Page 124 of Witch You Would
“Who knew she had a heart at all?” Gil whispered.
“Only for K-drama, apparently,” I replied.
Tori waved a pen at us. “Places, people. Penelope, Leandro, let’s take the hugging down a notch. Give me confident, apprehensive,smiling, whatever feels right.”
Hugging Gil felt right, but I settled for hand-holding. We could hug later.
Syd sipped some lemon water, shook themself like a wet dog, then stared into the camera. The slate clacked.
“Our judges,” Syd said, “have cast their final judgment of this competition on our remaining teams. Felicia and Charlotte,Penelope and Leandro, it’s been amazing to have you all here with us and to see your fabulous spells. No matter what happensnow, I know you all have spectacular magical futures ahead of you.”
I smiled. I had job and apartment hunting ahead of me, but maybe with Gil helping, it wouldn’t be so bad.
“This was a difficult decision for the judges.”
Was it, though?
“They considered the teams’ performances not only in this round, but in all the prior rounds as well.”
Ouch. We’d barely managed to keep from being cut in every other round, it felt like, and probably would have lost sooner ifnot for the sabotage. The points couldn’t possibly even out for us.
Well, at least our piñatas were awesome.
“Without further ado, the winner of our Spellebrity edition ofCast Judgmentis...” Syd paused, making eye contact with all of us individually. I had a death grip on Gil’s hand. My lungs stoppedworking. Could someone die from suspense? Literally? I would be the first if Syd didn’t—
“Felicia and Charlotte! Congratulations, ladies.”
Apparently I did still have air in my lungs, because it all left in a big whoosh. I’d known we probably wouldn’t win, but I guess I’d still had some tiny hope that maybe . . . But no. It was over. The judges clustered around the winners, shaking hands and smiling. They couldn’t hear my dreams crashing to the floor.
Gil pulled me into a hug, and we stood there for I don’t know how long. Tori would probably make us do something in a minute,join the celebratory cluster or whatever, but until that happened, I enjoyed how safe and comforting it felt to be held.
And then Gil said, “I know your abuela would be so proud of you right now.”
You know what? She would. She really, really would. She would have been proud of me just for being on the show in the firstplace. She would have called everyone whose number she kept in her little phone book, pages of handwritten names, to gossipabout me. She would have told the neighbors, the people in her knitting club, the checkout person at the grocery store. Shewould have bragged anytime she could find a way to insert it into a conversation.
But honestly, she had been proud that I worked as a spell technician. She’d been proud that I studied magical theory in college.Even when I’d burned down her fucking kitchen, she’d been proud that I had tried to do something difficult. How had I memory-holedall of that? How had I gotten so sucked into feeling like a failure that I’d ignored everything I’d ever done right?
“Your grandfather must be so proud of you, too,” I told him.
Gil grinned. “He is, actually. And...” He leaned in to whisper in my ear. “He can’t wait to meet you.”
My face went up in flames. He’d already talked to his grandfather about me? Before I could ask, Syd came up to us, smiling inthat slightly embarrassed way that said they knew this was awkward for us.
“Penelope and Leandro, you were amazing,” Syd said gently, laying a hand on my shoulder.
“Yeah,” I said. “We were. We are.”
“We will be,” Gil said.
“Presto,” I agreed.
We’d won each other, I thought as I hugged him. That was all the magic we needed.
Chapter 25
Penelope
I checked that my pigtails were even, slipped on my safety glasses and pointy black hat, then left the bathroom and walkeddown the hallway. A frazzled-looking teacher passed me going the other way, holding the hand of a kindergartner doing theuniversally recognizable potty dance. I’d wait a few extra minutes to start so they had time to get back.
