Page 41 of The Glittering Edge

Alonso’s jaw drops. “We used to have archery?”

“What I really want to know,” Ron says, “is why you two are harassing my Penny.”

“They weren’t harassing me,” Penny says. “It was a misunderstanding.”

“NowthatI believe,” Ron says. “All the drama with your families seems like one big misunderstanding. I suggest you two leave before you cause more trouble.”

Penny panics. She can’t let Alonso leave. He was going to tell her about his brilliant plan for breaking the curse. And Corey—wait. Why is Corey here?

At that moment, Corey glances at her, concern in his eyes. Which Penny appreciates, sure. But her mind is busy doing a million calculations, and maybe she’s wrong, but something tells her Corey didn’t come here for the drag show.

Penny needs to talk to Corey and Alonso. Alone.

She steps forward, turning her back on the boys and focusing on Ron. “What if they could pay us back somehow?”

Ron looks like he’s about to shut her down, but he stops. “Pay us back?”

Penny gives him a look.

Ron finally gets it, and an evil grin spreads over his face. “What an interesting idea.”

Corey and Alonso visibly shrink.

Ron counts off on his fingers. “That laptop was used, so it was worth about five hundred bucks. We pay fifteen an hour, and if you divide that into five hundred, it averages to about thirty hours of work, or fifteen hours each. We could use some janitors around here to help us clean at closing time. But! I’ll cut those hours in half if you’ll do one more very important job for us tonight.”

Corey clears his throat. “That’s fine. What do you need?”

This is like watching a lion sneak up on two gazelles. Two very stupid gazelles.

“Our stagehands canceled on us tonight,” Ron says.

Alonso’s soul appears to leave his body, but Corey just looks confused.

Ron’s grin only grows wider. “This is gonna be great advertising.”

Corey

FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, COREY IS WISHING HE COULD DISAPPEAR.Because, of course, the stagehands have uniforms.

He’s pressed into a corner, tugging at his shiny purple vest. The black pants have a sequin waistband that screamsfourth-grade dance recital, and the elbow-length black gloves are itchy and way too tight.

And the worst part? Alonso De Luca is wearing the exact same thing.

Alonso stands at the other end of the hallway, adjusting his gloves. A few of the performers glance their way and giggle behind fake nails. Alonso doesn’t seem to notice; he’s talking to one of the drag queens, who wears a curly blond wig the diameter of a dwarf planet. Underneath the makeup is Aidan Lostis, who’s a year behind them in school. Alonso is lucky to have an ally backstage; all of Corey’s friends are out front, confused by the brief text from Corey saying he’d volunteered to “help out.”

Corey can leave. He can have his dad write Ron a check for the laptop, and then they can forget this ever happened. But right as Corey is about to make a move, the bathroom door opens, and Penny walks out.

And Corey is immediately distracted.

Penny is in a costume, too, but it’s higher quality than Corey’s, which was probably purchased at one of those Halloween warehousestores. Penny’s outfit is torn jean shorts and a corset under a suede fringe jacket, and…

Wow. The corset is doing things for her.

Corey pointedly looks away. He doesn’t know why, but he really doesn’t want her to catch him staring. He adjusts his vest with suddenly sweaty hands. When the performers burst into cheers, Corey is convinced they caught him checking her out, that he’ll have to deny finding her attractive.

It wasn’t the realization he expected to have tonight, but the truth is that Penny Emberly is pretty. Really pretty. And somehow Corey never noticed.

But the performers aren’t laughing at him. They’re laughing at Penny. Corey dares another glance in her direction, and his jaw drops.

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