This Side of Magic Page 3

  “Say something,” Natalie urged.

  Mo blinked.

  “SAY ANYTHING!” Natalie screamed.

  Mo opened his mouth and yawned right in Natalie’s face.

  “Fine,” Natalie said, throwing her notebook on the floor. “If you’re going to be that way, then you can all just leave. Now!”

  “Gladly,” Luke said. He scooped up Mo and followed Penny out of Natalie’s house. When they were safely away, Mo curled around Luke’s neck as the three made their way back to Mr. Leery’s house.

  “Nobody is ever going to believe Mo is a talking cat,” Luke said.

  Penny put her hand on her friend’s arm. “Shhh,” she warned.

  “What’s wrong?” Luke asked.

  “I’ve got that feeling again,” Penny said. “I think we’re being followed.”

  Mo growled. He glared over Luke’s shoulders into the shadows of the thorny bushes and hissed.

  5

  Mo wouldn’t say another word, even though the kids tried all day to get him to talk. The next morning was Monday, so Luke and Penny met at Mr. Leery’s before school.

  “Come on, Mo,” Penny begged. “Talk to us.”

  Mo just turned his back to them.

  “This morning is as bad as last night,” Luke complained as they went into Mr. Leery’s kitchen.

  “What happened to you last night?” Penny asked.

  Luke shrugged. “Just stupid little things like my covers getting all tangled. I hate when that happens. Then my pillow disappeared. How can a pillow just vanish? I bet Kendall hid it somewhere.”

  Kendall was Luke’s older sister. She liked to play pranks on Luke. She was a good friend of Mr. Leery’s, too.

  Penny listened while she gave Mo some water in a yellow bowl. A green feather was on the floor. Penny plucked it up and threw it in the trash can. Mo totally ignored the kids and jumped up onto the kitchen counter to look out the window.

  “I hardly got any sleep,” Luke said. “And I didn’t have any clean underwear so I had to wear the same pair from yesterday.”

  “Okay,” Penny told him. “That is just disgusting.”

  “Then I went to eat Rice Krispies for breakfast and the milk was spoiled,” Luke said. “So far, it’s been a rotten day.”

  Penny gasped. “That is so strange. My neighbor’s dog kept barking half the night so I didn’t get a single hour of sleep. And I couldn’t find two socks that matched this morning.”

  “Socks don’t matter,” Luke said.

  “Oh yeah?” Penny said. She pulled up her jeans to reveal one bright green sock with purple stripes and another with neon blue flowers.

  Luke laughed.

  “It’s really not funny,” Penny told him. “Something weird is going on. My milk was spoiled this morning, too.”

  “It’s just one of those crazy coincidences.”

  Penny opened Mr. Leery’s refrigerator and Luke shook his head. “You shouldn’t snoop in other people’s stuff,” he told her.

  Penny didn’t listen. She pulled out Mr. Leery’s milk and unscrewed the cap.

  “Phe-ew!” Luke yelled. “Put the top back on.” The horrible smell made Luke gag and hold his nose. Penny quickly put the lid back on and slammed the refrigerator shut.

  Both kids looked at Mo.

  Penny put her hands on her hips. “Okay, Mo,” Penny said firmly. “Tell us what’s going on around here.”

  Mo slowly twisted around and licked his paw. “No need,” he said. “I got word from Mr. Leery that he’ll be back soon.”

  “How does a cat get word?” Penny asked him.

  “Maybe he has a cell phone,” Luke teased. “It’s a MeowBerry.”

  “He’ll be here tonight. Now go to school.” Mo turned his back to the kids and stared out the window again. “And don’t forget to wear your bracelets,” he warned.

  Penny held her arm up. The old silver bracelet with Mr. Leery’s key dangled in midair. Luke patted his pocket. His bracelet was safely tucked in his pocket. There was no way he was wearing that thing to school.

  “Come on,” Luke said. “If we don’t get to school soon, I won’t have time to play basketball before the bell rings.”

  “Oh, all right,” Penny said. “But when Mr. Leery gets back, he has a lot of explaining to do.”

  Luke and Penny jogged the five blocks to school with their backpacks bouncing on their backs. Penny couldn’t help glancing over her shoulder every now and then. She still had the feeling that someone was watching her. It was probably just nosy Natalie, but with all the strange things going on, like Mo talking, Penny wasn’t sure of anything.

  “For crying out loud,” Luke said as they trotted onto the school yard. “There’s that wild boy from the other day.”

  Standing on the steps of the school stood the bucktoothed boy with big ears they’d met on Mr. Leery’s porch. Penny felt a cold shiver run down her back as she nudged Luke. “That boy is wearing the exact same clothes you wore when we met him.”

  Luke smiled as they dropped their backpacks in the pile beside the steps. “Well, what can I say? I have good taste. You think he’s wearing dirty underwear, too?”

  “Very funny,” Penny said.

  Luke pulled a small basketball out of his backpack. “Want to play ball?”

  Penny shook her head and Luke ran off to the basketball courts. Penny decided to do some spying of her own. She watched the strange boy as he went up to different kids. He stood beside some first graders on the swings.

  “Look out!” one kid yelled as he swung higher and higher. “I’m blasting off into outer space.”

  The strange boy bent down and put his hands over his head. Nobody but Penny noticed. Then the boy slinked over to some sixth-grade girls. They stood in a circle, giggling and talking about boys. The weird kid tried to get in the middle of the circle, but the girls were squeezed together tight. The boy dropped to his knees and tried to crawl in. He bumped into one girl’s legs and then another. Then he bumped into Thelma Martin. Nobody messed with Thelma, but this boy didn’t know that.

  Thelma turned around and grabbed the boy by his ear. “I’m going to turn you into chopped liver!” Thelma yelled.

  “No!” squealed the boy. “Not meat. Anything but meat!”

  The other girls in the group laughed and Thelma shoved the kid to the ground. “Get lost,” she told him.

  “But where should I go?” he asked.

  Thelma just rolled her eyes and turned back to her friends. Penny wished she had a pink notebook like Natalie’s to write all this stuff down. Luke would definitely think something strange was going on when he heard about this.

  Penny shoved her hair out of her face. It had gotten so tangled last night; she could hardly get a brush through it this morning. Her hand was still in her hair when someone grabbed her arm.

  “Give me that bracelet!” a voice demanded.

  6

  “Ouch!” Penny yelled. “Leave me alone. You’re hurting me.”

  “I want to see the designs on that bracelet. It looks like something in my father’s collection,” Natalie told her.

  “It’s mine,” Penny said, pulling her arm away.

  “I just wanted to see it again,” Natalie said. “You don’t have to get so snotty.”

  Natalie showed off something new practically every day. For once, Penny had something that Natalie didn’t have, but for some reason Penny felt the need to keep it a secret. She pushed the bracelet up under her shirtsleeve and turned away from Natalie.

  Penny watched the new boy again. He stood beside the basketball hoop, watching Luke and his friends play.

  “Why are you watching Bobby?” Natalie asked.

  “Who’s Bobby?” Penny asked, being sure to still cover her bracelet with her sleeve.

  Natalie nodded toward the strange boy. “He’s that new kid. There’s something funny about him. I’ve been taking notes.” She held up her notebook. “I’m keeping my eye on him.”

  Penny hat
ed to agree with Natalie about anything, but she had to admit that Bobby wasn’t ordinary. When Thomas smacked the ball down on a rebound he yelled “Duck!” to Bobby. But the new kid didn’t move out of the way. Instead, he stared into the sky and got whacked on the nose by the ball.

  Splat! Bobby slammed to the ground. The boys gathered around Bobby and the playground duty teacher came running. Penny thought she was the only one who noticed that Luke’s bracelet had fallen out of his pocket, but Penny was wrong.

  Natalie slammed her notebook shut and took off running. Luckily, Penny was faster. She raced ahead of Natalie and grabbed the bracelet off the ground before anyone else saw it. Natalie stomped away in a huff.

  In the middle of the crowd of boys, Penny saw Bobby. For a moment, she was afraid he had seen the bracelet. He gave her the meanest look anyone had ever given her. But then he was smiling and saying “I’m fine” to the teacher.

  Penny shook her head. Had she imagined the evil look? She wasn’t sure, but she was going to be watching Bobby, too. Just like Natalie.

  Luke poked her in the side. “Did you see that new kid get slammed? Thomas tried to warn him. I bet his nose swells up to the size of a watermelon.”

  “His name is Bobby,” Penny told Luke. “Natalie is spying on him.”

  “What else is new?”

  “I’m spying on him, too,” Penny said.

  Luke laughed and looked at Penny. “Are you turning into a Natalie clone?”

  Penny shook her head. “No, but you have to admit that kid is weird.”

  “Aren’t you the one who’s always saying people can’t help it if their ears are big or their legs are skinny?” Luke asked.

  “Yeah,” Penny said, “but that’s not it. He gave me this awful look.”

  “You mean like this?” Luke asked. He stuck his tongue out, pulled his eyes sideways and scrunched up his nose.

  “Ha, ha,” Penny said as the bell rang to start the school day. Luke ran off to get in line, but Penny frowned. Thomas and Alex lifted Bobby off the ground and helped him to the door. Luke grabbed their backpacks and followed them into the building.

  “Okay, class. Turn in your homework,” Mr. Crandle, their fifth-grade teacher, told them the minute they walked in the classroom door.

  Penny pulled her homework out of her bag. Or at least she tried to. It wasn’t there. “What happened to my homework?” she asked herself.

  Penny shook everything out of her book bag. Her lunch, notebook, and pencils tumbled out. She searched through her notebook, but found nothing.

  “Now, I’m in trouble,” Penny mumbled to herself.

  “Who took my homework?” Natalie yelled. “I know it was in here.” She dumped the contents of her book bag onto her desk. A calculator, a cell phone, a makeup kit, a brush, comb, pink pencils and pens, and two brand-new pink notebooks tumbled out.

  All across the room, girls searched in their backpacks, but none of them could find their homework. For once, every boy handed in his homework.

  Mr. Crandle stood at the front of the room, tapping his foot. “Girls,” he said. “Is this some kind of joke?”

  Natalie pointed at Thomas. “The boys must have stolen our homework!” she shrieked.

  Natalie always had her homework turned in on time and she rarely ever got a question wrong. If Penny’s homework hadn’t been missing too, she would have loved seeing Natalie so upset.

  “Nonsense,” Mr. Crandle told her. “The girls must be trying to get the boys in trouble.”

  “Yeah,” Luke said. “We didn’t do anything. We were playing basketball this morning. Just ask him.”

  Luke pointed to the door where Bobby stood with the principal. “Excuse me,” said Mrs. Bender, the principal. “You have a new student.”

  Bobby took a big red apple out of his pocket and handed it to Mr. Crandle. “Oh brother,” Alex muttered. “Another teacher’s pet.”

  Bobby looked at Alex and then at Mr. Crandle. Luke couldn’t believe what Bobby did next. He actually petted Mr. Crandle on the arm. Mr. Crandle snatched his arm away. He pointed to a seat by Natalie. “You may sit there.”

  Penny hoped that Bobby’s strange behavior would make Mr. Crandle forget about the missing homework, but no such luck. At recess time, Mr. Crandle cleared his throat and said, “Girls, you will stay inside and finish your homework. And no more jokes tomorrow.”

  The girls groaned, but the boys raced outside. Penny watched out the window as Bobby followed Alex around like a puppy. Finally, Alex must have told him to quit it because then Bobby patted Thomas on the arm. Thomas shoved Bobby away. Bobby tumbled to the ground and rolled over backward. Penny had never seen a kid so clumsy. Even when he walked, he tripped over his own feet.

  When Bobby got up, he stumbled into Luke. When Luke handed Bobby the ball, Bobby sniffed it and then dropped it, not even bothering to notice where it bounced.

  “Oh, Penny,” Mr. Crandle said. “Please give this to Mr. Leery. He lent it to me last week. Tell him it was fascinating.”

  “Sure,” Penny said. She looked at the book Mr. Crandle put on her desk. It was called History of Ancient Civilizations. Nothing sounded more boring to Penny, but she knew Mr. Crandle and Mr. Leery both belonged to the History Club at the Morgantown Library. A bunch of senior citizens got together at the History Club once a week, talked about old stuff, and ate pizza. Penny’s grandmother had told her about it. Penny smiled. She knew her grandmother had a crush on Mr. Leery.

  For the rest of the school day, Penny noticed that Bobby sneaked up behind everyone but her to sniff them. He sniffed hair. He sniffed books. She even saw him sniffing baseball caps and book bags. She was glad he kept his distance, but she wondered why he didn’t like her. She even smelled her armpits to make sure she didn’t stink.

  At lunch, Luke told Penny that the new kid would be walking home with them. “Does he live close to us?” Penny asked. She didn’t remember any houses being for sale on her block.

  Luke shrugged. “I guess so.”

  After school, Penny remembered Luke’s bracelet was still in her pocket. “Here,” she told him as everyone grabbed their backpacks. “Put this on. It fell out of your pocket this morning.”

  Luke’s face turned red. He quickly grabbed the bracelet and stuffed it in his pocket. “Don’t let anyone see that,” he said. “It’s girly.”

  “No, it’s not,” Penny told him. “I saw Carl Anthony wearing something like it one time on TV.”

  “Really?” Luke said. Carl Anthony was Luke’s favorite professional ballplayer.

  “Just put it on before you lose it again,” Penny told him.

  Luke snapped the bracelet on his wrist, but he still pulled his sleeve down to cover it. He wasn’t so sure Thomas or the other guys would think it was cool.

  Penny and Luke walked out of school and stood beside the Morgantown Elementary School sign to wait for Bobby. They waved as the rest of their friends ran down the sidewalk. They waited and waited and waited some more until the sidewalks were completely empty. “Where is he?” Penny asked.

  “Maybe his mother picked him up,” Luke said.

  “I never saw his mother or father this morning, did you?” Penny asked.

  Luke shook his head no. “Come on, let’s go home,” he said. “Bobby’s not coming.” The two kids walked down the sidewalk. A cool breeze blew some leftover autumn leaves across their path.

  “Don’t you think it’s odd that Bobby came to school all by himself on his first day?” Penny asked.

  “I guess so,” Luke said. “Maybe his parents are weird, too.”

  The bracelet on her arm felt warm and the most peculiar idea popped into her head.

  “Maybe he doesn’t have parents,” Penny said. “Maybe he’s not a kid.”

  Luke laughed. “That’s the skinniest grown-up I’ve ever seen.”

  Suddenly, Luke scratched his arm beside his bracelet. “Did this thing just get hot?”

  Penny nodded. “Remember how Mr. Leery to
ld us these bracelets are for protection?” she said slowly.

  “I think he just wanted us to be sure not to lose them,” Luke said.

  “Maybe it’s more than that.” Penny stopped walking and pulled up her sleeve so she could see the silver on her arm. Even though the bracelet sparkled in the warm sun, a cold chill sent goose bumps racing up her neck.

  “There’s something weird going on in this town,” Penny said. “And I think we better wear these bracelets every single minute until we get some answers.”

  7

  “Tell us what’s wrong, Mo,” Penny pleaded.

  “We know you can,” Luke added.

  Penny and Luke had stopped by Mr. Leery’s house. If anyone could tell them what was going on it was the talking cat. Mo was so restless they took him to Luke’s house, hoping the change of scenery would calm him down. No such luck.

  The black cat remained silent. He padded nervously around Luke’s room, jumping from window to bed to desk to bookshelves and back to the window to peer out into the shadows. His big paws scattered papers and books, but the cat didn’t seem to notice. He sat with his nose pressed to the window and his ears perked at attention.

  “What’s out there?” Luke said. When he walked across the room to look out the window, Mo went into action as if a ghost had pulled his tail. He leaped onto Luke’s chest. Luke fell back on the bed, the cat perched on his chest like a lion getting ready for the kill.

  Mo pulled back his lips and hissed. “Sssstay away from the window.”

  Facing the cat’s glistening teeth made Luke’s face go pale. “W–w–why?”

  Mo plopped down on Luke’s stomach. “Can’t tell,” Mo said. He glanced out the window again. A single claw escaped and poked Luke in the stomach.

  “Um…ouch?” Luke said.

  Mo looked back at the boy as if he’d forgotten Luke was there. “Oh. Ssssorry about that.”

  “Something is obviously wrong,” Penny said. “Why won’t you tell us?”

  “Sssomething is very wrong,” Mo said. “But only Leery is allowed to tell you. Until he gets back, you must stay safe.”