Annabella leaned forward to Angie Capel (a smart-mouthed, redhead) and whispered something and Nem heard her name just before both girls began to giggle.

Angie, and her nasty pals Annabella and Shayna, ruled the corridor between rooms 21B and 24B like security cops, and they were mean. She and the diary could put an end to their rule, and she’d considered it many times. Except, she wasn’t sure if things might escalate as they did with Lacy.

Anger and the luck thing didn’t mix well. They seemed to be a volatile recipe for disaster.

Nem should have ignored them in class, as she had done in the past. Maybe it was the wrong time of the month, or all those times she’d thought about sending a little misfortune their way had left remnants of punishing them in her mind. But it only took an instant reaction to start something she couldn’t stop.

“What are you laughing at?” she said to the giggling Angie.

Angie’s giggles faded to a smirk, then a frown and finally a sneer.

“Are you talking to me like we’re buddy-buddies and I have to tell you what and why? Are you my mom now?”

A flicker of heat tickled at the back of Nem’s neck. She shut the switch on that and calmed herself.

“Sorry, I thought you were looking at me. Forget it.”

Angie glanced at her friend, tilted her head and shrugged her shoulders as if to say, “Shall I give it to her?”

She stood and crossed to Nem’s desk and proceeded to tap her long fingers across the plastic desktop as if she was playing a piano.

“You know weirdie-woo, we’re onto you. As much as I love a good laugh, it’s kind of mean what’s going on here.”

The heat rose again, not just on the back of her neck but deep within. Her cheeks reddened, even as she desperately pushed at the off switch in her mind. She saw the small, jagged splinters appear in her jars; they weren’t going to hold.

“Really, I’m sorry Angie. My mistake.”

Nem turned back toward the front of the class and willed the teacher to appear.

“No, we’re sorry for you. They shouldn’t let you be here. It’s not fair to you. Little weirdies should be stored far away from normal kids.”

Annabella giggled and the others nearby twisted, leaned or shuffled to gain a view of this exciting diversion.

“We don’t appreciate you sitting so near. Not good for our air.”

Nem heard the cogs turn and push against the jar.

They crunched and whirred and slid and there was nothing she could do to stop them.

Ticktock. Ticktock.

A grind, then a click echoed in her head as an altered destiny fell into place.

Darn, darn, darn! This wasn’t what she wanted. Not while anger had escaped into the mix. She saw the diary in her mind and the entry she imagined would appear.

Let it be something small, she willed.