Perfect Revenge by K. L. Denman

school. Plan B means the zits live on and there’s no chance I will go anywhere. I’ll have to pretend I’m sick, but I can do that.
    Back to Plan A. The largest question is, do I wear the purple hat to school or not? If I go hatless and show everyone (Kyle) that my forehead is clear, they’ll wonder what they saw in room 101. I could say the zits were fake, makeup artistry to get out of detention. That’s quite good.
    But if I wear the hat again, people will probably point and whisper stuff like, “Do you know why she’s wearing that? It’s cuzshe’s hiding a cluster of volcanic zits.” And at that point, it would be fun to whip off the hat and be all cool. The rumor spreaders would look like idiots, wouldn’t they? It would serve them right. Yes, I’ll definitely wear the hat.
    All at once, I’m super tired. Small wonder, considering the day I’ve had. I’m so tired, I can’t even bring myself to log in to Facebook. It’s all I can do to brush my teeth before I crash into bed.

chapter eleven
    It’s like magick! No, it’s not
like
magick, it
is
magick. I am zit free! No matter which way I tilt my head, I can’t see anything marring my perfect forehead.
    I get dressed as fast as I can. I can’t wait to get to school. Because if I’m zitless, then that must mean the revenge spell worked. And I get to watch Rachel’s world fall apart. Yes!
    No.
    Huh?
    I try that thought again. I get to watch Rachel suffer the way she made me suffer. Eeeuw. What the heck? I should be happy about getting what I want, shouldn’t I? That’s how it’s supposed to work. I wonder if the zits have reversed and poisoned my brain? And then I get another thought, a brand new one. And it’s one I should have had a lot sooner.
    I’m going to feel the pain of others.
    Omigod. What have I done? This is so
not
good. I grab my purse, slap the purple hat on my head and bolt out the front door. I go next door, stand on the lawn and yell, “Stellaaaaa! I need to talk to you!”
    And Stella comes out of her house. She’s wearing neon pink pants with a lemon yellow top and bright red shoes. To top it off, she’s wearing the hat her baba wore yesterday, the one with bunches of plants sticking out everywhere. I’m so stunned that I forget what I was going to say.
    â€œHi, Lizzie,” Stella says. “What’s wrong?”
    â€œUm,” I say. What if I tell her that she’s totally destroyed my life and I hate her? I can’t do it. Her feelings would be hurt. So I say, “My zits are gone.”
    She grins. “Good for you, Lizzie. You did it!”
    We start walking toward the school, and I wonder what people will think seeing us together, but I can’t tell Stella to pretend she doesn’t know me, can I?
    So I try to tell her my problem. “Stella, there’s a glitch in the revenge spell. It’s like this. I don’t want to see Rachel get hurt. I mean I do, that was the whole point, but now I feel sorry for her.”
    Stella gives me a sideways look. “Uh-oh. We, uh, didn’t think about that, did we?”
    â€œI know
I
didn’t!” I say. “I was sure I couldn’t give her something good that I didn’t already have. I mean, I think I’ve always cared about other people. I’m sure I did. But this isn’t like that. And it’s really scary because I got a triple whammy, right? Now I can’t even
think
about other people getting hurt. It makes my stomach feel icky.”
    â€œReally?” Stella asks.
    â€œReally. So we’re going to have to get your baba to fix this too, okay?”
    Stella frowns. “I don’t know if she’ll fix this one.”
    â€œWhy not?” I ask.
    â€œBecause...”
    Before Stella can finish what she was saying, a kid on a bike zooms past and grabs her hat.
    Stella yells, “Hey!” But the kid