday or you’re both out.”
And with a final nasty smirk, he moved past me and swaggered back into his apartment.
44
I didn’t know who to tell.
I didn’t like to tell Bran and Lachlan, because I was afraid they might want to go beat Groperson up, which would only land us all in hot water and get my mom kicked out immediately. And I hated to tell the rest of the coven because I was sure they would all want to chip in and try to pay the rent. Which was nice, but I had my pride—mom and I had always been able to make it on our own without charity from anyone so far. I didn’t want to start asking for handouts now—especially not from friends.
I didn’t want to tell my mom either—she didn’t need any more to worry about on her plate at the moment and besides, this was my fault. Not completely, because Groperson had snatched the magical coin I had somehow conjured up out of a handful of cigarette butts. But still, it was my magic, I had to reluctantly admit—though it was really weird to think of myself as having magic—that had started the whole debacle in the first place. So that made it my fault and I was going to have to fix it.
I worried all day and somehow managed to gnaw several more nails into a ragged mess as I worked the problem in my mind. By this time my manicure was a lost cause but I was so upset—and trying so hard not to show it—that I barely even cared.
In the end, I went back to the I Scream diner that evening and asked Joey if I could work every night that week. I knew how much my mom had saved towards the rent and how much she had in savings—she never kept things like that from me—and I reasoned that if I made really good tips, I might be able to make up the rest. Of course, it would completely clean out our meager bank account and take all of the tiny emergency fund we’d managed to save over the years, but I didn’t see any other choice.
I just had to work as hard as I could and hope for the best.
Joey looked stunned when he saw me, his eyes opening wide as he took me in.
“Emma?” he asked, his voice slightly hoarse. “Is that really you?”
“Of course it’s me—I just dyed my hair and got contacts!” I put a hand to my flowing raven hair self-consciously.
The worst thing about my new, dazzling beauty, was how it affected the people who had already known me, I thought. The old plain-Jane Emma was gone for good but now they treated me differently, just because I was pretty.
It made me feel super awkward and uncomfortable.
I explained that I needed extra shifts but after a moment, I realized Joey wasn’t listening.
“Joey?” I snapped my fingers in front of his face. “Hello?”
“Oh, uh, sorry Emma.” He shook his head. “Just…can’t get over how you grew up all of a sudden. The new look is really working for you.”
“Uh, thanks.” I felt intensely uncomfortable. Joey had always treated me like a kid before—a competent kid who was capable of waitressing—but a kid just the same. Now he was looking at me like I was some movie star who had descended on his humble diner and decided to grace him with their presence.
“So…what do you need again?” he asked me, blinking.
“I asked if I can pick up some extra shifts,” I said. “Like maybe every night this week? I’m really sorry but we need the money.”
“Sure, Emma.” He nodded eagerly, though in the past he would have asked questions about how it would affect my schoolwork. “Whatever you need.”
“Well…thanks.” I began edging my way out the door, uncomfortably aware that his eyes were still glued to my new hair and body. “I guess I’ll see you, uh, tomorrow night?”
“Yeah, that’ll be just fine.” He nodded again. There was a weird, almost hypnotized look in his eyes that made me wish desperately that I still looked like my old self.
But there was no help for it—the old Emma Plunkett was gone and the new girl was here to stay, I reminded myself unhappily, as I finally let myself out of the diner’s swinging glass door.
“What’s wrong, Emma? You look upset,” Bran remarked when he caught a look at my face.
“Yes, little one—what happened?” Lachlan frowned protectively. “Did the owner give you problems?”