All the Colors of Magic by Valija Zinck

Author:Valija Zinck
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

As Penelope stepped outside, a lady in an elegant white dress, with a pug in her arms, was standing in front of a metallic gold convertible in front of Gina’s house—the whole car was covered in dust. “I’m telling you, this town is the pits!” she was screeching into a cell phone. “The dirt in this place … what’s just happened to me would never happen in our neighborhood. You wouldn’t believe what the car looks like now—the windshield, the white upholstery, all of it is completely filthy! Oh, no, there’s no way we’re buying anything around here, it’d be the world’s worst investment … OK … good, see you at the hotel. Horst and I desperately need to take a bath and wash our hair and …”

Penelope grinned to herself: Gina’s rug had really made a mess of the lady’s car.

She ran quickly past the woman, who was still ranting into her phone, and crossed the road to the Ring Center. It took her a while to find the escalators when she got there; she looked up and saw Tom and Pete a long way above, obviously searching for her.

Hey, you two, I’m on my way! she tried to shout. But all that came out of her mouth was a soft hissing noise.

She ran up one escalator after another, shouting “Anti-Eye!” each time she got onto a different one, to test whether her voice had come back yet. She managed a loud whisper after the third, and on the fifth she finally managed to make a sound.

“Pete, Pete, here she comes! I can see her. Our wise Penelope is walking this way!” Tom leaned over the glass railing and waved to her, laughing.

Penelope stepped from the last escalator into the movie theater foyer. Pete danced around her. “Penny, you had the right idea, giving that pile of rubbish a swerve. Hello?! Not a single drop of blood, just some stupid baby whales that had some kind of chickenpox. One of them got bitten, and that drew a load of slimy snorkel fish to them, that all looked like Mr. Potts, and—”

“Dude, you look like Mr. Potts. Hey, Penny, how was it? How was … ? Well, what did you get up to?” Tom held his popcorn out to her.

Penelope reached into the bag, looking from one of them to the other. She cleared her throat, her voice finally returned. “I bought a pair of blue shoelaces and some hair dye, and I met a girl who’s the same as me.”

“No way!” exclaimed Pete.

“She can’t be the same as you, or we’d already be friends with her,” Tom shouted.

“Exactly. Anyway, there could never be two Penelopes.” That was Pete again. Penelope smiled.

“But look, we need to shake a leg now,” Tom shouted, jumping onto the downward escalator. Pete and Penelope followed him down to the elevators. Pete’s father would already be waiting on parking deck three, as arranged, so Tom was right: They’d have to hurry!

* * *

“Here comes the film club,” Pete’s dad greeted them, smiling, as they got out of the elevator in the car park.

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