Page 37

I exhale, my mind still on Kat’s mouth, the softness of her lips, the way she stepped toward me without hesitation, the whirlwind that seemed to last both forever and be over too soon.

Fancy stirs in my arms, looking up at me quizzically. I’m alone in this narrow grove that houses the railroad track. Amid the spindly shrubberies, abandoned buildings, and freshly dewed grass, the metal tracks sit stark against bare dirt and bits of trash drifting against the chain-link fence.

I walk along the track until I find the hole in the fence that cross-country runners have told me about, the one that leads back toward Main Street.

During their practices, the runners always make their loop around the school, run along the railroad track, and then pop back to the street before looping all the way back to the school, making an even six miles.

It’s a well-known secret that you could easily leave the campus this way, too, but I’ve never had reason to use it.

Erica picks up my phone call with a worried squeak. “Brenda! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, the spell got messed up and it took me to Kat’s universe instead. I have Fancy with me, and she’s okay, too.”

Jenn joins the call, both their voices warbling with questions.

I laugh and cut them off. “Can you come pick me up? I’m on Main Street by the school. My phone is about to die, but I’ll be here.”

It’s a short wait, and I busy myself reading more of the Compendium and learning about mana flow.

It isn’t long until a familiar minivan pulls up and Erica bounds out of the driver’s seat, the car still rumbling as she wrestles me into a hug.

“We were totally freaking out, we had no idea what happened when you didn’t answer your phone and didn’t come back! ”

“We were really worried you had gotten hurt,” Jenn says. “And we saw Fancy disappear with you, and had no idea what that would do to the spell, or if you both were okay…” She joins the hug, squeezing me tight.

Fancy flops into a puddle as Erica picks her up and covers her face with kisses. She curls into Erica’s arms and starts purring as if she never left.

Jenn pulls out her notepad and immediately starts grilling me for details. “What was this other universe like? Tell me everything.”

I muddle through yesterday’s events and then they catch me up on their end.

Apparently Erica and Jenn waited an hour, and when I didn’t come back, they texted my mom and said I was sleeping over because I was so tired after our study session I just passed out, and Jenn stayed over, too, for good measure.

“And it went okay?” I exhale, relieved.

“Yeah, your mom just said thanks for letting me know and reminded me to get rest, too,” Erica says, shaking her head.

“I sent her one of the photos from our sleepover last week and made it look like we were wearing yesterday’s clothes, and I said I’d take you to school today. So you’re off the hook.”

For now. I know I’ll likely get an earful when I get home, but I’m grateful Má likes Erica and Jenn so much and trusts them. Sometimes more than she trusts me, I think.

“Wanna go get iced coffee?” Erica singsongs. “We’re super early and we can hang out in the parking lot. Oooh, I could get a spot super close to the gate this early before zero period!”

We drop Fancy off back at Erica’s before picking up iced coffee and bánh mì for lunch later. I’m so full from the bao earlier, but the fresh bread smells so good I can’t help but sneak a piece off the baguette Jenn and Erica are destroying for their breakfast as we head back to school.

“How much is their universe like ours? Is it like a mirrorverse? Are there alternate versions of you? Me? Erica?”

I shake my head and try my best to answer Jenn’s endless questions.

“Not a mirrorverse… just another world. I don’t think there are other versions of us, and it’s not an exact parallel, like there’s still a Los Angeles and a lot of the streets and shops are the same, and they still have Target, but everything is different.

” I talk about the magic and the horses and the secret Order and the Pokémon card smuggling and how Kat found the schedule.

Erica squeals, bouncing in her seat and almost knocking over the tray of cà phê s ? a ? á that we just picked up. She reaches over and hugs me with delight. “Another date Saturday! I’m sooooo excited for you! Can we meet her? Can we all do something together?”

I nod excitedly. “The next portal is actually up at Echo Mountain, and we’ll already be up there for the trail cleanup. There’s another portal later that night, too, so she’ll get to hang out for a while.”

“Do you think she would like Korean barbecue?” Jenn says. “We could do that after the hike, especially since we’re all carpooling anyway.”

“I wonder if we could make money out of this Pokémon card business,” Erica says, a thoughtful look crossing into her eye.

“It sounds like there’s a corner on that market already.

Kat said not to worry about it, that these Order people didn’t look dangerous, just like bored academics, but you know, it sounds like their territory.

And anyway, I just want to see Kat again.

And you know what?” I pull out the Compendium she lent me.

“There is a certain level of magic in our universe… I wonder how much would work here.”

I glance into the school parking lot, which is only just starting to fill with early birds and people for zero period. The high school is not yet quite awake and still holds that strange sense of place that feels slightly wrong without people, eerie and incandescent in the morning light.

Erica takes the book, her eyes scanning the first page with a fervor she’s only ever shown for D&D planning. “We’ve still got time before class. Let’s see if we could try a few things!”

Jenn laughs. “Where should we start?”

The idea, however, loses some shine after I explain the dangers of trying any actual spells.

Plus, it’s a history textbook, which goes back to the origins of how different cultures in Kat’s world developed their own magic systems and languages that are still used today in addition to the common runes that were standardized in the twentieth century.

To Erica and Jenn’s disappointment, there aren’t any incantations or spell diagrams or anything that we can actually practice casting on in it.

That’s probably a good thing.

I think about Kat’s warning, about taking on spells without the right amount of preparation, without the right amount of raw mana in the air.

The bell rings, and students start bustling toward their classes. We get moving, and I check my email now that I have reception.

I gasp.

“I’m a finalist!” I grab Jenn’s shoulders and shake her excitedly, and then bounce up and down with Erica. “The Fields Forward scholarship! They’re offering all the finalists a special behind-the-scenes tour at their factory, and that’s me! I’m a finalist!”

A bright giddiness rushes through me. I’ve just traveled back and forth through another universe, I have a date planned with a great girl, and the Plan is falling into place.

“I wonder if I’ll meet Shannon Mayfield,” I say. “Do you think she read my essay?”

“Oh yeah, you should definitely ask,” Erica says, teasing. “Mrs. Mayfield! Mrs. Mayfield! Did you know I want to grow up to be just like you?”

I elbow her playfully. “Shut up!”

My friends laugh, teasing me as we join the throng of students filtering onto campus.