Radiant - By Christina Daley Page 0,25

put the holy water on the counter again. "I'd still like to buy this."

The following day, Mary poured the holy water into a regular drinking bottle and marked it "HW." At lunchtime, she ventured into the cafeteria for the first time in a while. It was packed and no one paid attention to her as she scanned the room. She saw a freshman sitting by herself at a table along the side. Mary went and sat down across from her. "Hey, wanna make a couple bucks?" she asked.

The freshman looked at her. "Doing what?"

Mary took the bottle of holy water from her bag. "You know who Carter Maxwell is?"

She nodded.

"After the last bell, follow him outside and throw this on him."

The freshman looked at the bottle suspiciously. "What is it? Acid?"

"Just water," Mary said. "It won't hurt you if you get some on you. But most of it has to be on him."

The girl narrowed her eyes. "Why?"

"Do you want the money or not?"

She didn't say anything for a moment. "What if I pretended to bump into him and it spilled on him instead? Would that work?"

That was actually a better idea. Mary wished she had thought of it. "Yeah, that works. So you'll do it?"

"Yeah," the girl said. "For twenty bucks."

Twenty bucks? What did Mary look like? A bank?

"I'll give you five."

"Fifteen."

"Ten."

"Do it yourself then," the girl said.

Mary frowned. "Thirteen."

The girl thought for a moment. "Fine."

Mary gave her the water.

"What about the thirteen dollars?"

"I'll give it to you when you've done what you're supposed to do."

"I wanna see that you have the money."

Mary frowned. She took out her wallet and showed her the cash.

"Okay," the girl said.

"I'll be by the bike racks," Mary said.

At the end of the day, Mary didn't bother stopping by her locker to get her stuff. She followed Carter at a distance, watching him visit his own locker before leaving through the front door. Outside, Mary lingered near the bike racks as Carter walked across the schoolyard. The freshman was near the gate. She had an armful of books and the water bottle perched on top of them with the cap missing.

As Carter began to pass her, the freshman pretended to see someone she knew and darted into his path. She collided with Carter, spilling books and water all over him.

"Watch it!" she snapped.

"I am sorry," Carter said sincerely. His black sweater and the front of his pants were soaked, but he ignored them as he helped her pick up the books. "I was not paying attention and did not—"

"The hell you weren't! What'd you think? Lil' frosh's easy to push around? Boy, I will cut you!" she cried.

Mary watched slack-jawed as the girl continued to berate him. Suddenly, she was furious. The freshman was scolding Carter when she was just supposed to spill some holy water on him.

Carter apologized again. When he finally walked off the campus, the freshman came to meet Mary.

"What the heck was that?" Mary asked. "Why'd you yell at him?"

"You didn't say I had to wipe his ass and give him a bag of gummy bears," the girl said. "Where's my money?"

Frowning, Mary shoved the cash into her hands. The freshman left without another word.

Mary sighed. Trying to get rid of whatever was possessing Carter was getting expensive. That thirteen dollars was the last of her allowance until next week. She was going to have to figure something else out.

Or maybe, as Father Cohen had said, Carter really wasn't possessed. And all this effort was for nothing.

Mary continued pondering as she headed to Agape. After she said hi to Ms. Nancy and signed in, she looked around for Ba. She wondered into the game room and found some of the residents relaxing, including the Pennys and Emma.

"Hi there, Mary," Mr. Penny greeted her. He and Mrs. Penny sat at a table playing checkers.

"Hello sir," Mary said. "Have you seen my grandmother?"

"Oh, we saw her on our way down to the elevator," Mrs. Penny said. "She's still in her room getting ready. She said you were both going shopping."

Actually, Ba was going to buy things that she thought Mary should wear. And as usual, Mary would have to return everything later so that Mom wouldn't completely freak out when she saw the bank statements. Still, shopping was something that Ba liked to do. And Mary liked getting her out and about a couple times a week so that just the two of them could hang out.

Mary nodded. "We'll be gone for