Page 95 of Instant Karma

Jude clears his throat. “Is there, um… anything else I can help you with…?”

She beams at him, and I can see Jude becoming more flustered by the moment. “Nope, this is all I came in for. Thanks, Jude. I had no idea you worked here. What a cool summer job!”

He chuckles, still blushing, and says a whole lot of nothing as he rings her up and takes her payment.

“Well, if anyone needs me,” says Maya, backing away from the counter, still clutching the album to her chest, “I’ll just be at home, listening to this on repeat.”

“Wait! Take a flyer,” says Dad, shaking one of the blue papers at her. “Beach cleanup party happening today!” He gives me an enthusiastic wink. “Prudence is in charge of it.”

“Really?” Maya takes the flyer, a little wary. “I actually lost something on the beach, at the start of the summer.”

I feign ignorance. “Oh?”

“Yeah. It’s…” She hesitates and looks down at the flyer. “You know what? I might actually stop by for this.”

“Well, don’t be late. Don’t want to miss out on the really good trash,” I say, wholly unconvinced that she will be stopping by.

“It was fun to see you, Prudence. Jude.” She waves.

Jude waves back, all dreamy-eyed, but she already has her back turned to him.

Ari comes in through the front door, passing Maya in the aisle. Maya pauses and snaps her fingers. “Oh, hey! Aren’t you that girl who was at the bonfire party? With the guitar?”

Ari gets a surprised look in her eye. “Wow. You’re the second person in two days who’s recognized me from that.”

Maya grins. “You were amazing! I overheard that song you did… something about… snowflakes on the shore…”

“‘The Winter Beach Blues’!” says Ari, brightening. “That’s one of my favorites.”

“I’d never heard it before, but it was so beautiful! Who is it by?”

Ari immediately starts to shrink back into her shell, nervously toeing the wooden floorboards. “Um…”

“That one is an Araceli Escalante original,” I pipe up.

Maya looks baffled. “Araceli Escalante?” She glances at Jude, then at Dad. “Do you carry any ofheralbums?”

We all laugh, and I take Ari’s elbow. “This is Ari,” I say. “She’s a songwriter. That song was one of her own.”

“Oh!” Maya claps a hand to her cheek. “That’s so cool! I wish I could play an instrument. Or sing. Or write… anything. I’m so jealous.”

And now she’s officially flustered both of my best friends.

I peer at her, feeling a little disconcerted myself.

She’s acting so normal. Sonice.

Not that she usually acts like a supreme snob or anything, but I can’t ignore the things she said about Jude. How she completely wrote him off. How she suggested that he was somehow beneath her. I struggle to recall her exact words from that evening, but it’s all a blur. Still, I know I didn’t just imagine it.

“Well, if you ever record anything,” Maya adds, “I’d love to have a copy.”

She waves at us all again, and then she leaves, creating a strange vacuum in her absence, like all the air is being sucked out of the store. The Maya Livingstone effect.

I stretch out my fingers, a little disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to use my power against her this time. Which probably makes me a horrible, resentful person.

What did she say on the beach?I rack my brain to remember specifics, but all I can remember for sure is Katie making that inane comment about how D&D is some devil-worshipping game, and how Maya shot her down.

But there was more to it than that. There had to be.

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