Match Me If You Can

by Anna Staniszewski

  “Sure. Want to order some takeout when we get back to my place? It is New Year’s Eve.”

  “No, I mean my home. And I need to get there tonight. By midnight.”

  Her mom blinked at her. “Tonight?”

  “Please, Mom. Trust me. It’s important. Really important.”

  She expected her mom to argue or to object. But instead, she only nodded and said, “All right then. Let’s go to the airport.”

  Chapter 27

  It was almost midnight and Marcus was armed with a spray bottle full of water, ready to squirt anyone who tried to lock lips as the clock struck twelve. Meanwhile, Natalie had sprinkled all the food on the snack table with garlic powder, and Connie had even made an announcement over the sound system saying that mono was going around and that people should not, under any circumstances, kiss at midnight. Most of the kids in the crowd had laughed, which didn’t fill Marcus with a lot of confidence.

  The fact that Lena wasn’t here was making everything worse. Things had been so distant between them the past few days. Was that a sign of what was coming in the New Year?

  As he glanced around the dance floor, he spotted Ann-Marie standing in the corner with both Peter and Albert. None of them looked very happy. Marcus hurried over, hoping a fight didn’t break out. Though he couldn’t imagine Albert fighting over anything except maybe how to properly tie a bow tie.

  “What do you mean, you choose no one?” Peter was asking.

  Ann-Marie’s cheeks were flushed a deep red. “Look, I’m sorry. To both of you, okay? You’re really nice guys, but I don’t want a boyfriend right now. I don’t want to even go out on dates. I don’t have time.”

  “But we were having fun, weren’t we?” Peter asked, clearly hurt.

  “We were,” she said. “But I think maybe we’re better off as friends, don’t you?”

  Peter seemed to think this over for a minute. Finally, he nodded. “Yeah, I guess it was fun to have someone to talk about hockey with and stuff. But we can still do that.”

  “Totally,” Ann-Marie said. “And Albert…”

  He nodded slowly. “I knew it was too good to be true to have a girl interested in me.”

  “Of course there are girls interested in you!” Ann-Marie said. “Why wouldn’t there be?”

  “Well, because I’m—”

  “You’re great,” Ann-Marie broke in. “Why do you think I keep trying so hard to beat you? If I can do better than you, then I know I’ve really accomplished something, right?”

  Albert seemed to follow this twisted logic, because his face lit up. “Right,” he said.

  Then, amazingly, the three of them shook hands, and it was over. After all of Marcus’s work, all that scheming and worrying, it turned out Ann-Marie didn’t want to be with anyone.

  “Are you sure you really want to be alone?” Marcus asked her when she’d left the guys behind at the snack table.

  She shrugged. “I thought having a guy around would make me happier, but honestly, I like being alone, always have. Why ruin a good thing?”

  And the weird thing was, Marcus could actually kind of understand that. As a matchmaker, he spent a lot of time helping people not be lonely anymore. But he was starting to realize that being alone and being lonely weren’t the same thing, not at all. And the aura around his sister proved it. It wasn’t gray anymore. Even though she hadn’t been matched with anyone, she was fine.

  “I don’t know how you do it,” Ann-Marie added.

  “Do what?”

  “All this relationship stuff. It’s exhausting. Being a supernatural matchmaker sounds impossible.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m not saying I believe in any of that magic nonsense, but…” She shrugged and gave him something bordering on a smile. “You’re a lot tougher than I thought you were.”

  Marcus could only stare at her in shock. His sister thought he was tough?

  Suddenly, Marcus heard people around them chanting. “Ten, nine, eight…” Marcus’s shock turned to dread. “Three. Two. One. Happy New Year!” As everyone cheered, people started kissing all around him.

  “No!” Marcus cried, running toward a couple and squirting them with water. They didn’t seem to notice. He turned to Ann-Marie, who was also trying to break people up. “This isn’t working!”

  “The lights!” she cried. “Turn off the lights!”

  Together, they ran through the hall, flipping off light switches. People only cheered, as if this were part of the merriment. Even when all the lights were off, people were still singing “Auld Lang Syne,” and in the dim light, he could see couples smooching all around him.

  It was pointless.

  With a long sigh, Marcus started to flip the lights back on. He looked at Ann-Marie, who looked as defeated as he felt. Across the hall, Natalie was shaking her head as couples finally broke apart.

  They’d failed.

  Then he noticed something. Nearby, Albert was dancing with Connie. Except, when Marcus looked closer, he realized it wasn’t Connie. It was a girl with similar hair and similar features, but she seemed shyer and less sure of herself as she and Albert had a hesitant conversation in between wild dance moves.

  After a second, Marcus noticed the ugly horse scarf around her neck. The exact one he’d seen Connie wearing at the mall the other day. Then it clicked. This was Connie’s cousin! Connie must have given her the ugly scarf as part of her makeover. This must have been the girl Albert had bumped into outside the comic book store. He was supposed to have been matched with her all along!

  Marcus started to call up his energy, excited to zap them, before remembering that his powers were gone. But as he watched the couple dancing, their grayish auras swirling around them, suddenly, a spark ignited in between them, and then another, and another. As they danced and talked and laughed, their auras merged together, and soon, they weren’t all gray anymore. They were lighter and brighter and quickly filling with sparks.

  He couldn’t believe it. The zap had worked without his powers! After all this time, his assignment was finally done! And to think, Connie had wanted to fix these two up all along. Maybe she really did know what she was doing.

  At least that was one problem solved. Too bad everything else had turned out to be a total flop.

  But as the crowd shifted, Marcus sucked in a breath. “Lena?” he whispered.

  At first, he thought he was imagining things. Then she gave him a big smile, and he saw it was really her. It was Lena. She looked exhausted and rumpled, but it was her.

  “Marcus!” she said, rushing up to him. “I’m sorry it took me so long to get here! Am I too late? Is it past midnight?”

  He didn’t look at the clock. It didn’t matter what time it was. Lena was here, and he wanted to kiss her. So he brushed her hair away from her face, and he leaned in, and he did.

  As their lips met, the world around him began to spin. His ears started to ring, and he was suddenly so light-headed that he had to stagger backward, breaking the kiss.

  “Whoa,” Lena said, grabbing his arm. “I’m so dizzy.”

  “Me too,” he said, clinging to her.

  Then the ringing in his ears stopped, and as Marcus looked around, he realized the air around them was glowing. “Do you see that?” he whispered.

  Lena nodded. “Do you think… Are our powers back?”

  They rushed into the hallway to test out their powers, but when they called up their energy, something strange happened. Their fingers didn’t flare to life with light, but there was something there. A faint glow, barely visible.

  “They’re back!” Marcus said. “At least sort of.”

  “But what does this mean?” Lena said. “Are they ever going to go back to normal?”

  Suddenly, Natalie came rushing over to them. “Guys!” she cried. “I had a vision! It was really faint, but I had one! We were working tog
ether with my dad—with Eddie—to fix all the things that have gone wrong the past few days. And some other people were there too. Connie and other kids with new powers, helping us.”

  “Connie?” Lena asked, clearly skeptical. “Connie Reynolds was helping us?”

  “She’d actually make a pretty good matchmaker,” Marcus couldn’t help saying. “Once she learns how to follow the rules.”

  “So the power web’s fixed?” Lena asked.

  “Remember what Eddie told us?” Marcus said. “The web couldn’t be patched up. It had to be rebuilt. Maybe we needed to reboot it.”

  “Why would the two of us being here together do that?” Lena asked. “And shouldn’t we have kissed at midnight?”

  But suddenly Marcus realized. “No. Not kissing at midnight, that’s what broke the web. My sister’s vision was about us!”

  “But I wasn’t even supposed to be here!” Lena said.

  “The first time we kissed, it messed up the power web,” Marcus said, things clicking into place in his brain. “And every time we tried to fix it, it just got worse because our powers were so interconnected. When you went to Arizona, the web snapped.”

  “But now we’ve started the New Year with a clean slate,” Lena said slowly. “So that means…”

  “Now that we’re unconnected, we can do whatever we want and not worry anymore. Everything’s finally fixed.” Even though it didn’t seem possible after everything they’d been through, Marcus felt sure it was true. Things were finally the way they were supposed to be.

  Lena looked at him. “I wouldn’t say we’re unconnected,” she said. “I…I’m sorry about the cold shoulder thing. All that scheduling phone calls stuff was stupid. And I didn’t want us to be apart, Marcus. I just wanted us to be—”

  “I know,” he said. “But you were right. We’re great when we’re together, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have our own lives too.”

  For years, he’d let other people tell him what to do, trusting that Grandpa Joe or Eddie or Lena would help him figure things out. But for once, he’d had no choice but to take charge, and he had to admit that he’d actually kind of enjoyed it. Even if it hadn’t gone the way he’d planned, for once, he hadn’t just been on the sidelines. Maybe he could get used to that.

  “Okay,” Lena said. “Now that we are together and can do whatever we want without worrying about messing up everyone’s powers again, I think the first thing we need to do is dance.”

  “Dance?” Marcus repeated.

  “I have everything checked off my list,” Lena said. “All the stuff I wanted to accomplish before I turn fourteen. Thanks to you, I did it all. First kiss. First date. All that’s left is first dance.”

  “I don’t really know how to dance,” he said.

  “I’ll lead,” Lena said. “It’s not that hard.”

  But Marcus shook his head. “No,” he said. “We’ll take turns.”

  She laughed and took his hand. “I’m sure we can figure it out together.”

  Acknowledgments

  Wrapping up a series requires lots of time and revision—and plenty of help. Huge thanks to Aubrey Poole for guiding me over the years and to Kate Prosswimmer for jumping in mid-series with reassuring enthusiasm. As always, many thanks to Ammi-Joan Paquette; to my writing group and critique partners; to the Writers’ Loft and Simmons College communities; to my tirelessly enthusiastic family and friends; and to Ray, Lia, and Emma for the patience and the laughs.

  About the Author

  Anna Staniszewski was a Writer-in-Residence at the Boston Public Library and a winner of the PEN New England Discovery Award. She lives outside Boston with her family and teaches at Simmons College. When she’s not writing, Anna reads as much as she can, takes the dog for long walks, and tries to keep her magical powers under wraps. Visit her at www.annastan.com.

  THE DIRT DIARY SERIES

  Anna Staniszewski

  The Dirt Diary

  Eighth grade never smelled so bad.

  Rachel Lee didn’t think anything could be worse than her parents splitting up. She was wrong. Working for her mom’s new house-cleaning business puts Rachel in the dirty bathrooms of the most popular kids in the eighth grade. Which does not help her already loser-ish reputation. But her new job has surprising perks: enough dirt on the in crowd to fill up her (until recently) boring diary. She never intended to reveal her secrets, but when the hottest guy in school pays her to spy on his girlfriend, Rachel decides to get her hands dirty.

  THE DIRT DIARY SERIES

  Anna Staniszewski

  The Prank List

  To save her mom’s cleaning business, Rachel’s about to get her hands dirty—again.

  Rachel Lee is having the best summer ever taking a baking class and flirting with her almost-sort-of-boyfriend Evan—until a rival cleaning business swoops into town, stealing her mom’s clients. Rachel never thought she’d fight for the right to clean toilets, but she has to save her mom’s business. Nothing can distract her from her mission…except maybe Whit, the cute new guy in cooking class. Then she discovers something about Whit that could change everything. After destroying her Dirt Diary, Rachel thought she was done with secrets, but to save her family’s business, Rachel’s going to have to get her hands dirty. Again.

  THE DIRT DIARY SERIES

  Anna Staniszewski

  The Gossip File

  Some things are best kept secret…

  Rachel Lee is visiting her dad at a resort in sunny Florida and is ready for two weeks of relaxing poolside, trips to Disney World—and NOT scrubbing toilets. Until her dad’s new girlfriend, Ellie, begs Rachel to help out at her short-staffed café. That’s when Rachel kinda sorta adopts a new identity to impress the cool, older girls who work there. Ava is everything Rachel wishes she could be. But when the girls ask “Ava” to help add juicy resort gossip to their file, Rachel’s not sure what to do…especially when one of the entries is a secret about Ellie.

  THE DIRT DIARY SERIES

  Anna Staniszewski

  The Truth Game

  The truth is more than just a game.

  Rachel Lee thought that ninth grade would be different. That she would be different. She’d get to hold hands with Evan in the hallway, become president of the cooking club…but it just feels like she and BFF Marisol are drifting apart. At first, Rachel thought the Truth Game app would be a great way to do a little anonymous confessing, to see how others handle their friendship fails. But when her painful truths become public, Rachel’s in danger of losing her best friend—permanently.

  THE MY VERY UNFAIRY TALE LIFE SERIES

  Anna Staniszewski

  My Very UnFairy Tale Life

  This is one damsel that doesn’t need rescuing.

  Jenny has spent the last two years as an adventurer helping magical kingdoms around the universe. But it’s a thankless job, leaving her no time for school or friends. She’d almost rather take a math test than rescue a new magical creature! When Jenny is sent on yet another mission, she has a tough choice to make: quit and have her normal life back, or fulfill her promise and go into a battle she doesn’t think she can win.

  THE MY VERY UNFAIRY TALE LIFE SERIES

  Anna Staniszewski

  My Epic Fairy Tale Fail

  Fairy tales do come true. Unfortunately.

  Jenny has finally accepted her life of magic and mayhem as savior of fairy tale kingdoms, but that doesn’t mean the job’s any easier. Her new mission is to travel to the Land of Tales to defeat an evil witch and complete three Impossible Tasks. Throw in some school friends, a bumbling knight, a rhyming troll, and a giant bird, and happily ever after starts looking far, far away. But with her parents’ fate on the line, this is one happy ending Jenny is determined to deliver.

  THE MY VERY UNFAIRY TALE LIFE SERIES

  Anna
Staniszewski

  My Sort of Fairy Tale Ending

  Happily ever after? Yeah, right.

  Jenny’s search for her parents leads her to Fairyland, a rundown amusement park filled with creepily happy fairies and disgruntled leprechauns. Despite the fairies’ kindness, she knows they are keeping her parents from her. If only they would stop being so happy all the time—it’s starting to weird her out! With the help of a fairy-boy and some rebellious leprechauns, Jenny finds a way to rescue her parents, but at the expense of putting all magical worlds in danger. Now Jenny must decide how far she is willing to go to put her family back together.

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