Page 20

*magical jams*

“Y OU’RE NOT GOING TO DIE.”

“Yes, I am,” I panted, my shoulders on fire as we trudged through the forest. We’d each put our fish in our backpacks, which was better than trying to haul those slippery suckers in our fists, but still awful.

Also, I was fairly certain our backpacks would never recover from the smell—like, no way would we be able to take them to school again.

“We have to be close, right?” he asked. “Because I’m not sure which is worse—the smell or my aching back.”

“Yes,” I said, huffing and puffing as I pointed toward the stream. “Start counting as soon as we cross.”

When we crossed the stream, we counted trees until we found the one.

Number forty-four.

“Okay, let’s do it,” I said, dropping to my knees to clear the leaves away from the hole.

It was hard to believe it’d only been a few months since we’d made our wishes. So much had changed since the field trip.

Jackson said, “I’ll get out the fish.”

All of a sudden, the wind whipped around us. The branches above our heads rattled, the leaves sounding like falling rain as they shook against each other. I pushed back my hair as it blew across my face, covering my eyes and getting in my mouth, and it almost felt like the wind didn’t want me to be able to see.

“Are we supposed to get storms?” I asked, raising my voice so he could hear me over the wind. It’d been sunny and calm one minute ago, but now it felt like a tornado was upon us.

“I don’t think so,” he yelled back, “but let’s do this quickly, just in case.”

I glanced over at him, hatless once again, and his golden hair wasn’t moving.

Like at all , even though mine was blowing like crazy.

“What are you looking at?” he asked, his dark eyebrows furrowing together.

“Nothing,” I said, turning back to the spot where the hole was covered.

While I moved the rocks and leaves that were covering the hole, which wasn’t easy because the wind kept whipping more leaves in my way, Jackson pulled the four fish out of our backpacks and laid them on the grass. They smelled horrible .

I gagged, then swallowed and pressed my lips together.

You could almost taste the nastiness.

“Okay,” I said, wiping my palms on my jeans when the hole was finally exposed, “so now I guess it’s time for you to toss the fish in the hole.”

“I guess it is,” Jackson agreed, nodding, looking a little nervous.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, trying to hold back my hair as it slapped at my cheeks.

“Nothing,” he said, picking up one of the fish with two hands, his face tense.

“Do you need me to hold up my phone so you can read the chant?” I asked.

“No, thanks,” he said. “I think I’ve got it.”

That surprised me, that he’d paid close enough attention to remember what he was supposed to say. His face had been all disbelief in the kitchen while Archie rambled, but obviously his brain had been tuned in.

Jackson cleared his throat, looked down at that disgusting fish, and said:

“Four golden stones, four fishes planted.

I humbly request my former fourth be ungranted.

By the power of four on the forest floor,

I seek to give my fourth wish to Emma Rockford evermore.”

And he dropped the fatty fish down the hole.

“One down, three to go,” he said, giving me a weird smile before grabbing another fish and holding it out in front of him. He went through the chant and tossed the second fish, and I was glad he was focused, because the wind was picking up, gusting around us like storms would be arriving at any second.

I closed my eyes as he grabbed the third fish and said:

“Four golden stones, four fishes planted.

I humbly request my former fourth be ungranted.

By the power of four on the forest floor,

I seek to give my fourth wish to Emma Rockford evermore.”

I opened my eyes, squinting as a leaf smacked me in the face, and watched him drop the fish down the hole.

Only this time, I heard a sound. As in, I swear I heard it land. It sounded like it’d slapped against something else, like it maybe thwacked against the other fish, and I glanced at Jackson to see if he’d heard it, too.

“Could the other fish be stuck ?” he asked, looking down at the hole. “I mean, I don’t see anything, but you heard that, right?”

I nodded, not wanting to slow down in the middle of the magic. Especially not when it was this windy. “I heard it, but maybe it was something else, like the wind. That hole is more than big enough for the fish.”

“Yeah,” he said, nodding and picking up the final fish.

“Four golden stones, four fishes planted.

I humbly request my former fourth be ungranted.

By the power of four on the forest floor,

I seek to give my fourth wish to Emma Rockford evermore.”

Only this time when he dropped it down the hole, that fish definitely got stuck. It was the smallest one, so it still had a head, which looked garish. It went in, but the face pointed up and out above the hole, so the top of its fish face was gawking up at us with a gaping mouth, as if he were shocked to find himself jammed in a hole.

“What the heck?” I said, leaning forward to look into the opening.

Jackson did the same thing, so we literally butted heads.

“Gah!” I said at the same time he said, “Ow!”

We each rubbed our foreheads and kind of smiled, because it was ridiculous that it’d happened.

“Do you mind?” he said with a little smile, making an exaggeratedly angry face.

“Do you ?” I teased back, wondering how we could be having a moment of fun amongst the disgustingness.

“Hmm. Maybe the first fish was too big,” he said, rubbing the red spot on his forehead while looking down into the hole. “I think it’s plugging up the opening.”

“How can that be?” I asked, leaning down next to him to look at the portal.

“I don’t know,” he said, his voice rising as the wind grew noisier. “But we’re going to have to find something to unjam it with.”

“Like what?” I yelled, because we didn’t have any tools or equipment with us.

“Like maybe a stick.” He reached over and grabbed a big branch off the ground. “This’ll do.”

Jackson picked up the branch and poked at the fish a little, but it didn’t really seem to do anything. He was pushing, trying to nudge that slimy fat guy down into the hole, but all he was doing was jiggling the stinky fish.

“I think you probably need to poke the ones underneath it,” I yelled, trying to see through my hair as it blew around my face. “If they’re lodged in there, they might need a nudge to slide through.”

“Good idea,” he shouted, leaning closer and jamming the stick around the fish and the ones underneath it.

“Does it feel like it’s going to budge?” I asked, watching as he leaned the weight of his upper body on the stick. “At all?”

“No!” he shouted. “Which doesn’t make sense. It’s soft and squishy, so it should move, right?”

“Maybe lean a little harder on one of the edges of the fish,” I suggested, panicking a little at the thought of us not being able to finish this. This was too much work to be a fail.

Failure was not an option.

“Emma. Does the hole look smaller to you?” he said as he leaned with both hands, pressing his entire body weight onto the branch that wasn’t even bending. He groaned, pushing hard , but it was like the fish had turned to stone or something. “I swear it’s not as big as it was last April.”

I leaned forward and gasped, pushing back the hair that wouldn’t stop blowing in my face as my chest tightened in panic. “It’s not as big as it was when we got here , Jackson!”

“Could it be closing?” he asked, his eyes suddenly a little wild. “Is the portal closing?”

“I don’t know, I never read anything about that,” I said, my heartbeat pounding in my ears as I looked at it and it appeared even smaller. “But it’s the four hundred forty-forth year, so it’s possible!”

Jackson froze, staring down at the hole.

“We have to get them to go down the hole before it goes away,” I said, looking around for a larger branch. “If it closes forever we will have no chance!”

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” he said. “Maybe we— gahhhhhhh !”

Something in the hole gave way, and the stick he was leaning on drove down into the portal, throwing Jackson off-balance. His body lurched forward like he’d been tripped, his hands landing in the dirt on the other side of the hole while his body fell in .

“Jackson!” I screamed as he dug his hands into the soil and tried pulling himself out.

“It’s closing,” he said through clenched teeth as his fingers grasped at the ground and his legs moved like they were trying to find something to step on. “It’s closing, Emma!”

As I watched, the hole was growing smaller.

And smaller.

It was almost touching him on all sides.

“Jackson!” I dropped to my knees and lunged with both hands, grabbing at his shirt and trying to pull him out. The wind blew dirt in my face as my fingers tugged, tugged so hard I worried the fabric was going to rip.

“Get a branch!” he yelled, his arms visibly shaking as he held himself up. “I can pull myself out with a branch. Hurry!”

“I don’t want to let go!” I said, terrified of what would happen if he fell into the hole.

“It’s going to close around me if you don’t—get a branch now !”

I let go of his shirt—carefully—and scrambled to my feet, running over and grabbing a huge branch off the ground and holding it out in front of him.

“Don’t let go, Emma!” he yelled back. “No matter how hard I pull!”

“I won’t!” I screamed, petrified that I would.

My heart was in my throat as he reached out with his right hand, now only gripping the dirt with his left.

His grasp landed hard on the branch— yes! —and I wanted to cry with relief that he was halfway there.

My entire body was shaking as I held onto my end with both hands, dirt slapping at my cheeks as the wind whipped around us.

“Come on, Flords,” I said through my teeth as I waited for him to make the next terrifying move of releasing his tentative hold on the ground to grab the branch. “Help or something!”

At that moment, Jackson’s left hand grabbed onto the branch and he wrenched his body forward. I almost dropped it—I almost dropped him —but then it was like I became stronger. I looked down at Jackson and jerked the branch as hard as I could, giving just enough momentum for him to dig his knees into the ground and scramble free of the hole.

I yanked again, grunting as I held on tight, dragging him away from the portal.

“Oh my God,” he panted, letting go of the branch but staying on his knees.

He put his hands on his thighs and looked down at the ground, breathing hard.

“Jackson,” I whispered in disbelief as I watched the hole disappear behind him. “It’s gone.”

“What?” he said, because of course he hadn’t heard me in this weather.

I pointed at the ground and said, “The portal is gone!”

“What?” He climbed to his feet and turned around, staring at the ground with huge eyes. “No way. No. Way. ”

I looked at the spot where we’d all tossed our wishes last year, and it was like the hole had never been there. There was the forty-fourth tree and the earth it was planted in; no dip in the ground whatsoever.

I’d always thought I believed in the magic, but this was, like, definitive proof of its existence.

And it was incredibly intimidating.

“There has to be a logical explanation,” Jackson said, but his wide eyes made me think he wasn’t so sure. “Like, it’s some sort of a sinkhole or something.”

I gave him a look.

“I know, I know,” he said, nodding as if I’d spoken. “But…”

He just gestured with his arm toward the spot.

I’m not sure how long we stood there, both numbly staring at the place where the portal had been, but a loud clap of thunder made me jump out of my skin and brought us back.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said, giving his head a shake before finally looking away from the spot. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not that comfortable in this place anymore.”

“Yeah, same,” I agreed, and we gathered our backpacks and took off running in the direction of the marina as fast as we could.

“Grab my hand,” he yelled as we ran through the woods.

“Why?” I yelled back.

“Because you can’t see through all that hair and I don’t want you to fall,” he shouted, grabbing my hand and wrapping his around it. “Let’s fly.”

In the midst of the most chaotic event of my life, I found myself feeling oddly happy as I ran through the forest. The thunder went nuts after that, loud and cracking while lightning lit up the sky above us. We sprinted, Jackson pulling me along with him as his long legs propelled us a lot faster than mine would’ve alone. We lowered our heads and bolted as it started pouring.

When we finally exited the forest and got to the marina, Auntie Bev was sitting on a bench next to the water, sound asleep in the rain.

“Aunt Bev!” Jackson said, letting go of my hand and lightly shaking her as it started raining harder. “Wake up!”

Her wrinkly eyelids fluttered open, but instead of looking shocked by the rain or worried about the storm, her lips curled up into a huge grin. Her silver hair was getting plastered to her face, but she calmly said, “Sounds like Mother Nature is telling us to get lost.”

It kind of did feel like that.

Jackson helped her up and we hurried to the car, but the rain was cold as it drenched the three of us. My hair, my clothes—they were soaked and totally plastered to my body by the time we got to the car.

The entire drive home, as Jackson’s kooky aunt (whom I loved) raced like a NASCAR driver and I shivered violently in the back seat, I couldn’t stop worrying about the wish situation.

As much as I liked to think our fish donation would please the Flords, the storm made me seriously doubt our chances. Because the winds hadn’t picked up until we’d reached the portal, and the rain didn’t start until we’d finished our disgusting attempt.

Our disgusting attempt that made the portal close .

I bit down on my thumbnail as I stared out the window, wondering if there was still a small chance that I was going to get all of my wishes back.

Was it even a possibility?

As soon as I thought that, the rain stopped and the sun started shining.

It instantly went from dark and rainy to bright and sunny.

I peered out the window and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

Which felt important.

I felt like the bright sunshine was the power and magic of Mother Nature, acknowledging that rightness had been restored.

When we got to our street, Auntie Bev stopped at the corner. “I don’t want to have to talk to your mom, Jacko, because she’s gonna be mad about that mailbox. So get out here.”

He didn’t even look surprised. “Okay. Love you, Auntie Bev.”

“Of course, of course,” she said in a singsong voice. “It was a lovely shower.”

I thanked her, too, and she smiled at me in the rearview mirror. “You’re welcome, dear.”

She squealed away when we got out, leaving Jackson and me standing on the corner.

He pulled that stupid hat out of his pocket and put it on his head.

“If this works, I think I’m going to miss your shimmery hair,” I teased as we started walking, meaning it. It was weird, but I’d gotten used to it. In fact, I’d kind of gotten used to him .

And as that thought hit me, I realized that if the magic worked, we’d probably go back to being simply… acquaintances. Two people who were in the same seventh grade.

Yes, he would be my neighbor and lab partner, but we wouldn’t be going on any more adventures together.

The thought of not having Jackson to talk to anymore made me feel sad, but surely that was only because things with my friends were weird right now.

“Well I think I’m going to miss my pecs if that happens,” he said, smiling and nudging me with his elbow. “Not really looking forward to going back to being scrawny and invisible.”

“You weren’t scrawny,” I said, nudging him back with my elbow. “Or invisible.”

“I don’t know, it sure didn’t seem like anybody saw me before I stole your wishes.”

“I’m pretty sure nobody sees me now that my friends have become spectacular, so I get it.”

“I see you,” Jackson said, shrugging.

“Only because I saved you from dying in a hole,” I teased, because something about the way he said he saw me, or the fact that he really did see me, made me feel a little… shy.

“Did I thank you for saving me, by the way?” he asked, turning and walking sideways so he was facing me as we moved down the block.

“Oh, don’t thank me, it was the Flords.”

“Stop using that word.” He laughed, shaking his head. “I may be your partner in whatever this bizarre adventure is, but I refuse to accept Flord as a noun.”

“All I know is the second I said that noun, the hole burped you up.”

“It did not burp me up,” he said loudly, laughing harder. “My godlike upper body strength allowed me to defy hole gravity. That is what happened.”

“Hole gravity?” I said, laughing with him. “Really?”

“Emma!”

I looked toward my house and my mom was standing on the porch. “Do you want to get a pizza?”

I glanced at Jackson and didn’t want to go in. It felt like things would be different the next time I saw him, which was what I wanted, of course, but that made it hard to leave.

“Yeah,” I shouted. “Pepperoni?”

“On it,” my mom said, going back inside the house.

“You’re so lucky,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll have something like nasty pot roast at my house tonight. By the way, text me or come over as soon as you wake up tomorrow.”

He wants to see me tomorrow? Were we still going to hang out? I was so happy to hear him say that, to confirm that our friendship wasn’t going to end as soon as the wish stuff was over.

“Okay, although I don’t have your number.”

“Here.” He gestured for me to hand over my phone, so I pulled it out of my pocket and gave it to him, a little surprised as I watched him text himself so I’d have his number.

“I’ll be dying to know if it worked,” he said, and disappointment landed hard in my stomach as he explained himself. He didn’t want to hang out, he wanted a progress report. “If I wake up with my old scrimpy shoulders and concave chest, I want to see if you feel different.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said, irritated with myself for how pathetically rejected I felt. “See you later.”

I ran up the stairs to my house, and I was almost in the door when I heard him yell, “Emma?”

“Yeah?” I answered, turning around.

His smile was wide as he crossed his arms over his chest and said, “Is it weird if I tell you I had fun on our disgusting adventure?”

“Yeah, that would be weird,” I said, smiling back at him. “But I did, too. Later.”

“Yeah,” he said. “See you later.”