Potions and Pageants Page 7

  “Nice face,” she said.

  “Nice hair,” Shara retorted.

  “Thanks. Got it from my absentee father,” said Percy.

  Shara laughed. “Damn shame. If it had come out of a bottle, I might have got some myself.”

  The Humble girls in the room looked at each other in confusion, not knowing whether the two girls who were definitely not the most attractive among the bunch were joking or not.

  Percy hoped for Shara’s sake that the judging panel wasn’t going to be a bunch of old stiffs. Shara had the pallid, greyish skin, protruding eyes, and long matted hair that was typical of the finfolk, and had chosen to highlight her features with a lot of black eye makeup and dark purple lipstick.

  “Am I not diverse enough?” Shara said with a smile to Nilgun and her friends.

  Nilgun smiled politely.

  “Diverse if we’re going for gothic freaks,” muttered Blanche, making Barbie snigger.

  The Humbles would no doubt think Nan was off her rocker if she explained to them that at least they had achieved species diversity. Nan looked regretful that she had to bite her tongue.

  “Boys chose not to enter because we discouraged them,” said Bella snootily. “Boys in a beauty contest? What will you think of next!”

  “It would have been fun!” said Nilgun disapprovingly.

  “Well if they had been brave enough, they could have done it,” snapped Bella.

  “Any more questions?” said Nan almost pleadingly, eager to move the conversation on to something different.

  “I have a question,” said Percy loudly.

  As all of the other girls were shaking their heads in disapproval at one thing or another and none had raised their hands, Nan had no option but to look enquiringly at Percy.

  “We should have a theme for dresses in the first round,” Percy said. “How about cherubs?”

  Nan glared. Some of the girls tittered, as if Percy had said an incredibly stupid thing.

  “We’ve already got our dresses,” said Bella snootily. “The theme for the first round is Princess Perfect.”

  “No!” said Percy in mock astonishment. “Is it really? Then my dress will fit right in!”

  She dragged out a black ball gown that she had worn to one of her mother’s Halloween events. It had a fitted bodice and an immense netted skirt that looked like it was made of spider webs. The waist was cinched in by a gruesomely elaborate and realistic looking black spider with glittering gem eyes.

  “I’ll be monster princess,” she said. “Monster Princess Mosshead. Are there any rules for make up? I was thinking of having my face painted green.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” snapped Bella. “This is not a fancy dress party. It’s about beauty and grace and poise. If you can’t respect that, then don’t bother participating!”

  “Are you saying that I don’t have beauty and grace and poise?” demanded Percy. “Must I have golden hair and a bride-like ball gown in order to belong?”

  She looked snidely at the lilac lace confection that was spilling out from under the lid of the big box on Bella’s lap. It was clearly a designer dress.

  “Even this spider has grace and poise,” said Percy.

  Tearing the spider off her dress, she hurled it. Bella jerked out of the way. The spider flew past her and hit Barbie in the face, who screamed and stood up so fast that her glass of juice spilled all over Bella’s dress box.

  “My dress!” screeched Bella.

  “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” yelled Barbie.

  “Oh no!” cried Nan, hurrying over to peer into Bella’s dress box.

  “It’s ruined!” screamed Bella.

  Mrs Gooding rushed into the room. Seeing what had happened, she took the box from Bella, and reassured her, “It’s not all that bad. I’ll have it dried and fixed up for you in the wave of a—”

  She had been about to say in the ‘wave of a wand’, but caught herself just in time, shooting a chagrined look at the Humble girls.

  “In just a jiffy,” she finished quickly.

  Succubus Bella knew that Mrs Gooding was a witch. Nodding her head in desperation, she hurried to follow Mrs Gooding out of the room. Eleanor scurried after her, but Bella ordered her to stay in the room and take notes of everything that Nan said.

  Percy wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes. Since her mother had been away there had been no parties, which meant there had been no silly kerfuffles. She had missed them.

  “Flipping hilarious,” she said.

  Nan rounded on her. “That was not funny!”

  “Give it a moment. It will sink in,” Percy reassured her, still chuckling.

  She was not the only one. Nilgun and her friends were also trying to conceal their laughter, and even a girl called Delphine who appeared to be one of Bella’s group was struggling to hide her smirk.

  In the aftermath of the mini mayhem, it was decided that all of the rest of the girls would put on their dresses and get ready for the actual dress rehearsal. This would take place at the school.

  “Mum called the new headmistress,” Nan announced to the room at large. “And fortunately Headmistress Glory agreed we can still use the school assembly hall today, especially after mum explained that we’ve secured national celebrity and former Miss United Kingdom, Alice Evangelista, as head judge!”

  Nilgun and her friends all squealed. Clearly this Alice Evangelista was worthy of notice, though Percy had never heard of her.

  Nan excitedly told the girls that Alice Evangelista and the two assistant judges had agreed to be present for the dress rehearsal later that afternoon, and all the girls clapped their hands in glee.

  When all of the other girls had hurried off upstairs to get changed and put on their makeup, Nan whirled around to confront Percy.

  “Enough is enough!” she said in a way that reminded Percy very much of the old Cherub.

  “You know, you sound just like —“

  “I don’t want to hear it. You promise me right now that you won’t ruin everything,” Nan demanded.

  “Fine, fine, I promise,” said Percy. “I’ll even wear the nice dresses that mom insisted on buying for me.” She held up the black dress. “Except today. I have to wear this, because I didn’t get anything else.”

  Nan was shaking her head. “It’s a bad idea. I don’t think you should be a contestant. I think you should just watch and help with the lighting and the stage stuff and the organizing.”

  “No way,” protested Percy. “I’ll be bored. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m actually looking forward to prancing around on the stage and pretending to have a talent and all of that, if only to see the look on Bella’s face. And what does it matter anyway? It’s not like I’m going to win. I don’t even want to win. They’re bound to get rid of me in the first round.”

  “Please heavens,” muttered Nan.

  She hurried out of the lounge, and Percy followed her into the hallway. “Where are you going?”

  “Mum’s bedroom to get changed. I told the girls they could use my bedroom and bathroom.”

  “Why change? You’re not a contestant.”

  “So? I want Alice Evangelista to see me at my best. First impressions count.” Nan hurried upstairs.

  Now that the lounge was empty, Percy decided to shut the door and change into her own black dress. This only took a couple of minutes, since Percy had no intention of spending hours primping her hair and doing her make up.

  A quiet knock came on the door and Percy opened it to find the finfolk girl, Shara, outside.

  “Are you finished?” Shara asked hopefully. “It’s just that all the other rooms are busy, and I wanted to get changed.”

  Percy had heard, but never seen for herself, that finfolk had gills in their ribcages. No doubt Shara didn’t want any of the Humbles seeing hers. Or the succubae either.

  Nodding, Percy hurried out.

  She decided to go upstairs and see what she looked like in the mirror. But when she got there
, there were five girls already crammed into the main bathroom, and half a dozen of them crammed into Nan’s ensuite bathroom. The rest of them were taking turns in front of Nan’s full-length mirror.

  Percy loitered in the corridor, feeling like she was getting in people’s way.

  Nan bustled out of her mum’s bedroom, having changed into a pretty pale blue dress. Sticking her head into her bedroom, she said, “Some of you can go in to my mum’s bedroom if you like. She has an ensuite bathroom too.”

  Nilgun and her friends all rushed out at once in that direction.

  “Why on earth did you invite them all around to your house?” Percy demanded. “There is hardly enough room to breathe in here.”

  Nan shrugged. “Bella suggested it. I’d originally planned to do this bit at school, but she insisted. She’s been coming here these past two weeks, helping me with my mood board, and deciding the themes and everything. She’s been really helpful.”

  Percy’s eyes narrowed. She doubted Bella had ever been helpful in her entire life to anyone other than herself.

  “Isn’t that a bit suspicious?” she asked.

  Nan’s cheeks went a little pink. “No it’s not! She and I have been getting along really well. And we have independent judges, so it’s not like she expects helping me is going to give her an advantage or anything.”

  “Hmm,” said Percy. “So you two were never friends before?”

  “That doesn’t mean anything!”

  “You don’t think it is interesting that ice queen Bella has decided to be friends with you now that you’re organizing a pageant?”

  “Do you have to be so mean?” hissed Nan.

  “Okay, fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Anyway, can I use your upstairs bathroom instead?”

  The upstairs bathroom was on the second floor, just below the attic. It was a pokey little room that was only used by the family because Mrs Gooding thought it wasn’t up to the right standard for guests. But Percy had once been considered almost a member of the family, and so she knew about it.

  “Fine, but don’t tell the other girls about it,” said Nan quietly, looking embarrassed.

  Percy felt like telling her that there was no need for her to be ashamed of her house. She knew that most of the students at Humble High tended to come from wealthy families. Nan must have earned her place there on merit. Plus Nan was a witch. She had actual wand-magic. Percy doubted any of the other students did. Witching kids tended to go to witching schools.

  Nan’s mother was a fine witch. Percy was sure that if only Mrs Gooding would put some effort into marketing some of her potions, people would have been breaking down the front door to get hold of them.

  As a little girl Percy had loved nothing more than running around with Nan upstairs in the big huge attic at the top of the house that Nan’s mother used as a workshop.

  One side of the attic was crammed full of all the magical books that Mrs Gooding collected, and in the middle was the great big worktop where she brewed her potions and new inventions. All around were shelves crammed full of bottles and jars and baskets of strange and wonderful ingredients from all over the world that she had hunted down in Magicwild Market.

  Mrs Gooding loved to invent things, and she had a very thick old grimoire which she had inherited from her own mother, and to which she had added hundreds of pages of new potions and spells. She had often spent her evenings and weekends up there, tinkering with something to make it just perfect for a neighbor or a friend’s latest ailment. But she’d never sold them. She’d given them away for free.

  Selling a little something was no bad thing in Percy’s opinion. London was the center of England’s magical marketplace after all. Percy didn’t say this to Nan. Nan wouldn’t want to hear it.

  Percy lightly bounced up the next flight of stairs to the second floor, and she had just opened the door of the little bathroom up there, when she heard a noise coming from the workshop above.

  Percy glanced up to the ceiling. There it was again. A little creak, like a footstep.

  She had missed the workshop. She missed the bowls full of shells and stones and feathers that she and Nan had collected as little girls, while they trailed after Mrs Gooding on her long nature walks where she like to forage for plants and insects and all the fresh ingredients she needed for her work.

  Creak, creak, it went again. As if someone was creeping about up there.

  Frowning, Percy went into the spare room. It had a bed and wardrobe in it, but had an abandoned feel as if it had not been used in a long time. And yet the trapdoor that led up to the attic workshop above was open and the ladder had been pulled down.

  Percy was surprised. Mrs Gooding could etherhop into the attic, appearing there almost instantly by magic, and never used the ladder.

  And anyway, Percy had thought Mrs Gooding would have taken Bella’s dress to the laundry room to fix. Maybe the stain had been particularly bad and she had brought it up to the workshop instead.

  Climbing up the ladder quickly, Percy poked her head up the trapdoor to say hello.

  To her surprise, it wasn’t Mrs Gooding in there. It was Bella, and she looked very startled at being discovered by Percy.

  “What are you doing in here?” said Percy, frowning.

  Mrs Gooding had always been very protective of her workshop. She had only ever let Percy and Nan in there under her own supervision, and never alone. Percy was sure that she would never have let Bella in here either.

  Bella had been crouching down next to one of the bookshelves. She stood up hastily. “Oh, I was looking for Mrs Gooding and my dress. I thought she might be in here.”

  “Did you think you’d find her inside one of the books?” said Percy acidly.

  She climbed up the rest of the way into the attic itself so she could take a proper look. Bella had her handbag with her, and it was large enough to put stuff in it. Percy glared at it.

  She could still see that weird cloud of dark mist hovering all around the bag. She had a very strong urge to demand that Bella open it up and let her take a look inside.

  “I was just curious,” said Bella airily. She marched up to Percy, and scooted around her to get to the trapdoor, and then elegantly climbed down the ladder.

  Percy followed her and firmly shut the trapdoor behind her. She hurried to follow Bella back downstairs, intent on keeping a close eye on her.

  7. The Dress Rehearsal

  “I’m telling you, she was acting really suspiciously,” whispered Percy.

  Percy and Nan had just arrived in Mrs Gooding’s car at Humble High School, along with two other girls to whom Mrs Gooding had given a lift. The five of them were waiting inside the school parking lot. The rest of the girls had called cabs to bring them to the school, and they had not arrived yet.

  Behind them was Humble High, a very large, grand old building that looked a cross between a stately home and a palace. It stood at the center of pristinely manicured grounds. In the middle of London, this was a very prime piece of real estate indeed.

  Percy had grabbed Nan and pulled her to a side, out of earshot of Mrs Gooding and the two other girls.

  This had been the first chance she’d got to speak to Nan alone, and had just told her what she had seen up in the attic.

  “I am not going to ask her to let me look inside her bag,” hissed Nan quietly.

  “Well it’s probably too late anyway,” said Percy.

  Bella had brought her own car and chauffeur with her to Nan’s house, and she was currently in it with Blanche and Barbie. They had not arrived yet. Now Percy knew why she had needed her own car.

  “She’ll have hidden it by now,” she said to Nan. “Wonder what she’s going to do with it?”

  “You can’t accuse people of stealing without any proof,” hissed Nan.

  She had said this a little too loudly, and she looked anxiously over at her mother in case she had heard. But two cabs had arrived with a load of girls, and Mrs Gooding was busy waving them over
to join her.

  Percy lowered her voice. “I told you I saw a strange black cloud thing hovering around her bag. Have you heard of any magic like that?”

  “No.”

  “It was really odd. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I’m sure it means something.”

  “But you said you saw that in the café before you even got to my house.”

  “I know. But don’t you think it means something? What if it wasn’t just my memory of our old life that came back? What if some sort of new power came back to me too?”

  Nan stomped her foot. “Woo. A strange new power.” She waved her hands through the air in a wacky manner. “Who is going to believe you? It sounds crazy. Even to me! And I haven’t got any strange new powers, so why should you?”

  Percy glared at her, feeling hurt. “Are you going to ask your mum to check if anything is missing?” she insisted. “Bella’s been at your house all week you said. She could have already taken something before.”

  “No I am not! Mum would notice if anything went missing anyway. I’m not going to accuse Bella of something she didn’t do.”

  “But your mum’s been so busy helping you with this beauty pageant. She might not have had time to notice if anything is gone.”

  “Will you let it go?” said Nan.

  “The question is why are you so eager to let it go?” said Percy sulkily. “If I’d been stealing something you’d never have let me hear the end of it.”

  At that moment, a black limousine pulled up at the curb outside the school, and Nan and her mother hurried over to it.

  A chauffeur got out, and opened the passenger door. A long slim leg ending in a glittering stiletto heeled shoe emerged in a slow tantalizing manner. One of the waiting girls squealed.

  Alice Evangelista gracefully slid out of the car, and the girls all applauded and bounced up and down in excitement. She was a tall woman with dark hair, a deep tan and very long lashed hazel eyes.

  Percy whistled. “Fabulous entrance, darling!”

  Alice looked over at Percy.

  “Will you shut up!” hissed Nan.

  Alice Evangelista had not noticed Percy’s sarcasm and was beaming. She held out her arms to her adoring audience, and gave air kisses to Headmistress Glory who had come sweeping out of the school entrance to greet her.