Super Freak by Vanessa Barger Page A

Mind-numbing algebra equations didn’t really seem like much fun at the moment.
    I spent five minutes solving and un-solving my Rubik’s cube, which normally helped me think and calm down, but even the familiar feeling of warm plastic and the flash of the primary colors weren’t comforting. At last, I pulled out the diary page and gently unrolled it on the desk again, my fingers tracing over the script. Someone wrote this. The curse existed, and I wanted some information. A little paint and punishment wouldn’t stop me. Whoever was behind this had no idea who they were dealing with.
    I had always been one of the kids that, when told they couldn’t or shouldn’t do something, would do it just to prove everyone wrong. Within reason, of course. I wasn’t stupid. The only exception had been the magic tests. I couldn’t help those, and somehow it made this all the more important. If I could solve a mystery the town had been hiding for decades, it would prove to everyone, even to me, that magic wasn’t the answer to everything. That someone without any talent for magic or potions or prophecy could do something they couldn’t.
    Every test administrator and teacher I’d ever known, from the ones who thought I was pretending to the ones who thought I was an idiot, flashed through my mind. My hands fisted on the desktop. I would solve this. I was good at puzzles, and this was the biggest one I’d ever come across.
    So intent on my decision, I jumped out of my seat when my phone buzzed across the papers on my desk. I flipped it open quickly, afraid my parents would hear and remember they wanted to take that away too.
    “Hello?”
    “Oh thank God, you’ve still got your phone.” Diana said, her relief evident, even through the phone. “It took me two hours of whining and wheedling to get mine back from Dad.”
    I stole a glance at the door. Mom and Dad were downstairs, and I doubted they’d be up anytime soon. “What happened, Diana? I don’t understand what’s going on.”
    “Someone set us up. And when I find out who, I’m going to tear their hair out by the roots,” she hissed.
    I slouched into the chair, glad that we thought the same thing. “Do you have any ideas?”
    “No. But I know it couldn’t have been us. We were together until we went home. I don’t know anyone who knew where we were. And I don’t know how they connected us to the paint.”
    I sighed, my breath fuzzing the line. “It’s the same color I painted my room, and the can of touchup paint is missing. But I don’t have a clue how it got there. I didn’t take it out.”
    There was a pause on the other end of the line. “Really?”
    Anger sprang to life. “Are you saying I did it?”
    “No! That’s stupid. I know you didn’t. But how do you know no one got in?”
    I started to tell her about the “alarms” my parents always put up, but I stopped. I didn’t know for sure those were in place. For all I knew, they hadn’t gotten them done yet. “I don’t know,” I said. “But I didn’t see anyone. And no one has mentioned anything looking broken. But they had to have gotten in somehow. Unless Ms. Widdershins set us up herself.”
    “That’s what I think. But I don’t understand why. I mean, she doesn’t know you that well, she loves Leo’s brother, and I’m fabulous. Why would she want to do that to us?”
    I shrugged, and then realized she couldn’t see me. “Who knows? Have you talked to Leo?”
    “No. I can’t get him to answer his phone. But I know the kinds of punishments they’ve gotten before. His dad’s going to make sure he never even looks sideways at a can of paint again. Guaranteed.”
    I thought I heard the creak of the steps, and I started to panic a little. “I gotta go. I think the parents are coming up.”
    “Right. See you tomorrow. Bye.”
    I snapped the phone closed and shoved it in a drawer just before my bedroom door opened. I looked up from where I scribbled some numbers onto my math