Wizardmatch

by Lauren Magaziner

  Around a sharp corner, Fluffles ushered her into a room that was bare: white floors, white walls, no furniture, and a twenty-foot-tall domed ceiling.

  “This room is so empt—”

  Before she even had time to finish that sentence, she grew. And grew. And GREW. Her limbs not only stretched out—but they also got wider. Her whole torso expanded to the size of a tree trunk. By the time she stopped growing, she and Fluffles were both five times their normal size. Lennie had to crouch to keep her head from hitting the ceiling, and Fluffles looked like a lion wearing a tuxedo.

  “What the heck?!” Lennie complained. “Did you have to talk with me here?”

  “It’s an enlargement spell, and you are trapped in here with me until you answer my questions. Now, what are you up to?!” Fluffles demanded.

  “I told you—nothing!”

  “I don’t believe you.” He bared his teeth, only this time, because of his size, he looked much more threatening. “I saw you today!”

  The room suddenly seemed too cramped. She was caught. No, Lennie thought, he knows nothing. Keep it together. “Saw me what?” she said coolly.

  “One minute you were over on the left side of the pudding pool. And the next minute, you were on the right side of the pool. You invisibled! I saw you!”

  “You mean you didn’t see me,” Lennie corrected.

  “Yes, I didn’t see you! I mean, no, I saw that I didn’t see you! I mean . . .” Fluffles scratched his ears with his paw. “You’re trying to confuse me!”

  “Is it working?”

  “NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST! What are you plotting with the Oglethorpes?”

  “For the last time, I’ve never even met the Oglethorpes.”

  “Well, if you’re not plotting and scheming, then why would you invisible during one of your cousin’s tests? What are you up to?”

  “Nothing!” Lennie cried. She kicked at the door with her giant, car-size foot, and managed to squeeze out her big toe. The moment her toe left the room, she began to shrink. With unsettling creaking sounds, Lennie’s limbs grew smaller and smaller until she was just the size she was before.

  Fluffles stuck his paw out the door, but Lennie ran away before he could morph back to his normal size.

  “I AM WATCHING YOU, ALWAYS!” he called after her. “AND CATS CAN SEE PERFECTLY IN THE DARK!”

  Lennie ran until she reached the ramp, then whistled for a skateboard, and zoomed away. If Fluffles knew what she was really up to with Uncle Humphrey, he’d tell Poppop faster than Lennie could say hair ball.

  Lennie skateboarded far away from that crazy cat, spiraling up the floors toward her room. But she stopped when she heard sobs echoing through the atrium.

  She left her skateboard and carefully tiptoed to the source of the sound: a guest suite on the thirty-second floor called the Breadroom.

  Lennie knocked.

  “GO AWAY!” said a sharp voice.

  “Anya?” Lennie said. “It’s me . . . Lennie! Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine! Please leave!”

  Her gut clenched. This is all my fault. “I’m just going to sit at your door until you change your mind,” she said.

  There were footsteps, and then the door swung open. Anya’s curls were even frizzier than normal, and her eyes were red. She snotted into a tissue as she let Lennie into her room.

  “Your room smells amazing,” Lennie said. “Like fresh bread.”

  “What kind do you smell?” Anya asked, sniffing. “I smell pumpernickel, and Mollie smells banana bread, and Jonathan smells pumpkin loaf.”

  “It’s totally sourdough,” Lennie said, feeling homesick for San Fran and her dad.

  Anya hiccupped, which morphed into a sob.

  “Are you okay?” Lennie asked. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  Anya lay down on her baguette bed and stared up at the bagels painted on the ceiling. “It’s over,” she groaned. “Just like that, it’s over.” She paused. “I finally get how you feel.”

  Lennie dug her nails into her own skin to get out some of her own anger: Anya didn’t know how she felt because Anya, at least, was picked. She wasn’t rejected because of her identity, or her looks. Anya wasn’t betrayed by her grandfather and her parent at the same time.

  But just when Lennie was about to tell her off, Anya burst into tears. “Ohhhh, this is so embarrassing,” Anya said, hiding her face under a pillow. “I broke my wrist last year in field hockey, and I didn’t cry then. I got three stitches when Jonathan was teaching me snowboarding, and I was fine, but this makes me cry?”

  Lennie softened. “There’s nothing wrong with crying.”

  Which made Anya bawl even more. It was a disturbing sight—Lennie had never seen Anya cry before. It was like ten years of backed-up tears were flooding out of Anya all at once.

  Guilt crept up and up and up on Lennie’s spine, like a spider that just wouldn’t quit. Any second now Anya was going to see right through her and know what Lennie did.

  “It’s not even the Prime Wizard thing that gets me!” Anya said. “I mean, yeah, it would have been sweet to have Poppop’s powers. But it’s the losing—I’m supposed to win! That’s who I am!”

  Lennie patted Anya’s arm, feeling like she’d swallowed a bug. “I’m sorry,” she muttered. She couldn’t get her cheeks to stop burning up.

  “You don’t have to apologize!” Anya said, which made Lennie feel even worse.

  They stayed together in silence for a while. Lennie thought about all their Thanksgivings: the times they built forts in the house, broke the wishbone together, rolled around in leaves, and the one year with exceptionally warm November weather—when their families took a spontaneous day trip to Ocean City, skipped on the boardwalk, and ate taffy.

  Yes, Anya’s competitive streak annoyed Lennie. But she still loved her cousin. And not because she was a “winner.”

  “You know,” Lennie finally said to her cousin. “I don’t even care about your trophies or medals or how many times you scored a goal. You’re so much more than just a loser or a winner.”

  “Ha,” Anya said. She sniffled, gave Lennie an affectionate nudge, then flipped onto her stomach. “Len, I can’t stop replaying this afternoon in my brain. Don’t you think it’s ridiculous that Bo’s advancing? He didn’t do anything except eat some pudding and turn it into a bird!”

  Lennie pressed her lips together.

  She knew she was right about Wizardmatch and Poppop—after today, she was surer than ever that Wizardmatch was unfair. Not just to her, but to the other girls in the family, too.

  Something had to be done. Poppop couldn’t get away with this.

  And Lennie would make sure he didn’t.

  Student and Teacher

  In the late evening, as Lennie was crankily wondering whether Uncle Humphrey was even watching the first test, the window began to fog.

  You have five seconds to make sure you’re alone.

  Lennie was already alone, but she dead-bolted the door to keep Michael from coming in.

  Well done, my NEW PUPIL!

  At midnight, go to the place where we last spoke, and I’ll lead the way.

  Bring potato chips.

  Wear sneakers. Leave your glasses at home.

  Seriously, bring potato chips.

  —Your Dutiful Teacher

  Her teacher!

  Lennie smiled. She would have hugged that letter, if it weren’t stuck to the outside of her window.

  By the time she left to meet Great-Uncle Humphrey, Michael was fast asleep. She tiptoed out of her room and traveled the ramp by foot. Every so often, she had to hide in the hall to recharge her power.

  And on the bottom floor, guarding the exit, was Fluffles.

  Curse that cat!

  He was pacing in front of the door. If she tried to tiptoe past
him, she’d surely get caught. She had to get him to move. . . . But what could distract him? He was usually so watchful. In fact, the only time she’d ever seen him inattentive was when Michael dangled a shoelace in front of him.

  That’s it! She pulled the drawstring out of her sweatshirt and threw it across the lobby.

  “What’s that?!” Fluffles said, his eyes wide as he chased after the object. He slid across the floor and picked the string up in his mouth proudly, like he’d hunted a grand prize.

  Lennie didn’t wait—she invisibled and rushed out of the castle.

  “WHO’S THERE?” called Fluffles from behind her.

  She kept running invisibly, head down, trying to put as much distance between herself and the castle as she could.

  In the dark of the night, it was hard to avoid the Garden of Goulash, and the stew sludged beneath her shoes. The night air was cool and foggy and still. When she reached the borderlands, she did not hesitate. And on the other side of the Pomporromp border, a message was waiting for her.

  Avoid the bridge this time, okay?

  It was written into the earth, before a trail marked by floating fires. Clearly a path left for her by Uncle Humphrey. So she walked along, following the fires, which blew out whenever she walked past—twisting this way and that as she avoided every booby trap that Poppop Pomporromp and Madame Oglethorpe had set.

  The path led to a ring of trees, where the trunks stood separate and strong, but the limbs and branches were tangled together. Where the darkness was darker and shadows were shadowier. And there, in the middle of the clearing, Great-Uncle Humphrey de Cobblespork, sat pretzel-style. His eyes were shut, and he breathed in deeply and meditatively. Lennie could just tell he was about to say something profound.

  “Where are my potato chips?”

  Or not.

  Lennie threw a bag of chips at him. He ripped open the packaging, grabbed a fistful, and began munching loudly. “Yum yum yum! I have never found a magic greater than that of fried potatoes.” Humphrey frowned at her. “I thought I told you not to bring your glasses.”

  “I can’t see without them.”

  “Yes, that’s the point.” Humphrey stood up and swiped the glasses right off her face.

  “Why are you stealing my glasses?”

  “You see—or perhaps, you don’t see—this is all part of my foolproof one-of-a-kind method. All will be revealed in due time.”

  “What does that mean—”

  “IN DUE TIME!” he bellowed.

  “SHHHHHH!” Lennie hissed. “You’re going to get us caught!”

  “I will do no such thing!” Uncle Humphrey said. “No one comes in here. And even if they do, I am using my elemental powers to pay attention to the earth and the wind. If someone takes a footstep anywhere near us, I’ll know.” He knocked on the ground, and it cracked beneath his fists. He reached into the lightning-shaped crevice, pulled out a box, and placed it in Lennie’s hands.

  “What’s this?”

  “A wooden box.”

  “And what’s in the box?” Lennie blindly felt around for the latch. When she opened the box, there came an unmistakable hisssssssssssss.

  “Snakes!” Uncle Humphrey said.

  “Snakes?!” she yelped, almost dropping the box.

  “Relax,” Uncle Humphrey said.

  “How can I relax when there’s a snake in here?”

  “Three snakes, actually.”

  “Three,” Lennie said, feeling a little ill.

  “I’m going to wrap them around you . . . like so!” Uncle Humphrey said, curling a snake around each leg and one across her shoulders.

  Their scaly bodies were cold and meaty and muscular as they crawled around her. “Th—they’re not going to bite me, are they?”

  “They might,” Uncle Humphrey said.

  When he said he was going to train her, this wasn’t at all what she’d had in mind.

  “This isn’t at all what I had in mind,” she said out loud.

  “Of course not!” Uncle Humphrey said. “How could you’ve possibly hoped to foresee my genius? Now these snakes have a purpose, you know.”

  “I didn’t know!”

  “Well you should have known!”

  “How could I have known what I don’t know?”

  Uncle Humphrey sighed loudly. “Here’s the thing: It takes years to grow your endurance—in other words, how long you can use your power before getting tired. There’s nothing I can do for you in the short time we have. But I can teach you something just as useful.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “The ability to transfer your invisibility to the objects you touch.”

  She squinted at him. “But that’s impossible!”

  “It is not impossible! You already do it! When you go invisible, your clothes turn invisible too, yes?”

  Lennie nodded.

  “VOILÀ!” her great-uncle said. “You already transfer invisibility to your clothes without even thinking about it. So I’m going to teach you how to share your invisibility with bigger objects. Or an animal. Or, say, another human.”

  Another human? She could turn other people invisible with her? How had she never known? Her breath caught in her chest. If she could make another person go invisible with her, even for a few seconds, it was more than her mom and Michael had ever done.

  “Here’s your problem, Lennie: You’re so busy looking at yourself to make sure you’re still invisible that you’re not feeling the power inside you.”

  “And what are the snakes for?” she said with a shudder.

  “You have to turn them invisible. Start small, and work our way up to transferring to humans.” Uncle Humphrey smiled. “They also create a high-stress, high-intensity situation. Pressure increases your productivity and drive. Without it, you could train for years and never get anywhere, which is what happens with most of the Pomporromps, sadly. Now . . . START INVISIBLING!” he barked in her ear.

  She went invisible—the telltale chills she always felt crawled up her arm.

  “YOU HAVE TO PUSH!” said Humphrey. She could feel the breeze of his breath on her face as he hollered. “STAY DETERMINED! AND STAY HUNGRY!” It was hard to stay hungry when Great-Uncle Humphrey’s breath smelled like sour milk.

  She balled her hands into fists. Stay invisible, stay invisible. You can do it!

  “Is this the best you can do?” he said. “You’re showing me a namby-pamby display!” Humphrey yelled. “NO MORE NAMBY-PAMBY! Feel it burning! Do you feel it?”

  “Uh-huh!”

  “No . . . you don’t. Not yet. Because I’m about to throw some fireballs at you. I need you to dodge them while staying invisible.”

  “WHAT?!” she shrieked. “WAIT, DON’T—”

  “FIRE IN THE HOLE!” he shouted, and a ball of light zoomed her way.

  She ducked, shielding her head for dear life. The fireball hit a tree trunk behind her, but it didn’t set the forest ablaze—it simply snuffed out, like a dying candle flame. Still, the heat surrounded her like a wall, so thick and dry that she couldn’t stop sweating. And the snakes began to circle around her tighter. They were getting scared or excitable—she couldn’t tell which.

  “MAKE THE SNAKES INVISIBLE!” Uncle Humphrey griped.

  “I’m trying!” she yelled. “I think I’m out of magical energy.”

  “If you’re in danger and run out of power, no one’s going to let you take a break in real life!” He pelted a fireball at her stomach, and Lennie swerved to avoid it. “You have to keep on dodging until you can invisible again.”

  “WHAT?!” she said, ducking behind a tree. The snake on her shoulders squeezed her uncomfortably tight—her whole left arm was feeling numb.

  “The only way to hide from my fireballs is to GO INVISIBLE!” Humphrey said, peeking around a tree and smas
hing a fireball at her legs. She skirted away just in time.

  She took a deep breath, and even though she was tired physically, she could feel her magic swelling within her again. Droplets of sweat dripped down her forehead, and the snakes danced around her neck.

  “Too slow!” he said, hitting her jacket with fire, just one second before she went invisible. Lennie quickly threw the jacket on the ground, where it burst into flames and smoke.

  She was going to die training. Humphrey was going to kill her!

  Whooosh! A fireball exploded near her elbow. She could feel the heat from it, and she screamed, “Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!”

  “INVISIBLE PEOPLE DON’T MAKE NOISE!” he yelled. “If you can invisible your clothes, you can invisible the snakes! And if you can invisible the snakes, you can invisible anything you touch.”

  Two blasts came this time, both at her feet. One hit her shoe, and she had to kick it off before the fire swallowed it completely.

  This was all ridiculous! How was she supposed to concentrate when fireballs were being tossed her way and snakes were doing laps around her limbs?

  “YOU HAVE TO WANT IT MORE THAN THAT—YOU HAVE TO WANT IT WITH ALL YOUR HEART! DO YOU WANT THIS, LENNIE?” he bellowed.

  More than anything! Lennie closed her eyes and took a deep, deep breath. Inhale. Exhale. You can do this, Mercado, she told herself. Invisible, invisible, invisible. Come on.

  Stay invisible. With all my heart.

  A few fireballs whizzed so close to her that they stung, and the snakes tightened around her thighs like a grandma’s girdle. She was losing feeling in her toes, and the snake around her neck hissed in her ear.

  Her magical energy was out; her fifteen seconds was over. She opened her eyes. Humphrey stood there, smirking.

  “What kind of insane trick are you trying to pull?!” she yelled at him. “You’re not training me—you’re trying to get me killed!”

  Humphrey folded his arms and harrumphed. “Well, my method is working, thank you very much. You made the snakes go invisible.”