Match Me If You Can

by Anna Staniszewski

  When Lena pushed her bike through the apartment door, she found her mom on the phone with the police. There was no sign of Mrs. Martinez.

  Her mom gave Lena a hard look and then explained to the police that her “missing daughter” had returned. She hung up the phone and sat stiffly on the edge of the couch. Lena didn’t dare move.

  The room throbbed with silence. Should Lena apologize before her mom started yelling at her? Would that make things better?

  “Where’s the milk?” her mom finally asked.

  Lena blinked. “Milk?”

  Her mom held up the note Lena had left on the table. “It says you went to get some milk.” She crumpled the note in her fingers. “Mrs. Martinez told me that she came out of the bathroom and didn’t know where you were. She called me in a panic. I was already on my way back, so I rushed here to find you gone and my bike missing. So where’s the milk?”

  “There was no milk,” Lena admitted, leaning the bike against the wall. “That was a lie. But Mrs. Martinez lied too. She was asleep when I left!”

  Lena’s mom raised an eyebrow. Clearly, blaming Mrs. Martinez wasn’t helping.

  “I’m sorry,” Lena went on. “I just…” But what could she say? If her mom was this mad about her going to get milk, she’d lock her in the closet if she found out Lena had her soul-hunting powers. “I had to get out of here, that’s all,” Lena added, and that felt like part of the truth, at least. “At home, I can be by myself anytime. But ever since I got here, I haven’t had a second alone except when I’m in the bathroom. I had to go do something by myself for once.” She took a step toward her mom. “You can understand that, can’t you?”

  Her mom’s mouth tightened. “Do you really expect me to accept the fact that you’ve disappeared and that I don’t know where you are? That you lied about where you were going? That you weren’t answering your phone?”

  “I wouldn’t have to lie if you just trusted that I could take care of myself. Dad doesn’t worry about me crossing the street by myself!”

  “Well, I’m not your father, and I can’t help worrying. That’s what moms do.”

  Lena couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “What about all those years you were gone? You only saw me at Christmas. You had no idea what I was doing the rest of the time.”

  Her mom gave her a wide-eyed, hurt look that made Lena’s stomach churn. “Trust me,” she said, her voice tight. “I thought about you constantly. I was always wondering how you were feeling, what you were up to.”

  “Funny how you never called to check on me,” Lena said. “No emails, no texts from you. Nothing. I didn’t even know what state you were in half the time!”

  Her mom drew in a sharp breath, and Lena realized how angry her own voice had sounded. Apparently, she was a lot more upset about her mom leaving than she’d wanted to admit.

  “Lena, I can’t change the past, but now that we’re here together, I expect to have some ground rules.”

  “Ground rules?” Lena repeated. “Are you kidding?”

  “You can’t just wander around by yourself—”

  “Why not?” Lena cried. “I’ve been doing it for years without your help. So can you please stop treating me like I’m still a little kid?”

  “That’s not what I’m doing,” her mom said. “I’m simply—”

  “I can’t even eat a sandwich without you getting involved!” Lena cried. “You can’t leave me for three years and then show up and start acting like my mom again.”

  “But I am your mom. What do you expect me to do?”

  Lena was saved from answering by the sound of her phone ringing. It was Marcus.

  “I should take this,” Lena said.

  “But we’re not done talking.”

  The phone quieted, but an instant later, Marcus sent her a message: SOS!

  “Sorry. It’s important,” Lena said. Then she hurried to her room, glad to have an excuse to end the conversation. She’d already said things she knew she’d regret. She couldn’t let anything else slip out.

  “Lena, I think my sister somehow got Natalie’s powers!” Marcus said when he answered the phone. Then he launched into an explanation of what had happened. “She saw a vision of the New Year’s Eve dance and said something about ‘no kiss at midnight.’ What do you think it means?”

  Lena’s head was pounding. “I don’t know, Marcus.” She couldn’t believe her mom had called the police! Did she really think Lena was so helpless?

  “She must have had the vision for a reason,” Marcus said. “We need to figure it out. Maybe it’s the key to fixing this power outage somehow!”

  “Okay, let’s start over.” Lena tried to focus, but her brain was ready to burst. “You said that your sister got Natalie’s powers?”

  “Are you okay?” Marcus asked. “You sound weird.”

  “My mom and I kind of had a fight, but…” Lena shook her head. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

  “Are you sure? It might help.”

  Lena sighed, remembering what Hayleigh had said about her giving people the cold shoulder. Maybe she did shut people out sometimes. It was usually easier that way. But this was Marcus. She could open up to him without worrying about things going wrong.

  “My mom…she’s trying to be really strict all of a sudden, which is ridiculous, since she’s been checked out of my life for years. I can’t even tell her about my new powers or anything because—”

  “Wait, she still doesn’t know? Lena, you have to tell her. We both know that having someone else’s powers could be dangerous!”

  “Ugh, Marcus. You sound just like her.”

  “Well, maybe she’s right. Maybe you should—”

  “Just forget it, okay?” So much for trying to be open with people.

  “But you can’t—”

  “Look, Marcus. I know you’re trying to help, but I already have to listen to my mom tell me what to do all the time. I really don’t need advice from someone who has to text me to figure out what color socks to wear!”

  There was a long silence, and Lena instantly felt bad. She wasn’t mad at Marcus, not at all. It was just too much at once. But before she could apologize, Marcus said softly, “I know I’ve been texting you too much and stuff, but…”

  “No, it’s not that! I like hearing from you. But you were the one who said we’d figure out how to make things work if I came out here with my mom. Right now, you’re acting like I’m still there.”

  “I just miss you, that’s all,” Marcus said. “I hate not seeing you and the scheduled phone calls and—”

  “I miss you too! Things would be so much better if you were here with me. But…” She let out a breath. “Maybe the space is good for you. For both of us. It’ll make us be our own separate people, you know?”

  There was another long silence.

  “Marcus?”

  “I, um, I have to go.”

  “But what about your sister’s vision? You said it could be important.”

  “Maybe you’re right. It’s time I started figuring stuff out on my own.” Then he was gone.

  Chapter 17

  The last place Marcus wanted to be was the Y, a.k.a. the location of the New Year’s Eve dance he wouldn’t be attending, but Connie had insisted he come check out her plan for choosing Ann-Marie’s perfect guy. Marcus wanted to make sure she didn’t do anything crazy—again.

  “There you are!” Connie said, hurrying over to him. “The other guys are already making signs for the dance. Come see.”

  “The other guys?” Marcus asked. He spotted Peter and Albert in the corner, hunched over huge pieces of poster board. “How did you get them to help?”

  Connie smiled mysteriously. “I have my ways.”

  He expected Albert to be shooting death glares at Peter because of the whole Ann-Marie situati
on, but the two guys seemed to be happily working side by side, sharing a bucket of blue poster paint. Marcus was surprised to see that Albert was wearing another sweater that Connie had given him and that he’d styled his hair again—without the glitter this time. Albert was still mostly his dorky self, but he looked a tiny bit more confident.

  “So this is your plan?” Marcus whispered to Connie. “Make them both do manual labor for you?” He frowned. “Wait. Why are they making ‘Get plenty of exercise in the New Year’ signs?”

  “Because exercise is one of the most misspelled words in the English language,” Connie answered, as if that explained everything. Then she called out to Peter and Albert, “Okay, new assignment. Make a poster that has the words felicitations and thorough on it. And remember, no cheating and looking up words on your phones!”

  “What kind of weird New Year’s dance is this supposed to be?” Peter grumbled, but he started scrawling letters across a new piece of poster board. Albert got to work without a word, clearly too intent on perfectly spacing out his letters to make a fuss about what he was writing.

  “You’re giving them a spelling test?” Marcus hissed.

  Connie shrugged. “You know what a turnoff bad spelling is? I’m doing your sister a favor.”

  “So if one of them is a better speller than the other, that’s who you think she should be matched with?”

  “Of course not,” Connie said. “That’s only the first test. There are two more. And if need be, we’ll have a tiebreaker at the end. Now, can you help me blow up some balloons?”

  “Connie, this is—”

  “Brilliant?” she said, grinning. “Hey, I can always give them a little zap if you don’t want to go to all this trouble.”

  That shut Marcus up for a second. “Fine,” he said. “But I seriously doubt this is going to work.” Then he sighed and started inflating balloons to hang up around the hall.

  After the posters were finished, Connie went over to inspect them.

  “Uh-oh, Peter! Points off for misspelling thorough! And Albert, I thought you were supposed to be smart. How could you get honor wrong?”

  “I used the British spelling,” Albert said. “It’s more common throughout the world.”

  Connie clearly wasn’t impressed with either guy’s handiwork. “Okay, next up, let’s have you do some balloon arrangements.”

  “Don’t you have any heavy lifting we can do?” Peter asked. “Creative stuff isn’t really my thing.”

  Meanwhile, Albert looked perplexed. “How do you arrange balloons? By color? Or shape? Or buoyancy?”

  “Any way you want! Now get to it!” Connie said with a big wink in Marcus’s direction. Apparently, this was another one of her tests, although Marcus wasn’t sure what she was looking for. Why would Ann-Marie care about a guy’s balloon-decorating skills?

  “How did she convince you guys to help out?” Marcus couldn’t help asking.

  “Gym credit,” Albert said as Peter simultaneously answered, “Community service.”

  Marcus wanted to laugh. He was willing to bet neither of the guys would get any type of credit for doing this. He had to hand it to Connie though. She was certainly resourceful.

  When they were finished, Marcus had a small clump of silver balloons, Peter had a giant arrangement of every color balloon in the rainbow, and Albert had carefully selected balloons that were all identical in shape and size and buoyancy, each representing one of the primary colors.

  Connie gave all three arrangements critical glances. “Peter, yours looks like a balloon factory threw that up, and Albert, yours is so boring, and Marcus—” She sighed. “Forget it. Clearly, a guy having an eye for style is too much to ask. Peter, I need your help with something else. Come over to the disco ball.”

  Peter sighed heavily but followed her to the middle of what was going to be the dance floor.

  “Okay, now dance with me,” Connie said, turning up a slow song on her phone.

  “Seriously?” he asked.

  “I need to see if the disco ball is the right height.” She pointed at the ceiling. “You’re pretty tall. I want to make sure you won’t hit your head.”

  Marcus watched, amused, as Connie insisted on slow dancing with Peter. He could practically see the checklist in her head. Sweaty palms? Bad breath? Slumped posture?

  “Um, she won’t make me do that too, will she?” Albert whispered.

  “She might,” Marcus said. “Sorry.”

  Albert let out a long sigh. “I guess if Ann-Marie and I are going to the dance together, I should get some practice.”

  “So she said yes?” Marcus asked.

  “N-no…not yet. But she might, right? I was going to call her tonight to see if she’d made up her mind. Do you think that’s a good idea?”

  Marcus swallowed. “It can’t hurt,” he said, hoping he was right. The truth was, he liked Albert, and not just because he reminded him a lot of himself. He was a nice guy who just wanted someone to like him. It felt wrong to mess with his emotions the way Connie was doing.

  At that moment, Connie stepped away from Peter, clearly fed up with his dancing skills. “Albert, you’re up next!” she yelled across the hall.

  Before Albert could obey (or pass out), Ann-Marie appeared in the doorway.

  “Oh, you’re here!” Connie cried, rushing over to her.

  “Are you sure I can get extra math credit for being here?” Ann-Marie asked, a skeptical look on her face.

  “Totally,” Connie said. She turned to Marcus and the other guys and said, “How about you put up some streamers?” Then she looped her arm through Ann-Marie’s and said, “Come see the signs Peter and Albert made. How do you feel about British spellings of words?”

  Ann-Marie looked thoroughly bewildered as Connie led her around from the posters to the balloon arrangements. Then she started talking about Peter’s two left feet. “I haven’t danced with Albert yet though,” Connie said in a loud whisper that echoed throughout the empty hall. “But I’m willing to bet he’s not much better. Do you care if he’s coordinated? I guess you would if you’re thinking of going to the dance with him.”

  “Wait,” Peter said, looking up from the roll of masking tape he was wrestling with. “Albert, you’re going to the dance with Ann-Marie?”

  “Oh, um.” Albert shrugged. “It’s not official or anything. I asked her, but…” He didn’t seem to know how to finish that sentence.

  “He’s still waiting on an answer,” Marcus explained.

  Peter frowned as he spun the roll of masking tape on his finger. Then he tossed it aside, got to his feet, and went over to Ann-Marie. “Can I talk to you for a second?” he asked.

  Ann-Marie nodded while Connie scuttled away, looking ridiculously pleased with herself. Marcus was straining so hard to hear Peter’s words that he was barely breathing.

  “So there’s a dance here in a couple of days,” Peter was saying. “I was going to ask you, but I didn’t think it would be your kind of thing. But I heard you might be going with Albert.”

  “I don’t know.” Ann-Marie tugged on her ponytail. “I hadn’t really decided.”

  “Well, if you want to go with me, I think we’d have fun.”

  Marcus held his breath, and beside him, he could see Albert doing the same. He expected Ann-Marie to jump at the chance, but she hesitated. “I, um, I should probably study that night. But…maybe… Can I let you know later?”

  “Oh, sure,” Peter said, sounding disappointed. “Whenever. I guess I’ll go hang up some more streamers.” And then he shuffled away, looking a lot less confident than usual.

  As Ann-Marie started working on decorating the tables, he could see the frown lines on her forehead. Meanwhile, Peter and Albert were no longer chummily working side by side. Instead, they were glaring at each other as they seemed to be competing over who could make b
etter paper snowflakes. And the whole time, Connie was happily whistling away, bouncing around the hall as if everything were going according to plan.

  That’s when Marcus realized that this had been Connie’s strategy all along. Give Ann-Marie a way to compare the two guys—based on Connie’s weird criteria—and then make them both ask her to the dance. And then watch the drama unfold.

  Chapter 18

  “Okay, here we are,” Lena’s mom said, parking in front of the theater before class. She turned off the car and unbuckled her seat belt.

  “What are you doing?” Lena asked. “You don’t have to walk me inside.” If her mom saw any hint of Pearl’s soul, there was no way she’d simply ignore it.

  “I’ll just walk you to the door,” her mom said. “Then I’ll know you got in safely.”

  Lena sighed. “Do you want to put handcuffs on me first?” Her mom had been watching her like crazy since the previous night. She’d even made Lena keep the bathroom door open when she showered, as if Lena would try to jump out the tiny window or something.

  Her mom only gave her an unamused look and opened the car door. Lena was all nerves as they went toward the theater entrance, but her mom kept her word and didn’t go inside.

  “I’ll see you at exactly 1:00 p.m.,” her mom said.

  “What about your assignments for today?” Yvonne had called that morning with two more.

  Her mom shook her head. “You’re my priority, okay? I’ll be here.” Then she reached out and looked ready to give Lena a hug, but Lena quickly jumped back. She couldn’t risk it when her new powers kept flaring up on their own.

  But when her mom frowned, Lena realized she’d taken her not wanting to hug her personally.

  “Mom,” Lena said, trying to smooth things over. “All that stuff I said last night, I—”