Be Careful What You Wish For Read online

  “You’re flat,” she told the portrait Brandon. “Dead. Lifeless—soulless. Albert is going to take one look at you and cancel my show.”

  Her shoulders started to shake as fresh sobs wracked her. She felt used up—like a tube of oil paint that has been squeezed to get the very last drop. She’d given it her all and she’d failed—failed miserably. She’d had a teacher in art school that said the best portraits were the ones where you felt the subject of the painting might step out of the frame and speak to you at any moment and Cass agreed. The only problem was, she’d completely failed to capture anything even remotely resembling that life-like quality she was aiming for.

  “Oh, God,” she whispered brokenly. “It’s so damn ugly and dead. What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I make it more lifelike? I just wish I could get some life into my painting.”

  “Done! Your wish is granted,” a brittle voice proclaimed behind her.

  Cass felt a familiar tingling sensation, as though every part of her body had been coated in Pop Rocks and then dipped in a fizzing glass of Diet Coke and she knew what it meant. A birthday wish had been granted and her life had somehow been changed forever—probably not for the better. With a feeling of dread she turned to see her fairy godmother with her arms crossed over her chest and a triumphant smirk on her sharp features.

  “What are you talking about?” she demanded tiredly. “You can’t grant that wish—it’s not my birthday yet. In fact, it’s practically still the middle of the night.”

  “Wrong, my dear.” Her fairy godmother’s smile was saccharine sweet. “It’s your birthday on the dot. Just look at the time.” She waved her sparkling silver wand at the gold clock Nana had hung on the wall behind Cass’s bed. Sure enough, the hour hand was on the six exactly—the FG had caught her fair and square.

  “But…but I didn’t mean—” Cass began but her fairy godmother interrupted her with a wave of her wand.

  “You very clearly said ‘I wish’ before you stated your desire and you uttered your statement at the exact moment of your birthday,” she said, still smirking. “Don’t try to deny it, you loathsome little beast. Or you can deny it if you wish, but I have a show-me to prove otherwise.” Another sparkly wave of her wand produced a small creature that fit in the palm of her hand and looked a little like a cross between a porcupine and a duck. It was not unlike the tell-me creature that had served as Jake’s cell phone, Cass thought, but the FG’s show-me was a delicate shell pink.

  “But I—” she began and was interrupted by her own voice when the show-me opened its duck-like beak.

  “Oh God,” it mourned in a perfect parody of Cass, sounding close to tears, “It’s so damn ugly and dead. What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I make it more lifelike? I just wish I could get some life into my painting.”

  “There.” With a wave of her wand the FG made the small pink show-me creature disappear. “No court in the land could refute that evidence. No judge in the Realm would deny that I gave you exactly what you asked for, you little wretch.”

  “What…what exactly did you give me?” Cass was still so dazed with sleep deprivation she could barely even be upset despite the distinct feeling that her fairy godmother was screwing her over yet again.

  “Look at your canvas and see. Enjoy your wish!” And with a poof of noxious pink smoke that smelled like singed rose petals, the FG disappeared.

  Anxiety knotting her stomach, Cass turned to face the portrait of Brandon. At first she could see no difference. The same blank stare and slightly crooked nose, not to mention the too-large purple lips met her gaze. Cass shook her head. Maybe the FG had just been faking her out by pretending to give her something she really wanted while not actually giving her anything at all. She’d never done anything like that before but Cass wouldn’t put anything past the vindictive fairy.

  Sighing, she stooped to pick up her brush and palate and dabbed a bit of cardamom red onto the bristles. The nose wasn’t really that noticeable to anyone but her so the only thing that really kept it from looking like Brandon were the too large lips. If she got them back to a normal shade, the portrait might still be salvageable. At least, that was what she told herself.

  She reached forward to dab at the purple lips with her brush but she had barely made the first stroke when they moved.

  “Blech. Tastes nasty.” The portrait of Brandon spit, spraying Cass with cardamom red and nearly giving her a heart attack.

  “I…what?” she gasped, backing away from the canvas so fast she nearly fell.

  “Nasty,” the painted Brandon repeated. Then, to Cass’s horror, it gripped the bottom edge of the canvas and pushed up, like a man trying to pull himself through a window. Brandon was strong and she’d painted him even stronger—emphasizing the muscle definition in his bare arms and making him more of an Adonis than he actually was. With another quick heave the painted version of her boyfriend was out of the portrait and standing in front of her wearing nothing but the tight jeans she’d painted Brandon in.

  “B…B…Brandon?” Cass stuttered, staring at him. Except for the purple lips, he looked exactly like her boyfriend. Even though she was used to dealing with outlandish magical mishaps, the eerie resemblance was really freaking her out. Was this still just a portrait of her boyfriend or had she actually managed to capture his essence—to capture his soul in some way?

  “Nasty,” the Brandon clone replied, spitting again. He looked at Cass pitifully. “Not like paint. Want cookies.”

  “Oh, my God.” Cass went to her bed and sank down on it, uncertain if she ought to be upset or relieved. It wasn’t really Brandon after all. Her boyfriend might not be the most complex creature on the planet but he had a better vocabulary than caveman clone over there.

  “Hungry,” the clone insisted, beginning to frown. “Want cookies, now!”

  Cass sighed. Great, it might not be Brandon but it certainly had his difficult temperament. What a birthday wish, she thought. The FG couldn’t top this one if she tried. Her piece de resistance was gone and in it’s place she was stuck with an unwanted double of her irritating boyfriend which she had no idea what to do with. What was Albert at the I.C.U. gallery going to say about this?

  A sudden banging on her door interrupted her sluggish thought process and nearly scared her to death for the second time that morning.

  “What?” she shouted irritably at the rose colored door. “Who is it?”

  “Just me with your first wake up call. I know how you like to snooze.” Rory’s sickeningly cheerful voice sounded out in the hallway, reminding Cass that her little sister was one of those mentally ill people who actually liked getting up in the morning. “I’ll be back in a minute to call you again after my shower,” Rory continued. “But start thinking about getting up now—you know you can’t be late for the Tight-ass Academy.”

  Cass groaned out loud. How could she have forgotten she was teaching this morning? And what was she going to do with the crazy Brandon clone the FG had created?

  “Cass? Are you okay?” The door opened and Rory’s head peeked through, a worried look in her emerald green eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said when she saw Cass sitting on the side of her bed. “I know you hate it when people barge in on you but you sounded so upset. Did your birthday wish go okay?”

  “See for yourself.” Cass motioned at the Brandon clone who was currently licking the climbing roses on her walls. He stopped for long enough to say, “Pretty,” before going back to his wallpaper breakfast.

  “Oh my God.” Rory stepped into the room, staring at the clone doubtfully. “Is that Brandon? You know Nana doesn’t like you to have boys over at night, Cass. And why are his lips purple?”

  “He’s not Brandon. Or he is but he’s the painting of him that I was doing. And his lips are purple because I thought changing the shade might make them look more realistic. But it didn’t. And then I wished I could make my painting more lifelike or some kind of shit like that and the FG pounced out of nowhere and granted my wish befor