After school, I stand in the pickup area, waiting for Lex to pick me up. I’m itching to talk to her about my conversation with Mr. B. I looked up the musical he mentioned—Bronxtown Brooms. It’s a retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice set in a mostly Latinx neighborhood in New York City in the nineties. Based on what I read about the show, I’m 98 percent sure now that Mr. B was trying to talk about race without talking about race. Also, he might think I’m Latina. So that’s a major factor in the Reasons Not to Audition for This Musical list.

On the other hand, there’s the whole “wink, wink, nudge, nudge, audition for this show and I’ll consider you for the scholarship” thing. Which, now that I’ve had some time to think about it, I’m not sure was as shady as I initially thought. It’s not like he promised to give me the scholarship. This is just one more opportunity to impress him.

Lex’s blue car flies up to the curb, then settles gracefully onto the ground. Her car is painfully nice compared to the one my family has. It has that new aerodynamic bullet shape, and the propulsion engines at the front and back are near silent. I ache with jealousy every time I see it.

“Hey girl hey!” Lex screams through the open passenger window. Her aggressive EDM blasts out into the parking lot, and she dances in her seat, waving her arms wildly toward me. The few people in the parking lot turn to see who this screaming Asian girl is, which is a common side effect of hanging out with Lex. “You look tired!”

I hit a pose with my hands framing my face. “I am.”

“She is beauty, she is grace!” Lex yells. “She is late for work! Get in the car.”

“You’re the one who’s late,” I yell back. Once I’m settled in the passenger seat, I turn off her music so we can talk. “I’ve been waiting for you since I left potions club.”

She hands me a Starbucks latte and steps on the accelerator. The car glides away from the curb, lifting smoothly into the air as we go. “I stopped for coffee.”

“Of course you did.” I throw her a withering look before sipping my latte. Mm. Not as good as Mom’s, but still necessary to get me through the rest of this day.

“Hey, we deserve it today. We have to finish filling all the weekend orders before we leave tonight.” She stomps on the accelerator and sends the car flying onto the floating road. We glide upward, following the road over the swamp outside the school property.

Her car really is an incredibly fancy piece of magitech. It glides effortlessly through the air. My dream is to buy my parents a car this nice one day.