Page 35

Penny

NEON LANES BOWLING ALLEY IS ON THE NORTH SIDE OF TOWN, SURROUNDED by chain stores and fast food restaurants. The buildings are spaced far apart, exposing the dumpsters and empty trailers between them. Despite the wide sky and distant horizon, this part of Idlewood is suffocating, with superstores and warehouses blotting out the nearby forests and fields. If you squint, you can make out Barrion Heating there’s only Alonso, bright and vital.

“ Play! ” Sango shouts, and the cyclists take off.

The teams aren’t wearing matching shirts or vests, so Penny tries to memorize the faces of Alonso’s teammates. But they move so quickly it’s impossible to keep track.

“You’ll love this,” Aidan says to Penny. “Alonso is the best player we’ve got.”

Within seconds, Alonso reaches the ball. But instead of getting it, he misses, and something happens with the front wheel of his bike. He tries to regain his balance, but he slams into another player, and Alonso goes flying.

His fall is almost in slow motion. All Penny can do is watch helplessly until he tumbles into a heap a few feet away.

Aidan frowns. “Huh. Bad start.”

Alonso waves Sango off when he tries to help him up. He’s bleeding on both palms, and the holes in his jeans have gotten bigger, but he doesn’t seem to care; he just gets back on his bike. When they start playing again, Alonso is still unsteady. He can barely balance unless he’s using both hands, and even then, he’s moving slower than all the other players.

Penny fights the urge to cover her eyes.

“Come on, Alonso!” Aidan calls.

Alonso gets low on his bike, speeding up.

“Here it is,” Aidan says. “His signature move!”

“It’s not that exciting,” Kiki mutters.

Alonso heads directly for the player who has the ball. He reaches his polo stick across to steal it, but he loses his balance again, and his arm tilts up, tangling his polo stick in his opponent’s wheel. The momentum sends her flying off the seat and into Alonso, and they both crash to the ground. A few other players try to stop their bikes before hitting them, but one gets caught and falls with a yelp, piling on top of them.

Aidan, Kiki, and Penny all stare, mouths agape. Alonso’s hands appear from the pile of bodies and bikes, and he makes the time-out symbol. After he disentangles himself, he jogs over to Penny and his friends, limping slightly.

“What’s going on with you?” Aidan says.

“I’m having an off day, I guess,” Alonso says. Despite the chaos of the game, he’s grinning. “I should sub someone in.”

“I can play for you,” Aidan says.

But Alonso ignores him and grabs Penny’s arm. “Penny! You’re up.”

“ What? ” Penny says, but he’s already dragging her away. “Alonso, I have no idea how to play!”

When they’re far enough from other people, he turns around and grabs her shoulders. “Did you see how bad I was out there?”

He’s still smiling. How hard did he hit his head? “You weren’t… completely terrible,” Penny says.

“I was the worst player by far . And you know why?” He pulls a small vial out of his pocket. “This.”

The liquid inside the vial shimmers green. “What’s that?”

“It’s a spell. I bottled my bike polo skills.”

Penny looks at the vial with newfound wonder. “That’s actually possible?”

“Yep. And now”—he uncorks it with a pop —“you’re going to use this to win the game.”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t worry, this was an easy spell. It only lasts a day, and then the potion wears off.”

Penny’s breath is coming quicker. The anxiety is back, and it’s screaming in her ears. She can’t play a sport she’s never even heard of before today. She needs time to think through every detail before she tries something new. She deliberately avoids situations like this—and now Alonso is throwing her into the unknown without a parachute.

Alonso puts the green serum on his thumb. “Here, give me your hand.”

The second Alonso grabs Penny’s wrist and presses his thumb to her pulse, a strange sensation passes over her skin. It’s sharper than chills but softer than a static shock. Her vision goes a little green around the edges.

“You okay?” Alonso asks.

Penny nods, but he’s still holding her wrist. He notices her staring at his hand, and he quickly backs up, as if she burned him. “Sorry. Here, get on my bike.”

Penny shakes her head vigorously.

“Hey,” Alonso says, leaning down so he can look her in the eyes. “What’s the worst thing that can happen?”

“It’s hard to pick just one thing.”

“The worst thing that can happen is the spell doesn’t work, and you’re not good at this. You stick to the sidelines. You don’t score. You’ll never play again. But guess what?” Alonso smirks. “I’ll still think you’re fucking cool.”

Penny can’t help but crack a smile. “You think I’m cool?”

Alonso suddenly becomes serious, and he reaches out for her. His finger brushes her chin, lifting it so that she’s standing tall. Proud.

“I always have,” he says.

Penny’s breathing is now erratic for an entirely different reason.

“Hey, Alonso, let’s go!” Sango calls.

Alonso drops his hand. “So?”

Before Penny learned about the curse, she would’ve walked away from this. She has a black belt in dwelling on humiliating moments nobody else remembers, and this situation is a breeding ground for humiliation. But Alonso believes in her. And whether it’s smart or not, Penny believes in Alonso.

She grabs the bike handles. “Next time, give me a little more warning.”

Alonso beams, and he hands her the polo stick.

When she’s on the bike, Penny takes a deep breath. Then she rides over to Alonso’s teammates.

“You’re a sub?” asks a girl with a friendly smile. “I’m Beth Pilar. Sophomore at Central.”

Penny tries not to look terrified. “Hey, I’m Penny. Senior, I guess.”

“Always great to meet another bike polo fanatic.” Beth holds out her polo stick.

Penny taps Beth’s polo stick with hers. “Nice to meet—”

“Ready!” Sango calls out. “Set! Play! ”

Penny gasps as her feet press down on the pedals, even though she wasn’t ready. She grabs the handles, trying to balance the awkward polo stick.

“Relax!” Alonso shouts, but how can she? He just put her on a bike and told her to play when she doesn’t even know the rules.

Penny’s momentary confidence has abandoned her. This is a terrible idea, magic or no.

Already the players are battling over the ball. Claire Polton from the opposing team manages to get it, and she races straight toward Penny. No—toward the goal that’s right behind her.

“Block her!” Beth shouts. Penny is about to give up, to say she doesn’t know how, but her feet push down on the pedals again, and suddenly she’s flying toward Claire. She yelps as her hands jerk the bike to the side of their own volition. Then she raises the polo stick, and right as Claire passes by, she reaches out and—

She gets the ball. She’s dribbling!

Her teammates cheer. Penny doesn’t have time to celebrate, because now she’s heading toward the opposing team’s goal. Someone from the other team maneuvers in front of her, but Penny dodges them. A guy on her team is wide open, so she swings her polo stick around, passing the ball to him. He catches it and hits it between the two cones.

Goal.

The crowd cheers, and Penny lets her feet rest on the ground.

They did it. She did it.

When Penny looks at Alonso, he’s clapping and whooping. And for the first time since her mom’s accident, Penny feels light. Like anything is possible.

They win the game easily after that. Penny lets go, following her body and the bike. She crashes once, but she’s not even embarrassed. Playing bike polo feels good. Doing something different feels good.

When the game ends, the teams shake hands and high-five. Penny walks Alonso’s bike over to his car, where he’s waiting with a huge smile on his face.

“It really worked,” Penny says.

“I noticed.”

“It felt so easy.” She looks down at the polo stick in her hands. “I honestly didn’t know magic could be this fun.”

“I wanted to show you for myself.”

Penny watches him for a long moment.

“What?” Alonso says, his tone turning defensive at the flip of a switch.

“Nothing! Just… thanks for this.”

“I can be nice, remember?”

“So nice.”

Alonso’s smile softens. They’re both holding on to the bike—Penny at the handles, Alonso at the seat. They’re staring at each other, and Penny doesn’t want it to stop.

Will he try to kiss her again?

Penny wants it. She might want it more than anything, except breaking the curse—

The curse. Her mom. Alonso’s grandfather.

Penny tears her eyes away from Alonso. Now is not the time for her to be kissing anybody. Kissing, as she knows, makes things weird. At a party sophomore year, Penny made the mistake of kissing her lab partner, Henry Li. It was her first kiss, and it was anything but romantic. She didn’t even like Henry like that, but she couldn’t look at him for days. They got a B- on their presentation because Penny kept losing her place on her index cards. Henry still doesn’t talk to her.

Unlike the biology project, the curse is life and death. Penny can’t afford to complicate things with Alonso. If he stopped talking to her, that wouldn’t be uncomfortable. It would be painful.

“I should go, I guess,” Penny says.

“Hold up,” Alonso says. “I have something for you.”

A thrill runs through Penny as Alonso grabs her hand. There’s the cool feeling of glass against Penny’s palm, and when she looks down, there’s another vial exactly like the one Alonso used for the green serum. But this liquid is clear, and when she holds it up, it catches the light and makes it almost impossible for Penny to see.

Somehow Penny knows what this is, without even having to ask. It’s like the potion told her the answer, even though that makes no sense.

“A truth serum?” she asks, hoping he’ll say she’s wrong.

“I was up stirring it all night,” Alonso says. “Longest arm workout of my life—”

Penny squeezes the vial in her hand. “Alonso, we can’t.”

“You don’t even know what it’s for.”

“Yes, I do. We said we wouldn’t use any magic on Dylan—” Penny frowns. “Wait, why are you giving this to me?”

Alonso raises an eyebrow, and then Penny gets it. Dylan comes to Horizon Café regularly for coffee. Penny can put the truth serum in her drink.

“Hey.” Alonso leans down to look Penny in the eyes. “All you have to do is ask her a few direct questions about her family, their magic, if she knows anything about the curse. She’ll answer you for five minutes, and then it’ll wear off. She won’t remember. No harm done.”

“You don’t really believe that, do you?”

“This spell isn’t complicated, Penny. It hasn’t been outlawed by the Council, and that’s for a reason.” He crosses his arms. “You and I both know Corey won’t help us with this. We’re basically doing him a favor.”

Penny feels herself giving in. Alonso is right—something as simple as this truth serum could tell them if the Mayberrys cursed the Barrions. Maybe Dylan doesn’t have the answers they need, but this is a way to find out what she knows. Penny’s mom is running out of time, and it almost doesn’t feel like a choice.

Penny sighs, pocketing the serum. “I’m not promising anything.”

“That’s fine. But we only have two and a half weeks until the full moon.”

Penny doesn’t look at him again as she climbs into the Prius and drives off.

It’s one thing to try to break a curse and save her mom’s life. But this feels different—because when does magic go too far?