“Sometimes,” she says. “Whenever it cuts out, I just fiddle with the magic and whack it a few times. That usually fixes it.”

I plug in my phone and sort through my music. Mostly I have Lex’s playlists on here, which are filled with music that would make my headache worse.

“The fact that I don’t like him as much as everyone else does is making it really hard to suck up to him,” Ana says.

“What?” I say, still sorting through music on my phone.

“Sorry, I’m on Mr. B again.”

“Oh. Yeah,” I say haltingly. A little part of me is glad she’s not successfully sucking up to him. Even if we weren’t on the same page about being enemies, she’s definitely my rival for the scholarship.

“He tries way too hard. I’m like, why do you care so much if a bunch of teenagers like you? And—dude, what the fuck? Don’t cut me off.” She says all of this in the same measured tone, so I don’t realize that she’s talking about another driver for a second. She slaps her turn signal loudly and then shifts into a different lane.

“Whoa, road rage much?” I say, shooting her a look.

She shrugs, a half smirk tugging at one side of her mouth. “That’s not helping me win you over, huh?”

“I mean, I was kidding,” I say, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

“Yeah, I know,” she says, a full grin spreading across her face. She glances at me out of the corner of her eye, but I pretend to be too engrossed in my phone to notice her.

I finally pick some music, and Witch Rebellion plays quietly through the stereo. Ana taps her hand absently to the beat on the steering wheel.

“Nice choice,” she says mildly. I can’t tell if she’s being sarcastic or not.

“I don’t have a lot of music on here,” I say. Besides Lex’s playlists, I have a few things on my phone that I listen to, but they’re these relentlessly gay pop songs. Normally, listening to pop divas sing about kissing witches pumps me up, but playing that in Ana’s car when we’re alone felt weird. Not that I think she’s homophobic, but still.

My heart rate spikes, and I jiggle my knee distractedly, wishing the effects of this potion would disappear already. I want to get up and burn off some of this extra energy, but I’m trapped in this car for at least another twenty minutes.

“How’re you feeling?” Ana asks.

“Meh.”

She purses her lips thoughtfully. “Would food help?”

“Um, I don’t know,” I say, not wanting to prolong this car ride.

“Oh, there’s a McDonald’s off the next exit.” Her face lights up with a genuine joy I’ve almost never seen from her.