EATING CONTEST

After the head pain from her aunt’s protective ward faded, Tonya attended the rest of her classes. At the Athletic Center after school, she stood waiting for Priya in the stands overlooking the pool. At one time, Tonya dreaded the prospect of exercise, but now it was a relief to smell chlorine and anticipate a nice, normal lane swim with her friend. Magical madness could wait. Below her, the diving team were cooling down with a few laps. She watched them glide through the water with barely a ripple. If only her life were so smooth.

Her aunt’s wards hadn’t repelled her like a stranger. They had felt personal somehow, as if her aunt’s own hands were driving a stake through her head. How could someone she loved hurt her so much?

This brutal tactic doubled her determination to find out what her aunt was hiding. Someone else would have to do her snooping, but who? Priya would think she was crazy if she asked her to search her aunt's apartment. If she mentioned her aunt’s magic to Priya, her friend would be in danger. Once Mundanes knew about magic, they were no longer off-limits. If they discovered Priya knew about magic, anyone in the magic community would be allowed to curse her until City Council ordered an amnesia spell. Tonya shivered. That wasn’t something she’d wish on anyone, not even the mean girls back in high school.

Drake was sweet and knew nothing. He also had the equipment to make a video inside the shop. All she had to do was convince Drake to go through her aunt’s place with a camera, as if he was making a documentary, and without mentioning magic. Piece of cake.

She sighed. Her parents forbade her to use or learn about magic, but she was tired of living by her mother’s Pure rules. Tonya knew she had a talent for magic. None of the Mods in her high school could sense life energy like her.

Aunt Helen could, but she studied all types of magic. Flouting her Trad heritage, she made her living selling cure charms, occasionally to Mundanes. “What does it hurt?” she told Tonya when she first caught her at it. “I tell them it’s traditional medicine.”

She was always experimenting with new materials and spells. Could that be the real reason she was sick?

The coach blew a whistle and the team lined up for the last dives of the practice. Idly, Tonya scanned the pool for Marta’s orange and blue swim cap, but she was absent. As the last swimmer got out of the pool, Tonya was sure of it. Could Marta be sick again?

Ten minutes later, Priya still hadn’t come up to meet her so Tonya left the stands and went downstairs to get changed. She was crossing the foyer when Shin came out of the men’s change room, walked past her, and doubled back.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi?”

“I want to apologize for Marta the other day. She’s under a lot of pressure.”

“Don’t worry. I should never have tried out.”

“Yeah. Anyway, a bunch of us are hanging out at her room tonight if you want to come. No hard feelings?” He smiled broadly at her.

Tonya couldn’t believe it. Shin Chang was asking her to a party!

“Okay.”

“Great. Ask your friend to come too.” He gestured at Priya, who was just coming in.

Tonya managed to keep her voice calm until he left. Then she bounced up and down on the balls of her feet, tripping over her words as she told Priya about the party.

“I love divers with their big shoulders and tiny waists.” Priya outlined an invisible hottie with upheld hands.

“So, you’ll come with me?”

“Yes, and stop bouncing. If I’m gonna be seen with you, you have to pretend this isn’t the first time your parents let you out of the house.”

“What?”

Priya rolled her eyes. “I’m kidding. Sounds like fun.”

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THAT EVENING, TONYA wished she had shampooed her hair three times. Did she still smell of chlorine? Probably. Maybe at a divers’ party others would too.

Choosing clothes for the evening was excruciating. Tonya was nervous about meeting the same diving team girls who had witnessed her crash and burn at the tryout, but this wasn’t high school. University kids should have better things to do than bully her for making a pathetic dive. At least, that’s what she told herself but just in case, she wanted to look great. Because of her summer weight loss, she had to try on three pairs of jeans before she found some that didn’t look sloppy.

She hadn’t bought tops in her new size yet, so she took the stairs up to Priya’s floor. Her friend was shorter and slim, but her clothes were so original. Maybe she could loan Tonya something stretchy but devastating.

“What would you like?” asked Priya.

“Oh, not much. I want girls to envy me and guys to notice me—but I don’t want to look like I’m trying too hard.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Call me your fairy godmother.” Priya scooped up some accessories. “I don’t have your size. Let’s try your closet.”

Hours later, they got in the elevator. Priya had loaned Tonya a wide belt which cinched her roomy top and emphasized her cleavage. Would people stare?

“Maybe going to Marta’s party is a mistake.”

“Too late to back out now,” said Priya. “I straightened my hair for this.”

“It was Shin’s idea, not Marta’s. What if she tells me to get lost?”

“You worry too much. She was embarrassed you caught her being sick. That doesn’t mean she’ll hate you forever.”

“She did in high school. What if Marta set this up so she can laugh at me in front of her friends?”

“Don’t be paranoid. She’s probably forgotten her embarrassment by now.”

When they arrived on Marta’s floor, Tonya could hear indie music playing. She smiled at Priya. “Thanks for calming me down.”

“Deep breath,” said Priya as she opened the door.

Tonya wasn’t sure what to expect. She never got invited to the cool kid parties in high school. She had all kinds of fantasies about how exciting and exotic their lives must be, like the rich kids in American movies. So, when she saw a bunch of students in jeans, sitting on the chairs, tables, and the bed of a dorm room just like hers, Tonya felt a bit let down.

She looked for Shin or Marta, but the room was all sparkles and shadows. They had doused the fluorescents and hung strings of pumpkin lights. There were glowing Halloween decorations stuck to the walls and at the study desk, a scarecrow sat guarding the punch bowl. The kids who weren’t on the floor or sitting on the window ledge, were crammed together on the bed. As her eyes adjusted to the low light, Tonya made out Marta, holding court to a circle of students. Pulling Priya by the hand, she went to say hi. No reason not to have manners.

“Hey Marta. How are you?” Tonya tried to act casual.

“Mmm,” said Marta. Her acolytes were playing a strange game. There was a huge aluminum bowl between them, filled with porridgy goop. Tonya couldn’t look away as, one after the other, they scooped out handfuls of oatmeal and ladled it into their mouths. When they had gone around the ring once, Marta started them off again.

Tonya nudged Priya. “What the?”

Priya shrugged. “They’re your friends.”

Tonya recognized some of them from the diving team.

“What is this?” Priya stepped closer to the circle, “a dare?”

“Join us,” said one of the guys, spraying oatmeal as he spoke.

“No thanks,” said Priya. “I’d rather eat chips.”

“Those are long gone,” said one of the girls. “We had to make porridge because we ran out of everything else.”

“What about ordering in?” Tonya suddenly wished she had brought snacks.

Shin threw open the door. “Pizza’s here!”

He held stacks of pizza boxes in front of him, his broad shoulders filling the doorframe as he came through. Looking at him and his buddies with their perfect faces and beautifully molded arms, Tonya didn’t care about Marta anymore. These guys were so symmetrical, they were godlike.

So she wouldn’t stare, Tonya got herself some punch labeled “witch’s brew.” It was dark with disgusting brown foam on top but tasted like a Coke float. There were bottles of rum and other liquor bottles on the side. Priya offered to add a shot of vodka to their glasses but Tonya declined.

“To partying with the cool kids,” Priya toasted, softly enough to keep it between them.

“Cheers.” Tonya was finally here, at one of those university parties she had always heard about. It was weirder than she expected but in Loon Lake weird was normal, especially around All Hallow’s Eve. That was the time of year the Mods really let loose, practicing magic openly under the guise of Halloween illusion.

Priya, meanwhile, was going around the room, talking about her art installation and handing out flyers. When she got to Shin, she stopped and waited for him to finish handing out pizza.

“This is for you. I’d really like you to come to the cemetery Halloween night and see my art display.”

“Okay . . .”

Tonya noticed him glance at Priya’s cleavage then back at her face. He grinned like a kid.

“I’m premiering an art installation called Man vs. Nature. There’s also going to be a bonfire.”

“Does the university know?”

“No, it’s close by but off campus. Bring your friends but don’t tell everybody. We don’t want to attract attention from campus police.”

“Okay.” He took the flyer, which looked small in his long fingers, and shoved it into his pocket. “Pizza?”

“Thanks, I’m starving.” Priya took an enormous slice and somehow, using folding techniques Tonya had never mastered, ate it in a graceful and ladylike manner.

Tonya stepped up to take a slice just as Shin walked off with Priya on his arm. He seemed awfully excited to be speaking to her, right in front of his girlfriend.

A buff guy stood on top of Marta’s swivel chair. “Alright everybody!” A couple of his buddies grabbed the chair and started rolling it back and forth, so it pulsed in time with the music.

“It’s showdown time! Clear the floor.”

A group of spectators formed around a clear spot in the center of the room. Priya joined Tonya, but Shin wasn’t with her.

“The athletes have been preparing themselves all night,” said one of the chair rollers. He pointed to the bowl of porridge and everybody erupted into shouts of “Ew!”

“Bring it on.” Marta stepped up and motioned for someone to challenge. At last another girl was pushed into the ring, facing Marta.

The guy on the chair said, “Each athlete will be given a pizza. The first to finish wins.”

Eager hands pushed four pizza boxes onto the floor as a couple of guys stepped up as well.

“Let the eating begin!”

The contestants dropped to their knees and started wolfing down food like dogs.

“And you wanted to come to this party?” Priya rolled her eyes but she was smiling.

They were shoveling pizza into their mouths so fast, Tonya knew they couldn’t be chewing. It was disgusting!

“Marta’s in the lead!” said the chair guy. “No wait, it’s Paul. Paul’s ahead by a pepperoni . . . Wait, now Tyrell is coming up from behind. It’s Paul and Tyrell, nose to nose with four slices left.”

“I don’t think I can stand the suspense,” said Priya.

Suddenly Marta stopped eating. Her distress was subtle, until her face contorted and she struggled to her feet, stumbling out of the circle. Her milk-white face turned bluish. Tonya wanted to help but she hung back, not wanting to provoke another conflict. Marta put her hands to her neck in the universal choking sign. Tonya rushed to her side.

Marta started to wobble but Tonya supported her. Tonya leaned her over and delivered five back blows then joined her arms around Marta’s chest, placed a fist below her xiphoid process, and gave five quick upward thrusts.

“Call 911,” she ordered Priya.

She repeated the five and five procedure, but no matter how hard Tonya tried, she couldn’t get Marta to breathe.

Marta collapsed almost taking Tonya with her. It was the first time Tonya had done the Heimlich maneuver on a real choking person instead of a rescue dummy. Why wasn’t it working? Please, please, please let the ambulance come fast.

Marta lay on the floor, her lips blue. When her eyes rolled back in her head, Tonya knew. No ambulance could get there fast enough.