the Grimm Legacy (2010) by Shulman Polly

Author:Shulman, Polly [Polly, Shulman,]
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-01-14T19:07:57.156000+00:00

Chapter 14:

A forfeit

I found Marc and Anjali in the Preservation Room, sitting rather close together. They didn’t look all that pleased to be interrupted, but they greeted me politely.

“Did you cut your hair?” asked Anjali.

I shook my head.

“Well, whatever you did, it looks great.”

“Yeah, it does,” said Marc, scrutinizing me like he’d just noticed I was an actual female girl—the kind guys look at. The comb must really be magic, I thought.

“Thanks . . . Listen, I’m sorry to barge in, but I thought you guys should know. Ms. Callender had me down in the GC with Aaron, and she gave us a whole list of objects to pull off the shelves for her. She said she wanted to check them because some stuff’s been stolen. It was really weird—I think a lot of the objects on the list are fakes. Half of them smell wrong, and they don’t work.”

“What do you mean, smell wrong?” asked Marc.

“Smell normal, like they’re not magical. You know what I mean?”

“I do,” said Anjali. “Marc’s better with touch.”

“Oh, you mean like how magic objects feel magic,” said Marc.

I nodded. “Aaron couldn’t tell about the magic from the smell either,” I continued, “but he said the objects looked wrong to him. I guess we all have different ways of sensing magic? Anyway, the ones that smelled wrong to me didn’t work. We tested a few of them.”

“That’s weird,” said Marc.

“Yeah, but here’s the really bad part. One of the things on the list was those boots you’re always borrowing. Now Aaron thinks you stole the missing objects—the ones that don’t work, I mean—and replaced them with fakes.”

“Oh. That’s really bad,” said Marc. He rubbed his face with his hand.

“How does Aaron know Marc’s been taking the boots?” asked Anjali. Did I hear a hint of an accusation in her voice?

“I don’t know how he found out.”

“I obviously didn’t tell him, and neither did Anjali, so who did?” said Marc.

“Why would anyone have to?” I asked. “He saw you. You’ve both been running around with the boots for weeks. He’s not blind, and he’s not stupid. And he does have a reason not to like you.”

“What reason would that be?” asked Anjali.

“He’s jealous of Marc, because he likes you.”

“What an unpleasant thought,” said Anjali. “But what are we going to do?”

Marc curled his lip in that haughty, contemptuous way of his.

“Aaron’s fair,” I said. “I’m sure he won’t tell on you unless he really thinks you’re the thief. You just have to convince him you didn’t take the objects.”

“How am I supposed to do that?” snapped Marc.

I hated this. I’d finally managed to make friends, and now they were mad at me. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I just want to help.”

“The best thing to do,” said Anjali, “is to find out who really took them.”

“That’s what Ms. Callender and Doc are trying to do,” I said.

“We have to help, before Aaron decides to tell them about Marc. Otherwise they’ll just assume he’s the thief and stop looking.

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