CHAPTER SIXTEEN

"It's your one and only-" The voice rang out and a spotlight danced. "The most amazing, super wonderful, exquisite and majestic-"
Ivy's mouth fell open. She couldn't believe her eyes. She had been friends with Finn for a long, long time, but this was something entirely different.
"-Finn Pevlone!" A synthetic audience cheered. "Thank you, thank you."

The red-haired teenager was on stage, the spotlight shining on him, dressed as some sort of magician. Ivy wanted to die of embarrassment as Hazel raised a wary eyebrow and she found that a lot of people had turned to look at her - she was Finn's friend, and that immediately meant that she was indirectly responsible for this prank outburst.
"Oh no." She mumbled.
Hazel gritted her teeth. "What's he going to do?"
"I have no idea." Ivy chewed her lip. "But I'm guessing that it isn't going to be too good."

Lionel and Heather exchanged a look. This wasn't that far out of the realm of possibility when it came to Finn.
"I'm just interested to know what he does." Heather whispered. "Hopefully, it's not all of that tea again. That ruined my outfit last time."
Lionel nodded, though he wasn't listening.

Finn threw his arms wide and beamed at the crowd. "Right, for this to work, I need a volunteer."
He looked around the group or teenagers and started to pace back and forth.
"I need someone who will do this well." He scanned the crowd. "Hmm..."

Then he stopped and pointed. Everyone turned to look at the person who had been picked.
"Brent. You can be my guest."
Everyone was silent. From his viewpoint, Lionel could see the boy's face going a pale shade of red.
"Well, come on up, then!" Finn beckoned him.

"No!" Ivy threw up her arms and groaned. "How did I know that he was going to do that?"
She tapped her fingers against her elbow and Hazel rolled her eyes. "You went along with it."
"I know, but-" Ivy sighed. "I'm kind of regretting this."
"Why?" Hazel asked, curiously.
Ivy didn't take her eyes off of Finn. "He's Finn Pevlone. He always blows it out of proportion. And then there's Brent... he'll figure it out and then I'll be a prime target! I'll have a huge red cross on my back - forever!"

Hazel cleared her throat. "You need to calm down."
"What?" Ivy blurted. "How can I calm down, when-"
"No." Hazel nudged her. "Finn's doing something. Just watch, yeah?"

Brent had reluctantly clambered on the stage and Finn was preparing himself for whatever magic trick he was going to attempt.
"Right." His voice echoed. "We're going to start with something easy."
He rubbed his hands together and grinned.
"I need you, Brent, to hold out a hand." Finn instructed. "We're going to start with some palm reading."

The other boy held out a hand and Finn took it. Ivy wanted to sink into the ground as he started chanting odd things that made no sense, doing an odd shuffle as he did so. The whole room was waiting for whatever Finn was going to do. They knew better than to think that this was it.
"Huh." Finn stopped the chanting. "Right, okay."
Brent cleared his throat. "What- what is it?"
"I see here-" Finn held the hand at length. "Oh- that isn't very good, is it?"

"What is it?" Brent asked. "Could you maybe tell me? So we can get this over with?"
"Oh, no, my kind sir." Finn shook his head. "We can't rush the power of palm reading."
Brent swallowed nervously. "Okay. Just do what you have to do."

"It looks like-" Finn paused. "It seems that something terrible might happen tonight. Something- oh no - something is going to fall tonight! And you are going to suffer a horrible loss. Perhaps you might lose someone.. no, something.. and you are going to suffer terribly."
Brent started to look as if he were taking Finn seriously.
"My dear Brent.." Finn raised his eyes and turned to the crowd. "GO!" He screamed.

Brent raised his eyebrows and scrambled from the stage but as he got away, something unwound from the ceiling. The crowd began to snigger and laugh. The boy had stopped in his tracks.
Ivy clasped a hand to her mouth and was torn between laughing too or slapping Finn.

"YOU ARE DUMPED. HAVE A GREAT NIGHT. SEEYA XOX."

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