Page 91 of The Glittering Edge

Penny’s momentary confidence has abandoned her. This is a terrible idea, magic or no.

Already the players are battling over the ball. Claire Polton from the opposing team manages to get it, and she races straight toward Penny. No—toward the goal that’s right behind her.

“Block her!” Beth shouts. Penny is about to give up, to say she doesn’t know how, but her feet push down on the pedals again, and suddenly she’s flying toward Claire. She yelps as her hands jerk the bike to the side of their own volition. Then she raises the polo stick, and right as Claire passes by, she reaches out and—

She gets the ball. She’s dribbling!

Her teammates cheer. Penny doesn’t have time to celebrate, because now she’s heading toward the opposing team’s goal. Someone from the other team maneuvers in front of her, but Penny dodges them. A guy on her team is wide open, so she swings her polo stick around, passing the ball to him. He catches it and hits it between the two cones.

Goal.

The crowd cheers, and Penny lets her feet rest on the ground.

They did it.Shedid it.

When Penny looks at Alonso, he’s clapping and whooping. And for the first time since her mom’s accident, Penny feels light. Like anything is possible.

They win the game easily after that. Penny lets go, following her body and the bike. She crashes once, but she’s not even embarrassed. Playing bike polo feels good. Doing somethingdifferentfeels good.

When the game ends, the teams shake hands and high-five. Penny walks Alonso’s bike over to his car, where he’s waiting with a huge smile on his face.

“It really worked,” Penny says.

“I noticed.”

“It felt so easy.” She looks down at the polo stick in her hands. “I honestly didn’t know magic could be this fun.”

“I wanted to show you for myself.”

Penny watches him for a long moment.

“What?” Alonso says, his tone turning defensive at the flip of a switch.

“Nothing! Just… thanks for this.”

“I can be nice, remember?”

“So nice.”

Alonso’s smile softens. They’re both holding on to the bike—Penny at the handles, Alonso at the seat. They’re staring at each other, and Penny doesn’t want it to stop.

Will he try to kiss her again?

Penny wants it. She might want it more than anything, except breaking the curse—

The curse. Her mom. Alonso’s grandfather.

Penny tears her eyes away from Alonso. Now is not the time for her to be kissing anybody. Kissing, as she knows, makes things weird. At a party sophomore year, Penny made the mistake of kissing her lab partner, Henry Li. It was her first kiss, and it was anything but romantic. She didn’t even like Henry like that, but she couldn’t look at him for days. They got a B- on their presentation because Penny kept losing her place on her index cards. Henry still doesn’t talk to her.

Unlike the biology project, the curse is life and death. Penny can’t afford to complicate things with Alonso. If he stopped talking to her, that wouldn’t be uncomfortable. It would be painful.

“I should go, I guess,” Penny says.

“Hold up,” Alonso says. “I have something for you.”

A thrill runs through Penny as Alonso grabs her hand. There’s the cool feeling of glass against Penny’s palm, and when she looks down, there’s another vial exactly like the one Alonso used for the green serum. But this liquid is clear, and when she holds it up, it catches the light and makes it almost impossible for Penny to see.

Somehow Penny knows what this is, without even having to ask. It’s like the potion told her the answer, even though that makes no sense.

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