Sealed with a Wish by Rose David Page A

preferably alive.
    “Another open mic night?” I said.
    “Yeah.” Natalie took back the flyer. “Raj invited me last night. He’s doing some guitar stuff. You should come.”
    “Yeah, maybe.” I had a feeling that Raj would have preferred to be alone with Natalie, but it really wasn’t my place to say it.
    “So, hey,” Nat said, uncertainty creeping into her voice. “About last night.”
    A lie sprung to my lips with surprising ease. “I’m feeling a lot better,” I said. “Whatever it was, Mom said it must have been a twenty-four-hour thing.”
    “Oh, sure.” Natalie bit her lip.
    As I came to a stop outside the classroom, so did she. I raised an eyebrow. “Nat? What’s up?”
    She shook her head. “Nothing.” Which, of course, meant the exact opposite.
    I tried to figure out with any possible problems, and this time, my gut did tighten. “Did Rajesh tell you last night?” I asked.
    Nat’s eyes widened. “Tell me what?”
    Crap , I thought. Hurry, backspace, backspace! “I, umm... Nothing. I don’t know,” was my articulate response.
    At least it was better than, “Oh, you mean he didn’t tell you about the big crush he has on you?” Rajesh and I had never talked about it, but it was obvious to everyone that he was into Natalie. The only person who didn’t seem to notice was Natalie herself.
    “Raj says he saw you in the parking lot with Sean Fabry,” she said. “I mean, he thinks he saw you. Is that true?”
    All of the sudden, the remains of my drowsiness had burned away, and I felt as wide-awake as I would have with three Venti Mocha Frappuccinos in me. As my brain uttered a string of panic-laced expletives, I shook my head. “Absolutely not. No.”
    “So you weren’t in the parking lot?”
    “I guess I was, kind of.” Damn, where was that freaking backspace when I needed it?
    “So you were there?”
    “Umm...” I started.
    Say something, you psycho!
    In one gust of breath, I replied, “I wasn’t feeling well so I had to walk through the parking lot. You know, because I was on my way home. Because I was sick.” I tried to smile.
    Natalie’s eyebrows came together for a thoughtful moment. “Oh, okay.”
    “And Sean Fabry was definitely not there,” I added.
    “That’s... nice.” Nat looked as if she wanted to ask something else, but after a second of hesitation, she only shook her head. We ducked into class and sat next to each other, like usual.
    #
    As the hour passed, I kept sneaking looks at Natalie from the corner of my eye. When had Rajesh seen me with Sean, and why did I feel so nervous about that? It wasn’t like he had also figured out that I had lost my ring and (by the way) I was half-genie. To most people, my encounter with Sean Fabry would have looked totally innocent.
    For some reason, though, my gaze kept slipping back to Natalie’s increasingly hard-to-read profile.
    “Layla?” Mr. Lopez said, his voice cutting through my reverie. “Are you awake today?”
    “Am I...? What?” I blurted. Quiet laughter bloomed all over the room, and I felt my face heat up.
    Mr. Lopez crossed his arms over his chest. “I was just asking what you thought of the expert’s interpretation of Petruchio and Katherine’s relationship.”
    What expert? Was Mr. Lopez talking about himself? He seemed like the kind of guy who would refer to himself in third-person, and by such a creepy title.
    He raised his eyebrows at me, waiting for my answer.
    “Of course,” I said, trying to sound as intelligent as possible. “The expert...”
    Mr. Lopez frowned. “Layla, you did read last night’s homework, didn’t you?”
    At this point, my options were either: a) claim I had read the assignment, but risk humiliating myself further if I answered the question incorrectly or b) confess and--you guessed it!--keep embarrassing myself.
    Presented with those two attractive options, I opted for a third path: retreat. I stared resolutely at the surface of my desk, wondering if I could