Legacy || Stargirl

Chapter Two

Zoe watched as the seven of hearts card rose from the pile in Joey's hand. The curly-haired blonde paused, noticing the number of people who were watching them.

"Yes. The seven of hearts. Oh, my gosh. How did you do that?" Courtney said in amazement.

Zoe clapped loudly along with everyone, feeling impressed by the young magician. Maybe he had some other tricks up his sleeve to help to kick Cindy from the top.

Despite the success of his magic trick, Zoe could tell he was still slightly nervous. Joey had only ever been kind to her, he was probably the sweetest kid in Blue Valley, and right now it looked like he could use a few words of encouragement.

She quickly told Jake she'd catch up with him later and walked over to Joey.

"Nice trick, Joey."

"Thanks!" He enthusiastically said, tucking his cards into his jacket's pockets, "Are you coming to the Talent Competition?"

"I can't, I already have some plans. But your magic trick was really cool, and I bet you're going to amaze the judges,"

He squinted his eyes at her, taking a step closer and lowering his voice almost dramatically, "Zoe, do you believe in magic?"

She blinked in surprise. That had definitely caught her off guard for a second. "I – I guess?"

'What if magic really exists? The thought was crazy, but then again, so was the red mist and that was real. 'What if all the stuff that's happening to me is actually magic? What if that glowing stick from the other night was magical?'

Joey was the one to pull her out of her thoughts, as he leaned forward and reached his hand behind Zoe's head. Her eyes widened as she saw he was holding up a shiny coin.

"Wow," Zoe looked at him in surprise, a small laugh escaping, "what was that for?"

"I just wanted to see you smile, I heard you had a rough day yesterday," He smiled brightly at her, "I know stage fright might be hard to deal with. I suffered from it too when I was younger,"

"No, I–" Zoe paused, about to correct him and tell him it wasn't a stage fright that caused her to faint in the middle of the classroom, but his gesture was so sweet, so she chose to keep the words to herself.

Unlike a lot of boys and girls from her school, Joey Zarick actually cared. He would listen, would make people laugh and encourage them. He wasn't doing it to impress anybody or be popular, that just who he was.

"Thank you. That's really thoughtful of you,"

Joey shrugged as if it was nothing and handed her the coin, "You can keep it. Maybe it'll be your lucky charm or something,"

She could only mirror his contagious smile.

~~~

I'm staying late at the medical center, the text had read, won't make it to dinner. dad's coming home later.

Zoe sighed and leaned back against her locker. To add to the list of the weird stuff that had been happening, Dr. Henry King was found unconscious outside the emergency entrance of the center just the night before. No one really knew what happened, only that he suffered a seizure and now seemed to be in some kind of coma.

She wanted to tell her parents about whatever was happening to her, but her mom was rushed in early in the morning to fill in Dr. King's place and her dad had yet to come back from Aunt Eliza's house. The only option left was to wait till her mom got back tonight and finally tell them.