Page 39 of Witch You Would
Maybe I wanted to be able to blame him if the spell went wrong, so I could tell myself I’d done my best, but I couldn’t possiblywin when I had a comemierda yelling, “Presto!” and wrecking stuff behind my back. If he listened to me, and respected me,and cast the spells correctly as we’d planned them, then if we failed it would be my fault, too.
Rosy would tell me I needed therapy, then we’d laugh about how we couldn’t afford it.
Five minutes.
Two minutes.
“One minute left, casters!” Syd shouted gleefully.
Leandro jumped up like a rabbit and ran to the exit. What? Why?
He ran back holding... a flower? Oh god, had we forgotten something?
“Thirty seconds!”
Leandro slid to a stop next to me, catching his breath. He grinned like a naughty kid and handed me a gardenia.
“This isn’t part of the spell,” I whispered.
“Ten! Nine! Eight!”
“It’s for you,” Leandro said.
Ah. Flirting. Sweet. I smiled back, only half faking.
“And time’s up!” Syd announced. “Step away from your stations and prepare to be judged.”
I stepped back automatically, putting my hands up like I was being arrested. Not that I’d ever been arrested. Also, I wasstill holding the gardenia.
The judges stood around Syd, all looking suitably kind or serious. I could practically hear the theme music as we all triedto figure out what we should do now.
Tori clapped to get our attention. “We need a few reaction shots here. Give me nervous, confident, excited, whatever feelsnatural.”
Natural? I covered my mouth because a hysterical laugh was trying to get loose and make me look unhinged. I ended up withthe gardenia on my cheek. Was this Leandro’s way of apologizing?
“Penny,” Tori said.
It wasn’t Ofelia, but I still flinched. Then I felt weird for flinching. It was just a nickname.
She didn’t notice, or didn’t care. “You and Leandro did some kind of handshake earlier. Let’s see it again.”
The cameras pointed right at us. Natural. Right. So much for not doing this unless we won the round. Leandro grinned at melike he always did, but I wondered if this time his smile was as fake as mine.
I stuck the gardenia in the front pocket of my apron. The smell drifted up, sweet and soothing. Leandro looked at it and hissmile seemed to change. More real?
I held my hand out and he took it. By the time we’d finished our spin and explode, everyone was staring at us, not just thecameras. A few of the crew clapped, and someone whistled. I blushed.
“Great job, everyone!” Tori said. “We’re going to break for foodnow, and we’ll start the judging in an hour. Does anyone have any questions before we lock down the room?”
Quentin raised his hand. “When do we get our phones back?”
A few people laughed.
“Day six,” Tori said. “If there’s an emergency, we’ll notify you or your contact as needed. Anything else?”
“Are we doing confessionals after judging?” Amy asked.
“Yes, first the Spellebrities, then the pairs, then solo contestants.”
