l.o.v.e. spells trouble (and a horse)

chapter five

Taylor walked confidently into the foyer of the poshest hotel in Paris and right up to the front desk. “Bon-jewer,” he attempted, before lapsing back into English. “I have a booking under the name of J. Smith.”
“Right this way, monsieur,” said the man at the desk courteously.
As they followed after the man, Tay gave the others a smug grin. “I thought ahead,” he informed them. “We need a jumping-off point to start looking for Zac from.”
The others agreed, and draped themselves comfortably over the luxurious armchairs in order to think. Tay himself was feeling hungry, and wandered into the attached kitchen to find something to eat. An omelette would be nice...

Back in the living room, Bel, Ike and Aaron tried desperately to think of how they could swap Aaron for Zac...
“We could--”
“Shut up, Aaron. We need to think.”
“But we could--”
“Aaron, shut up!”
“But I know where--”
Bel got sick of it. “Aaron, we’re trying to think, and you’re not helping.” She waved her hand in an attempt to cast a spell to keep him quiet.
It didn’t work. Suddenly there was a glass of water sitting on the chair, and no Aaron. “Cool,” said Isaac, who hadn’t been paying attention. “I’m thirsty.” He picked up the glass and swallowed the contents. Bel and Tay watched as he morphed into Aaron.
“What have you done to me?!!!” Aaron screamed.
Before they could answer, he morphed back into Isaac. “Help!” he yelled. “Get me out of here!”
All the morphing was making Bel dizzy, so she tried a separating spell. Unfortunately, it just made things worse. Instead of separating Aaron and Ike, it just mixed Bel up in there too. They started morphing so fast they could barely see themselves, and Ike’s motion sickness started up again...

Back in the kitchen, Taylor was having a rather hard time of things. He had indeed made himself an omelette, but the problem was, he couldn’t get it out of the pan. Tay hefted the pan high above his head and gave it a sharp rap against the refrigerator. The omelette flew out of the pan, across the kitchen, out the door and into the living room...

Belinda had managed to succeed in slowing down the morphing, and it was currently Isaac’s turn to exist. He was feeling extremely sick, when he saw the omelette come flying towards him. Maybe eating something will make me feel better, thought Isaac. He caught the spinning omelette out of the air expertly with his left hand and gobbled it down.
The omelette seemed to trigger something off somewhere in the spell, because Bel and Aaron were thrown violently across the room, separate beings once again. They sat up dazedly and looked for Isaac. They couldn’t see him at all, but sitting on the edge of the coffee table was an omelette.
Taylor chose that moment to walk back into the living room. “Has anyone seen my omelette?” he asked. “Oh, there it is.”
“No,” said Bel dully. “That’s not your omelette, that’s Isaac.”
“No,” Tay insisted. “It’s my omelette.”
“No,” Bel corrected. “It’s Ike.”
“Face it, Tay,” said Aaron. “We all just have to accept that your older brother has turned into an omelette.”
“Omigod!” exclaimed Taylor. “An omelette can’t play guitar for the band! Turn him back!”
“I’ll try,” said Bel doubtfully.

Three hours later the omelette had become a skateboard. On its way there it had also been a bottle of sunscreen, a screwdriver, a passionfruit, an electric shaver and a tacky commemorative plate of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding.
Belinda groaned in disgust. “I just can’t do it!” she cried. Taylor put a comforting arm around her.
Just then Isaac crawled out from underneath the couch where he had been taking a nap. “Wassup?” he asked cheerfully.
“Aaaaaaaaarrrgggghhh!!!” screamed Belinda and went for his throat.
Aaron tore her away. “Where were you?” he asked Isaac.
“Asleep,” replied Ike.
“Did you know we thought you were an omelette?” asked Taylor, trying to keep calm.
“Yup.”
Before they could take any action against Isaac, however, there was a huge flash of light and a deep voice called out in tones of anger, “BELINDA!”
“Is that God,” asked Aaron fearfully.
“No,” Bel whispered back. “It’s the head wizard. He’s found out I’m gone. I’m dead meat, guys.”
“I’ll protect you, Bel,” said Taylor.
“Thanks, Tay,” Bel said gratefully, although she knew deep down that if it came to a fight, she herself would be much more use than Taylor.
“YOU HAVE DISOBEYED THE RULES OF THE OTHER REALM BY LEAVING BEFORE THIRTEEN YEARS ARE UP. YOU WILL COME BACK RIGHT... NOW!”
And before they could do anything about it, Belinda was zapped back to the other realm, leaving nothing but her sunglasses behind.
“Bel!” cried Taylor desperately. “No! Come back! I love you!” But it was hopeless. Belinda was well and truly gone. ‘Oh, well,” sighed Tay. “At least I have her sunglasses.” He reached down to pick them up...
“Omigod!” screamed Isaac. “The spirits! The spirits have taken possession of the evil sunglasses! No... No! NOOO!!!” He ran forward, jumped up and down on the sunglasses several times, screamed again and crawled back underneath the couch. He lay there shaking.
Taylor looked at the sunglasses. They were crushed beyond recognition. He sighed and sat down on the glass coffee table. He bounced up and down a couple of times, and giggled. He stood up on the table and jumped. It shattered.
Taylor looked at Aaron. Aaron looked at Isaac. Isaac looked at Tay. All together, they yelled, “Let’s trash this place!”

Taylor peered furtively around the door to the alley behind the hotel. There was no one in sight. Carefully, the three boys snuck out, letting the door swing softly shut behind them. Once outside, they made a run for it. Hopefully, the hotel staff wouldn’t notice the trashed room and its guests’ disappearance until they had picked up Zac and were safely out of the country.
Oh, yeah, thought Tay. That’s what we’re meant to be doing, finding Zac. Ah, what the hell! Let’s go see the Eiffel Tower first. It’s not as if Nick and the other Backstreet Boys are child abusers or something. Hmm... I really miss Bel, he thought. He said aloud, “I really miss-- Whoa, that’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen...”

[ 6 ]