But she didn’t have a chance to apologize, because at that moment, Miss Fine opened the front door.
“Good morning!” she called. “Lena, this must be your mother. You two look so much alike! It’s nice to finally meet you in person.” She gave Lena’s mom a quick handshake. “Will you be able to come to the show on Thursday?”
Lena noticed a strange look pass over her mom’s face as she pulled her hand away. But then her mom said, “Of course. I can’t wait to see my little girl up onstage.”
Suddenly, an alarm started going off somewhere in the building. Miss Fine’s face tightened. “Excuse me. It seems someone opened the emergency exit. Again.” She let out a frustrated laugh. “Maybe this time, I’ll catch them in the act!”
As Miss Fine hurried away, Lena’s mom stared after her, her lips pulled into a tight line.
“Mom? Is everything okay?”
“Have you noticed anything strange about your teacher?” her mom asked.
“Strange? Um, not really. I mean, she’s pretty strict, but that’s actually been kind of nice. Even if not everyone appreciates it. Why?”
Her mom shook her head. “It’s nothing, only… You probably wouldn’t notice this, because your powers haven’t gotten stronger yet, but when I shook her hand, I saw a flash of her aura.”
“Her aura? What about her aura?” Lena had started seeing faint auras after she and Marcus had swapped powers, but she hadn’t really paid much attention to them. What did she care if someone was supposed to get a love boost or not?
“There was a haze around her,” her mom said. “One that usually means a person is haunted.”
“Haunted?” Lena repeated.
“Yes,” her mom said. “By a wandering soul.”
• • •
Instead of heading to class, the first thing Lena did was pop into the bathroom.
“Pearl?” she called out. “Pearl, are you around?” There was no answer, but Lena wasn’t about to give up just yet. “Pearl, I know what your job is. It’s to follow Miss Fine around, right? You’re haunting her.”
Still no answer.
“I won’t let you hurt her,” Lena went on. “So you better leave her alone from now on, okay? Or else…” She wasn’t sure how to finish that threat. How could she protect Miss Fine from a soul she couldn’t even find?
“I won’t leave her alone,” a voice said from behind her. Pearl’s voice.
Lena whirled around to find the clump of light hovering in front of one of the bathroom stalls. It looked so much brighter than the first time Lena had seen it. Whatever energy boost Lena had accidentally given Pearl was clearly still going strong.
“Why not? What did she do to you?”
“Do to me?” Pearl asked, sounding surprised. “Nothing.”
“Then why are you stalking her? I thought you were tied to this theater, but it’s her you’re tied to, isn’t it? That’s why only the shows she’s done here have been canceled and postponed.”
“Why are you accusing me of things?” Pearl demanded. “You said you wanted to help me.”
“I am trying to help you! I need you to let go of Miss Fine, of whatever you think your job is, and move on to the After.” But Pearl didn’t answer. This wasn’t working. Lena took a deep breath and asked in a softer voice, “Don’t you want to see Myrna again? I bet she’s waiting there for you.”
“You really think she is?” Pearl asked, sounding younger than she had a minute earlier.
“I do. You said the two of you used to sing when you were scared? Think of all the songs you can sing with her in the After.” Lena tightened her hands at her sides, ready to call up her energy at any second. “You won’t have to be scared little girls anymore.”
“Girls? What girls?” Her voice was suddenly harsh again.
“You…you and Myrna,” Lena stammered. “You’ll be reunited and—”
“No,” Pearl said. “No, I have a job here. You can’t make me forget about that!” The air sparked with static electricity.
“Okay, okay,” Lena said as the hair on her arms stood on end. “Calm down.”
But it was too late. As Pearl started zipping around the bathroom again, Lena knew she’d blown her chance.
“You don’t understand,” Pearl was saying, moving so fast that she was a glowing blur. “No one understands.”
“Then explain it to me!” Lena cried, but Pearl only rushed into the floor drain and was gone.
Chapter 19
As Marcus biked through his neighborhood, trying to shake the urge to call Lena, he braced himself for the dreaded ride past Caspar Brown’s house. But this time, as Marcus sped by, he sucked in a breath and slammed on the brakes.
There sat Caspar Brown, the biggest bully in school, by the pond across the street from his house, having a picnic with a girl. It didn’t seem to matter that it was freezing out. These two were curled up on a blanket laughing and feeding each other fruit. Love sparks were buzzing around them like flies.
Clearly, Connie had been busy.
Marcus inched forward, trying to see the girl’s face. Suddenly, Caspar’s eyes snapped up, and he caught Marcus staring. “What do you want?” he barked, back to his usual self.
“Um, nothing.”
The girl turned around, and Marcus nearly cried out in surprise. It was Hayleigh! Why on earth was she having a romantic picnic with Caspar?
“Oh, hey, Marcus!” Hayleigh said. “Want to come have lunch with us?”
Caspar didn’t look too thrilled about the idea, but he didn’t object either.
“Aren’t you guys a little cold?” Marcus asked.
Hayleigh giggled. “You don’t even notice when you’re having so much fun!” Then she grabbed Caspar’s hand, and—to Marcus’s shock—the guy grinned back at her.
“So…you guys are…” He couldn’t even make himself ask the question. “When did…”
“It was the funniest thing,” Hayleigh chimed in. “Connie and I were walking back from your house yesterday, and Caspar was outside throwing stuff into the pond, and we started talking and then—boom! It was like we suddenly noticed each other. Didn’t we, snookums?”
Caspar grinned. Actually grinned! “Yup,” he said. “I always thought she was sparkly on the outside, but now I see she’s sparkly on the inside too.”
Marcus just about fell over. Caspar Brown, the guy who’d once thrown Marcus into a Dumpster, had just used the word “sparkly”? There was no way this match could last! What was Connie thinking, zapping them?
“We’re going shopping soon,” Hayleigh said. “You want to come?”
“Shopping?” Marcus echoed.
Hayleigh gave Caspar an affectionate poke on the shoulder. “Someone is taking me to the New Year’s Eve dance, but he doesn’t have anything to wear!”
Caspar shrugged. “I’ve never been to a dance before. No one’s ever wanted to go with me.” He gave Hayleigh a shy smile.
And for a crazy moment, despite all the terrible things Caspar had done, Marcus found himself wanting these two to work out. Maybe all that stuff teachers spouted about bullies only lashing out at people because they felt bad about themselves was true. Maybe all Caspar needed was for someone to give him a chance.
“Why are you still here?” Caspar grunted at Marcus.
Or maybe he was still kind of a jerk.
“When Lena gets back, we should double-date!” Hayleigh said. “Wouldn’t that be so much fun?”
Marcus coughed. “Um, yeah. Sure.” Of course, by the time Lena got home, the sparks between these two would have already faded. There was no way they were meant to be a real match! But let them have fun while it lasted. The longer Caspar was mooning over Hayleigh, the less time he’d spend making Marcus’s life miserable.
When Marcus got home, the house was oddly quiet. His sister
had pretty much been locked away in her room since her vision the night before. He was desperate to find out more about what she’d seen, but she refused to even look at him.
He expected his dad to be yelling and cursing in the bathroom, but there was only some soft humming. Humming? His dad never hummed.
Marcus cautiously peered into the bathroom and found his dad busily grouting the tile above the bathtub.
“Marcus, I didn’t hear you come in. Any chance you could give me a hand?”
Whoa. Since when did his dad ask for help instead of demanding it?
“Um, sure,” Marcus said. He approached carefully, waiting for his dad to bark at him for stepping on the tile wrong or something. But his dad only handed him another trowel and asked him to start on the other side.
“Where’s Mom?” Marcus asked after a second. Lately, his mom had taken to playing loud music to help drown out the sound of his dad’s hammering, but the house was silent.
“My mom?” his dad asked, furrowing his brow. “I assume she’s at her house. Why do you want to know?”
Marcus laughed. He was definitely not asking about his dad’s mother. Honestly, he was a little bit scared of his dad’s parents. “No, I mean Mom. My mom.”
His dad shrugged and went back to scraping off a layer of grout. “I have no idea.”
At that moment, the front door opened, and Marcus heard another foreign sound: laughter. It was his mom, and it sounded as though she were talking on the phone with one of her friends. “I just got home. I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Who’s that?” his dad asked, glancing up from his work.
“What do you mean?” Marcus asked.
“I mean, who’s here?”
Ugh. Were things really so bad between Marcus’s parents that his dad was going to pretend he didn’t even know the sound of his own wife’s voice?
His mom came down the hall and poked her head in. “Hi, Marcus. Wow, look at it in here.”
Marcus’s dad smiled—actually smiled. “It’s coming along.” Then he glanced back at Marcus and asked, “Are you going to introduce me to your friend?”
Huh?
“I’m Claudia,” his mom said, holding out her hand. She had a pleasant smile spread across her face, the kind you’d give a total stranger.
A sinking feeling spread through Marcus’s stomach.
“Bruce,” his dad answered, jumping to his feet. Then he laughed as he held up his grout-covered hand. “I’d shake your hand, but—”
“Oh, no problem,” his mom said. “It’s nice to meet you.”
That’s when Marcus noticed something odd about his parents’ auras. The normally boring, beige clouds around them were now darker and hazier, but there was something else: sparks. Love sparks. And there was something wrong with them. Usually, when couples were zapped, their love sparks bounced in between them, connecting them. But here, the sparks were separate, not connected at all. As if someone had tried zapping his parents but had failed. As if the zap had not only failed but backfired.
And suddenly Marcus realized there was only one person who could have done that. Connie “I’m a Natural Matchmaker” Reynolds.
Chapter 20
“Okay, here we are,” Lena’s mom said as they pulled up in front of a tiny boarded-up grocery store. “Now stay in the car.”
Lena glanced out the window at the deserted parking lot. “Can’t I go with—”
“No,” her mom said. “Lena, we talked about this. You are staying here and waiting for me while I take care of this soul, and you are not moving, no matter what.”
“But what if—”
“Enough!” her mom said. “If I had my way, you’d be at home, but since you scared poor Mrs. Martinez half to death with your disappearing act yesterday, I have no one to watch you.”
Lena was about to shoot back that she didn’t need watching, but she held her tongue. If her mom would rather bring her along on an assignment than leave her home alone, at least that gave Lena a chance to be closer to the action. Even if she was going to be locked inside a car the entire time.
“Now stay,” her mom said, getting out of the car.
“Woof,” Lena couldn’t help answering, feeling like her German shepherd, Professor, probably did whenever he got left behind somewhere. Lena promised herself she’d give him some extra belly rubs when she got back home.
As she watched her mom disappear around the side of the grocery store, Lena’s phone beeped. She was surprised to see it was Marcus. She hadn’t heard from him since their (kind of) fight the previous day.
Connie zapped my parents and it backfired so now they don’t remember each other. Just thought you’d want to know.
Lena gasped. She read the message over again, sure she’d misread it. But no, it was all true. She would have expected Marcus to end the message with a plea for help, but that was it.
She tried to think of something to say. Finally, she wrote back: Your parents will be okay. Don’t worry. Are you all right? Do you need help?
He didn’t reply, which only made Lena feel more helpless. What could she do from thousands of miles away? Still, she hated the idea of Marcus having to deal with this on his own.
A minute later, Lena noticed movement outside of the grocery store. A faint glow was coming toward her. The wandering soul. She expected her mom to be right behind it, but there was no sign of her.
Holding her breath, Lena watched as the soul meandered over to the now-empty shopping cart area. It moved slowly away, almost as if it were pushing an invisible cart as it crossed the parking lot. Then it headed toward the car where Lena was sitting.
As it moved closer, Lena waited for it to change course or for her mom to emerge from the building, but neither happened. Instead, the soul inched toward the car until it was in front of the hood. Then it moved around to the side, toward the passenger door where Lena was sitting and trying not to move.
Where was her mom? What was the soul doing here?
At the door, the soul stopped. Lena heard knocking on the glass. “Miss?” a faint man’s voice asked. “Do you need help with your groceries? Want me to put your cart away?”
Lena swallowed. Her mom would kill her if she did anything.
“Miss?” the voice came again. “Do you know where everyone went? I’ve been wandering around this place, and there’s no one here. I…I want to go home.”
Without warning, Lena’s hands flared to life with pale blue light. She didn’t dare move, but the soul seemed drawn to the light like a moth. It floated through the glass and then—boom!—there was a flash, and the soul was gone.
Lena fell back in her seat, sighing in relief.
Then she saw her mom running toward her, and her relief vanished. Had her mom seen the whole thing?
“Lena!” her mom cried, throwing open the car door. “Are you okay? I told you to stay put!”
“I did! The soul came to me. It was asking if I needed help with my groceries.”
“Then what happened?” Thankfully, her mom must not have seen everything.
“The soul came at me and then…” Lena swallowed, hating that she had to lie. “It just moved on by itself. I didn’t do anything. It was ready to go, I guess.”
Her mom sighed, clearly relieved. “We were lucky it crossed over on its own.” Then she gave Lena an examining nurse look. “Are you sure you’re all right? You look a little flushed.”
“I’m fine, Mom. Really.”
After a second, her mom nodded and got behind the wheel. But she didn’t start the car. Instead, she stared out the window into the shadowy parking lot.
“Mom, are you okay?” Lena asked.
“I don’t know if this is working,” she said.
“The car? Maybe the battery’s dead.”
“No, this job.” Her mom shook her head. �
�Me as a soul hunter. I thought it was what I wanted, but maybe I was wrong. And with the power outage and my having to put you in danger—”
“I’m not in danger!”
“Maybe…maybe it doesn’t make sense for me to do it anymore.”
Lena stared at her. “You mean you’d quit being a soul hunter?”
“Is it so wrong to want a normal life? Then I could finally fill my life with things that make me happy. I can’t even remember the last time I had a second to work on a quilt.”
“But you can’t give up being a soul hunter!” Lena said. “This is part of who you are. Who we are.”
Her mom gave her a long look, her face so tired that her eyes seemed sunken. “Maybe not anymore.” Then she started the car and headed back home, as if the conversation were over.
As Lena replayed everything that had happened, everything her mom had said, she kept coming back to the same thing over and over. Her mom claimed she wanted to fill her life with things that made her happy, but until Lena had come back into her life, her mom had been happy. When she’d visited Lena before Christmas, she hadn’t been able to stop talking about her great new life in Arizona. What if she quit soul hunting and was still miserable? What if her mom realized the reason she kept running, the reason she was never content, was Lena?
Chapter 21
“I don’t know what you’re complaining about, Marcus,” Connie whispered. “Your parents look perfectly happy to me.”
“Are you kidding?” Marcus whispered back as they peered through the half wall between the kitchen and living room. “They’re acting like they just met!”
Marcus’s mom hovered uncertainly by the armchair with an art book under her arm while Marcus’s dad hurriedly folded up the blankets he’d used when he’d slept on the couch. (There had been an awkward moment the night before when both of Marcus’s parents had headed for the same bedroom, convinced it was theirs and theirs alone.)
“Did you sleep well?” his mom asked.
“Oh, fine, yes,” his dad answered. “I’ve never slept on this couch before, but it’s pretty comfortable.”
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