Wizardmatch

by Lauren Magaziner

  Poppop twirled the staff like it was a baton and slammed the rubber ducky’s head on the floor. It squeaked and emitted a purple beam of light—which zapped right into the ground in front of the tombstones.

  Out of the graveyard came floating apparitions. They were silver and shiny, like strands of spiderweb that had come together in the shape of a wobbly human. They were not invisible, but not entirely solid, either. Their eyes were like black sockets, and their mouths were foaming with drool. They bobbed above the earth, slowly, waking up from a long slumber.

  “THEY’RE ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!” Poppop cackled. “No, THEY’RE DEAAAAADDDDD! No, wait, THEY’RE UNDEADDDDDDD!”

  Uncle Humphrey shifted beside her.

  “You okay?” Lennie asked her great-uncle, searching his face as he stared at her poppop. Uncle Humphrey’s expression looked rather dark.

  “I’m fine,” he said.

  “Is it the ghouls?”

  “I said I’m fine,” Uncle Humphrey said.

  Lennie let it drop and turned her attention back to the ghouls who were circling the contestants.

  S-s-sooooo c-c-c-cold! they chattered.

  H-h-h-humanssssss! they shuddered.

  B-b-b-bodiesssssss! They shivered.

  Lennie looked at Michael, who was jumping up and down in the goulash. He was so excited, which made Lennie feel bad. But she and Uncle Humphrey were doing a good thing. At the end of this test, there would be no winners, but there would be no losers, either. Everyone would be equal.

  “Wait for my signal,” Uncle Humphrey said. “We don’t have that much time to get from here to Mortimer’s podium.”

  Estella blew a whistle, and the second test began.

  The ten ghouls circled the competitors, while the competitors pressed their backs together in a smaller circle. It was like they were in a ballroom, a ring of ghosts twirling around a ring of Pomporromps in a silent dance.

  Then, the ghouls began to moan—softly, at first. Then louder and louder: unsettling guttural noises, echoing across the estate.

  Silently, Ethan’s hair started growing to the ground. Bo crouched down and began shoveling goulash into his mouth. Michael and Julien were frozen, never once taking their eyes off the ghouls. Victoria splashed around in the meat stew, giggling like she didn’t have a care in the world.

  Then two ghouls moved abruptly, swooping down low and quick. Ethan stepped forward and used his hair as a whip to keep them at bay.

  Three swooped for Michael, but he went invisible to avoid them. They could still feel his body heat, but they seemed to have a hard time detecting exactly where he was while he was invisible.

  Bo coughed up three wild turkeys and a cockatoo. He zigzagged through the goulash to escape the ghouls as they confusedly went after the birds. Victoria was splashing around in the goulash, but the ghouls weren’t getting her. Maybe she was just too small for them to pay her any attention.

  A ghoul dipped down for Julien. He stood still—until the last second, when he dove to the side. He quickly began to panic. “IT’S NOT LISTENING TO MY MIND CONTROL!” he shouted.

  “Probably because they don’t have minds!” Michael shouted back, turning visible again.

  “That’s unfair!” Julien whined.

  “Get creative!” Bo suggested, and then he coughed up a duckling.

  “And stop complaining!” Ethan added.

  Lennie would’ve enjoyed continuing to watch Julien struggle, but Michael was on the move! He hopped across the garden and slid through the goulash as a ghoul hunted him. Then he went invisible, but the confused ghoul kept floating—right out of the garden.

  “OUT!” Estella shouted waving a flag. “One ghoul down, nine to go! Point Michael!”

  Go Michael! Lennie thought. Then she remembered she wasn’t supposed to be rooting for him.

  The ghouls pounced again. Two of them tried to attack Michael, who ran in circles while flickering in and out of invisibility to confuse them. One was chasing Bo around, who waved his arms in the air and screamed wildly, “GO FOR THE BIRDS, GO FOR THE BIRDS!”

  A ghoul went for Julien, but he was saved by Ethan’s hair, which formed a protective cocoon around Julien at the last second.

  “Thank you, mind control!” Julien cried gleefully.

  Ethan snapped his hair back from Julien and glared. Then he looped his locks into a lasso. Spinning his hair around, Ethan caught a ghoul in his mane and tossed it out of the garden.

  “Point Ethan!” Estella called. “Two ghouls down, eight to go!”

  “HELP!” Julien shrieked as three ghouls dipped toward him. Ethan’s hair began zooming over to protect Julien again, but the ghouls were faster. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—one right after another, they flew through Julien’s chest. His skin turned bluish and cracked like it was a piece of dried- out clay. He wheezed one last breath—then fell forward like a plank, facefirst into the goulash. Completely fainted. Out cold. Stiff as a stiff.

  Lennie gasped.

  “JULIEN!” Uncle Philip #3 hollered from the bleachers.

  The parents of the remaining four Wizardmatch contestants began to cry out to their kids. The cousins sitting on the bleachers blinked in horror.

  Michael’s powers finally returned to him, and he went invisible, dodging yet another ghoul and jumping over Julien’s body. Wasn’t anyone going to stop the game? Or carry Julien off the field? How could Poppop allow something like this to happen to one of his own grandchildren?

  “Point Michael again!” Estella said. “And point Bo! Four down, six to go!”

  Uncle Humphrey put a hand on her back. “It’s time.”

  Her stomach bottomed out from under her.

  “See where Poppop is watching, across the Garden of Goulash?”

  Lennie nodded.

  “We have to get to him, and we have to be invisible. Now, we’re going to run around the garden.” Uncle Humphrey pointed to the left edge, where the goulash met the grass. “We don’t want to get ghouled.”

  Lennie’s stomach turned.

  “You can do this. I believe in you,” Uncle Humphrey said, and just hearing those words—knowing that someone believed in her—made her feel like she could fly.

  Uncle Humphrey helped her up. Lennie turned them invisible, and they crossed the border into Pomporromp territory.

  Then they sprinted. Treading on the grass, Lennie pumped her one arm and held tightly onto her great-uncle with another. They were running right next to the Garden of Goulash, beside all the contestants and the ghouls. She could have been one of them . . . if only.

  Don’t think about that!

  Poppop and his staff were just ahead of them—only a few more seconds. Lennie squinted, eyes on the prize. I have to get there! she said to herself as the sweat dripped down her face, as her arms prickled with pain. She was running out of time.

  All too quickly, her energy drained and she tugged on Uncle Humphrey’s sleeve. They were going to get caught—they were going to be seen—

  With a flick of his wrist, Uncle Humphrey expanded a hole in the ground in front of them—big enough for them both to jump into. She hopped in, just as she released a breath that made her visible again. The ground closed in around them on all sides; there was no room to move beneath the grass. No sounds to be heard—not of the ghouls or the contestants or the rowdy audience.

  It was dark and silent and cold.

  “Do you think Poppop saw us?” Lennie shivered. She could only imagine what sort of horrible punishment he would dream up for them if he caught them. Maybe make them clean the skateboard ramp with their tongues. Or hit them with a giggle spell, which would make them laugh until they cried.

  “No,” Uncle Humphrey said at last. “I don’t think he saw us. Or else he’d open up the ground with his staff and yank us out of here like weeds.”

  Len
nie closed her eyes and let out a slow breath.

  When her energy returned, Lennie invisibled herself and her great-uncle as Humphrey popped them both up out of the ground. Uncle Humphrey was right—Poppop didn’t seem to notice. He only had eyes for the Garden of Goulash, where Michael and Ethan had teamed up to bait and attack three ghouls. Where Victoria was sliding through the goulash on her butt. Where Bo was hiding beneath an ostrich.

  But Lennie kept her focus on Poppop’s staff. The key to equality is right behind Poppop. It was what she needed for her voice to be heard—for all of their voices to be heard.

  Her heart was racing.

  When they were no more than a hundred feet away from the podium, Uncle Humphrey was practically soaring every time he leaped. Almost there! she thought.

  But then! Michael slid across the garden—landing in the goulash right near her. From across the field three ghouls came barreling toward him, spinning in a vortex of white smoke. They were headed directly for Michael’s back. But he was distracted getting to his feet. And he didn’t see them coming.

  Michael!

  She wrenched her hand away from Uncle Humphrey and ran to her brother. She tackled him around the waist and they both went flying into the ground. They slid across the goulash, meat sauce getting everywhere. But the ghoul had missed her brother. She’d saved him from being in a coma for days. Or months. Or maybe even years.

  I did it, she thought in sheer relief.

  And then the relief was gone.

  “Lennie?” Michael said, confusedly wiping the meat off his face.

  She looked down at her hands—fully visible. No, no, nooooo!

  She scrambled to her knees and glanced at the shocked, angry faces of her family in the bleachers.

  Lennie tried to invisible and dash off, but Poppop waved his staff and she froze. It was the same sensation she felt whenever Jonathan, Anya, or Mollie used their powers on her. Then Poppop made the ghouls disappear with another flick of his wrist.

  “WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?” Poppop thundered.

  Lennie looked for Great-Uncle Humphrey to save her, but he was nowhere to be seen.

  She was on her own . . . and in big trouble.

  “LENNIE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” her mom screamed.

  Lennie’s face grew hot. A little thank-you would be nice from her mom—she just saved Michael from getting ghouled! Wasn’t that a little more important than some stupid competition?

  All the aunts, uncles, and cousins were yelling at her simultaneously, so loudly that she couldn’t even make out who was screaming what.

  Poppop raised his hands for quiet, but everyone ignored him and continued spitting choice words at Lennie.

  “LISTEN TO ME, YOU WEASELS!” Poppop cried. “SILENCEEEEEEEE!” He stamped his rubber ducky staff, and everyone stopped hollering midword. “Let the girl explain herself.” He turned to Lennie with a glance so cold it could’ve frozen the goulash solid. “Well, go on,” Poppop said.

  “I was saving Michael,” she said.

  “I call foul!” Bo said, and he coughed up a chicken. “I call fowl, too!”

  Poppop’s beard twitched as he glared at her. “Cutting off your face to spite your nose, are we?”

  “Mortimer, it’s cutting off your nose to spite your face.”

  “THAT’S WHAT I SAID!”

  He looked at Lennie. They all looked at Lennie.

  “No, that’s not—” Lennie began, but she couldn’t finish. The words stuck to the roof of her mouth, like peanut butter. “I just don’t think it’s very fair—”

  Poppop got up off his throne and leaned forward, amid hisses and whispers from the family. “YOU ARE TRYING TO RUIN THIS TEST, AREN’T YOU?”

  “I’m trying to get you to see reason!” Lennie shouted, her temper flaring. “All of you! This has gotten out of control! Everyone’s fighting—and everyone’s miserable! And nearly all the girls are eliminated—”

  “I don’t see gender,” Poppop said, which was a statement so ridiculous Lennie’s jaw actually dropped. “Boy or girl, everyone in this competition has trained hard and earned their spot! Are you saying your competing cousins don’t deserve my title?”

  “That’s not what I’m saying!” Lennie fumed. “But you clearly have favorites—”

  “Jealousy,” Poppop said, frustratingly calm. “Exactly the sort of thing I wanted to avoid.” He shook his head at her, tsking with his tongue. It was so . . . so . . . so belittling it made Lennie want to scream. Her mom gave her the I’m-very-disappointed-in-you face, which was almost as bad. And everyone else surveyed her with disgust and anger.

  Michael’s face, though, was worst of all. His bottom lip wobbled. He didn’t look mad. He looked devastated.

  “Why?” Michael finally said.

  Lennie never—in a million years—thought he’d be so crushed. She was the one whose dreams had been dashed.

  The family grumbled from the bleachers as they looked down at her with disdain.

  “Now what?!” Aunt Lacey said. “She’s ruined everything!”

  “You have to do something!” Uncle Philip #1 demanded.

  Everyone murmured in agreement.

  “If you don’t mind,” Lennie’s mom said to Poppop, “I would like to have a talk with my daughter.”

  He thought for a moment. “Very well. I will let you handle the troublemaker.”

  “Are we going to redo the Ghoulish Goulash Test?” Aunt Macy asked hopefully.

  “Hardly,” Poppop Pomporromp said. “We were nearly done anyway. The judges shall deliberate, and we will let you know our decision tonight at dinner. Oh, and someone carry Julien up to his room and get him some smelling salts. Hopefully he’ll wake up in a day or two.”

  Uncle Philip #3 let out a distressed cry as he made his way down the bleachers to his son.

  “That will be all!” Poppop said, stomping off toward the castle.

  The second Poppop left, the spell was broken; she could move again. So she clomped off to the garden, letting the sauce splatter everywhere with every stomp of her foot.

  “Lennie, stop!” her mom said. “Come back here!” She grabbed on to Lennie’s arm and whipped her around.

  She glared at her mother.

  “Don’t be disrespectful, Lennie! I don’t like that look!”

  “Why, because it’s not a Prime Wizard look?” she bit, and in her mother’s stunned silence, Lennie wrenched herself away and ran invisibly into the castle.

  Done

  Lennie retreated to the Cheeseburger Chamber, but she knew she couldn’t hide for long. After a half hour of staring at the ceiling, her mom came into the room and locked the door behind her. Lennie assumed this was to keep Michael from barging in. Or maybe her mom didn’t want any witnesses when she murdered Lennie for the stunt she pulled today.

  “Lennie, what is going through your head?” her mom asked. “I’m trying to understand your actions, but I just can’t. How would you feel if you were Michael, and he had messed up your Wizardmatch test?”

  “Well, that would never happen because I’m not allowed to participate in Wizardmatch. As you know.”

  Her mom frowned. “I thought we talked about not letting life get you down!”

  “It’s not life,” Lennie said. “It’s Poppop, and it’s you! How could you, Mom?” Lennie said. And for the first time since she’d met Uncle Humphrey, she let the tears flow. “You knew magic was my dream! You should have chosen me, and you know it!”

  Her mom flushed. “Your Poppop had very strong opinions—”

  “But they were the wrong opinions!” Lennie said. “You knew he was interested in Michael for all the wrong reasons. If I were a boy, I would’ve had the look, and you would have picked me over Michael.”

  Her mom shifted uncomfortably. “I understand how hard this is, Lennie, but there w
ere a lot of things to consider. When you grow up, you’ll see that life isn’t always fair, but we have to learn to roll with the punches.”

  “But the punches shouldn’t come FROM MY OWN FAMILY!” Lennie said.

  Her mom’s lips pressed together in a thin, tight line. “You’re angry. I get that. But this isn’t Michael’s fault, and you’ve taken your anger out on him. You have to apologize to your brother.”

  Lennie nearly choked. She couldn’t be serious!

  “Apologize?” she said. “For what?! I was trying to save him from being ghouled!”

  “You didn’t give him a chance to save himself,” her mom said. “It was his time to shine. You can’t keep going around doing whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it. Your actions have consequences, Len. And you might have gotten him eliminated. So you’re going to have to say you’re sorry.”

  “Now?” Lennie said.

  “Now,” her mom insisted, opening the door and calling down the corridor. “Michael! We’re ready for you!”

  Footsteps thudded down the hall, and Michael walked in. Like he’d been waiting obediently for this very moment.

  His eyes were puffy. Lennie’s heart tugged, and she even felt a little bit sorry. But still not enough to actually apologize. Out loud.

  She turned to her mom. “I can’t do it.”

  “Lennie,” her mom said in a warning tone.

  “I forgive you,” Michael said stiffly, “because I know you’re just jealous.”

  “For the last time, I am not jealous!”

  “Yes you are!”

  “NO I’M NOT!”

  “YES YOU ARE!”

  “WHAT DO YOU EVEN KNOW?” Lennie cried. “YOU’RE JUST A SPOILED, SELFISH BRAT!”

  Michael’s face twisted up. “TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE!”

  They both lunged at each other, quick and furious; it was impossible to tell who threw the first punch. Lennie smacked Michael’s head; Michael grabbed ahold of her arm and squeezed it so hard that it was like he was wringing out a lemon; Lennie clawed at him—