“Of course, honey. But if you want to talk about what happened while you were gone, I’ll always listen. Okay?”
I wished I could tell my mom what had happened in Oz. I wanted to talk to someone human—and at least relatively sane. But I knew that even if I trusted her—which I didn’t—there was no way I could ever begin to explain everything that had happened to me, and no way she’d believe me if I tried. For the first time, I wished I’d never gone to Oz at all. My life in Kansas had sucked, but I hadn’t had to watch anyone I cared about die. I hadn’t turned into a monster, and I hadn’t had to kill. As bad as Kansas was, Oz might have been even worse. I’d been a hero in Oz, sure, but no one had really treated me like one. No one had looked at me the way my mom was looking at me now—as if I was the only person in the world, whose safety mattered more than anything else.
“Ready for bed? You have a big day at school tomorrow.”
“Yeah, right,” I said, laughing. “Chemistry is no match for me.”
She smiled and hugged me. “That’s my girl.”
As I pulled away, I saw her. It was Mombi. She was standing in the corner, behind my mom, and she looked pissed.
“Get it together, Amy!” the witch whispered. “We’re not here for you to win daughter of the year.”
With that, she disappeared.
THIRTEEN
The next morning, I practically ran to Assistant Principal Strachan’s office. Bonding with my mom was nice and all, but I had work to do: like save an entire enchanted kingdom before a magic-crazed nightmare razed it to the ground. Assistant Principal Strachan was about to meet the new, improved Amy Gumm. And I was going to find out the truth about Dorothy.
I had to wait to see him, but luckily I’d gotten to school early. Mrs. Perkins gave me another lollipop and I crunched it while I waited. I couldn’t help thinking about Gert, Mombi, and Glamora, lurking in their weird limbo state, waiting for me to accomplish something. Anything. And Nox. Where was he? Was he thinking about me, too? Was he wondering if I was safe? Did he care? Was it possible to drive yourself completely insane in fifteen minutes in a plastic chair in a hallway or did it just feel that way? Finally, Assistant Principal Strachan called me into his office, looking none too pleased to see me.
“What is it now, Miss Gumm?”
“Sir, I’ve been thinking about what you said yesterday. I’m just so grateful you’ve lifted my suspension, but it really doesn’t seem fair.”
He raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as I continued. “I understand I was so much trouble before, and I want to convince you I’ve changed.” I tried to remember the speech my mom had used on me. “I know I don’t deserve forgiveness,” I added, “but I’m going to work for it all the same.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I want to serve detention, sir. After school, for the same amount of time as I should have been suspended.”
Assistant Principal Strachan stared at me. “You want detention?”
“It’s the only way to show you I mean what I say,” I explained. This didn’t really make sense, even to me, but he seemed to buy it. Or at least he couldn’t figure out a sinister motive behind my sudden desire to scrub the hallways and dust the library.
“Very well,” he said, his eyes narrowed. “You will serve out your suspension as a detention for the next two weeks. I don’t know what you’re up to, Miss Gumm, but if I find out you’re doing anything shady—”
“You won’t, sir!” I said quickly, grabbing my bag and resisting the urge to give him a big kiss on the cheek. He was still staring after me in confusion as I ran out the door.
I was so ready to start searching that I didn’t pay attention to much of anything that day. I ate lunch with Dustin and Madison again; true to his word, Dustin had shown up so late for first period that he, too, was sentenced to after-school purgatory. “Aren’t you worried they’ll kick you out of school, too?” I asked him.
“Are you kidding? I was on the football team,” he said. Madison snorted in disgust and muttered something that sounded a lot like “bullshit double standards.”