Zach King- The Magical Mix-Up
Page 3
His own drone was still ready to go, but what was the
point? Hogan had beaten him to the punch, big-time.
“What can I do?” Zach said. “It’s not fair, but . . .”
Principal Riggs stormed onto the scene, scowling. He
was a stocky older man wearing a wool sweater. A bushy
mustache and goatee made up for the lack of hair on his
head. “What’s all this commotion?”
The principal was only a year away from retiring and
moving to Florida to take up fishing full-time. (Zach
had spent enough time in his office that he couldn’t have
helped but notice all the vacation brochures and fish-
ing-boat catalogs that the principal had lying around.)
And so now more than ever, Principal Riggs had a ze-
ro-tolerance policy when it came to any kind of surpris-
es and shenanigans. He wanted a quiet last year before
he sailed off into the sunset, and Zach was sure a drone
delivery interrupting the beginning of a school day was
exactly the sort of thing that would make the grumpy
principal blow his top.
Zach almost felt sorry for Hogan.
“G’day, mate!” Hogan greeted the principal confident-
ly. He didn’t look at all worried about getting into trou-
ble. “How’d those fly lures I lent you work out? Catch
anything? Those tips I gave you help at all?”
“Caught my limit!” Riggs bragged, momentarily dis-
tracted. Then he noticed the drone hovering overhead
and got back to business. “Hogan?” He glanced around,
taking in the situation. “Are you responsible for this . . .
hoopla?”
“You bet,” Hogan said. “Is there a problem?”
The principal hesitated. “Well, ordinarily, we frown
on such disturbances, but you’re new here, so I suppose
you can be forgiven for not yet being fully aware of our
rules.” He raised his voice to be heard by the other stu-
dents. “But don’t the rest of you start getting any ideas.
There’ll be no more unauthorized aircraft on or above
this campus, not while I’m principal—which won’t be
too much longer, thank goodness!”
“Thanks, mate,” Hogan said. “I didn’t mean to cause
any fuss.”
“I know you didn’t.” The principal slapped Hogan on
the back as he cast a disparaging glance at Zach and
Aaron. “Some of you troublemakers could learn a thing
or two from his sterling example.”
Zach couldn’t believe his ears.
“He’s got them all fooled,” Zach said. “He’s up to
something. He’s got to be.”
“Well, he ruined our video, if that’s what you mean.
This was about the most boring film since Mars Needs
Moms,” Aaron said as he clicked off his video camera.
“He’s not going to get away with it—whatever it is,”
Zach said, pounding his fist into his hand. “Not if Zach
King has anything to say about it!” But Aaron didn’t
hear him. He was completely focused on the drone that
was becoming pixelated as it fell out of the sky.
“Um, Zach,” Aaron said, pointing up, but too late.
Zach fumbled for the controls, but not before someone
yelled, “Look out!” Principal Riggs spun around, saw
the drone heading straight for him, jumped out of the
way, tripped, and spilled coffee all over himself. Inches
before the drone was about to smash into him, it magi-
cally disappeared—just as Gwen had predicted.
“Zach King!” Principal Riggs yelled. But Zach didn’t
care about that. He was more worried about the fact
that nobody—including Rachel—realized that Hogan
was the sort of no-good skunk who would steal another
guy’s idea and take credit for it.
“I need to warn her,” he told Aaron.
“Warn who?”
“Rachel. This Hogan fellow can’t be trusted.”
“Zach!” Principal Riggs yelled again. “My office—
now!”
“How does he know it was your drone?” Aaron asked,
but Zach just shrugged. He had bigger things to worry
about.
Chapter 5
“Hey, Rachel, can we talk?”
She was putting the fresh bouquet of flowers away in
her locker when Zach came up to her between classes.
“Sure. What’s up?” she asked as she closed her locker
door.
“I just . . .” Zach kicked the ground. He wasn’t sure
what he wanted to say. He knew that he had to warn Ra-
chel about what Hogan was really like. “I just thought
you should know that Hogan stole that drone idea from
me. The whole stunt with the drone delivering an invite
to the dance. That was my idea. Hogan eavesdropped
on me at the mall the other day.”
Rachel frowned. “Hang on. You were also planning to
ask me to the dance?”
“Maybe,” Zach admitted. He couldn’t tell from her
tone what she thought about that. “But that doesn’t
matter now.”
“And why not?” Rachel asked, folding her arms over
her chest.
“Because you can’t trust Hogan!” Zach said, raising
his voice. He didn’t want Rachel to think that he was
just jealous because Hogan asked her first. Other kids
had stopped heading to class to watch. With Zach King,
you never knew what kind of show you were about to
witness. “I know he must have some sneaky reason for
inviting you.”
“Because he couldn’t possibly just want to go to the
dance with me?” she said.
All the kids around her oohed. One even said, “Ouch,
burn.”
“No! I mean, yes, sort of, but not like that,” he stam-
mered. “I mean . . . this isn’t coming out right at all.”
“Sounds to me like maybe that drone of yours isn’t the
only thing that you’ve lost. I think you’ve lost your mind,
too, Zach King. I’m sorry if you’re disappointed about the
dance, but Hogan really is a nice guy, and he asked me
first. And you know what, the way you’re acting now, I’m
not sure I would say yes even if you had asked me first.”
Zach hoped she didn’t mean that. “He’s got you fooled,
Rachel—just like everyone else!”
“So now I’m a fool?”
“I’m just trying to protect you!” he insisted.
“From what, exactly?” she asked.
“Er, I’m still a little fuzzy on that part.”
“Uh-huh,” she said skeptically. “Well, let me know
when you’ve got that worked out. In the meantime, I
have to get to class.” She pushed passed Zach, and the
crowd parted as she left. She had wrestled an alligator.
No one was getting in her way.
“But,” Zach yelled after her, “you have to believe me.
Hogan’s no good!”
Rachel didn’t want to hear any more of this. “See you
later, Zach,” she promised. “When you’re acting more
like yourself.”
Zach kicked the locker hard enough to hard to hurt
his toe. “Yowch,” he yelped. “Stupid lockers.”
“An
d cut,” Aaron said. Zach hadn’t even noticed him
filming the whole thing. “Now that’s what I call a com-
pelling video. Much better. Thanks, Zach!”
Could this day get any worse?
Chapter 6
Now what to do? Zach wondered.
Zach’s parents took him and Sophie to the mall after
school. They had some boring errands to run. Something
about a new rug and a replacement filter for Dad’s fish
tank. They gave Zach and Sophie ten dollars each and
asked them to stay out of trouble for a half hour, please.
Zach was only half listening, though. He was desperate
to figure out what his next move was. There had to be
some way to let Rachel know that Hogan wasn’t really
all that—without sounding like a sore loser.
And then it hit him: I need to find out what Hogan
really is up to.
While Zach thought about how he’d figure that out,
Sophie led the way toward the food court. The mall
had just about every kind of fast food you could imag-
ine, from pizza to burgers to Chinese food to juice bars
and ice cream and something called “Dinner You Can
Drink,” which were health shakes that Zach suspect-
ed were little more than yogurt smoothies with wheat
grass blended in. At the center of the seating area was
a giant bubbling wishing fountain where people tossed
loose change.
Sophie licked her lips. “You up for a milk shake?”
“No!” Zach said too emphatically. “I mean, I think
I’m in the mood for something else today.”
Sophie shrugged. “You sure? It’s free supersize day.”
“Nah.” Zach came down the escalator to the food
court. “I’m just not that—” he began when he spotted
Rachel and Hogan sitting on a bench. They looked like
they were having a good time together.
“Hide me,” Zach said, ducking behind his sister.
“What? Why?” Sophie asked. “What’s wrong?”
What if Rachel spotted him and invited them to join
them? What if Hogan spotted him and had heard what
Zach had been saying about him? What if they both saw
him and thought he was stalking them? He wasn’t ready
to deal with any of that right here, right now, and on an
empty stomach.
“Quick!” Zach said to Sophie. “Give me your hat and
glasses!” For whatever reason, Sophie had left the house
in a big floppy sun hat.
“Seriously?” She gave him a puzzled look. “What for?”
“I need a disguise,” he said, “so Rachel over there
doesn’t see me. It works for Clark Kent.”
“Fine. Whatever.” Sophie handed him her hat and hot-
pink glasses. “But you owe me a full explanation later.”
“Sure, sure.” Zach hastily put on the outfit. It wasn’t
a perfect fit, but he hoped it would be enough to make
him incognito for a minute. He squinted through the
prescription lenses. “How do they look? Do you think
they’ll recognize me?”
“OMG!” Sophie stared at him in shock. “Recognize
you? They won’t even be able to see you. Where did
you go?”
“Huh?”
Sophie poked him in the chest—hard. “You’re still
here.”
“Ow,” Zach complained, rubbing his sternum. “That
hurt.”
“You’re invisible, Zach! I can’t see you, like, at all.”
Zach glanced down—and he couldn’t believe his eyes.
He didn’t see himself. No feet, no legs, no torso . . .
nothing. He held up his hand before his face but saw
only empty air where he felt his hand was. He wiggled
invisible fingers.
“This is impossible!” Sophie said.
“No,” Zach said, “this is awesome.”
“But Zach, my glasses shouldn’t work on you. You
know that.”
The way it went was that each person’s magical ob-
ject only worked for them. Only Sophie could use her
glasses to turn invisible, just like only their mother could
use her magic ring, or only Cousin Gwen could use her
magic thumb drive, and so on, at least according to the
rules. As far as the two kids knew, no King had ever
been able to use another person’s magical object in the
entire history of magic. That Sophie’s glasses had turned
Zach invisible was just not supposed to happen.
“This is freaking amazing,” Zach exclaimed.
“Keep your voice down.” Sophie looked around to see
if anyone had noticed Zach disappearing. “You want
people to think the mall is haunted?”
“Right, right,” Zach whispered. “Okay, I have to try
this out. This is so cool. I definitely don’t need to wear
your hat anymore. I don’t see why you don’t just go in-
visible all the time.”
“Careful, big brother. It’s trickier to be invisible than
it seems. It took me years of practice to master it, re-
member?”
Zach knew as well as anyone that mastering your
magical powers takes practice. Before he started at
Horace Greeley Middle School, he was homeschooled
just like all the kids in the greater King family. It took
years of training to learn to control your powers—and
trying and failing had to be done at home to keep the
King family’s secret a secret. Zach was the exception to
the rule. He went to regular school because his parents
thought he’d been “skipped.” They figured it would be
best for him to get used to being normal since he seem-
ingly had no powers of his own.
Unless, of course, he did.
“Sure, sure—be careful. No worries.” Zach was eager
to try out the magic glasses. “I’ve got this!”
“Famous last words,” Sophie muttered.
Zach was tempted to eavesdrop on Rachel and Hogan,
but when he turned to see what they were doing, he no-
ticed that Rachel was getting up and saying good-bye
to Hogan. He gulped as she spied Sophie and headed
over, then remembered that Rachel couldn’t see him.
He slumped down out of sight anyway and tried not to
make a sound.
Sure enough, Rachel paused as she walked by their
bench.
“Oh, hi, Sophie,” she said. “I almost didn’t recog-
nize you without your glasses.” She glanced around. “Is
Zach here?”
“I haven’t seen him,” Sophie said, smirking at her joke.
“Okay,” Rachel said. Zach couldn’t tell if she was dis-
appointed or relieved that he was nowhere to be seen.
“Tell him I said hi.”
“Absolutely.”
For a second, Zach was afraid that Rachel might actu-
ally bump into him, but then she continued on her way,
exiting the food court. Sophie waited until Rachel was
completely out of sight—in the ordinary way—before
holding out her hand to Zach’s apparently empty seat.
“She’s gone. You can give me my glasses back.”
“Not so fast,” he whispered. “I’ve never been invisible
before. I want to enjoy this a little more.”
“Not a good idea, bro. Hand them over.”
Ignoring her, Zach glanced over at Hogan. He was
considering playing a prank on Hogan, just to get even
for him stealing the drone idea, when, to his surprise,
Tricia Stands—of all people—joined Hogan on the
bench.
Whoa, Zach thought, what are those two doing togeth-
er?
Tricia was blond, stylish, and spoiled rotten. Her de-
signer clothes were trendy to the max, costing more
than most people’s laptops. Her last attempt to bully
Zach and his friends had backfired on her badly by al-
most turning her into alligator chow. As far as Zach
knew, she was still holding a grudge about that—and
Zach knew she had to hate that Rachel was more popu-
lar than her now.
So what was Hogan doing talking to Tricia? That Ho-
gan and Tricia even knew each other came as a surprise
to Zach, but as far as he was concerned, seeing them
together was like spotting two comic-book supervillains
in the same place. Whatever they were up to couldn’t be
good for Rachel.
“My glasses?” Sophie asked again.
“Hold on,” Zach said. “I need to hear what Hogan
and Tricia are saying.”
Looked like he had turned invisible just in time!
“Wait!” Sophie said. “You haven’t had any practice at
this.”
“It’s just invisibility. How hard can it be?”
Zach thought he was going to die of embarrassment.
Blushing furiously, it took him a moment to remember
that all he had to do was take off Sophie’s glasses to
make his invisible clothes reappear. He yanked off the
glasses, becoming fully visible once more, but that still
left him standing in a fountain.
Not a good look, he realized.
Confused, the security guard eyed Zach suspiciously.
The uniformed rent-a-cop looked like he took his job
very seriously. “Just what the heck is going on here?”
“Um, a ghost pushed me into the fountain?” Zach
said, thinking fast. “Excuse me—I have to go check on
my little sister!”