Free The Wrong Side of Magic by Janette Rallison Page B

for a closer look. Why would she bring a calculator on their trip?
    Charlotte saw him and snatched the calculator out of his hand. “Don’t play with that. It’s dangerous.”
    â€œOnly if your teacher catches you with it during a test.”
    She didn’t smile, and he realized she was serious. “It’s not a calculator.” She put it firmly back on her pile. “It’s a calcu later . It’s used to subtract or add to a person’s memories. If you push the wrong buttons, you’ll end up giving yourself amnesia.”
    â€œReally?” He couldn’t decide whether that was frightening or cool. He regarded it with added interest. “Why would anyone make a calculater look like a calculator? Isn’t that unsafe? Don’t people make mistakes?”
    â€œMost people don’t have them.” Charlotte rummaged through some jars on the shelves. “My dad made that one, and he likes to make magic objects look like ordinary things from your world. That way, there’s less chance anyone will steal them.” She pulled two small jars from the shelf, each no bigger than a cell phone. “Do you have room for these?”
    â€œWill they break in my backpack?”
    â€œProbably not. They’re sturdier than they look.”
    He unzipped the front pocket of his backpack to make room. “What’s in them?”
    â€œHope,” she said. “We’re bound to need it.”
    Jars full of hope. Okay. He wondered if she had boxes of optimism, too.
    Charlotte took an intricate silver bell from the shelf. Tiny colored crystals studded its surface in swirling patterns.
    â€œWhat’s that for?” Hudson asked.
    â€œCalling fairies. Otherwise, we’ll never find one when we need one. I mean, when was the last time you saw one?”
    â€œUm, never.”
    â€œExactly.” She slipped the bell into her jacket pocket, then took a tube of toothpaste from the shelf. She fingered it tentatively. “My dad will be mad at me for taking this, but I’m going to need it.”
    â€œYour dad will be mad at you for brushing your teeth?”
    â€œIt’s not toothpaste. It’s disguise paste. Plenty of people know I fled with my father when King Vaygran took power. I can’t let anyone recognize me.”
    Hudson looked closer at the tube. What he’d thought was the word COLGATE actually read CLOAKGATE . Underneath that, it said, WITH FLOHIDE .
    â€œI should disguise myself before we go,” Charlotte decided. She left the room, and he figured she was getting a hat or a wig or something. Instead, she came back with an advertisement ripped from a magazine. It showed a girl with brown curls and hazel eyes sporting cotton-candy-pink lipstick. Charlotte squeezed a tiny dab of the paste on her hand and shut her eyes. Almost immediately, her red hair darkened and twisted into short brown curls. The blue lotion on her face disappeared, and her nose and chin changed shape to match the model’s. When Charlotte opened her eyes, they were hazel. The only difference between her and the picture was the color of her lips. Instead of pink, they were vivid purple.
    Hudson stared at them.
    â€œWhat?” she asked. It was still Charlotte’s voice. “Didn’t I get it right?”
    â€œMostly right.”
    Charlotte picked up a small mirror from the shelf and looked at herself. She frowned, pursed her lips, then sighed and put the mirror back. “Well, at least no one will recognize me.” She handed the tube of disguise paste to Hudson. “Can you put this with your things? My pack is going to be full.”
    Judging from the pile of stuffed animals on the floor, she would need her backpack and a suitcase, too. He slid the tube into his backpack’s side pocket.
    Charlotte took an orange calculator from the shelf and pointed it at him. He nearly dropped his backpack in alarm. “What are you doing? I