by Zach King
this is all about?”
Fortunately for Zach, Principal Riggs hadn’t seen a
thing. The punch bowl had landed upside-down on his
head and he’d spent the entire stampede trying to wrest
it off. But it was the weirdest thing. The bowl just re-
fused to budge. It was almost as though somebody was
pressing it down on his head. Somebody who giggled like
a little girl.
“This isn’t funny!” His voice echoed inside the plastic
punch bowl. “If you’re holding this bowl on my head, you’ll
have detention for the rest of your life—and then some!”
He could hear animals galloping around. The clamor of
pounding hooves competed with loud neighs and whin-
nies as he tried to make sense of what was happening. But
he couldn’t see a thing that was going on.
And then suddenly the hoofbeats got quieter and then
quieter still, until the gym was pretty much silent. Riggs
was more confused than relieved. If only he could see
what was happening. . . .
And then, without warning, the punch bowl lifted
up on its own and then toppled over to one side. Prin-
cipal Riggs thought he heard footsteps running away,
but there was nothing in sight except a huge mess. The
decorations were splayed everywhere. The mechanical
bull had fallen over feet up. The balloons and stream-
ers were destroyed, and the refreshments table had been
toppled. And there were no horses at all, not even the
papier-mâché ones.
The only kids still left in the gym were Zach, Aaron,
and Rachel.
“Wha—what happened?” Riggs stammered. “There
was a blinding light, then horses everywhere. . . . I could
have sworn I heard horses. . . .”
“Real horses?” Rachel asked, as though she didn’t un-
derstand the question. She was calmly fiddling with a
lasso over by the toppled bull ride. “Now that’s weird,”
she said with a shrug.
Principal Riggs ran his hand over his scalp, trying to
figure it out. None of this made any sense.
“But . . . ?”
“Mr. R?” Hogan cautiously snuck out of the locker
rooms, where he had run to hide. He was splattered
with dung and he smelled like it. “You’re not going to
let them get away with this, are you?”
The principal scowled. His nose wrinkled in disgust.
“Aha—it was you! You’re behind all the horses and
noise. It has to be. You stink like a stable.” The princi-
pal dripped lemonade onto the floor. “I misjudged you,
Hogan. You’re a disgrace to Australia . . . and to this
school.”
Hogan’s face crashed. He tried to wheedle his way
back into the principal’s good graces. “Say, did I men-
tion some new fly-fishing techniques I’ve been meaning
to show you?”
“That’s enough.” Riggs held up a palm to silence him.
“Get out of my sight . . . and away from my nose!”
Tricia peeked out from behind the overturned band-
stand. It looked like the coast was clear, so she decided
it was time to cut her losses and call it a night. Getting
back at Rachel and Zach would have to wait. She’d had
enough of this stupid hoedown.
Too bad we never got to dunk Rachel in the pool, she
thought. After all that planning and preparation.
It dawned on her that she had somehow lost her new
cowboy hat in the commotion. She glanced around the
gym, searching for it.
“Looking for something?” Aaron asked.
He held out her hat, which had miraculously sur-
vived the stampede. “Thanks for nothing, loser!” Tricia
snarled as she snatched it from his pudgy fingers. She
plopped it back down onto her silken blond hair. “Don’t
think you and your freaky friends—”
But she stopped midsentence as something cold and
gooey spilled from the hat, down her head, and over her
shoulders.
“Smile for the camera,” Aaron said. “Say ‘ranch dress-
ing’!”
Chapter 15
“When do you think they’ll announce the winner of the
election?” Rachel asked.
“Should be any time now,” Zach guessed.
“And I’m ready to capture the results live,” Aaron said,
patting his camera.
It was the Monday after the dance. The trio was sharing
a table in the school cafeteria while they waited anxiously
to find out who their next class president was going to
be. The dish of the day was microwaved pineapple pizza,
which didn’t require ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, or
any other condiments, but Zach kept one eye on Aaron
anyway. His friend seemed to have finally dropped his
crazy ketchup theory, but you never could tell.
“The suspense is killing me,” Rachel said.
“Nothing to worry about,” Aaron reassured Rachel.
“You’ve got it in the bag now that the whole school’s seen
you rescue Tricia from that rampaging ‘mechanical’ bull.”
Zach had to agree with Aaron. The video of Rachel
roping the bull had gone viral since Aaron had posted it
online—as had the footage of Hogan hightailing it out of
the gym, thoughtlessly shoving aside anyone in his way
instead of helping out with his mad cowboy skills. The
part where Hogan took a header into the big, steaming
pile of horse manure had already inspired plenty of hilar-
ious GIFs and memes. Last time Zach had checked, the
clip had been shared all the way from here to Australia.
“Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” Zach said sar-
castically. “That’s what I call karma in action.”
He glanced at Hogan and Tricia, who had staked out a
table on the opposite side of the cafeteria, as far as they
could possibly get from Zach and his friends. The two
bullies weren’t even pretending not to be on the same
side anymore. Hogan gave them a dirty look that was a
lot less attractive than his fake smiles.
“He had me fooled,” Rachel admitted. “I should have
believed you when you tried to warn me, Zach.”
“And I’m sorry I didn’t ask you to the dance first,”
Zach said. “It just made everything more complicated.”
She punched him playfully in the shoulder. “Well, next
time don’t wait so long.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Zach promised.
“That is, if Principal Riggs ever works up the nerve to
schedule another school dance,” Aaron said. Bored, he
checked out the news on his phone. “You guys heard the
latest story regarding what went on at the dance? Riggs
is now blaming it all on a panic set off by a malfunction-
ing mechanical bull.”
“Seriously?” Zach said. “What about the wild horses
and everything?”
“Exaggerations, overexcited imaginations, mass hys-
teria.” Aaron counted off the so-called explanations on
his fingers. “Everything but magic.”
“You think Riggs really believes that?” Rachel asked.
“I think he really wants to believe it.”
That was good enough for Zach, who was just relieved
that the magical stampede wasn’t national news. He
wasn’t too surprised by this, however. One of the big
reasons his family’s magic had stayed secret for so long
was that most of the world would seize on any sort of
“rational” explanation, no matter how ridiculous, be-
fore admitting that magic was real.
Which was probably why Tricia was keeping her
mouth shut, too. She’d just sound like a complete nut-
case if she tried telling the truth about Zach.
Works for me, Zach thought.
Tricia scowled as she caught Zach looking her way.
“What are you looking at, freak? One of these days—”
A squawk from the school’s public-address system in-
terrupted her. The cafeteria quieted down as Principal
Riggs’s voice came over the intercom:
“Attention, students and faculty. As principal, I’m
pleased to announce that the winner of the sixth-grade
class election is . . .”
Rachel sat up straight. Zach held his breath as the
principal paused to draw out the suspense.
“Horace, our beloved school mascot.”
Cheers and laughter erupted in the cafeteria. Horace,
who had been snuffling around the cafeteria looking
for leftovers, briefly lifted his head, then went back to
chowing down on a dropped pizza crust.
“Seriously?” Rachel said, shaking her head. “I lost to
a dog?”
“I know!” Aaron said. “He’s not nearly as cute as
my cat!”
“Could be worse,” Zach pointed out, nodding at Tri-
cia, who got up and stormed out of the room with a
furious look on her face. Talk about a sore loser! Hogan
stomped off behind her. Zach hoped he would keep on
walking until he was back in Australia.
“Good point,” Rachel said, chuckling. Unlike Tricia,
she could see the funny side of the election results. “I
suppose I should go congratulate Horace on his victory.”
Zach handed her what was left of his pizza slice.
“Don’t forget a treat.”
“Hang on!” Aaron said. “I want to get this on video!”
“See?” Rachel said. “What would I do without you
guys?”
Zach couldn’t stop grinning as he and Rachel and
Aaron high-fived each other. It seemed that all those
do-overs had paid off after all. Maybe Rachel hadn’t
won the election, but she, Zach, and Aaron were truly
a team again. Their friendship was stronger than ever.
That was the biggest victory of all.
“We’ll be back soon,” Mrs. King said, smiling. “You
kids stay out of trouble.”
Zach’s parents were going to dinner for their weekly
date night. Grandpa King had already settled onto the
living room couch to babysit. Mr. King checked his
wristwatch as they lingered in the front hall of the
King house. “We’d better get going. We don’t want to
miss our reservation.”
“Says the man with the magic watch,” Mrs. King
teased him. Her ring sparkled on her finger, back
where it belonged. Sophie had returned the ring to
her mother after the dance, apologizing for having
“borrowed” it without permission. Her parents had
scolded her but had not gotten too upset since there’d
been no harm done. Thankfully, neither their mom
nor their dad had figured out why exactly Sophie had
taken the ring, so Zach hadn’t had to explain to them
about his borrowed magic. He appreciated Sophie
taking the fall for him so he could keep attending
public school like a “normal” kid.
Mrs. King waved good-bye to her children. “See you
later, kids, and don’t forget to do your homework.”
“Will do, Mom,” Zach said. “Have a good time.”
“And don’t worry,” Sophie said, looking over her
shoulder at Grandpa, who was already snoring. “I’ll
keep an eye on Zach while Grandpa sleeps.”
“Um, I think you have that backward, sis. I’m keep-
ing an eye on you.”
“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, big brother.”
After their parents left the house and the car pulled
out of the driveway, Zach and Sophie settled down
in the family room to do some gaming. (Homework
could wait.) But before Zach could fire up Jedi Kit-
tens: The Fur Awakens, Sophie got in front of the TV
and looked him in the eye.
“I’m calling in my favors,” she said seriously. “You
still owe me, remember? For lending you my glass-
es . . . and getting you Mom’s ring?”
“I remember.” Zach appreciated her going out on a
limb for him when things got rocky. “What do you
want?”
“No more borrowed magic. You need to find your
own magic, Zach.”
“But . . .”
“No buts,” she insisted. “You lucked out this time,
but messing around with other people’s magic objects
is just asking for trouble. You need to knock it off . . .
or I’ll spill the beans to Mom and Dad.”
Zach sighed. “You can skip the blackmail. To be
honest, I’ve kinda been thinking the same thing.” He
remembered how many disasters he’d had to do over
before finally getting it right. “Borrowed magic is
more trouble than it’s worth!”
Sophie nodded.
“Just be patient, big brother. We both know magic
isn’t done with you yet. You’re special somehow . . .
or maybe just a total weirdo.”
“Same difference,” Zach said.
“You said it, not me.”
She sat down on the couch and picked up a game
controller.
“So, now that that’s settled, let’s get our gaming on.
You want the Dark or the Light Side of the Fur?”
to be continued. . . .
About the Author
Zach King is a twenty-seven-year-old filmmaker who
creates videos with a hint of “magic.” With more than
25 million followers across his various social platforms,
he is one of the hottest names in digital media. He’s been
featured on Ellen and on the red carpet at the Academy
Awards—and he’s partnered with Lego, Disney, and
Kellogg’s to create mind-blowing videos. In 2016, Zach
and his wife competed in The Amazing Race along with
other social media superstars. Born and raised in Port-
land, Oregon, Zach is the author of Zach King: My
Magical Life. He lives with his family in Los Angeles.
harpercollinchildrens.com
zachkingmagic.com
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