“Did you tell him that?”
“I can’t. He’ll take it so personally.”
“Aw, poor Marcus!” Hayleigh said. “He’s getting the Lena cold shoulder.”
“The what?”
Hayleigh giggled. “Just something Abigail and I used to say, back when you always pretended that stuff didn’t bother you. You’ve gotten a lot better about having actual emotions since you and Marcus got together.”
“I’m not giving anyone the cold shoulder!” Lena said.
“Not on purpose, but remember when I broke up with Eli last summer during camp, and I cried about it every day for, like, a week?”
“Um, yeah, vaguely,” Lena said, trying not to laugh. Hayleigh had been consumed by that whole drama for weeks. As far as Lena could tell, Eli hadn’t even realized that he and Hayleigh were dating until she’d suddenly broken up with him on the last day of camp. At which point it had turned out that Eli hadn’t even known Hayleigh’s name. “What about it?”
“Abigail was totally there for me to cry on her shoulder and stuff, but you…” She chuckled. “You gave me a package of name tags and said that next year, I should wear one all through camp so the guy I like will know my name.”
“So?”
“So!” Hayleigh cried on the other end. “That is not a normal thing to do, Lena!”
“Why not? I saw you were upset, and I came up with a way to help you.”
“So that you wouldn’t have to listen to me cry anymore,” Hayleigh said. “And it’s fine. I get it. I didn’t take it personally, because I knew that’s how you were about other people and their emotions. But Marcus is still figuring you out. What if he doesn’t know that yet?”
Lena laughed. “Trust me, Marcus knows more about me than anyone else. And I’m not giving him the cold shoulder. Like you said, I’m different now. Being with Marcus has totally loosened me up. I’m not shutting anyone out.”
“If you say so,” Hayleigh said. It was clear she wasn’t convinced.
Chapter 13
When the doorbell rang that night, Marcus was ready. He’d furiously cleared away as much of his sister’s workout equipment as he could and sprayed the whole house with air freshener to cover up the smell of moldy bread. The place still reeked, but at least the mold smell was a little more flowery now. He wasn’t sure what his sister would say when she came home from the gym to see and smell what he’d done.
He pulled the door open, expecting Albert, and found Connie’s excited face grinning back at him instead. “Okay, where is he?” she asked, brushing past him. “Let’s get this whole zapping thing over with. I just saw someone else I want to fix up.”
“Whoa, keep your voice down!” Marcus hissed. His dad was out getting more supplies for the bathroom, but his mom was in the basement, still working on her sculptures. “This is supposed to be a secret, remember? And we’re not zapping Albert. We don’t even know who he’s supposed to be fixed up with. He has a crush on my sister, but I really don’t think she likes him back.”
“Why not just zap her and Albert and see what happens?”
“Because it doesn’t work that way, okay?” Marcus practically yelled. “Besides, she’s already hanging out with this guy Peter Chung.”
Connie shrugged. “Fine. But if we’re supposed to make Albert dateable…” She scrunched up her nose. “We’re going to need some help.” She whipped out her phone and started typing.
“What are you doing?” Marcus asked.
“Calling for reinforcements.”
Ten minutes later, Albert arrived, exactly on time, wearing a bow tie and clutching a clump of kale tied with a ribbon. He looked downright petrified at the sight of Connie. “Marcus, where’s your sister?” he whispered, glancing around.
“Working out. She should be home soon.”
Albert looked both disappointed not to be able to see Ann-Marie and relieved that he wouldn’t actually have to talk to her yet.
The doorbell rang again, and Lena’s other best friend, Hayleigh, burst in. She was panting as she lugged in a giant sparkly bag. “I heard there was a makeover emergency!” she cried. Then she glanced at Albert, and her face lit up. “Oh! I see. Let’s get to work.”
“Makeover?” Albert whispered, looking ready to leap behind the couch for cover.
“You want girls to notice you, right?” Connie asked.
Albert could barely look at her as he gave a feeble nod. Then he glanced at Marcus as if looking for reassurance. “It’ll be fine,” Marcus found himself saying.
Soon, Hurricane Connie had swept Albert into Marcus’s bedroom, and she and Hayleigh started circling around him, talking about his shoes and his clothes and even his nose hair! As they snipped at his unruly locks and made him try on Hayleigh’s brother’s old sweaters, Marcus could only stand back and watch, thankful that Lena had never subjected him to anything so terrible. When they were done, Marcus had to admit that Albert looked good. He was like a cleaned-up version of himself.
“How do you feel?” Marcus asked him. Then he squinted. “Is that glitter in his hair?”
Hayleigh giggled. “Sorry. I couldn’t help myself. But it’ll wash out. I promise!”
Albert stared at himself in the mirror for a long while. “You think Ann-Marie will like it?” he asked finally.
“Of course she will,” Connie answered. “When you see her, you should ask her to the New Year’s Eve dance. It’ll be so much fun!” She turned to Marcus. “Have you convinced Lena to come back for it yet?”
He shook his head. “I haven’t really talked to her lately.” At least not about that kind of nonmagical thing.
Hayleigh giggled and gave an exaggerated eye roll.
“What?” Marcus asked.
“Nothing,” she said, but she was still fighting a smile. “Last time I talked to Lena, she said you’re always calling her and stuff. It sounds like all you do is talk to her.”
“It’s sweet,” Connie broke in. “Really. But girls don’t like to feel smothered, you know?”
“I’m not smothering her! We just have a lot of…” Marcus shook his head. “You wouldn’t understand. But she likes it when I check in.”
Hayleigh only gave him a knowing smile, and Marcus felt his cheeks growing hot. Is that what Lena had been telling her friends? That he was smothering her? With everything going on with their powers, he’d needed someone to talk to. Besides, she was his girlfriend. Didn’t that mean she wanted to talk to him as much as he wanted to talk to her?
Just then, the front door opened, and they heard Ann-Marie stomp in.
Connie turned to Albert. “Ready to go wow her with your new look?”
Albert nodded and squared his shoulders. Maybe this makeover was a good idea after all. He seemed a little surer of himself as he tugged at his sleeve and held up the kale bouquet.
Marcus tried to give him an encouraging nod, even though he wasn’t sure this was the best idea. But Hurricane Connie was picking up even more speed. He figured it was best to go along with it and hope that by some miracle her plan worked.
While Hayleigh and Connie eavesdropped from down the hall, Marcus and Albert went out into the living room.
Ann-Marie jumped at the sight of them. “Oh, I didn’t know anyone was home,” she said, smoothing back her sweaty hair as she frowned at Albert. “What are you doing here? And what are you wearing?”
“This is for you,” Albert said, holding out the bouquet.
She took a step back. “Is that kale?”
“You put it in your smoothies all the time, right?” Marcus jumped in.
“It’s a good source of folic acid,” Albert said. “It boosts brain development.”
Ann-Marie shook her head. “Whatever. I have to go take a shower.”
“Dad said no showers,” Marcus chimed in. “He had to disconnect the wat
er.”
“Are you kidding me?” His sister groaned and started to push past them.
“Ann-Marie, wait!” Albert croaked. She stopped. “I was wondering…if you would…go to the…New Year’s Eve dance…avec moi.” He blinked. “I mean, with me.” He blinked again and again. “I don’t know why I just said that in French. Wait. I’m not speaking French right now, am I?”
“You’re asking me to a dance?” Ann-Marie said, her eyes wide.
“Oui,” Albert said. “I mean sí. I mean yes.”
After that display, Marcus was sure his sister would shoot poor Albert down, so he almost stopped breathing when Ann-Marie shrugged and said, “I’ll…think about it.” She started toward her room, but then she paused and added, “By the way, Albert. I, um, I like your hair that way.” Then she rushed out of the room. A second later, they heard her bedroom door slam shut.
Albert’s face was absolutely on fire as he turned toward Marcus. “Did she just pay me a compliment?” he asked in disbelief. “And does that mean she might actually go to the dance with me?”
Marcus nodded, also kind of in shock. Then he glanced at Connie, who was sashaying over to him, Hayleigh practically skipping behind her down the hall.
“I told you I knew what I was doing!” Connie said. “Now will you finally listen to me?”
Marcus sighed. He supposed he didn’t have a choice but to get out of Hurricane Connie’s way.
Chapter 14
When Lena’s mom dropped her off at the theater early the next morning, Lena set out to track down Pearl. She prowled around the building, poking her head into every room she could find, but besides some startled squirrels and an angry pigeon, she didn’t find anything.
Her research the night before had also come up empty. Besides looking into the theater’s history, Lena had also searched patients named Pearl and Myrna at nearby hospitals but hadn’t had luck with either. She had found some of the stuff Shontelle had mentioned on the first day of class about past performances at the theater getting canceled or delayed. Lena suspected those had something to do with Pearl’s “job.” Whatever Pearl was after, Lena was not going to let it mess up this show too.
“Lena, you’re here early,” Miss Fine said when they bumped into each other in the lobby.
“Um, yeah, I wanted to apologize for being so distracted yesterday.”
“We all have off days.” Miss Fine laughed, the strict persona fading away a little. “Well, except for my mother. She was the luckiest person I ever knew. Sometimes, I wish I’d inherited some of her luck.”
Lena tried to smile, but at that moment, she was wishing she hadn’t inherited quite so many things from her mom. Their shared love of acting was okay, but the whole soul-collecting thing was getting to be a real pain.
“I also wanted to talk to you about something,” Lena said slowly. “You probably noticed that I don’t like getting too close to people and touching them and stuff.”
“I did pick up on that yesterday,” Miss Fine said, nodding.
“I kind of have a thing about germs.” She figured that was a believable excuse. Definitely more believable than “I could kill someone with my glowing fingers.”
Miss Fine gave her an examining look, but she didn’t ask any questions. “Thanks for letting me know,” she said instead. “Just do the best you can, okay?”
Lena nodded. That was the plan.
When they got in the theater and other kids started trickling in, Miss Fine was all business again. “All right, everyone. Let’s do your exercises, and then we’ll run scenes. I hope you know your lines! We’ll do some drills later to help you remember them.”
Zade gave Lena an eye roll and whispered, “Drill sergeant.”
She couldn’t help smiling. Yes, Miss Fine was like a drill sergeant, and this class was like theater boot camp. But that’s exactly what Lena wanted. If only the supernatural part of her life would leave her alone, she might actually be able to enjoy it.
As she and Zade ran through the scene, Lena was careful not to get too close to him again. Zade didn’t even seem to notice. For some reason, he was busy doing the role of Peter Pan as if he were part monkey. It didn’t make any sense with the scene, but it was entertaining to watch. Lena was trying to focus on making every part of her body feel Wendy-like, but when Zade started scratching his armpits, she couldn’t help laughing.
“Zade!” Miss Fine called, coming over to them. “I appreciate your energy, but no clowning around, all right?”
“But isn’t that the whole point of acting, to have fun with the stuff we’re doing?” he asked.
“There’s a time and place for that,” she said, “but you also have to be true to your character.”
“Maybe that’s what I’m doing.”
Miss Fine crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Peter Pan is a monkey?”
Zade grinned. “Who knows? Maybe that’s why he’s always zipping around. He’s a flying monkey.”
A couple of the other kids chuckled, but Miss Fine didn’t look amused. “I need you to focus, okay? The showcase is in three days.”
Zade didn’t look happy, but when they went back to running the scene, he played it straight this time. Lena had to admit that while the scene made more sense when Peter Pan wasn’t shoving bananas in his mouth, it also wasn’t nearly as much fun.
After a while, Miss Fine lined all the kids up on the edge of the stage and told them to start spouting their lines whenever she pointed to them and to stop saying them when she took her hand away. It only took a couple of rounds of that for Zade to start looking like he might throw a monkey-sized fit. Every time Miss Fine pointed to him, he scrambled to remember his lines and came up empty.
“You were supposed to know them by now,” Miss Fine scolded.
“I do!” Zade insisted. “This is just too much pressure.”
“If you knew them well enough, this exercise would be easy.”
“Miss Fine,” Lena couldn’t help breaking in. “He really does know them. He was doing great during our rehearsal.”
“Then show me,” she said to Zade.
Zade blew out a frustrated breath. “Forget it.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m going to get a drink of water,” he announced. Then he started to march off the stage. Lena couldn’t blame him for being upset, but stomping away like a baby wasn’t helping.
“Zade!” Miss Fine called after him. “Come back here!”
He ignored her. Instead, he threw himself into the front row of seats and grabbed some water out of his bag.
Miss Fine looked at a loss. Lena could tell she wasn’t used to being disobeyed.
“Zade—” she tried again as he took a few angry swigs from his bottle.
At that moment, Lena spotted a ball of light zipping into the theater. It was heading straight at Zade.
“Pearl, no!” Lena started to cry out, but it was too late.
The light disappeared under Zade’s seat and—pop!—the chair folded up and tossed Zade out onto the floor, catapult-style. He cried out as he hit the carpet and rolled onto his side.
Lena tore over to him as Pearl retreated into the wings.
“Zade! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Zade said with a chuckle, getting to his feet. He flexed his wrist. “I landed on my arm weird, but I think it’s okay.”
“You’re sure you’re all right?” Miss Fine asked, rushing over.
“That’s what I get for being a monkey boy, I guess,” Zade said with a grin.
To Lena’s surprise, Miss Fine didn’t push the issue. Instead, her face was full of concern. She turned to everyone and called out, “Let’s take a break.”
“It was like the seat spit me out,” Zade said, still rubbing his wrist. “Maybe I taste bad.”
“Or maybe it’s the gh
ost,” Shontelle said, her eyes gleaming. “I told you this place was haunted.”
The other kids laughed, and even Zade joined in. But Lena wasn’t laughing. She didn’t know what Pearl’s deal was, but she’d tried to hurt Zade. Lena had to find a way to send her to the After. And she had to find it soon.
• • •
That afternoon, while her mom was in the basement doing laundry, Lena quickly searched the apartment for her soul-hunting manual. If she could find where her mom kept it, she could use it to figure out what to do about Pearl. She couldn’t zap her again and risk making her even stronger.
But there was no sign of the manual anywhere. Instead, there were a lot of unpacked boxes and things that had been thrown haphazardly into the closet and behind furniture, as if her mom had meant to finish unpacking but never got around to it.
Lena was scrambling to put her mom’s shoes back under the dresser the way she’d found them when she heard her mom’s voice. She was on the phone.
“I can be there in about a half hour. Let me see if my neighbor can watch Lena again. Send me the address, okay?”
Lena rushed out into the living room. “Do you have another assignment?”
Her mom sighed and nodded. “A soul’s wandering around in a yoga studio. It won’t stop unrolling the mats.”
“Let me come with you,” Lena said.
“Absolutely not. We already talked about this. It’s too dangerous.”
“Isn’t it dangerous for you to be going out on assignments alone when you don’t have your powers?” Lena asked. “Aren’t I allowed to worry about you too?”
Her mom shook her head. “You’re staying here, and that’s final.”
When her mom went across the hall to ask Mrs. Martinez to babysit, Lena quickly glanced at her mom’s phone and memorized the address Yvonne had sent over.
Five minutes later, Mrs. Martinez was nestled on the couch, asking Lena the exact same questions about school and her family as she had the night before.
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