Daniel Higginbotham didn’t know much about magic, but even he could tell something shady was going on.

One minute, the magical Miss Tucker looked ready to drop a bomb. She’d found some kind of cheating magic, and that would be it. Game over. But the next thing you knew, she was rattling off some half-baked apology and then running off, away from the sidelines. None of it made any sense.

‘Now that looks suspicious.’

Dan was dead sure he’d heard her say that. She’d seen something. And then for whatever reason, she didn’t spill the beans. But why?

While the coaches began herding the team away for halftime, a stray, tingling breeze whipped by Dan’s bare calves. He shook it off and called out to Aaron Shanks, the team’s starting QB,

“Hey Monk, tell coach I’ll join you all in a minute or two. There’s something I need to check on.”

Aaron gave Dan’s padded shoulder a firm shake. Maybe reassurance, maybe a warning.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Higgy. Coach is already worked up over this whole magic thing. He’ll tear into you if you get caught doing something you shouldn’t.”

Dan patted his friend’s gloved hand before pulling away.

“I’ll be fine. It’s just something that’s been bugging me since the start of second quarter.”

Out on the field, the marching band was belting out their school fight song. Someone with decent skill in summoning had conjured up an impressive, twenty-foot tall ghostly warrior with plumed helmet and spear. The shining, red and gold spirit towered over the recently vacated home side benches, pumping its arms in time with the waving poms of the cheerleaders. Despite their team being down fourteen points, the crowd was loudly singing and clapping along.

Dan couldn’t help but smile at their enthusiasm. School spirit, indeed.

As the rest of the team headed off along the sidelines, Dan drifted against the flow. He was determined to find whatever it was that Miss Tucker had seen with those sparkling, magical eyes of hers. Dark, enchanting eyes that had each lit up with a galaxy of stars when she did her magic thing. Beautiful eyes. Eyes that had been aimed in a very specific direction when she whispered her suspicions.

Miss Tucker

‘Heh,’ he laughed to himself.

He really needed to learn her full name. Thinking of her as ‘Miss Tucker’ made her sound like one of the old aunts down the road, not someone his own age.

Anyway …

He was sure she’d been looking toward the pair of shiny new pickup trucks where the athletic boosters had set up their tables. The boosters always brought extra jugs of Paris tap water to away games. The city’s treated lake water was the team’s long-standing lucky charm. Dan had heard that the Charleston grounds crew had protested having visitors driving over the track and onto the field. Either the boosters had gotten permission, or they planned on asking for forgiveness.

Dan passed by the school coolers that had been double and triple checked by both the officials and the Charleston coaches. The water and red plastic cups had all been deemed clean, much to Dan’s relief, as well as that of both players and staff. Dan knew Mr. Harvey and the other trainers were far too honest to stoop to drugs or dirty magic tricks. But had the booster’s lucky water been tested too?

Another stray breeze whipped by, briefly making Dan’s leg hair stand on end. A matching chill ran through his mind from a nagging thought kept coming back to him,

‘Here, you look like you could use a drink.’

Dan had taken the paper cone and downed its unexpectedly refreshing contents without question. He couldn’t even remember who’d handed it to him. One of the team moms if he had to guess. There was no reason not to trust her, and it hadn’t bothered him at the time.

It was bothering him now.

Dan hated to think their hard-fought lead came from something in the water rather than good old fashioned effort and honest play. Had the jugs been spiked? Or maybe something had been sprinkled in the cups afterwards. If he could just get another cup of that water, someone could check it to be sure. Maybe he could ask for help from that tall, cute, Asian-looking magic girl with the amazing glint of a hundred stars in her eyes. If he could find her, of course.

He was less than ten yards away from his goal when his approach was noticed. One of the dads standing in the back of the further truck waved and called out,

“Hey Higginbotham, that was some great defense.”

“Thanks, Mr. Lowery. Hey, I don’t suppose …”

Dan had barely started his request when both trucks lurched forward, taking the potentially incriminating jugs of water with them. Mr. Lowery swayed to stay on his feet, then waved again before giving some parting encouragement,

“You keep up the good work, you hear, and we’ll see you back home. Go Tigers!”

“Yeah, go Tigers,” Dan waved back half-heartedly with the hand holding his helmet.

Great. Now what?