Love Potion Blunder Nine

[Jacob Carpenter]

Jacob crammed half of his hot dog into his mouth, chewing more as a courtesy than anything before swallowing. He looked across the table at Alex who stared at him blankly before speaking. "That's gross, Jake."

Jacob paused from sucking juice through his straw. "What?"

Alex shook her head and decided it best to change the subject. "So, do you have a date for Homecoming yet?"

He shook his head. "Nope. Probably gonna go stag. I like that word. It sounds manly."

Alex grinned at him. "OK, manly man. Is there anyone you'd like to ask?"

Jake paused before answering. "Well, no. Not really."

Alex smirked and took another bite of her meal. She knew her friend pretty well. She could tell when he was lying. "You had to think about that."

"Well there is someone, but she's already going with someone else."

"Mind if I ask who?"

Jacob answered quietly. Most everyone in the school knew how he felt, but still saying it out loud... "Brianna Landers."

"Bri?" Alex asked, surprised. "Really? Why?"

"You mean aside from the obvious?" Blinking, Jacob leaned against the table, staring at Alex.

Alex spoke flatly. "Yes. I mean aside from the obvious."

"She's broken. Like me."

"Everyone's broken in some way Jake, and besides, that hardly seems like that's ground for a strong romantic connection."

"Yeah well, not like it matters anyway."

"What do you mean by that?"

"She doesn't even know I exist. I'm completely dismemorable to her."

Alex snickered. "I think you mean unmemorable."

"Whatever, the point is I'm totally not even on her radar. I mean, I may not be Jem or anything, but you'd at least think she'd notice me. I mean, I'm noticeable right?"

"You're fine, Jake. I think you're exaggerating."

Jacob looked up as he saw Bri and Maureen walking across the cafeteria. "I think I'm about to prove you wrong." He looked up as they walked by his table and smiled up at them. "Oh, hey, Bri! Hey Maureen!"

Bri looked down at him and smiled her gorgeous smile, "Oh, hi..." She furrowed her brow momentarily trying to remember his name.

"Jacob." His shoulders slumped without a thought. A year. He had known her for a year. Gone to class with her, watched her in the halls. He had even been with her on Prom night when her stupid boyfriend had taken her and her best friend and her date out on his stupid yatch. He had been the date!

"Jacob! I'm so sorry! I'm just bad with names I guess." There went that smile again. It was a get-out-of-anything smile. She could have just killed a puppy and Jake would have been fine with it.

"That's alright. Hey, you going to be at the study group on Thursday?"

"You're in my study group?" Her head tilted to the side, stray golden hairs sliding off her shoulder. God, she was gorgeous.

Jake frowned. "Yeah, biology. Have been all semester."

"Oh! Biology! Of course you're in that one. I was thinking of algebra. Yeah, actually I'm not gonna make it. I've got a date. If you could make a copy of your notes though that would be really awesome." She flashed her smile once more, her green eyes sparkling.

"Oh sure. No problem. I'll see ya around."

"You bet! See you later!" Bri and Maureen walked off leaning in close in a whispered conversation and laughing quietly.

Jacob looked back at Alex with a told-you-so look in his eyes. "Do you see? Do you see?"

"Wow." Alex looked shocked. "That's... just sad."

He pushed his food around his plate, his appetite ruined by rejection. Again. "I told Ves I'd add her to my list of people to dance with at Homecoming."

"I wouldn't count on that happening."

Jacob laughed derisively. "You never know. I could grow a foot taller and win the lottery by then."

Alex smirked. "You have better odds of being hit by lightning and you can't even buy a ticket yet."

"I could get a contract in a Hollywood movie."

"Yuh-huh."

"I could inherit a Porsche?"

Alex rolled her eyes. "You could delve into the black arts and become rich and powerful. Just keep it quiet so Diego doesn't find out."

Jacob laughed, but somewhere underneath the good-hearted chuckle a seed of an idea was planted. Alex cast the idea from her mouth as someone would just drop an apple seed on the ground, but it took root and it began to grow. Unfortunately for everyone though, this seed was very unlikely to produce an apple tree.

[Jacob Carpenter]

Jacob shuffled through his locker pretending to be looking for something waiting for the halls to clear. He peaked over the top of his door at the purple haired girl going through her own locker. He still didn't know how to approach her. She seemed pretty unapproachable. There was definitely a lack of proach. The halls began to clear and Frankie was about to clear with them. It was now or never. He quickly chased after her down the hall. "Hey, Frankie!"

Frankie spun around startled, "Gah! What the-?"

Jacob paused momentarily. Less proach by the minute. He quickly regained his composure, "Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."

She rubbed her temples like she was trying to message a headache away. "Nah, it's ok. What do you want?"

Jacob found himself stumbling over his words. "I, I have a sorta, magic like question?"

Frankie raised an eyebrow. "Did you turn yourself into a newt?"

Jake furled his brow. "No. Do I look like a newt? Actually, don't answer that. I just had a question about magic spells."

"Alright, shoot."

"Is there a spell to get some one to notice you?"

She gave him an incredulous look. "Wait, what?"

"Well there's this girl, you see, and I really like her, but she doesn't even notice me, like I'm not even on her radar, and I thought that she might like me, ya know, if she... noticed me."

Frankie started rubbing her temples again. "Ok, are you even listening to yourself? You're talking about a love spell, right? On a girl who doesn't like you?"

Jacob threw his hands out in front of him. "What? A love spell? No! More like a, notice spell, or a like spell. Or maybe a 'I really do exist, honest!' spell."

She offered a wry smile. "Ok, ok, ok, but we are talking about better living through persuasive magic?"

"Ok, sorta, yeah."

Frankie nodded. "Mmmhmm... no."

"What? Why?" Jacob protested.

"Jake, buddy, listen. Lemme tell ya something about this kind of magic. No, let me clue you in on this kind of magic." She paused for emphasis. "Bad. Idea."

"But I'm just talking about a spell to make her notice me!"

She nodded again. "I know, man. Well, ok, no I don't, but I'm serious this kind of magic is touchy at best and well... dangerous if done wrong."

"Well that's why I need you! You've been doing magic since you were like two, right?" He needed Franky on this. He couldn't do this on his own, right? This was big time magic stuff. Way out of his league.

Frankie shook her head. "Yes but, that's not the point, ok? I'm good enough at this stuff to know when it's a really bad idea and let me tell ya, this is one of those times. This kind of magic is kept off limits and locked up. Even if I wanted to help you, which I don't, I couldn't because I don't have access to it."

"Well who does?"

"Nuh uh. No way. Trust me Jake. Just send the girl some flowers or something."

Jacob nodded defeated. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"No probably to it. Bad. Idea."

With that she turned and headed to class.

[Jacob Carpenter]

Jacob looked up from the book he was pretending to read. Sister Mary Edith was sitting at the front desk. Jacob dared a glance at the set of keys setting on the front desk. They were his ticket to the back room. The off-limits section of the library. If the spell was going to be anywhere in this library, that's where it would be.

He stood up shakily, setting his book down, and walked cautiously to the front desk to smile nervously at Sister Mary Edith. She looked up at him and smiled her pleasant smile. "Jacob! How are you doing?"

Jacob stuttered as he spoke. "Oh, I-I'm fine."

"What can I help you with today?"

"Oh. Me? I mean, nothing. I don't need help, but there was some one else. A new kid. He's over at the card catalog. He's having trouble. Maybe you should go help him out?"

Sister Mary Edith leaned forward to look at the student in question. "You mean Johnathan? Why I see him in here just about every day. He's never had a problem with the card catalog."

"Well, he's not having trouble with the card catalog. He knows that, of course. I mean every one knows how to use the card catalog. I know I do. He needs help with some other things that you could probably help him with."

The old woman scrunched up her face trying to decode exactly what he was saying, but instead gave up and decided she would just go investigate herself. "Well, ok. I'll go see if I can help him out then."

Jacob almost sighed in relief right then and there. He was a terrible liar but even a terrible liar could get one past Sister Mary Edith now and then. He waited for her to approach Johnathan before grabbing her keys and walking quickly around the desk. He had to try several, each time growing more nervous than the last. But he finally found one that turned and snuck in before closing the door behind him.

He quickly began going through the tomes on the shelf. Surely somewhere there was some book that he could understand that would detail some spell to make Bri notice him. He quickly reshelved books he found that weren't written in English, but kept out those that had the appropriate illustrations for his plan. Those that were he flipped through trying to find the spell he needed. Finally he came to it. He hastily read through it, he would need something personal to Bri to complete the ritual. There was also a laundry list of ingredients, some he'd heard of, some he hadn't. He began copying into his notebook, as carefully as he could, every word written in the spell. He was nearly half-finished when he heard footsteps approaching and broke into panic. As quickly and quietly as he could he tore the pages from the book and folded them up, stuffing them into his binder and cramming the whole thing into his backpack. He reshelved the book and picked up one of the others with the illustration he was looking for.

Sister Salvation rounded the corner and looked down at him, eyes narrowing. "Jacob! What the hell are you doing back here?"

Jacob looked up at her and stuttered with fear. This part wasn't acting. Sister Salvation was easily the scariest nun he'd ever met, "I uh- I- I-"

"What do you have?" She snatched the book from his hands and held it up showing the engraving of the half-naked succubus, "Jacob! These are dangerous books, not playboys!"

"I'm- I uh-"

"How did you get in here anyway?"

Jacob held out the keys. "I'm sorry."

"There is a reason these books are off limits. You are in so much freaking trouble. You're going to be in detention for a month!"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything. I mean-"

"No! I don't want to hear it! Go to your room! I should- gah! I'm so pissed off right now!"

Jacob quickly grabbed his backpack and ran for the door as fast as he could.

Sister Salvation began collecting the tomes on the floor. "Why can't he just surf for porn like the rest of the kids do?"

[Jacob Carpenter]

Jacob sat in his room looking at the ingredients he had gathered. He had to Google for hours before he determined what everything was, and took even longer to find either them, or something that he thought would be close enough that it wouldn't matter. He only had one thing left that he needed. Something personal to Brianna Landers. That was a little tougher. It would be impossible for him to get his hands on jewelry or clothes. Even if he could how would he know what was personal to her. What he needed was something guaranteed to be personal to her. Jacob got up and left the room.

Before long he stood in the trophy room. There was the spirit stick. It was held under a glass display case along with the football and cheerleading trophies won over the years, and was only removed before big competitions. He remembered overhearing Bri talking about it in the cafeteria. The spirit stick can never touch the ground. The spirit stick unites the team. The spirit stick is a symbol of our dedication. To Brianna Landers, nothing was more important than cheerleading. If that didn't have personal value to her, nothing would. Jacob spotted the lock on the display case. He had to figure out how to get inside that case.

[Jacob Carpenter]

Jacob chased after Elly as she was leaving campus. "Hey Elly, wait up!"

Elly spun around, her leather jacket spinning out as she did so. "Huh? Oh. What's up?"

Jacob found himself stumbling over his words, "Oh hey, um, you, you're on the cheer squad right?"

Elly gave him a questioning look. "Right..."

Jacob paused looking around to make sure no one was around. There wasn't, but he still spoke in a hushed tone. "I kinda have a favor to ask of you."

She almost laughed. "Ok, short stuff. What have you got?"

Jacob looked around again and finding the grounds to still be completely devoid of anyone he began to ramble out his request. "I have this idea, and I need your help, but I need to get something, and I can't get it, but I think that you can, because I heard that you have experience with this sort of thing."

Elly began to frown. Jacob quickly corrected himself. "Not that you do, have experience that is. I mean I just heard it, from a guy."

The frown deepened and she began to look impatient crossing her arms over her shirt. Jacob tried to gather himself and continue. "Ok, ok, let me start from the beginning. You know how Bri can never remember my name, right?"

Elly stifled a laugh and nodded.

"It's not THAT funny."

"Of course not." Elly smirked at him.

He had to pause to gather himself again. "So with Bri, cheerleading is like her life, right? So the spirit stick, that's like her holy grail, right?"

She scrunched up her brow. "Ok... I guess so."

"So I need you to steal it for me."

Elly looked a little surprised. "Well, I suppose that's ONE way to get her attention. What are you going to do with it?"

He found himself stumbling over his words again. He always did that when he was lying. "Well, you see, I was thinking that maybe, I could, ya know, write my name on it?"

Elly considered while Jacob stood there nervously. "Ok, what's in it for me?"

Jacob almost sighed in relief. It seemed his nervousness at discussing the shady deal was covering his poor lie-telling. Then it registered what she had said, and he realized that he hadn't really thought that far ahead. "I uh, I don't know. What do you want?"

She thought for a moment. "Hm. You're in good with the nuns right?"

Jacob shifted his balance slightly. "Well... considerably less so now." He cut her off as she was about to open her mouth. "It's a long story. I don't want to talk about it."

She shook her head. "Doesn't matter. I want a favor."

"What kind of favor?"

"Whatever I want, in the future, at an undetermined time. I come up to you and tell you I need something. You do it for me. You got it?"

Jacob paused, looking very unsure. "Well I uh, I mean, I'm not sure-"

Elly interrupted. "It won't be anything illegal."

He paused, his mind rushing through a hundred different scenarios, debating the legality of each one. "Is starring in an amateur porn with midgets and a goat illegal?"

Elly gave him a look of disgust. "I wouldn't know. Look, it won't be about embarrassing you, if that's what you're worried about. You do that enough on your own."

Jacob hesitated for a moment longer. "Deal."

She smiled at him, extending her hand. "Well, it seems we have an arrangement. I'll swipe it after practice on Friday and meet you back here at five."

Jacob shook her hand giving it one pump before letting go; he figured that was the sort of hand shake for a shady deal. An arrangement of shade. He paused thinking momentarily how "shady" got such a negative connotation. Shade was always a good thing in the summer. It was probably because you had these sort of deals in the shade, though, he imagined, not the shade of an oak tree in the afternoon sun. At that point he looked up at the sun peeking through the leaves of an oak tree. Well I'll be, he thought.

[Jacob Carpenter]

Jacob sat Indian-style on the floor of his room carefully measuring and placing the components in the Tupperware mixing bowl. He couldn't help but think that for a love spell this smelled really awful. He read over each ingredient as he added it. Two tablespoons of black tea leaves to open the mind. A teaspoon of crushed honeycomb to open the heart. He went on as such reading the ingredients and adding them one at a time as the text described. He worked everything in until he came to the last ingredient. He didn't know what essence of serafina was but he had to hit every magic shop and hippy store in town before he finally found it.

He read the rhyme once again. "One drop will make them look again, two will make them care, three will make them fall in love and their hearts forever share."

He picked up the dropper with the pink liquid in it. He debated between one or two drops. Care was a rather cryptic word, wasn't it? It obviously didn't mean love. And what's with looking again? What does that even mean? He was still debating with himself when he heard footsteps approach the room. He looked sharply at the door, tensing slightly as the steps got closer, then he quickly placed the dropper back on the cafeteria tray and shoved the entire thing under his bed. He jumped up on the bed, flipped the lamp on, and grabbed the magazine sitting on his bedside table and pretended to read it.

Will opened the door and walked in. "Hey, Bud."

"Hey, Will. What's up?"

Will opened his bedside table drawer, "Just forgot my wallet- Woah! What's that smell?"

Jacob looked panicked. "Uh..."

"Did you fart?"

Jacob sat there dumbfounded, unable to speak.

"You been going on a broccoli and boiled egg diet?" Will smiled teasingly.

Jacob laughed uncomfortably.

"Just open a window or something man. That's nasty."

"You got it."

Will walked out of the room, pocketing his wallet. Jacob waited for the door to close and the footsteps to disappear down the hall. He jumped out of bed pulling the tray back out from under the bed. He picked up the dropper once more. "Two drops." He squeezed once, and then once more as the two drops fell splashing with the rest of the ingredients. He stirred gently and found the potion take on the pink hue of the drops. It began to shimmer and sparkle like fresh spring water in the sun. "Well Jacob, bottoms up."

He held his nose and raised the bowl to his lips, drinking it down. Little did he know, however, that in the instant he heard those footsteps, in the instant that he had tensed up. He had put just enough pressure on to the dropper to squeeze out one drop. One drop that fell precariously and innocently and dangerously into the ingredients below. It was in that instant that everything began to go terribly wrong.

[Kara]

((At Jacob's request))

{Wednesday}

Kara was horribly conflicted.

Logic and emotion had never crossed paths in her head before, really. There was one, and there was the other, and that was it. Her love for Nigel was not logical, though she had good reasons for it.

That was why she did not trust the emotion that she felt for Jacob. It was...unprecedented. Certainly, he was a handsome boy, with all sorts of wonderful qualities and a great sense of humor and how had she never looked at him before? She shook her head, trying to focus. The emotion had been growing in her for several days, and she was determined to ignore it. It made her phone conversations with Nigel unfocused, hurried affairs as she thought about how much she would like to be saying the same words to Jacob.

She had been avoiding him for days, but finally she decided that the best thing would be to sit down with him and talk. She had been hearing things in the halls about others, and Bri had even kissed him, but surely those events were not connected with what she felt? After all, she had a lot going for her, and he would be silly to not notice her when...she shook her head again, her ponytail flying.

He had been hard to pin down, running around Overbrook like that, but she had just...wanted to see him. And iron all this out, of course, yes.

Things got a lot more complicated once she landed in front of him. He immediately began to stammer in the cutest way, backing away and looking around like he was going to run. She immediately know how to play it: the concerned friend.

"Jacob. Are you okay? I have been hearing things, and you are awfully nervous."

He shouted several things in quick succession, trying so hard to convince her that he was not nervous that the words sort of ran together. Her repeated assurances that there was no danger fell on deaf ears, and she saw that he was about to run. This might have been her only chance to tell him how she felt, and she had blown it!

She sat down on the ground and sniffled. A small, distant part of her that recorded everything raised its eyebrow at her tactics, but it did not say anything. Jacob could only take so much of it, and he sat down next to her while stammering ineffective assurances.

Finally Kara looked up at him. "It is so strange...I love Nigel so much, but then there are all these new emotions about you, from out of nowhere, but who can make sense of the heart. Surely I can love two men at once. I do not want to lose Nigel, but you are all I think about these days."

From the look on his face, Nigel was on Jacob's mind more than enough to pick up Kara's slack. She sighed and her shoulders drooped as he backed away.

"It's because I'm not Bri, isn't it." The recorder was a little shocked at having to use apostrophes, but it soldiered on.

"No-....yes. Yes, Kara, that's exactly it. I'm sorry, it's because you're not Bri." He stopped as hope spread across his face.

THAT was easy. Kara smiled and stood up. "Oh. Well, that's simple." She concentrated, and surrounded herself with an illusion. Once the colors stopped swirling, she was an exact duplicate of Brianna Landers. In a red string bikini. She smiled and said, "See?"

Jacob resorted to vowel sounds, so she kept talking. "And there is a bonus."

"Buh...bonus?"

"Of course." Her relenteless logic had never worked WITH her emotions before. "I am an empath. I usually just stimulate the pain or fear portions of the brain, either to shut them off or amplify them. But there are...other centers. Ones that are much more enjoyable."

His face turned as red as her bikini. "Oh, God, Kara, I can't KNOW this."

He turned and ran, but she knew that she had seen the desire in his face. He wanted it. After a moment's thought, she let the illusion drop and pulled out her phone to send him a text message. "It's OK. See you in your dreams. XOXO."

As an illusion-controlling empath, she could pretty much guarantee that part. She giggled and flew off. She would need a nap if she was going to stay up that night.

[Elly]

For the past week or so it had been at the back of her head, that wondering why, why in the world was she so interested in a boy she'd never before considered anything but an amusing dork.

The rest of Elly's brain didn't care why. Jacob had entrusted her with his secrets. He'd called her "sexy," he'd gotten all cutely panicky when she returned the complement. Then she'd kissed him... oh, WOW, that might have been better than anything she'd done with Tony.

And, okay, then he fled the room. Not the best sign, but she'd probably come on too strong. She resolved to go slower next time. To her knowledge, before the Bri chaos, the only girl he'd ever worked up the courage to date was shy little Joni, and no chance in hell those two had actually done anything of interest in private.

And so she'd continued ignoring the voice. And she'd thrown herself into digging through as much of the library MAGI had let her near (not much) and even followed a lead over to the Midnight Squad (more helpful people, although the books were unbelievably hard to follow), and she was pretty sure that she had a rough idea what breaking the spell on Bri would take. With Bri back to normal, Jake wouldn't have to be so jumpy, and he could finally forget her and be a little more guilt-free around Elly, and he'd definitely appreciate how much she'd helped...

And then, the voice had been answered by Kara. Amazing what ten minutes of total clarity could do to your view of life.

Five minutes later she'd come to a very determined conclusion. An hour later she'd managed to get Jake to answer his comm, and a few minutes after that she was in his room, cashing in the favor he owed her a bit earlier than expected. Jake wasn't going to meet with her in private any other way, and no way was she going to talk about this in public.

She took the desk chair. Jake was eyeing her nervously as if expecting her to tackle him, which okay she had sort of done the last visit but she was determined to be serious this time.

She took a breath to steady her nerves, and tried not to look directly at Jake; he'd be too distracting a sight. (Damn, what a sight...)

"Okay, first, just to get this out of the way. Tony dumped me for Sam." She immediately saw his shoulders slump, so she quickly continued. "Had nothing to do with you; I hadn't even mentioned my interest at the time. Kinda saw it coming, honestly."

"Wow, that's a... that sucks."

"Just as well. I figured something out just today anyway; we were never like Bri and Jem, or Kara and Nigel. It was all about the pleasure, that's all."

"The, uh... pleasure?"

She couldn't help smirking, remembering his reaction to one kiss. "Jake, if I start talking about that, you're liable to pass out." On his heated blush, she continued before she could spend too much time staring at him. "But, anyway... I need some honesty here."

This part was going to be hard. What if he lied? Hell, what if he told the truth?

"The spell you hit Bri with. It... didn't just get Bri, did it." More tension from him as a response. She forced herself to continue calmly. "Jake, honesty. You owe me that much. Am I under the spell too?"

He opened that perfectly kissable mouth of his. "...yes."

Even expecting the answer, she needed a moment. That hadn't been some trick on Kara's part an hour ago. Everything her brain was telling her about Jake was a lie.

"Jake... on Tuesday, Kara managed to block off the spell for about ten minutes."

"She did?" He sounded hopeful.

Her lying brain desperately wanted it to be because Kara could do that to Bri instead, and she went that direction without even trying. "Bri's gotten it blocked off entirely. They've got your components too now, along with the notes I got from MAGI and the Midnighters, so they're probably on the verge of cracking it in general. Would have gotten them back to you instead, but you got scarce, so... I had to give them to someone."

"I was kinda hiding," Jake admitted. "I've got most of the components again myself except for the pink stuff. Essence of whatchahoozit."

She ignored the implication that he thought she wasn't going to return the originals; even if she'd wanted to keep them, all he'd need to do was ask for them back and smile. She needed to get to the point anyway. "Doesn't matter, they may beat you out. But Jake? Those ten minutes?"

"Yeah?"

"I..." This was hard to admit, but she could trust Jake with this, right? (Said her lying brain.) "I felt hollow."

He stared at her. "'Hollow'?"

"Bri... Bri's got Jem. That and a little magic on his part and she can hold your spell off. Kara has Nigel. She didn't even need magic; she just focused on him and she's managing to shrug you off too. Hell, after Kara cleared Yook's head, she called her boy and held off that way. And I... I went straight to Tony, and I looked at him... and I realized he never made me feel as remotely complete as I did under the spell. And so, I let it come back."

She watched Jake swallow nervously as he realized where this was going.

"And I am happy this way, Jake. I don't care if it's fake. I am happy. So..." Time to go for broke. "...if you've gotten over Bri, or at least figured out it isn't going to work out... and you meant it when you said I was hot... I want to stay this way. I want this."

He was giving her the most amazed look she could imagine. She felt like the center of his world at the moment. That, that was what she wanted, that feeling, false or not. That and for him to say yes, he'd do it.

"...say something?"

After a couple attempts, he did. "Look... you're... you're great... I mean... But... I mean... I uh... I can't."

She didn't want to hear that answer. "Why not?" Hell, this sort of thing was what he'd been trying for with Bri, right? He even had permission this time.

"Because... I mean... even with the spell there's other things... We... we wouldn't work... I mean... you are... umm... wow..." He swallowed. "You... you're under a spell... you need to clear your head... a lot." Before she could respond, he stabbed again. "And you should probably go..."

He wasn't getting it. "Jake... for the past year I've been running around in a stupid outfit risking my ass. I have been given no control over anything in my life. The only difference with this? I enjoy it. I've had my head cleared and I hated it."

"Yeah... but... it needs to be... it needs to be cleared again. I have to reverse the spell... all of it."

She got frustrated. Why did he have to be so damn stubborn about this? "I don't want to be like that again! It's miserable! @#&$, if you really want, get Kara in here, have her 'clear my head' for a couple minutes, and ask then! I'll tell you both, I don't want it gone!"

He dug in. Dammit. "There's what you want, and then there's what's right!"

"Then what IS right, Jake? The only difference between us, and Jem and Bri, is that Jem used good looks and charm instead of magic. There's nothing more 'right' about Jem's way!"

"Yes there is! Because it's real!"

"It's never real, Jake!" she yelled, rising from her chair. She had the brief urge to throw his phony beard relationship with Joni in his face to make the point, but even as mad as she was, she couldn't do that to him.

He stared back. "Look... you're great... but your head isn't clear. You don't need this... this is wrong for you... "

"Please, just get Kara, ask her how I looked for that ten minutes. She'll tell you I was sullen, I was miserable." Never mind angry, she was begging him now. "Please. Just don't turn it off completely until then. I don't want to lose it."

Damned if he didn't look all the hotter as he stood firm, having his own moment of dogmatic certainty. "You say that. You may even believe it. You may even believe it when the spell is fixed. But it's not true. It's not real."

"...it's never true. It's never real. Only difference is we'll know this time and won't care."

"I'm sorry. You... you should go."

She rubbed a tear out of her eye. Jake was probably thinking she was an idiot about now. "....at least think about it? Please?"

"I have been... since I drank the stupid potion in the first place!"

One last defense to raise. "That was when you thought no one wanted it."

"...I'll think about it. You really should go now though..."

He was just saying that to get rid of her, she began to think. But no, Jake wasn't the type to just dismiss her. He was... he was...

She gave him a parting look, utter devotion in her eyes. All he had to do was tell her he'd changed his mind and she'd stay, she'd kiss him, she'd probably do anything he asked.

He didn't.

[Jacob Carpenter]

Jacob stood quietly in front of Sister Salvation. He couldn't bring himself to look at her. He held out the small cardboard box of components and the torn pages from the book. She just glowered at him. "Is this all of it?"

Jacob nodded still looking down. Salvation grew angrier. "Look at me when I'm talking to you!"

Jacob looked up at her through his swollen black eye. There was a fresh stitches across his cheek and his nose had been set back into place and bandaged. The emergency room visit had already come and gone and now that the brief concern for his safety and well being had passed all that was left was Sister Salvation's rage. She snatched the box out of his hands with a ferocity that made him jump. She picked up the two torn pages which had now been crumpled and rolled up several times over. She almost dropped the the box but managed to hold on to it.

Jacob couldn't take her gaze any longer and returned his own to the floor.

Salvation set the pages down on the table and set the box of components next to them. "So, which boyfriend beat you up?"

Jacob spoke in a voice barely above a whisper, "No one. I fell down some stairs."

"What?"

Jacob built his voice a little higher now, "I fell down some stairs."

Salvation almost laughed but managed to stop herself. "Not going to tell me. Fine. You brought this on yourself. You know that don't you?"

Jacob nodded but did not dare remove his gaze from his own feet.

"What you did, Jacob, was the single most stupid, dangerous and irresponsible stunt I've ever seen any student perform at this school. Frankly, you're lucky you're not being expelled."

Jacob nodded again.

"Some faculty will be along to reverse the spell. If we have to we'll contact MAGI. In the mean time, I want you to sit down in that chair right there where I can keep an eye on you and begin thinking about how you're going to apologize to every girl who was effected by this spell. You may also want to cancel any Saturday appointments you had for the rest of the semester."

Jacob sat down nodding. He was sitting for only a minute or two when the door came open. He looked up expecting to see some arcane specialist but instead saw Sister Mary Moltar. She gave him the most disappointed look he had ever received from anyone, and at that, he broke down and wept.

She did not try to comfort him.

[Cryogene]

Unintuitive, it's true, but the most insecure people are in many ways also the most self-centered.

While they were dating, if Jacob ever told Joni that he couldn't meet with her that day, the idea that he actually might have a justified reason would be drowned out by "he just doesn't want to spend time with me." If he didn't answer the phone, he wasn't away from it, he was probably screening calls to avoid talking to her. And when he dumped her, "It's not you, it's me" was something she just couldn't comprehend. Of course it was her, it was always her. She rarely voiced any of this out loud, but it was her constant thought process about both Jacob and others: the decisions of the world centered around Joni, and they were all aimed at getting away from her as fast as politely possible.

With Jacob, Joni had always "known" that, when he got over his own psychological issues, he had suddenly been able to do so much better than Joni and had moved on. She hadn't begrudged him that, not too much anyway; everyone got tired of her sooner or later (although she'd later acknowledged that Alex, and possibly even a few others, might be exceptions). But as Jacob's attention fell on Brianna, and then as that attention was finally returned, it only confirmed her belief about him.

And then came news she would never have believed had it not come straight from Alex's lips. Even then, she had to ask Jacob directly: had he really done something to Bri's mind? And he had looked ashamed, said he didn't want to talk about it, and excused himself.

The insecure ego immediately began asking again: what'd Joni do to cause this? And how did she chase him off so badly that he'd sooner bewitch another girl than reconsider the one who was already interested...?

...she hadn't done anything. Even she couldn't come up with a connection. This couldn't have been anything but Jacob's own issues.

It took her until well after he left, but she managed to mumble her new evaluation of her ex-boyfriend. "...Jerk."

The word was an act of humility.