LOOP PACKED HIS SUITCASE, checking and double-checking the props he needed for his magic trick, and then he kneeled at the retablo with the little statue of La Virgen de Guadalupe. He usually only did this when his grandma was around, so it felt weird praying by himself. But since he was headed to the convention, he needed all the help he could get. First, he said the Our Father and Hail Mary. Then he gave thanks for a few things. And then, he started his petitions. “Okay, O.G.,” he said. “It’s almost showtime. I really want to win, but that’s not what I’m asking for because Grandma says I shouldn’t be selfish. So I’m making a petition for myself and for my friends. The last time we did magic in front of people, we all messed up. But we’ve been practicing all summer. That has to count for something, right? So please help us do our tricks without messing up.” He paused, and then he said, “Amen.”

Just then, someone knocked on his door. Loop stood up. “Come in,” he said. It was Rubén.

“Almost ready?” he asked. “Your friends will be here in a minute.”

Dominic’s mom was driving them to Houston today, Thursday, so they could help Mr. Garza set up his booth in the dealers’ room. They were going to spend Friday attending different convention events, and on Saturday, they’d compete.

“Yeah,” Loop said. “I have everything I need.”

“Almost everything,” Rubén said. He held out a baseball cap. It was white with a giant black “W” for the Warriors baseball team. “It’s my lucky hat. I wore it when we won district.”

Loop took it and traced the “W” with his finger. His whole life, that hat had taken an entire shelf of a curio cabinet in the living room. Rubén never wore it. The only time he touched it was to wipe off the dust.

“I want you to have it. Maybe it’ll bring you good luck, too.”

“Thanks,” Loop said. He knew he should say something else, but before he could find the right words, the doorbell rang, and a few seconds later, his friends rushed into the room.

“Come on,” Z said, all impatient.

Dominic grabbed Loop’s suitcase and started heading out. “My mom wants to reach Houston before rush hour.”

Loop looked at his friends, who were already in the hallway, and then he looked at Rubén.

“Go on,” Rubén said. “Have fun. Your mom and I will get there tomorrow, okay? Grandma’s coming, too.”

Loop put on the cap, and instead of a handshake, he offered his fist. Rubén smiled as they did a fist bump with explosion sounds. That had always been their version of a special handshake.

Houston was two hours away, but it felt like a fifteen-minute drive because the boys talked the whole time. Soon, they were in the big city. Dominic programmed the GPS, and his mom asked them to be quiet so she could hear directions to the hotel.

As they drove through Houston, Loop thought about all the cityscapes he drew and how he was looking at a real-life version of his pictures. They were on a ten-lane freeway—five lanes in each direction! It made the widest streets in Victoria look like sidewalks. At certain points, three or four Houston freeways met in a tangled mess of roads that turned and overlapped one another like a heap of spaghetti. Then there were miles of shopping centers, apartments, hospitals, and office buildings. Loop loved the idea of living in a place with so many choices and people. I’m definitely moving here someday, he decided. When they got to the downtown area, he was even more amazed. He loved the skyscrapers, especially those with mirrored windows. He pretended that each had a landing pad for spaceships and that he was really traveling in a hover car.

They finally reached the hotel. It was so fancy, with chandeliers and a grand piano in the lobby. While Dominic’s mom went to the front desk to check in, the boys wondered which of the guests were magicians. Every time they saw another teen, they elbowed each other and whispered, “Think he’s in the competition, too?”

“Here are the keys,” Dominic’s mom said. The boys were going to share a room; Dominic’s mom would stay next door in case they needed anything.

Loop glanced at the room number. “We’re on the twenty-sixth floor!” He couldn’t contain his excitement. The tallest building in Victoria was twelve stories, so this was more than twice as high! As soon as they got to the room, the boys rushed to the window. The city looked like a giant 3-D map. From that high up, the people were tiny ants and the cars were Hot Wheels toys.

After they settled down, Loop called Mr. Garza’s cell phone, but Ariel was the one who answered. “Where are you guys?” she asked.

He gave her the room number, and a few minutes later, she knocked. She wore an official-looking badge around her neck. Dominic and Z seemed glad to see her, but in Loop’s opinion, Ariel still owed him for ruining his chop cup. He wasn’t as mad as before, but he wasn’t over it, either.

“So first,” Ariel said, “we’re going to pick up your badges. That way, you have access to the convention.” As they followed her to the convention area on the second and third floors, Ariel gave them an overview of how things worked. “You need to wear your badge at all times. You can take lots of notes but no pictures during the lectures, and never open any door that has an ‘in session’ sign.” Usually she sounded bossy, but today, she sounded nice, like a tour guide.

They reached the registration area and picked up their badges. Then they went to the dealers’ room, a giant area with rows of booths. Mr. and Mrs. Garza were hard at work. They gave the boys two dollies and told them to unload the van, so Loop and his friends spent the next hour walking back and forth from the dealers’ room to the parking garage. He lost count of how many boxes they unloaded. Then they helped organize the booth. Mr. Garza had a few props, but mostly he planned to sell DVDs, books, and lecture notes.

“Why aren’t you selling more magic supplies?” Dominic asked.

Mr. Garza waved his arm across the room. “Too much competition.”

That’s when Loop finally paid attention to all the vendors. There were more than twenty, and each had a different focus. One booth sold crystal balls and wizard figurines. Another sold juggling supplies, and another sold things a magician wears, like top hats, capes, and gloves. There was a booth with nothing but back issues of popular magazines like Genii and The Linking Ring, while others featured gaff cards or magic wallets.

Now that they had finished with their booth, Mr. Garza stood back and examined it. He nodded approvingly. Then he reached into a bag and pulled out three Conjuring Cats T-shirts and handed them to the boys.

“Remember our agreement,” he said. “I helped with your routines, so now you have to wear a Conjuring Cats T-shirt. Wear them tomorrow and make sure you walk all over the place. We need to advertise. ¿Entiendes?”

The boys nodded. Mr. Garza sat down to rest his feet, and they stood around wondering what to do next, but before they could ask, a kid walked straight up to them. He was tall and athletic-looking, not because he had muscles but because he wore silver rec specs that were slightly tinted. Loop guessed the boy was fourteen or fifteen years old.

“Hello, Ariel,” the boy said.

“Hello, Stewart.” She made a hissing sound when she pronounced the “S” in his name. They had a mini stare-down, and then Ariel said, “What are you doing here? The dealers’ room isn’t open to the public till tomorrow.”

“I have my ways,” Stewart said. Then he looked at Loop and his friends. “So you have an entourage now?”

Ariel tossed her head like a diva. “Jealous?” she asked.

“Hardly,” he replied.

“Just one of the perks of being the reigning champion of the TAOM teen stage contest.” She looked at the boys. “Stewart was the runner-up.”

“Well, I’m sure to win this year,” he said.

“Only because, as the reigning champion, I’m ineligible to compete.”

“I’d win even if you were competing. You can’t hide behind petals and petticoats in a close-up act. It’s a lot more sleight-intensive.”

“For your information,” Ariel said, “my card handling is top grade.” To prove her point, she took out a deck of cards and performed a cascade.

“All flourish, no substance,” Stewart said, taking out his own deck and doing a perfect Faro shuffle.

“Child’s play,” Ariel answered, performing her own shuffle while saying, “Engblom anti-Faro shuffle.” Then she performed another sleight and said, “False cut.”

Stewart was quick to reply. “Dead cut,” he said as he did the move.

“Side steal,” Ariel challenged.

“Tamariz perpendicular steal,” Stewart countered.

“Classic pass.” She did the move.

“S. W. Erdnase pass.” He did the move.

“Fan spread.”

“Fan spread with palmed card to pocket.”

“Ribbon spread.”

“Ricky Smith ribbon spread with card control to top.”

As they continued their card-sleight showdown, the boys’ eyes pivoted back and forth like spectators at a tennis match. Ariel and Stewart did passes, palms, color changes, and culls, all in rapid succession and all perfect as far as Loop could tell.

Finally, Ariel dealt a few cards and triumphantly shouted, “Bottom deal!”

Stewart paused and smiled smugly. “Center deal!” But before he could perform the sleight, Ariel gasped, and Mr. Garza stood up.

“You can do that?” he asked. “The center deal?”

Stewart shrugged. “Maybe I can. Maybe I can’t. You’ll just have to find out when I perform.”

With that, he walked off.

“What’s a center deal?” Dominic asked.

“It’s the one sleight I have yet to master,” Mr. Garza said.

Loop couldn’t believe it. He thought Mr. Garza could do every sleight that had ever been invented.

“No one gets the last word when it comes to magic. No one but me,” Ariel said, her eyes like laser beams as she watched Stewart walk away. Then she turned to the boys. “Let’s huddle,” she said, and they made a circle just like a football team discussing plays. “Tomorrow, meet me at zero nine hundred hours by the pool. Bring your props. We must not let Stewart win.” She put her hand in the middle of the circle and the boys did the same. “Conjuring Cats on three,” she said. Then she counted off, and they cheered.

For the first time since they had discovered her diary, Loop forgot to be mad at her. Maybe she was on their side after all.