Hildy Silverman is the publisher of Space and Time, a 42-year-old magazine featuring fantasy, horror, and science fiction. She is also the author of several works of short fiction, including "The Soul Cloister" (2003, Wild Child), "Play Misty for Me" (2004, The Adventures of Mist and Vale, Ordover, ed.), "Picky" (2008, Dark Territories, Frank and SanGiovanni, eds.), and "Damned Inspiration" (forthcoming, Siren Songs, Ackley-McPhail, ed). She is a member of the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Garden State Horror Writers. In the "real" world, she is a freelance consultant who develops corporate training and marketing communications materials for high-tech corporations.
When Mariah Gottkind was a five-year-old, she found out that she was allergic to cats. Every time she got within a foot of a cat, her eyes watered and swelled. Within inches, she'd wheeze like a discarded accordion. None of it kept Mariah from yearning for one of the furry familiars.
"Cats are bad for you!" Her mother, at the end of her rope, once yelled. "Just stay away from them and you won't suffer. How hard is that to figure out?"
Little Mariah considered her words and stated, "But I want one." In response, her mother turned beet red and caused a row of knickknacks to fling themselves to their deaths on the parquet floor.
That was a good twelve years ago. Mariah knew she'd outgrown such stubbornness.
She set Miss Thang down on the sofa, where the tabby licked her paws and regarded Mariah with serene golden eyes.
"It's just a dance." Mariah reached for a tissue and dabbed her nose.
Miss Thang switched her tail to the left.
"I'm not having a litter with anyone at the Fall Ball, thank you very much." Mariah rolled her eyes.
Miss Thang reminded her of Prudie Barrows. Prudie'd eloped with a Darren ubermensch the summer after she graduated from high school and returned to find that she was no longer welcome in Coventry. The little uberbaby growing in her womb failed to soften the hearts of her parents or the town Elders.
Prudie wound up slinking out of town and moving to Poughkeepsie with her Darren and little Halfling, leaving behind only a cautionary tale and a curse—something about perpetually rebellious children.
"If I don't go with Sarah, she's the one who's going to wind up banished to Poughkeepsie," said Mariah. "My chaperoning her is a selfless act."
Miss Thang turned and proffered her hindquarters.
Mariah sighed and scratched the base of the cat's tail. "You always expect the worst from me." She glanced at her watch. "Oh, damn, I've got to get dressed." She hurried upstairs to her room, ignoring Miss Thang's final meow on the subject.
Mariah popped an allergy pill and put drops in her itchy eyes. She pulled on a simple, fitted black dress and slid into a pair of low-heeled black ankle boots. She eyed the silver pentacle necklace her grandmother had given her for her Ascension but decided against it. Not because she was ashamed or afraid of advertising her beliefs. It wasn't that at all.
When she returned downstairs, her parents were waiting. "Well, I'm going." She meant to sound upbeat, but it came out defensive.
Her mother, a woman comprised of equal parts bitterness and resentment, turned to her father and said, "This is your doing. I wanted her to go to a nice, private school with her own kind, but noooooo." She crossed her arms and glared. "You had to go all egalitarian!"
Her father shrugged. "It's important that she know how to live with all kinds of people. It's the reality of the world we live in, Poopsie."
"Don't you 'Poopsie' me," her mother grumbled.
"I've got to go." Mariah scooted around her parents and grabbed the car keys. "I won't be back late, I promise."
Mother followed her to the door. "Midnight, or your father sends a whirlwind to level that so-called school!"
"Whatever." Mariah opened the door and waved absently behind her. "Have a good night."
"Stay away from those other boys. There'll be at least a few of your own kind to dance with." Her parents followed her out onto the porch.
Mariah resisted the urge to sprint to her car. "I won't dance with anyone," she said, "I'll just stand in front of the punch bowl and look menacing."
"Do you hear how she talks to me?" Mother turned to Dad and waved her arms.
"Poopsie, please." Dad put trembling hands on her shoulders. "If you keep gesturing like that you're going to zap a hole through the house. Again."
"I'm just hanging out with Sarah, that's all," Mariah said. She edged halfway into her car; escape was nigh. "Don't worry."
"Don't worry, she says. You forget what they've done to our kind. Salem, England—not that long ago in the grand scheme of things!"
This was an old rant and Mariah could replay it in her head without hearing another word. She slammed the door to her car and revved the engine.
In the rearview mirror, Mariah saw her mother gesticulating on the porch while her father kept intercepting her hands and pulling them down to her sides. Mariah sighed and drove off to Sergeant York High.
Sarah greeted her at the door to the gym with her arm looped through Danny Taverse's. Any hope Mariah had held of the two of them hanging out and snarking on their classmates' dance abilities was dashed.
"Hey, Sarah. Danny." Mariah barely glanced at him, though she did manage to keep her smile plastered on her face.
"Ry! You did come!" Sarah let go of Danny and gave her a hug. She quickly whispered in Mariah's ear, "OhmygawdessDanny'sbeenallovermesinceIgothere!"
She pulled away and relocked arms with Danny.
"Hey," said Danny. He couldn't have sounded less interested if he were comatose.
Mariah's cheeks ached. She wasn't used to keeping a smile glued on for so long and this one was taking more effort than usual. "Hey, Dan. How's . . . stuff?"
He shrugged.
"Glad to hear it." Mariah locked eyes with Sarah. What do you think you're doing? she sent.
Sarah cocked her head to one side. Are you kidding? Look at him!
Mariah looked. She saw what she always saw when she looked at Danny: a passably attractive guy who spent a lot of time in the gym compensating for the extra inches denied to him by Nature. You're not going to go Bewitched on me, are you? Mariah sent.
Sarah's eyes narrowed. Don't be such a bigot. She turned to Danny and batted her heavily mascara-coated lashes. "Oo, I love this song. Let's go back in!"
Danny's face lit up as though a switch had been flipped. "Yeah, sure babe. Let's tear it up!" As they walked away, his hand slid down and cupped Sarah's right butt cheek.
"Yeah, okay, I guess I'll see you in there. Don't worry about me." Mariah's smile melted away. So much for Sarah wanting a chaperone. Not to say she didn't need one.
Once inside, Mariah quickly located a long table set with all the unhealthy necessities for a school dance. After ladling some suspiciously-green punch into a plastic cup, she positioned herself against the wall and tried to look comfortable.
How could she call me a bigot? Mariah frowned into her drink. How was it bigoted to be concerned about the potential, very-real consequences of her best friend's actions? She knew Sarah had been nursing a crush on Danny for awhile. The surprise was that he reciprocated.
Mariah watched Sarah and Danny dance amidst a sea of students. The majority were plain humans whose parents fancied themselves open minded enough to let their kids go to school alongside witches.
"Separate but equal," Mariah mused. More like "separate but separate." Sure, there were friendships that crossed party lines, but for the most part cliques were based on common interests—and abilities.
Mariah had never seen Danny so into anything other than his between-class weed breaks behind the school. He was a simple sort, even by Darren standards. Yet here he was, busting out what she assumed were his best moves—poor shlub—and looking at Sarah like she was wrapped in EZ Wider. It wasn't natural.
A fishy feeling stirred in Mariah's stomach. She eyed the punch, but decided it wasn't entirely at fault. Did Sarah do something to get Danny's attention beyond slapping on three coats of Sephora's finest and shimmying into a skin-tight red dress?
Sarah looked over Danny's shoulder at her and winked. Mariah tried to hold her gaze and sent, Sar, did you do anything to Danny? But Sarah either didn't receive her or chose not to answer. She simply twirled in for a quick dip that revealed her lacy panties to anyone who cared to see. A couple of Danny's buddies glanced over, snickered, and jabbed one another in the ribs.
Classy. Still, Mariah was worried that the real problem was Sarah. Love spells were pretty strict no-no's, as were any emotion-manipulating castings. Using magic to ensnare a Darren could necessitate discipline by the Elders.
Mariah swallowed the rest of her punch in a single gulp and crushed the plastic cup in her hand. She had to step in, convince Sarah to dispel whatever she'd cast, before anyone in authority noticed.
She plowed a path through gyrating couples. She was almost to Sarah and Danny's side when someone caught her arm and pulled her around.
"Hey, Ry! I didn't know you were gonna be here." Sam Rivera beamed at her with more enthusiasm than Mariah thought was actually called for. She'd known Sam since freshman year and he was in three of her classes this year. He was a good guy for one of them.
My Goddess. She grimaced. I really am kind of a bigot.
Sam was an interesting hybrid, by human standards. He once told her that his mother was half African-American, half Navajo and his father was a Brazilian Jew. From what Mariah could see, it was a good genetic result. She wasn't sure why he'd confided so much about himself, but he was pleasant enough that she didn't mind.
"Oh, hi, Sam," she said. Her eyes were still on Danny and Sarah shimmying nearby. "I didn't know you were, uh, here."
"Paris Hilton stood me up, so. . . ." He shrugged. "I'm glad you made it. I didn't think this was your scene."
"I was conned into coming." She pointed over his shoulder.
He looked, then turned back and nodded knowingly. "Sarah suckered you into coming, huh?"
"Said she didn't want to risk being the lone wallflower." Mariah snorted. "Not much danger of that."
"Somehow I can't picture you—either of you—pinned against the wall alone." He looked her up and down and his eyebrows twitched. "You clean up nicely."
Mariah looked at him for the first time and thought, So do you. She liked his tie; a black background with a hand-painted red dragon blowing flames. "Where'd you get that?" she asked, giving it a flip.
"Oh, this?" He chuckled, cheeks reddening. "Picked it up at a con last year."
"I can't believe you go to those things." She laughed.
"I'm surprised you don't."
She tilted her head to one side. "Why?" Her good humor withered. "We're not all Goths, you know. Just because we practice magic doesn't mean. . . ."
"Whoa, whoa!" He raised his hands. "I meant because you seemed to really like that Bradbury book we read in Lit class last year. Geeze, over-sensitive, much?"
"Yes, very much." Embarrassment warmed her face. Get out of my psyche, Mother! She offered an apologetic grin. "Sorry, Sam. I'm just feeling a little bit . . . vulnerable tonight." She gestured around them. "My kind's not exactly in the majority."
"I wouldn't know from majorities." He poked her stomach playfully.
She felt herself relax for the first time that night. Sam was so easy to hang out with. Except she shouldn't be hanging. She had a mission to accomplish.
"Say," said Sam, "since we're here with friends who've decided to totally ignore us, would you like to take a spin 'round the floor? With, um, me?"
Mariah glanced over at where Danny and Sarah had been boogying moments before. She blinked at their absence and her heart sank to her boots. "Did you see where they went?"
"Who?"
"Sarah and . . . oh, damn it." She'd blown it. She'd let herself get distracted and now they were probably off conceiving a next-gen Halfling. "I've got to go."
She caught the disappointed look in Sam's eyes and added, "I'm really sorry, but I've got to stop—er, find—Sarah. It's kind of major."
Sam brightened. "Then I'll assist you in your mission. Lead on!"
Grateful for the company, Mariah led Sam through the crowd toward the spot she'd last seen Sarah and Danny. She hesitated when she saw the plastic cup knocked over on the floor where they'd been. Had one or both of them drunk out of it? If so, that would give her somewhere to start.
She scooped up the cup and cradled it in her left palm. As casually as possible, she closed her eyes and pressed her forehead to the rim. She murmured a couple of seeking Words.
"What are you doing?" Sam asked. She ignored him, focusing instead on the image forming in her mind.
It was dark, but soon she was able to make out two figures. They were snuggled together in a confined space. Every so often, the heads came together and she felt an empathic rush of heat.
Mariah hastily broke from the vision and blinked at Sam. He looked at her with expectation and just a trace of fear. "Wh . . . what's up?"
She didn't have time to explain the mechanics. "I think they're in a car. Come on!" She turned and scampered for the door, not checking to see if Sam was following her. It was probably for the best if he didn't.
Out in the parking lot she found Sam was right behind her. "You want to tell me what the problem is?" He struggled to catch his breath.
"The problem?" How could she explain it so that he understood? She considered her words carefully, even as she dashed from car to car, peering into back seats. "Sam, you know how you told me your great-grandfather said that prayer for the dead when your grandfather married your grandmother?"
"Kaddish. What about it?" He paused and answered his own question. "Oh. Oh! Danny's a Darren and Sarah's a—not."
Mariah turned and looked at him, surprised. "Where'd you hear that term?"
"What, Darren? Please." He snorted. "You think no one hears you guys talking about us like that?"
"Oh, we don't mean anything by it. It's just a silly way to describe you." As soon as she said it, she wanted to crawl under the chassis of the Ford she'd just inspected.
"Yeah, well, us guys really appreciate being equated with some Sixties sitcom bozo. Thanks for that." Sam glared. "I guess that we should just call you Endoras or . . . what was the kid's name?"
"Tabitha." This conversation made her feel like shoe scrapings. "Yeah, well, your kind's called us a lot worse, right before they squashed us under rocks or strung us up!"
"And shit's never happened to another people on Earth, just yours."
Stop it, he didn't do anything! Yet her mouth kept going, as if possessed. "Fine, you're right. The difference is that we're still the oddballs, the ones to watch out for lest we rise up and exert our great powers!"
She waggled her fingers at him. "Oogy-boogy! Fear me! Never mind that there's hardly any of us left and we've got zero interest in seizing control of anything beyond our own destiny, which, by the way, is still at the mercy of your sort. The day someone comes into power again who thinks we're too much of a risk, you'll see us rounded up and marched into bonfires like it was 1599!"
Sam stared at her, open-mouthed. All the fury leaked out of her at once. "Sam, I'm . . . I don't know where that came from." That was a lie of course; she knew exactly where—no, whom it had come from.
"I'll see you in class," said Sam. He started back to the gym, but then hesitated and looked back at her. "You know, there are such things as individuals. 'I' does not equate to 'all of humanity.' " He nearly added something else, but then just walked away.
"Sam." She couldn't summon the energy to chase him. Besides, Sarah and her unauthorized love spelling were still her foremost concerns.
She continued her search through the parking lot, pondering the effects of maternal brainwashing. She caught one couple half-undressed in the back of a well-aged LeBaron, but it wasn't Sarah and Danny. She waved a halfhearted apology and considered giving up.
"Hey!"
Mariah turned, surprised to see Sam. She was even more startled by the surge of relief she felt at his return. "What's up?"
Sam jogged over to her, looking deeply worried. "Ry, there's something I've got to tell you."
"Go on." Her pulse thudded in her ears.
"I went back into the gym to cool off." He cleared his throat. "You know, 'cause we were running . . . it's warm out."
"Sure." She bit her lower lip and looked away.
"Yeah, well, I overheard Rich and Oliver. Danny's buds?" He put his fingertips to his lips and mock-inhaled. "They were talking about how Danny came here tonight with an agenda."
"Which was?"
Sam stuck his hands in his pants pockets and stared at his feet. "Apparently, Danny's been onto Sarah's interest in him and decided she'd be a heck of a notch on his bedpost—so to speak."
"Oh, Hecate." Mariah closed her eyes and tilted her face heavenward. Here she'd pinned the blame on Sarah, when all the time it was a simple boy-plays-girl, boy-lays-girl scenario.
She opened her eyes and fixed them on Sam. "Do you know where Danny is?"
Sam nodded. "Where's the most clichéd place to take a girl for her first time?"
Together, they said, "The bleachers."
"Exactly." Sam held out his hand. "Shall we go save the fair maiden's honor?"
"If she has any left," said Mariah.
They sprinted across the lot to the football field. Mariah could see two shadows wriggling in the narrow space between the first and second row of bleachers. She was close enough to shout when Sam snagged her wrist.
"Hold up," he said, "are we actually going to yell at them like angry parents? 'Cause I don't see that resulting in a positive outcome."
He had a point. Sarah'd be mortified and she wouldn't believe a word that came out of Mariah's mouth. She and Sam might prevent immediate consummation of Danny's plan, but they couldn't police Sarah 24/7 thereafter.
No, if anyone was going to stop Danny for good, it would have to be Sarah herself.
Mariah waved Sam behind a clump of trees at the edge of the football field. "I've got an idea but it involves me doing something that might make you, uh, nervous."
Sam shrugged. "What've you got in mind?"
"A little hocus to stop the pocus." She nodded toward the rocking Trans Am. "You know it's pretty much illegal and definitely unethical for me to use magic on a Dar . . . dude."
Sam placed his right hand over his heart and held up the left. "They'd have to pry my testimony out of my cold, dead mouth."
She grinned and nodded. "Okay, then."
She searched her memory for the words to an enchantment she'd learned as a kid from My First Book of Spells. It was simple but, hopefully, efficient enough to accomplish what she needed.
She sketched a pentacle into the ground with a twig and rested her fingertips on the uppermost point. Drawing power from the Earth, she chanted:
"
I am rubber;
You are glue;
Whatever Danny says;
Must be true."
Sam snorted.
"I know it ain't Shakespeare," Mariah sighed, "but it should 'git 'er done.' "
"So, how will we know it worked?"
Danny flew off the bleacher and landed with a puff of dirt on his rear.
Mariah jumped and Sam grabbed her by both arms. They huddled close enough that she could smell Sam's nice, spicy aftershave.
"You son of a toad!" Sarah stood over Danny. Her face was redder than her disheveled dress. Her hair looked like it'd been combed by bats.
"I'm sorry!" Danny crab-scuttled away from Sarah, eyes wide from confusion and terror. "I don't know why I said that . . . you easy, sleazy, broom hugger."
Danny slapped both hands over his mouth. Sarah balled up her fists and screamed.
"Awesome." Sam squeezed her arms. "This is better than Passions!"
Mariah couldn't help but grin. He enjoyed soaps and dark vengeance? The more she learned about Sam, the more she liked.
Sarah raised her hands and began weaving a pattern in the air. Wherever her fingers passed, sparks flashed and remained; a weave of magic that grew brighter and larger.
Uh, oh, thought Mariah.
Danny flipped onto his knees and clasped his hands. "Please, oh, please, don't!" he gibbered. "I can't. Stop my. Mouth. I . . . bet you levitate when you come. Oh, God!" He clawed at the ground, came up with a handful of leaves, and shoved them into his mouth.
"You'll never find out," said Sarah. She took a deep breath.
Mariah leapt out from behind the trees. She cleared the space between her and Sarah in mere moments.
Not fast enough.
Sarah completed her command just as Mariah tackled her. They both wound up on the turf with stray gravel in their knees. Mariah yelped, but quickly forgot her pain when a sizeable demon popped into their reality.
"Holy shit!" understated Danny. He turned a shade of white usually reserved for vampires.
"Whoa." Sam hugged the tree closest to him and looked down at Mariah. She didn't need to be able to read his mind to know exactly what he was thinking, I didn't know you guys could do that!
Well, they could. It wasn't easy and it sure as hell wasn't permitted, barring very extreme conditions such as advancing, torch-wielding villagers. Sarah had obviously achieved a level of furious emotion that boosted her normal abilities from teen witch to dark lord. Even Sarah looked stunned to see what she'd wrought.
The demon stood about eight-odd feet tall, with green-gray scaled skin and eyes the shade of bile. It stank of excreted gym socks and looked pissed enough to eat them all, which, if Mariah remembered her Sunday school class on the habits of Dark creatures correctly, it might just.
"What were you thinking?" she hissed.
Sarah pushed her aside and sat up, rubbing her scraped knees. "Do you have any idea what he said to me?" She jabbed a finger at Danny, who curled into a ball and wept. "There we were, making out, when he all of a sudden tells me that his new nickname's Danny the Witch Layer. That mother . . . !"
"Yeah, well, don't you think this is a little extreme?" Mariah stood up with a groan and nodded at the demon.
Sarah sulked. "Maybe."
"MEAT," said the demon. Twin, pointed tongues darted out of the corners of its too-wide mouth and licked its thick, black lips. It bared triple-rows of fangs and reiterated, "MMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTT!"
"I'm peeing!" Danny declared in all honesty.
"Um, Ry? Suggestions?" Sam had released his tree and made his way to her side. His eyes never left the monstrosity looming nearby. Mariah had to give him props; most boys would've already sprinted off like a cartoon avian with an Acme-armed coyote on his tail.
"Send it back, Sar! Dismiss it before it's too . . . !"
The demon plucked Danny off the ground, unhinged its jaw, and stuck Danny's entire head in its mouth.
Mariah grabbed Sarah's hand. Sarah clutched hers in return. Together they shouted, "Freeze!"
The demon, Danny's thrashing legs, and even the wind in their immediate vicinity stopped.
Mariah let out her breath in a whoosh. Raw instinct, fueled by stark terror, could work wonders.
"Well," said Sam. He shook his head in amazement. "I guess that takes care of that." He hustled over to Danny, grabbed his dangling legs, and yanked him out of the demon's lolling maw. He dropped to the turf under the bulkier boy's frozen weight.
"It's only temporary," said Mariah. A quick exam revealed that Danny's head was still firmly attached, although a triple ring of red droplets on his neck attested to just how close of a call he'd had.
"Huh?" said Sam. His eyes widened, even as the wind began to blow around them again.
"We don't have the power to hold back time very long, even in a contained area," said Mariah.
Sam's Adam's apple bobbed in his throat. "Then what happens?"
The demon's mouth clamped shut on nothing.
Sam looked up at the perturbed demon, who'd expected flesh, but slowly bit down on air. "Oy, gevalt, we're dead."
"M-E-E-EAT?" drawled the demon.
"Sarah, you summoned it," Mariah said quickly. "Tell it it's released!"
Sarah shook her head. "That isn't the way it works. My grandmother was a Summoner. She passed along some stuff about . . . anyway," Sarah's lower lip quivered, "the gist is it can't go back until its purpose here has been fulfilled."
Sam's expression was downcast. "Still dead?" Mariah nodded. "That sucks." He drummed his fingers against his chin. "Sarah, what exactly was the purpose you had in mind when you called this thing?"
"ME-EAT." The demon took a deliberate step toward them, its eyes locked on Danny's soiled, prostrate form. Danny's mouth slowly dilated into an O of terror.
Sarah spoke quickly. "I wanted to make Danny-boy here shut the hell up."
"Uh, huh." Sam looked down at Danny, whose chest was expanding in preparation of letting out an enormous scream. He was nearly back to real time, as was the demon reaching down to snag him again.
Danny got out the syllable, "N," but then Sam grabbed him around the ribcage and squeezed with all his strength.
"Pass out!" cried Sam with inappropriate delight.
Mariah wondered if he'd lost his mind from fear. Goddess knew she couldn't blame him. He maintained his bear hug around Danny and shut his eyes tightly. The demon's hot, stinking breath washed over them as it shifted fully into normal time and darted forward with its mouth wide.
Danny abruptly went limp in Sam's arms.
The demon's teeth clanged together on nothingness. Its outsized features twisted into a frown of confusion, then disappointment. "Awwwww, meat."
Mariah waved frantically at Sarah. "Dismiss it now!"
Fortunately, Sarah caught on fast. She redrew her sparking symbol in the air and cried, "I dismiss you, I dismiss you, I dismiss you!"
The demon gave her a baleful look, then pop! It was gone.
Mariah sank to the ground next to Danny's motionless body. Sam landed with a plop right next to her. She looked at him. "How did you know?"
"I hoped that spells were literal," he said. "So if Sarah wanted Danny shut up, I figured . . ."
"It didn't matter who did the shutting up," she finished with a knowing nod. "Just so long as he was silent, the demon's purpose was fulfilled."
Sam nodded. "I knew all those games of Pass Out I played in sixth grade would come in handy one day." He chuckled. "Well, okay, I didn't know that, but I'm glad they were good for something other than drain bramage." He stuck out his tongue and wobbled his head.
"I think I love you," said Mariah. She was joking when the words started, but as soon as they made it all the way out of her mouth, she regretted them.
Sam sat up, rigid. "You what now?"
She swallowed. "I . . . only meant. . . ."
"Well this changes everything." Sam frowned. "I'll have to quit school now."
Mariah's stomach knotted. "Sam, no! I was just . . . !"
"How else will I have time for that full time job I'm going to need to pay for the ring?" He took her hand and gazed into her eyes. "It's all settled then. I'll go down to Starbucks tomorrow and apply for the assistant manager's job. You'll have to quit school too, of course. I expect my woman to be home, barefoot and pregnant."
Mariah sagged with relief. She smacked Sam's shoulder. "You goofus, you had me going there!"
"Bet you thought Darrens had no sense of humor," Sam hopped to his feet and extended a hand to help her up. She took it, enjoying his firm yet gentle grip.
"I thought a lot of things before tonight," she said. "Most of them wrong." She looked, really looked, at Sam's open, smiling face. Here he was, an ordinary guy, who'd just saved the bacon of two mighty witches plus one dipshit and he could still crack jokes. Human, shmuman, here was a guy worth risking a little exile for.
Sarah glared at Mariah. "So, I guess you're the real reason for Danny's sudden diarrhea of the mouth?"
Mariah couldn't meet her eyes. "I'm sorry, Sarah. I didn't want you to get hurt. I knew you wouldn't believe me if I just told you."
"Forget it. He had to be thinking it for you to make him say it." Sarah sighed and kicked Danny's limp foot. "Just help me implant a false memory of him getting piss-pants drunk and we'll call it a night."
"Sounds like a plan." Mariah turned to Sam. "Meet me inside? That is, if you don't mind being seen with a somewhat rumpled date for the dance."
It was Sam's turn to look flustered. Good, she was glad to see it was possible. "Uh, date?" he said. "Sorry if I wasn't paying attention this entire whacked-out night, but isn't that verboten?"
Mariah leaned over and kissed him. His lips were as warm and soft as she'd imagined for the past half hour.
When they parted, Sam nodded as though he'd been hypnotized. "Okay, then, I'll see you in the gym. Bye now." He turned and wobbled off.
Sarah jabbed her in the side. "Did you learn nothing from my stupidity tonight?"
"I learned that you owe me at least a semester of shut-the-hell-up," said Mariah.
Sarah heaved a put-upon sigh. "Fine, do what you will."
Mariah grinned. Not since her mother had caved in and bought her Miss Thang had she felt such a rush of satisfaction. "Make sure you visit us in Poughkeepsie."