Five minutes later, Andy took the comic and disappeared to his room.
CHAPTER 31
Promises, Promises
Thursday at lunch Mac and Maria both helped with the set again. Neither of them said anything about the previous day’s fight, though the air was a little prickly between them at first. Charlie wasn’t sure what to do, but with the show looming, she didn’t have time to try to help them get past it—not that they would want her to butt in anyway. She figured they’d been friends for years, and they’d probably had fights before that they’d had to work through. So she gave them some tasks to do and tried to stay out of their way. By the end of lunch period Mac and Maria were acting almost normal again.
After school, Mac sent Maria a Snapchat of himself sitting in the bleachers waiting for the game to start, just like always. Maria rushed over to Charlie in the locker room and replayed it for her to see. Charlie grinned. And even though Mac hadn’t included her in his Snapchat recipients, it was good to see Maria feeling better. It really gave her a mental boost—she was more determined than ever to win the game.
The teams soon went to the field. Charlie was nervous seeing all the parents and friends in the stands, but she felt proud wearing her new team uniform that matched the others. Her teammates treated her like one of them even though she was new, and that felt pretty great. Charlie scanned the bleachers looking for her dad, but soon Coach called the starters together and she had to abandon her search.
As the game was about to begin, the first-string girls eyed their opposition. Some of them were friends with players on the other school’s team and shared what they knew about their strategies. As Summit’s team headed out to get into position, even Kelly fell into step with Charlie and offered an encouraging “Let’s do this” before peeling off and going to her place on the field.
As Charlie waited in position for the whistle, she glanced at the bench and saw Vanessa there, leaning forward intently and shouting her support to the starters. A wave of guilt passed through her. Was she really the right person to be in this spot? Or had she only won the right to it by using the bracelet’s powers?
They would soon find out. The referee started the game, and Charlie burst forward, brimming with energy. But the other team was just as hyped up. They grabbed the ball early on and dominated for the first several minutes, keeping the action near Summit’s goal and leaving Charlie standing midfield with her fellow forwards, anxious and unable to help. Kelly and Maria fought to keep the other team from scoring.
When the ball rolled out of bounds on Charlie’s side of the field, Kelly quickly went to throw it in. She caught Charlie’s eye and hurled it to her. Charlie flew to it and punted it to an open area, chasing after it and giving her fellow forwards a chance to organize. She took it to the line of opposing fullbacks, then deftly passed it off to an open teammate, who took it to the goal for a quick score, giving Charlie an assist. Charlie pointed at Kelly, giving her credit for the excellent throw-in. And Maria was practically doing somersaults, she was so excited. It was good to all be playing together for once.
During the second half, as Charlie scrambled for the ball and felt that thrill of the chase, the bracelet grew warm again. For the moment she forgot her guilt—this was a real game, after all—and went after the goal like her life depended on it. She wove through the opposition, snaking her way deeper and deeper into the other team’s defense, then pounded the ball in the goal. The stands erupted in cheers.
With Summit up 2–0, Coach Candy took Charlie out to give her a break and give Vanessa some time to play. Charlie gratefully took it and as she caught her breath, checked the bracelet to see if it had been speed or strength that had activated—she couldn’t tell. To her surprise, the starfish was pulsing a beautiful fluorescent pink. Charlie almost laughed. Her healing ability was going strong for no apparent reason.
But that also meant that she had scored that goal without help from the device. She could look Vanessa in the eye once more.
* * *
Summit smoked the competition, 3–0.
Afterward the girls changed and went outside to look for their friends and family. Maria got caught up talking to some other friends, so when Charlie spotted Mac she went over to him.
“It was really nice of you to come,” she said.
“I always come,” he said, but seemed happy that she’d said something.
Charlie glanced around covertly, then pulled up her sleeve and showed him the bracelet with the starfish healing power still going strong.
“Wow, that’s awesome,” he said, looking closely at the dancing pink symbol. But then he quickly drew back as if he’d just remembered that he was too cool for girls at school functions. “I didn’t realize you’d hurt yourself. Is that why Coach took you out?”
“No, that’s the thing—I’m not injured. It’s just another glitch, I think.”
Mac frowned. “When did these glitches start? Or have they always been happening?”
Charlie thought about it. “I guess the first time was when I couldn’t get the bracelet off.”
“And that was after you destroyed the bathroom, right?”
“Part of the bathroom,” said Charlie.
Mac pursed his lips and looked sideways at her. “Anyway,” he said. “Basically everything points to the notorious bathroom incident as the moment things started going a little off the rails.”
“Yep.” said Charlie. She caught sight of her parents, and her mouth nearly fell open. “Wow,” she said, and grabbed Mac’s arm. “Come on, meet my parents! I can’t believe my mom’s here.” She pulled Mac toward them and pretended to overlook the fact that he stepped sideways on purpose to loosen himself from her grasp.
Her parents walked up together, both of them wearing their work clothes and grinning brightly.
“You both made it,” said Charlie, her face lighting up. “Did you see my goal?”
“We did,” said Charlie’s mom. “Amazing!”
“You nailed it,” said her dad.
Charlie hopped up and down, barely able to contain her glee. After the past couple of weeks, she had prepared herself to be let down—certainly one of them, or even both, would have some work thing come up that was too urgent to miss. But here they were—and they had seen her goal. It felt better than she’d ever remembered.
“This is my friend Mac,” she said, and spied Maria running toward them.
“Hi,” said Mac.
Maria skidded to a stop next to them. “Hi, Mr. Dr. Wilde. Hi, Mrs. Dr. Wilde,” she said.
“Hi, Maria,” both replied. Mrs. Dr. Wilde laughed at the title.
Mac shot her a quizzical glance.
“They’re both doctors,” Maria explained. “It’s confusing, so I renamed them.”
“I’m really just a lowly biologist,” quipped Charlie’s dad.
Mac laughed. “Makes sense to me,” he said. They chatted a little about the game.
Charlie loved seeing everybody together.
While the others were talking, Charlie’s mom leaned toward her and said quietly, “Do you want to invite your friends to go out for froyo with us?”
“You don’t have to go back to work?”
“No, we’re all yours for the evening.”
“Totally.” Charlie turned to Mac and Maria. “Do you two want to go out for frozen yogurt with us?”
“Sure!” said Maria at the same time Mac stated, “We can’t.”
Mac looked sharply at Maria, unable to hide the hurt look on his face. “But we always go to The Sugar Plum. It’s first-game tradition.”
“Yeah,” argued Maria, “but we don’t have to go there.”
“What if we all go to The Sugar Plum?” Charlie suggested. “Is that okay?” she asked her parents.
Charlie’s parents nodded. “Of course—we’ll go wherever you want.”
Charlie turned back to her friends. “Well? How about it?”
Mac glowered at Maria. Then he shook his head.
“Forget it,” he said. “I gotta go.” He waved to somebody in the distance—or pretended to—and slipped away before anyone had the chance to protest.
Maria sighed. “Well, I’d like to go with you,” she said.
Mac was really starting to make Charlie mad.
The next day at lunchtime Charlie and Maria hurried across the courtyard to the auditorium to finish up the set—it was Friday, and this was their last chance to make things perfect before the dress rehearsal during sixth period. Mac crossed their path again, and despite his abrupt departure after the soccer game, he joined them to finish painting the set pieces he’d been working on.
There was a buzz of excitement and nerves as everyone scrambled to get things done. There would be two shows tonight: an after-school soft opening with a small audience made up of what Sara called “snowbirds.” These were older people from retirement communities nearby who spent their winters in Arizona but lived in northern states or Canada the rest of the year.
“The snowbirds love this kind of stuff,” Sara told her. “And they don’t have to pay the five bucks for a ticket if they come to the soft opening. We invite them so we can do the full show once with a small audience before we do the real thing.”
Charlie thought it was a neat idea. But she couldn’t imagine how everything could possibly be ready. At least they’d get through the whole show once before everybody’s parents came for the official performance at seven.
“People, please be careful,” Mr. Anderson called out. “We have a lot of bulky set pieces, and our volunteer parent lighting crew from Biggs Electric is here, working on ridiculously tiny ladders. Our musical is not a tragedy—let’s not make today’s actions tragic either.”
The few students working near him mumbled their compliance.
Apart from the adults on the lighting crew, Mac was on a ladder too, touching up the gold letters on the train station sign, which stood high above the platform Charlie had built.
Charlie was as pumped up by the excitement of the show as she was about yesterday’s soccer game. It dawned on her that the two activities were similar—they were both team performances, and you really had to scramble if you messed up, but there were other people around who would help you out in a jam. Plus, the preshow butterflies felt the same as pregame jitters. Maybe this was why she’d been enjoying the class so much.
Sara had learned quickly that she could count on Charlie. She’d given her more and more responsibility as the show loomed closer, which was cool. But as time ticked down, Charlie realized there was too much to do in the little time they had. She and the other set movers had to run through all the changes one more time. The train station needed touch-up paint. The props table was a mess, and props manager Carmelita had asked Charlie to help organize it, show the actors where their spots on the table were, and instruct them to put the props back in the exact same place after each scene so the props team would know in an instant if any were missing. But the actors tended to roam and socialize when they weren’t rehearsing a scene, and it was hard to locate them all.
Charlie began to race around backstage a little flustered, and knowing she needed to go fast. She wished her bracelet would activate so she could run faster. Soon she looked at the clock and saw that there were only a few minutes left of lunch hour.
“Okay, everybody finish up!” Sara called out, clapping her hands. “Get all your junk off the stage, finish painting and put your stuff away, and get the props in place! We need to be ready to start dress rehearsal the minute sixth period begins.”
The cast and crew exploded to life. Charlie saw Maria coming toward her empty-handed. “What can I do?” asked Maria.
“Grab that rack of costumes and take it to the greenroom,” Charlie said. “Where’s Mac?”
“He’s still painting,” said Maria. She rushed to grab the squeaky costume rack and began pulling.
Charlie looked up and saw Mac leaning forward on the ladder, intently focused on finishing the touch-up paint. She let him be and went to make sure all the small props on the kitchen countertops were stuck down with tape so they wouldn’t fall over during set changes.
In the frenzy before the bell rang, one of the lighting guys gave a shout. A rod of lights came crashing to the stage, narrowly missing students.
Mr. Anderson came running to see what had happened. He flew around a corner and caught his foot on the base of Mac’s ladder, which sent him skidding onto the stage. The ladder teetered wildly, and Mac gave a yelp. His paint can and brush slid off the top of it and hit the floor, splattering everywhere. He sprang and grabbed onto the sign he’d been painting as the ladder toppled over, and he hung there, twelve feet up, his legs squirming and his hands slipping on the wet paint.
Charlie gasped. Her arm turned warm under the bracelet. She ran to the sign and stood under Mac, whose eyes were wide with fright. Students began yelling and gathering around, half of them rushing to Mr. Anderson’s side. Maria came running, her face awash in fear.
“Help me put the ladder back!” Charlie cried.
Maria and Charlie struggled to set up the ladder, but it had bent and twisted when it fell, and now it wouldn’t open right.
Charlie shoved it out of the way, checked the bracelet, and saw the colorful elephant lifting the barbell. She planted her feet and locked eyes with Mac. “Just let go,” she said quietly, hoping he could read her lips. “You won’t hurt me. I can catch you.”
Mac squirmed, his grip slipping. No doubt he was picking up splinters with every centimeter they moved. “Everybody’s watching,” he hissed.
“Do it, Mac!” Maria shouted, desperation rising in her voice. “Worry about that later.”
“Come on!” Charlie braced herself and reached up as Kelly and the other actors appeared to see what the commotion was all about.
Mac didn’t have a choice. He couldn’t hold on any longer. He closed his eyes and let go.
A sickening gasp arose from the students who’d gathered, followed by a split second of silence as Mac landed in Charlie’s arms. Remembering his hesitation, she staggered and slid to her knees for the sake of making it look like it was difficult.
While they both caught their breath and realized they were okay, the witnesses exploded in applause, which slowly turned to snickers and laughter.
Mac scowled and jumped out of Charlie’s arms. Mr. Anderson came limping over to see if everyone was okay, and Charlie hastily moved out of the limelight, sidestepping to pick up the paint can and the brush, pretending nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
But then somebody yelled, “Hey, Mac, who’s your knight in shining armor?” Somebody else chanted, “Kiss the girl! Kiss the girl!” and soon others circled around Mac, Charlie, and Maria, chanting too. Not even Mr. Anderson could get them to quiet down.
Trapped, Mac grew more and more flustered as the teasing escalated. Maria tried to calm him down, but he didn’t want anything to do with her either. Finally, as Mr. Anderson began to gain control of the crowd, Mac shouted above them.
“Oh yeah?” said Mac, breaking through the circle and stepping onto the platform. “Oh yeah?” he repeated as they quieted down to listen. “Well maybe there’s a little something freaky you ought to know about Charlie!”
Maria jerked around to stare at him. Charlie froze, paint can in hand, as a blanket of dread began to suffocate her. She stepped toward Mac, eyes pleading, but he refused to turn her way. Then she glared at Maria, staring her down with a hard look that said “I told you so.”
CHAPTER 32
Confrontations
The students quieted. From the circle, Kelly spoke up. “Well, Mac?” she asked. “What about Charlie?”
Charlie’s stomach twisted.
Mac lifted his chin. “Charlie is a—”
“Mac,” Maria said.
Mac faltered. “Charlie has—”
“Mac, shut up!” Maria shouted.
Charlie closed her eyes, feeling faint. She couldn’t breathe.
/> Mac looked at Maria, and then at Charlie, whose face was as white as a sheet.
“Come on! Say it!” a couple of people called out.
“That’s enough,” said Mr. Anderson. His face was furious. “The bell rang three minutes ago while you were all yelling. And I’m not writing any late passes!”
Panic ensued, and most of the students dispersed in moments. Mr. Anderson threw his hands up at the mess on the stage, then limped over to the lighting crew to ask them if any of the lights that had fallen were beyond repair. Charlie turned her back on Mac and tried to stop the tears that threatened to pour out now that all the craziness was over. She sucked in a shuddering breath, trying to keep it together, and then hurried to put the top on the can of paint even though she could barely see what she was doing. There wasn’t much paint left in the stupid can anyway.
Maria put her hand on Charlie’s arm. “Charlie—I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
Charlie shrugged Maria’s hand away. “Leave me alone,” she said, her voice hitching. Then she dropped the can and sprinted out the side exit that led directly outdoors. She tore down the sidewalk, through the parking lot, and across the track and the soccer field. She kept running to the far side of the football stadium, where she could find solace alone under the mesquite trees.
She didn’t care if she got caught. She didn’t care if she got in trouble for skipping class. What did it matter anyway? Just when she was starting to like being here, everything became so confusing and hard and wrong again. And this bracelet was only making it worse.
Charlie’s chest ached for her old life. Chicago had left a hole in her heart. Everything there had been comfortable. Amari was the most loyal friend a girl could have. And Charlie’s dad had always been there whenever she needed him—not just when it was convenient for him. If she tried calling him now while he was teaching, there was no way he’d answer.
She had just begun feeling like she was fitting in. She’d made friends. She was one of the team in soccer. Sara and most of the backstage crew really seemed to like her ideas. And Mac had just ruined all of it. By now half the school would think she was a freak. She was sure rumors were flying about what Mac didn’t finish saying. Charlie is a . . . fill in the blank. Or worse, he’d probably gone ahead and told them all about her powers.