Match Me If You Can

by Anna Staniszewski

  • • •

  The inside of the Y looked incredible. Besides a few odd posters featuring questionably spelled words, the hall was sparkly and shimmery and perfect to ring in the New Year. Connie had really done a great job. And even though it was still early, the place was already hopping with people.

  “I’m going to go find Connie,” Marcus told his sister.

  “Let me know when you need my help,” Ann-Marie said. She glanced around. “I guess I should find my dates.”

  “Go easy on Albert, okay?” Marcus asked, but Ann-Marie had already disappeared into the crowd.

  He spotted Natalie on the other side of the room. Even though she hadn’t wanted to come to the dance since she claimed she didn’t have any friends, she’d agreed to be there in case Marcus needed extra help. He was glad to see her chatting with Abigail and Ty and even laughing a little bit. He was surprised to realize that thanks to the whole power outage mess, he actually trusted her now. The lies she’d told in the past didn’t seem to matter anymore. After all, he knew what it was like to desperately want people to like you.

  A minute later, Connie charged over to him. “What are you doing here, Marcus? I thought I uninvited you.”

  “You did and…I’m sorry for freaking out at you. I’m still not thrilled that you zapped my parents, but maybe it’s not so bad. They’re actually getting along, laughing and stuff. It’s been a long time since that happened.”

  Connie pursed her lips. “Well, if you’re sorry, then I’m sorry too. Maybe I did overdo it a little bit.”

  Marcus gave her a suspicious look. It wasn’t like Connie to back down from anything or to admit that she’d been wrong. “What happened?”

  She looked down at her strappy shoes. “The lady at the nail salon, the one I accidentally zapped first? Well, it turns out the guy she was matched with already has a girlfriend. Oops. I went in for a manicure this morning, and she spent the entire time crying. I realized that…well, you were right about some people not being meant to be together. I guess it was just fun to imagine the possibilities, you know?”

  Marcus did know. That’s what he liked about being a matchmaker. “You’ll know better next time.”

  She shrugged, her glossy lips turning down at the corners. “I don’t think there’s going to be a next time. My powers are gone.”

  “What? How do you know?”

  “Because when I tried to zap a couple at the grocery last night, my hands didn’t light up or anything. So I guess it’s over.”

  Marcus let out a relieved sigh. That, at least, was some good news. But he couldn’t help seeing how bummed Connie looked. “You really liked doing it, didn’t you?”

  She shrugged. “It was nice to be good at something, you know? I mean, look at them!” She pointed to Hayleigh and Caspar who were—impossibly—slow dancing under the disco ball. “They look so happy. Even if it doesn’t last, at least I gave them that for a little while, right?”

  “Yeah, you did,” Marcus said, and he had to admit she was right. Even if Caspar went back to his old ways after the spark with Hayleigh faded, at least it proved that there was a part of him that wasn’t all bad. “Listen, Connie. I need your help.”

  “Is this about all that ‘no kiss at midnight’ stuff you’ve been sending me messages about?” she asked. “Because you are insane if you think I’m going to let you mess up this dance.”

  “But the balance of the universe is at stake!” he cried.

  Connie only crossed her arms, clearly unmoved.

  “Please, Connie. If anyone can figure out what to do, it’s you. You’re a natural at all this relationship stuff.” He hated to admit it, but it was true. Despite the chaos she’d caused with all her zaps, Connie had done some good too.

  That seemed to get through to her. “I am pretty awesome.” She sighed. “Okay, fine. I’ll help you. But if anyone has a bad time at this dance, I will never forgive you. Got it?”

  Marcus shuddered. He knew she meant it. Anyone who had ever played Truth or Dare at Connie’s house knew the threats of toilet licking and other mortifying torture were very real.

  “Got it.”

  “Okay, so what’s your plan?”

  He scrambled to pull a list out of his pocket.

  “Ten ways to avoid getting people to kiss at midnight?” Connie read. She laughed. “Oh boy. Lena is definitely rubbing off on you.”

  Marcus smiled, wishing Lena could be by his side to help him go through this list. But if he couldn’t have her there to help him save the day, at least he could do his darndest to show her that he could do it on his own. “Let’s hope so.”

  Chapter 26

  Lena couldn’t stop shaking with excitement before the show. It was really going to happen. She was going to be onstage. In front of an audience. In an actual scene!

  “Are you ready to go?” her mom asked.

  Lena nodded and followed her out to the car. They still weren’t speaking much, so the ride went by in silence. But when they pulled up in front of the theater and her mom walked her to the door, Lena was so excited that she couldn’t help saying, “You’ll be there, right? At the show? It starts in an hour.”

  Her mom looked at her. “If you still want me there.”

  “What? Of course I do.”

  “I wasn’t sure…after everything.”

  She sounded so hurt that Lena felt the last of her defenses crumbling. “Mom, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for—”

  Her mom shook her head. “Let’s not talk about this now, okay? You have a show to prepare for. Break a leg.” Then she turned and hurried back to her car.

  Lena watched her drive away, her body suddenly heavy. She’d been trying to apologize, and her mom had just shut her down! She almost wanted to laugh as she remembered what Hayleigh had said about the Lena cold shoulder. Maybe all that “like mother like daughter” stuff people said was true.

  When she went into the theater, passing the now-boarded-up window she’d had to crawl through the day before, Lena spotted a ball of light perched on the piano in the lobby. “Pearl?”

  Something was wrong. Pearl’s light was glowing so brightly, it looked ready to burst into flames. And it was eerily still.

  “Pearl, are you all right?” Lena asked, hurrying over.

  “I couldn’t help her,” Pearl said in a strange, quiet voice. “She was hurt, and I couldn’t… It’s my fault she’s gone.”

  “Who? What are you talking about?”

  “Myrna’s granddaughter,” Pearl said, her voice still oddly hushed. “I tried to help her, but I wasn’t strong enough. And now I can’t find her. She’s gone.”

  “No, she’s okay,” Lena insisted. “She was at the hospital, but she’ll be back here in time for the show—”

  “The hospital?” Pearl screeched. “No, Melissa can’t go there! People don’t come back from there. I didn’t. My friends didn’t.”

  “Pearl—”

  “I swore I’d look out for Myrna the way she looked out for me,” Pearl went on. “All these years, I’ve been looking out for her and for her daughter and her granddaughter, but it’s over! I’ve failed!”

  “Pearl, she’s fine!”

  “Then where is she?” Pearl thundered, the lights flickering overhead. “Melissa? Where are you? Where are you?”

  Suddenly, the light pushed off the piano and whizzed past Lena’s head, nearly sending her flailing backward. Thankfully, she caught herself on the banister.

  “Pearl!” Lena cried, watching her disappear into the theater. Lena’s head was pounding. The show was going to start in an hour. She couldn’t let Pearl ruin it!

  As the other kids started to warm up, Lena pretended to run lines while she scanned every inch of the entire theater, but she couldn’t find Pearl.

  Finally, Miss Fine came in and called for everyone to gat
her around. She still had a bandage on her forehead, but otherwise, she seemed like her old self. Well, almost.

  “Zade,” she said. “I want you to have fun with your role today.”

  “Really? But I thought you said—”

  “I was wrong. Acting is work, but you have to capture the joy in it too. If you’re trying to control everything, you lose the spontaneity, the fun. And that’s where the magic comes from. Sometimes you have to believe in a little magic.” She gave Lena a wink and then told everyone to get into costume.

  Lena smiled, but as they did their physical and vocal exercises, she couldn’t stop scanning the walls and ceiling. Still no Pearl.

  Finally, with ten minutes before the show, Lena’s phone beeped. It was a message from Marcus. Break a leg, it said. You’ll be great.

  As Lena read the words over and over, guilt flooded through her entire body. She’d barely talked to Marcus since their fight, and yet there he was, thousands of miles away, struggling to figure out how to put their powers back the way they should be, and he still remembered to wish her luck before her big stage debut.

  She put her phone down, her chest tight. She couldn’t believe how stupid she’d been. Marcus had always been there for her, no matter what. And the one time he really needed her—for their sake and for the sake of so many others—she’d told him to figure it out on his own. He’d needed her, and she wasn’t there. And now it was too late.

  “Places!” Miss Fine called. “Places, everyone!”

  Lena tried to shake thoughts of Marcus from her mind. Then she hurried toward the stage.

  • • •

  When the show started, Lena hovered in the wings, watching the scenes going on onstage while still scanning the theater for any sign of Pearl. Where could she be?

  During the first scene, Lena spotted her mom at the end of the front row. She was also scanning the theater, obviously keeping an eye out for Pearl too.

  Scene after scene went by, and finally it was Zade and Lena’s turn. Lena took in a long, long breath. This was it. She had to stop thinking about Pearl and Marcus and everyone else. She had to be Wendy now. She tried to use her body the way Miss Fine had taught her, putting herself in someone else’s shoes for a little while. Then she and Zade took their places.

  As the scene started, the first thing Zade did was peel an imaginary banana. Lena actually laughed in surprise. But not as herself, as Wendy. Who was this strange monkey boy? Wendy was delighted at the sight.

  As the scene continued, Lena stopped thinking about everything else and just became Wendy. And for the first time, she wasn’t calculating and planning and controlling every little thing Wendy did. She was just having fun.

  Amazingly, so was the audience. They were laughing at Zade’s antics and at the banter between them. When it came time for Lena to hand Zade the thimble, he monkey-crawled over to her, knuckles on the floor, and reached out his hand.

  Lena went to hand him the thimble and—bam! Her fingers suddenly lit up.

  She staggered back, yanking her hand away. Meanwhile, Zade’s eyes widened in shock at the sight. Lena tried to hide her hands behind her back, but it was too late. He’d seen. And, she realized, so had the audience.

  “Cool!” she heard a little kid in the audience say. “Her hands are glowing! How did they do that?”

  If her hands were glowing, it meant Pearl was nearby. But where?

  Suddenly—crash! The stage under Zade’s feet gave way, and he vanished into a black hole. Lena gasped and staggered forward, realizing with relief that he hadn’t simply disappeared. He’d fallen through the trapdoor in the stage. In the darkness below, she saw a hint of light. Pearl.

  People in the audience gasped too. A few of them applauded, thinking it was part of the scene.

  “Pearl! Stop it!” Lena hissed. “What are you doing?”

  “He’s doing it wrong,” Pearl said. “He’s supposed to take it seriously like Melissa said!”

  In the faint light, she saw Zade stirring under the stage. He was all right. But, Lena realized, their scene wasn’t. The audience was simply staring at her now, waiting for her to go on.

  She scrambled to come up with her next line, but it was no use. Her mind was blank. And even if she did continue, she couldn’t exactly do both parts on her own, could she?

  Then she heard a voice from behind her. “Wendy?”

  She turned to find her mom walking onto the stage. What on earth? What was her mom doing? Lena felt a wave of anger rush through her. Why couldn’t her mom just leave her alone for once? Why couldn’t she stop trying to fix everything?

  But then Lena noticed something. Her mom’s hands were shaking, and she was pale and sweaty, as if being onstage were torture. Lena realized that this was the first time her mom had been onstage in years. She wasn’t doing this for herself. She was doing this to help Lena. And, Lena had to admit, she needed the help. Desperately.

  “Wendy, I’m Tinker Bell,” her mom said. “I was the light glowing in your hands.”

  Lena pulled herself together and asked, “You’re the one who used your magic to make Peter disappear?” She forced out a laugh. “That was a neat trick. What do you want, Tinker Bell? What can I do to make you leave us alone?” But she wasn’t talking to her mom anymore. She was talking to Pearl, who was now hovering in the middle of the stage.

  “All I want is for Myrna’s granddaughter to be safe,” Pearl said. Her voice was so soft that Lena didn’t think anyone in the audience could hear it. All they could see was a clump of light, “Tinker Bell,” hanging above the stage.

  “Look,” Lena said, pointing to Miss Fine, who was sitting in the front row, looking a little horrified at how wrong everything was going. But she was also motioning for them to continue with the scene. “Look at all those people out there. They look happy, don’t they?”

  “Yes, we do!” a little boy called. And next to him, a little girl yelled, “I love you, Tinker Bell!” The other people in the audience laughed.

  “But what if Myrna wants me to do something else?” Pearl asked. “She took such good care of me when I was sick. I promised her I’d take care of her too. And after she was gone, I promised to protect her daughter Martha and her granddaughter Melissa.”

  “You kept your promise,” Lena said, still trying to make it sound as though she were talking to Tinker Bell. She only hoped Pearl would get the message. “You kept everyone safe, but now you don’t need to protect them anymore. Peter might never grow up, but everyone else does. And that means you have to let them learn to take care of themselves.”

  “But I’m scared,” Pearl said. “What if I leave here and I’m all alone again?”

  “Don’t be scared,” Lena said. “We’ll sing you a song.” And then she started to sing the tune Miss Fine had sung at the hospital, the sad, slow lullaby. Lena’s voice shook, and she stumbled over some of the words, but then Miss Fine joined in to help her. At the next refrain, so did a few people in the audience. Soon, as more voices echoed through the theater, the song wasn’t sad anymore. It was full of life and energy. It bounced off the walls and the ceiling, as if it wanted to be set free.

  Lena reached out her hand, calling up her energy. But nothing happened. She narrowed her eyes and focused on getting her fingers to flare to life, but they remained unglowing.

  Oh no. Could her new powers really be gone? What was she supposed to do now?

  Suddenly, Lena felt her mom’s hand in hers, and this time, she didn’t pull away. Instead, she and her mom both held their free hands out to Pearl, urging her forward. Pearl came toward them and rested on Lena’s fingertips, and then she let out a long, relieved sigh. Almost instantly, the ball of light sparkled like fireworks. The people in the audience gasped. And then there was a flash, and Pearl vanished.

  • • •

  After the show, Miss Fine came up and gave Le
na a hug. “I don’t know what happened up there. The lights…the song…but it was beautiful. And I feel lighter somehow.” She laughed. “I know that doesn’t make any sense.”

  “It does,” Lena said, realizing the haze around Miss Fine was gone. She wasn’t haunted anymore. “Trust me.”

  “I can’t believe I fell through the stage!” Zade said. “That was awesome!” He was limping around with a twisted ankle, but he didn’t seem to care, not when everyone was going on about how amazing their scene had been and commenting on their amazing special effects.

  Finally, when all the congratulations were over, Lena pulled her mom away from everyone. “Thank you,” Lena said. “For rescuing me. For everything. You were right. I can’t handle everything on my own. I thought I could, but…but if you hadn’t helped me, I don’t know what I would have done.”

  “You would have been fine,” her mom said.

  “Huh?”

  Her mom laughed. “I realized after I’d rushed onto that stage that you didn’t need my help.”

  “Um, yeah, I did,” Lena said. “I mean, Zade fell into a hole! I was just standing on the stage, not doing anything. And then my hands started glowing!”

  “But what you did next, that was all you. You sent that girl to the After. I had nothing to do with that. If I hadn’t set foot up on that stage, you would have been fine. Just like you’ve been fine all these years on your own. It’s time I accepted that.”

  Lena reached out and took her mom’s hand in herself. “Maybe I didn’t need you up there with me, but I’m glad you were. It felt like something we had to do together.”

  They stood there, hands joined, for a long moment. Any trace of the cold shoulder between them was gone. And even though Lena wasn’t sure things between the two of them would ever be as easy as they’d been when she was little, she had a feeling they’d be a lot better from now on.

  Finally, her mom gave Lena’s fingers a squeeze and let go of her hand. “So your powers—my powers…?”

  “I think they’re really gone,” Lena said. She should have felt relieved, but there was still a pit in her stomach. “Mom, I need to go home.”