Faire Exchange: Chapter 29

Jeremy is cursed.

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Jeremy was as good as dead. He'd gotten the letter from Mrs. Horn, and his job was now to deliver it to his mother. As soon as she heard about it, she'd start screaming at him until she lost her voice, and then she'd keep going anyway. He'd be grounded, he'd lose all TV privileges, and he probably wouldn't even get dinner until he somehow apologized personally to Rina.

By the time the final bell rang, a deep gloom had buried his whole class. Rina was gone, and no one was happy. Martin left without saying anything. Jeremy strapped on his backpack, and the letter alone seemed to add a hundred pounds.

Still, he carried it through the school hallway, toward his fate. If he had the guts, he'd have already tossed it in the trash without telling anybody. But he knew it wouldn't work. Mom would still find out. No weaseling through this.

As he passed the first-grade classrooms on his way to the entrance, a small paper tube appeared in the air in front of him.

The tube dropped down, and he caught it. The seal in the middle broke. Jeremy unrolled it and read the message on the inside.

Jeremy Vlachos,

You are receiving this because you have been placed under a curse by Ardel Algruent, Duke of Frangont, due to your recent actions against his daughter, the Lady Tsarina. The effects of the curse will not be revealed until it takes effect, which will be within one hour from your receipt of this letter.

To remove the curse, you must apologize to Lady Tsarina in person, and she must accept your apology.

Please consult Galen at the Roth House with any further questions.

Sincerely,
Bejaluce Ba
Secretary and Assistant to Duke Ardel of Frangont.

Jeremy stood frozen in the middle of the hall, gawking at the message. Apologize? A curse? One hour? How was he supposed to drop everything, run to the Roth House, and apologize to someone like Rina? He knew it was in Kramer Heights, thanks to Papu. But the bus ride home was fifteen minutes just by itself, and then he and Mom would have to figure out where exactly the Roth House was, and then ride all the way out to Kramer Heights, and hope beyond hope that traffic wasn't clogged!

Zoe Walters ran by, and almost before Jeremy knew it, she stopped and looked at the scroll in his hand. She was holding one just like it.

"You got one too?" she said.

"Y-yeah." Jeremy held the scroll up to her. He was too terrified to be starstruck by her this time. "About a curse?"

"It just appeared right in front of me. And we only have one hour? Like I'm supposed to want to see Rina right now?"

"What're you gonna do?" Jeremy said, hoping she didn't notice him gazing at her eyes.

"I don't know. I gotta meet up with my brother, and then we gotta ride home, and then I gotta show Mom… I can't apologize. Rina's the worst human being I've ever met in my life. All she's done is make me miserable. But…"

"But…" But Jeremy didn't feel all that good about joining in the food fight.

"But I don't wanna be cursed," Zoe sighed.

Jeremy stared at his scroll. "It would sure help if I knew where the Roth House was."

"The Roth House?" Gregg was just passing by, with Nadia tagging along. "Where the Wyrdnin are staying? What about it?"

Jeremy showed him the message. "Zoe and I have to go there now, and apologize to Rina."

"But we don't know where the Roth House is," Zoe said. "I've never heard of it before."

"It's on Frazier Street," Gregg said. "I got the address from Ms. Ivory."

"Frazier Street?" Zoe said. "Hey, that's just ten minutes from my house."

Jeremy groaned. "Yeah, but I still gotta get home first."

"Gregg and I were about to head out there," Nadia said.

"Did you get cursed, too?" Jeremy said. Now he wondered about Martin, who'd trudged out ahead of him, so depressed you'd think he was heading to his own funeral.

Gregg and Nadia turned their eyes away and groaned.

"No," Nadia said. "We're going because we want to."

Jeremy and Zoe shared a suspicious groan of their own.

"Look," Nadia said, "we feel bad about how we treated Rina, okay? She's my friend. There, I said it. And I wanna make it right."

Shock and fury splashed across Zoe's face. "But what about all that—"

"I didn't mean it. Look, I know her better than you do. She hated it here bad enough already, and I know the food fight didn't help."

"I can't believe you're still sticking up for her. After everything she did?"

"Yeah, well, at least Rina never slapped me."

The boys shoved themselves inbetween the girls. "Okay, that's enough," Gregg said. "Look, I think we just need to get this out of the way as soon as possible. If we squeeze in my mom's car we can head out there together."

"No way." Zoe crossed her arms. "I'm not riding with any friend of Rina."

"You're kidding. We don't have a lot of time here."

"I got plenty of time. I'll just go home and get my mom and dad to take me. Jeremy, you coming?"

"Wha?" A firework went off in Jeremy's chest. "Huh?"

"Ride the bus to my place. My parents can take us to the Roth House and then drive you home."

"C'mon, Jeremy," Gregg said, "it's not that far from here, either. We can knock this out in no time."

The fire spread to his arms and legs. Zoe was inviting him to her house? Did this mean she liked him? That she wanted to go on dates with him? Hold his hand, peck him on the cheek? This was all so sudden. Sure, Gregg might be mad that Jeremy didn't go together with him. But this was Zoe, and…

"Zoe!" Her younger brother's voice echoed down the hall. "Hurry up, the bus is about to go!"

"You hear that?" Zoe said. "Now or never."

"Uh, you guys go on ahead," Jeremy said to Gregg and Nadia. "See you there!"

He and Zoe ran to the end of the hall, where her younger brother was tapping his feet. "Finally! Who's your boyfriend?"

Jeremy felt like he was about to spontaneously combust… Or, on second thought, that it had already happened.

"He is not my boyfriend, Paul," Zoe said. "Me and him just have important business to take care of."

"Like kissing?"

Zoe snarled at him.

The three of them hopped onto the bus together. Zoe let Jeremy take the window seat next to her, while her brother sat across the aisle, within her reach.

In only a few minutes, every ounce of gloom had burned away from Jeremy's shoulders. Sitting next to Zoe Walters! He'd pictured this so many times, but he never thought it would actually happen, that it would be so sudden, that she'd be so insistent on it. Now he hardly had any idea what to do or say. He had to say something, right? Or did he?

Shouldn't he be calling Mom, telling her where he was going?

Zoe patted his arm. "Thanks for coming with me. I wouldn't have wanted to go alone."

"N-neither would I." Jeremy glanced out the window. "What the heck is Papu doing there?"