“Who likes mashic tricks?” I was still slurring. Miss Ruby and Sean looked at me blankly.
“Card tricks and stuff. I’m a mash-ishcan,” I said. I lifted my head again and stared at Miss Ruby with one eye and then the other, like I was still looped on whatever she gave me. In truth, it had almost worn off. This would be my best magic trick ever, if I could convince them I was still whacked out. No pressure.
“Oh, here they are,” I said. I picked a deck of cards up off the desk and tried shuffling them, making it look like I had absolutely no hand or eye coordination. They didn’t shoot me or anything so I guess they either found me mildly amusing or just confusing. I tried again and this time, as I shuffled, the cards scattered all over the desktop.
“Oopsie,” I said. “Tha’ no good.” I picked up another deck and held it up in front of my eyes, like I needed to study it carefully before it could be used. This time the cards shot out of my hand and flew over the desktop. A few scattered on the floor.
“Oh, no,” I said. “I made a mesh.” Then I giggled. “Better clean thish up.”
“How much of that stuff did you give him again?” Sean asked.
Miss Ruby shrugged. I stood up slowly and pretended to have trouble picking up the cards.
“One … two …”
“Shut up,” Sean said.
“Wanna … trying to make shure I get them all,” I said, looking at him with one eye. For good measure I wobbled a little as I stood. As far as they were concerned I was helpless.
“Just keep quiet,” Sean said. Disgusted, he stalked away from his spot by the desk across the library to the window. He stood sulking, staring outside, apparently not a fan of drug-addled teenagers or magicians.
But it served my purpose. As someone who studied magic, I knew the human eye is hardwired by the brain to follow motion. Unless you’re concentrating on something else really hard, your eye is drawn to movement. Part of it is a defense mechanism. Something that moves anywhere in your field of vision, even at a distance, could be a predator or potential enemy. But the instinct works well for magic tricks because a magician creates misdirection and gets the audience to look elsewhere, and that’s what allows him or her to pull off the trick.
Miss Ruby’s eyes followed Sean all the way across the floor to his spot. While she looked in that direction, I palmed her phone, switched it to vibrate, stuffed it in my pocket, and moved mine to where hers had been. Mine was already set on silent mode. When she looked back at me I was still acting like a heavily drugged kid, preoccupied with straightening up a couple of decks of spilled cards. The only thing was, her phone felt like it weighed a thousand pounds in my pocket. I hoped Angela or Boone or somebody got here quick.
And I hoped Miss Ruby didn’t need to make a call.