Alice Decrux looked at her hard shelled candies laced with the Love Potion No. 9. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that her plan wouldn't work. While she could get away with giving the prized candy away, she had no way of ensuring that Melissa Jenkins would consume any of it, nor would she have a sure way of not getting caught. It'd be like the peanut brittle case all over again, and she didn't want more attention than she already had. It was bad enough that this court case was against her, and she didn't want to add more to her legal troubles. The heat, as they say, was too high for her to get away with it. She, instead, put the candy into her special storage where she put her love potion stuff in case some of her more adult clientele requested it.
Her other idea was to spike the punch with her potion. While it had some merit, she knew she had to be very careful when using it in a pure form. When used as a liquid, as opposed to baked in some candy, it was far more potent and more detectable. She had to use the right dose. Large enough so that it would have an effect, but small enough so that it wouldn't be detected. Fortunately for her, teenage weres didn't need much to be affected by the love potion, and a small dose would be enough for even Melissa, a normal teenager, to feel the effects. She grabbed a small vial, poured some of her Love Potion No.9 into it, and plugged it with a stopper before putting into a pocket in her dress. She smiled as she thought to herself, [i]Before tonight, that girl will be wearing a fur coat of some kind if I have anything to say about it. I wonder how she'd look as a were-racoon. Then every time that man sees his daughter, he'll think of me instead of that...[/i]
Her thoughts were interrupted by the bell near the front door, an indication that someone had entered the store. "Hello, welcome to Decrux's..." her voice faded as she saw who it was. It was Officer Leprue dressed in his full uniform, an indication that he was on duty. "What do you want?" she said flatly as she stared at the officer.
"Well, I heard a report from a certain weretiger..." Officer Leprue started.
"McCoy," Alice said, almost chittering.
"Actually, it was Jenkins," he said, "and with almost the entire police force at the Harper-Jenkins wedding*, I did the police chief a favor and decided to check things out. You know, in case you want to try something."
Alice chittered, "And I haven't tried anything. I've been in jail for most of the morning, and once I was released, I came straight to work. Do you know how much business I've lost because of this?"
"Perhaps," the officer said as he looked around the store, "Oh, and I hear you might try something. So, in case you have something up your sleeve, I'm here to stop ya."
"What?" Alice asked coldly.
"Well, I understand you provide the candy for the high school dance. I'm here to stop you."
"WHAT?" Alice exclaimed, her eyes going wide. "This is my biggest sale! If I don't deliver this candy to the school dance, I lose the contract and enough money to keep me in the black. You can't do this to me!"
"Well, given your recent legal troubles, I think I'm in the right to stop you," the officer said moving slowly towards the back of the store.
Alice sighed and said, "Look, I can get not trusting me given the case against me, but even I know that tainted candy would ruin me. And I wouldn't risk my store just for some petty revenge." She pulled up from the floor a large jar of candy. "I can vouch that this candy is safe and hasn't been laced with my special formula." She opened the jar and popped a piece of candy into her mouth. "If it weren't safe," she said as she sucked and chewed on the candy, "in a few minutes, I'd be all over you." The officer watched as she chewed, sucked, and swallowed the candy. After a few minutes, nothing happened and Alice said, "Now do you believe me?"
Officer Leprue folded his arms as he studied Alice and the jar before he said, "All right, I'll believe you this time. But I'm warning you. If I see anything wrong, claws, an attack, anything, and I won't hesitate to bring you down."
"Fine," Alice said as she picked up the jars of candy and put them on a dolly. She quietly pulled the jars to her car and loaded them up in the truck, all under Officer Leprue's supervision. He noted that nothing else was in the car and that there weren't any other surprises. Once all the candy was loaded, she turned to the police officer and asked, "Am I free to go now?"
He sighed and said, "Fine, but remember, we are watching you."
With that said, Officer Leprue left the store. Noting the time, Alice closed her store down before going into the car and started to drive to the school. She went over her plan in her head. First, spike the punch with her potion. Second, find a were-raccoon boy and convince him to give Melissa Jenkins a drink of the spiked punch. Third, clean the punch bowl before anyone becomes aware of what happened. She figured that teens would head out to the woods wouldn't raise that much of an eyebrow because it's something that happens normally, and the worst thing that could happen is more teens leave than usual. Not that bad of a risk really for revenge.
She arrived at the school and started to unload her car, putting the large jars of candy on to a rolling platform, and wheeled it into the gymnasium. She noticed all sorts of people getting ready for the dance and were moving around putting things up here and there. She quietly wheeled her candy towards the refreshment table where she spied the filled punch bowl. After taking a brief look around to ensure that no one was watching her, she took the vial out of her pocket, unplugged it, and poured the contents into the punch bowl. She stirred the punch in the punch bowl to mix in the potion, and then quietly put everything away. She then lifted the jars of candy off of her dolly and poured the contents into a bowl near the punch. She grinned to herself as her trap was set. All that was left for Melissa to drink the punch. But first, Alice had to find someone to serve the punch to Melissa...