AFTER HIS GRANDMA LEFT, Loop decided to contact his friends to ask them to return his magic stuff. First, he texted Dominic.
Loop: need chop cup bck
Dominic: ?
Loop: don’t play dumb
Dominic: u gave it 2 me
Loop: lent it
Dominic: 2 bad. mine now
Dominic: u don’t even use it
Loop: u don’t either
Dominic: whatever… it’s at shop
Loop: it better be
Next, he contacted Z to ask for his Svengali deck, but since Z wasn’t at home and didn’t have a cell phone, Loop had to leave a message.
He decided to cover all his bases by calling Conjuring Cats. When Ariel answered, he said, “Did Dominic leave a chop cup there?”
She took a minute to reply, probably because she was looking for it.
“Yeah, there’s a chop cup here. Why?”
“It’s mine. I let him borrow it, but now I need it back. Are the balls there, too?”
“It’s all here, but…” Her voice trailed off.
“But what?”
“I’m not sure I should say this because I don’t want to cause any trouble, but the last time I saw Dominic with the chop cup, he was doing something weird.”
“Like what?”
“Well, what?” Loop started pacing. “Tell me,” he demanded.
“Dominic had a bunch of magnets,” Ariel said. “Different sizes. He kept putting them against the chop cup. When I asked him what he was doing, he said he was conducting an experiment.”
“An experiment? Like for science?”
“That’s what he said. And then he told me he loves reading, especially science books. So, yeah, he did a science experiment on your chop cup.”
“He’s a total geek sometimes,” Loop said. “Is the chop cup okay? He didn’t melt it or anything, did he?”
“It looks normal to me,” Ariel said. Then, when Loop did not reply, “Anything else?” she asked. “I’m kind of busy over here.”
“If you see Z, make sure he leaves my Svengali deck. I bet he doesn’t want to give it back, but it’s my property. I bought it with my own money.”
“Sure,” she said. “Svengali deck.”
“Thanks. I’ll come by next week to pick up my stuff.”
“Suit yourself,” she said.
Loop was so annoyed. The number one rule when you borrowed something was to take care of it. If Loop were to borrow something from his friends, like a book, he would not dog-ear the pages, write notes in the margins, or break the spines. He wouldn’t even drink hot chocolate while reading because it might spill on the page. He’d wash his hands before touching it, too. He would not use the book for his own experiments. And he wouldn’t borrow the book if he had money to buy his own copy.
This was the last time his friends were taking advantage of him. He was never going to lend them anything again! And every time they got near his stuff, he was going to watch them closely, just like spectators who burn magicians because they don’t want to be fooled by the magic act.