The Geek's Guide to Wizarding Mastery

Chapter 5

5

We were stuck out on the sidewalk for forever. First, we did the whole huddle together and look on in horror thing. Elizabeth held my hand, and we watched the flames grow. I don’t think she was really holding my hand on purpose. We both just kind of forgot how to let go. Too soon, she melted into the crowd of crying actors when they moved us all back as the firemen swarmed the scene. They kept shouting and radioing back and forth about how the flames weren’t going out as quickly as they should. And then there was the fact that the fire was in a theatre with big heavy lights that were hung by not-so-competent students that could fall on the firefighters any minute.

Mom was being interrogated by the guys at the blockade. They asked questions about everything, and she kept manically counting all the students, making sure she really had gotten all of us out of harm’s way. Every few minutes, she would run back and squeeze me hard before talking to the fire dudes again.

About a whole hour later, Devon showed up, pushing his way toward me through the throng.

“s**t, Bry!” He ran his hand through his hair, making it actually not look perfect for once. “Your poor mom.”

“She’s over there.” I pointed to where she was flapping her hands at some guy with a clipboard.

“I mean, I know she made it out.” Devon shook his head. “But that theatre was like her life.”

It was kind of true. I mean, other than me, my mom’s whole world was going up in flames. She had been working to build that theatre department since I hit kindergarten.

“She’ll be okay.” Devon slapped me hard on the back. “We’ll figure something out. The school's got to have insurance.”

An ear-splitting screech came from inside, and one of the lighting booms crashed down, sending the firefighters running for the door.

“Or maybe your dad can buy a new theatre.” Devon shrugged.

I didn’t mention that my mom would rather perform for the mole people who live under the subway tunnels than take any help from my dad.

“We need that damn fire to stop!” I pushed the heels of my hands into my eyes so hard, little white spots began to blink in the blackness. “We could lose a lot more than the theatre if it doesn’t.”

I didn’t want to be sent to a different school to spend the rest of my pre-college career someplace strange. Dad would probably try and send me to some fancy boarding school upstate. It’s what he had been campaigning for for years. I tried to picture myself wearing a bowtie and living in a dorm. Maybe I could convince him to spring for Devon to come with. Then at least I would have one friend in a hellhole of brats with way too much money.

“Bryant?” Mom put her hand on my shoulder. She looked exhausted, but she was holding it together. She was a trooper.

Elizabeth stood two steps behind Mom, her face all pink from crying.

How could anyone look that pretty after crying for an hour?

“This is the fire marshal.” My mom pointed to the clipboard guy. “He wants to ask you and Elizabeth some questions. I’m going to go talk to the principal. I’ll be right back.”

Out by the fire trucks, the principal was busy glaring at the firemen like she was going to give them in-school suspension if they didn’t get those flames put out soon. Like an hour ago.

The fire marshal led us away from the other students who were all still loitering in the middle of the street watching the theatre burn.

He was shorter than me. Stocky and sweaty with black little eyes like a mole.

“So, you two were the first to notice the fire?” he asked without introducing himself.

Elizabeth looked silently to me.

“Yes,” I said, “we were.”

“And what happened?” the marshal asked.

“We were talking, and then it smelled like smoke,” I said, wondering if I was ever not going to smell like smoke again. “We looked down, and the set piece I had been painting was on fire.”

“And you were only talking?” the marshal asked.

“Yes.” I nodded, not missing his so-thin-it-was-practically-invisible-eyebrow creeping up his face. And I do mean eyebrow, not brows. I’d never seen such a pale, thin unibrow in my life.

He turned said unibrow to Elizabeth. “You weren’t playing with any tools? No soldering, no sanders left on.”

“I had been painting,” I said. “I never even plugged anything in.”

“We were looking at a cellphone.” Elizabeth’s voice shook. “Neither of us was touching anything but the phone, and then….” She shot me a weird look. Granted, this was a weird day. But still.

“I don’t know if somebody else left something plugged in or what,” I said, needing the marshal to stop glaring at Elizabeth with his little mole eyes. “But neither of us touched anything.”

“Figures.” The man took more notes on his clipboard. “Theatres are deathtraps. Why anyone in their right mind would want one in a school…” He handed Elizabeth and me cards. “If you think of anything, give me a call.” He waded back into the crowd.

I looked back up at the school. The fire was finally settling down. It was just a lot of smoke now. You couldn’t see the flames anymore.

“We were playing with that phone.” Elizabeth’s voice still shook.

“I know,” I said. And for some miraculous reason, I reached out and touched her arm. Just kind of laid my hand on her shoulder like I was comforting her. And she seemed to sort of take it like I was trying to comfort her and didn’t tell me I was a loser and to never touch her again.

“We shouldn’t have been playing with that phone,” Elizabeth said.

“I don’t think it would have made a difference.” I shrugged. “I mean, even if we had noticed the fire a few seconds earlier, I don’t think we could have stopped it. I tried the fire extinguisher―”

“That phone started the fire,” Elizabeth whispered, stepping close so no one but me could hear. “You opened the fire app, and then that fire! We burned down the theatre.”

“That’s not possible. It’s just a phone.” I pulled it back out of my pocket and held it out to her. “See?” I tried to pass it to her, but she backed away like she really was scared.

“I don’t care what’s possible. I don’t care if you don’t see it.” Elizabeth shook her head. “There is something wrong with that phone.”

“It’s fine.” I pressed my thumb to the button, and the phone unlocked. The fire app was still pulled up. And the setting was still on high. The flames on the screen danced around like the Yule Log channel.

“Bryant, don’t touch it,” Elizabeth said, but I was already scrolling my finger along the bar, pulling the fire setting all the way down. The logs on the screen turned black as the fire disappeared.

“See? No big deal.” I held the phone out to Elizabeth.

But she was pointing up at the school. The smoke was gone. And I don’t mean it dissipated a little bit. It was gone. There was still a burned hole in the school where the stage used to be. But there was no more smoke, no fire at all.

“Get rid of it.” Elizabeth’s face was sheet white. “I don’t know what the hell that thing is, but throw it into the river. Get rid of it Bryant, please.”

I wanted to throw it into the river right then on the off chance she might say thank you or hug me again. Call me stupid, but I didn’t really think there was anything weird about the phone. I thought it was a crazy coincidence. Or fate. Or the school board wanting to collect the insurance money. It really seemed more likely that Zeus had decided to smite my pathetic paint job than a cellphone had magically burned a giant hole in our school.

But I didn’t care. Elizabeth was looking at me with her sparkly eyes, and I would have done whatever she wanted, even if I didn’t buy the whole demon phone thing. I was going to be really daring and ask Elizabeth if she wanted to walk with me to the river right then so she could watch me toss it into the Hudson. But my mom pushed her way back over to us.

“The marshal said he’s done with both of you,” she said with her I would rather stick my foot up his butt than listen to anything he has to say voice. “So you should both go. You’re going to have a lot of studying to do tomorrow, and you need your rest.”

“Studying?” I asked.

“You are going to help Elizabeth study for the calculus test, she will get an A, and we will open Pippin next weekend.” My mom switched to her freakishly determined tone she usually saved for customer service people. “The show must go on, and I will be damned if fires or math tests stop us. Go home and rest up, both of you. Bryant will meet you at the library at ten.” She turned to Elizabeth, who looked like she wasn’t quite sure what to say.

Elizabeth nodded, which was probably her best bet anyway.

“This is going to be one hell of a week, so we had better all be ready for it.” My mom stalked away, ready and willing to rally each and every theatre student.

“She’s a little scary sometimes,” Elizabeth said.

“Sometimes?”

Devon was pushing his way through the crowd toward me.

“I have to go.” Elizabeth turned to look at the building. “I don’t think I have a math book anymore.”

“We can figure something out,” I said, wondering how much of the inside of the school was actually left.

“Okay.” She nodded. “I’ll meet you in the morning. Just…get rid of it.” She turned and walked away.

“Did you just have a conversation with Elizabeth Wick?” Devon asked.

“Yep. I’m her new math tutor.”

“And she doesn’t want you to get rid of the idea that you should ever talk to her again? Or yourself in general?”

“Nope.” I shook my head, watching Elizabeth disappear down the street.

“Then what was she talking about?” Devon asked.

I held up the little black cellphone.