Salina's house loomed against the darkening sky, its Victorian architecture starkly contrasting to the cookie-cutter homes that lined the rest of Maple Street. The ancient wrought-iron gate creaked as they pushed through it, and Jessica couldn't help but notice how the weathered gargoyles perched on the roof seemed to track their movement. Her muscles still ached from her confrontation with Trampolina at the science fair, but at least her werewolf healing had kicked in, erasing the bruises that would have raised awkward questions at tomorrow's practice.

  If there even was practice tomorrow, given that their mechanical rival had just torn up half the gymnasium. The memory of splintered bleachers and scattered display tables made her wince.

  "He better talk or else I will give him a knuckle sandwich for dinner," Kevin muttered as they climbed the creaking porch steps. He shot a dark look at Henry, who trailed behind them like a sulking puppy. The tech genius's sweater vest was still covered in dust from the science fair chaos, and his perfectly combed hair looked decidedly less perfect after their mad dash across town.

  "Don’t," Jessica whispered back, though the porch boards seemed determined to announce their presence with every step. "We need him to stop the robot. If he doesn’t, I’m sure Salina will give him a nice spanking to make him talk.”

  "I can hear you, you know," Henry said, pushing his glasses up his nose with an indignant sniff. A habit, Jessica had noticed, that appeared whenever his pride was wounded. "And for the record, I had nothing to do with what happened. Trampolina's base programming was perfect."

  "Yeah, perfectly destructive," Salina drawled. She fished an ancient-looking key from her messenger bag—brass and intricately carved with symbols that seemed to shift if you looked at them too long. "Welcome to Casa de Carpenter. Try not to touch anything unless you want to get cursed."

  Henry laughed nervously, then stopped when no one else joined in. His eyes darted between the twisted metal door knocker shaped like a screaming face and the collection of dried herbs hanging from the porch ceiling.

  The interior of Salina's house matched its gothic exterior—all dark wood and velvet curtains, with mysterious artifacts cluttering every surface. Crystal balls caught the fading daylight, casting rainbow patterns across Persian rugs that Jessica was pretty sure moved when you weren't looking directly at them. She had spent countless hours here before her climb up the social ladder, but it felt different now. More charged. Like the house itself knew something big was about to happen.

  The familiar scent of fresh-baked cookies wafted from the kitchen, and right on cue, Salina's grandmother appeared in the hallway. Mrs. Carpenter was a tiny woman with silver hair pulled into a messy bun, wearing an apron covered in what looked suspiciously like potion stains.

  "Oh, visitors!" she exclaimed, her face lighting up. "I just pulled a batch of my special recipe cookies from the oven. They're made with crystallized moonflower and a pinch of—"

  "Not now, Nana," Salina cut in quickly. "We're kind of in the middle of something."

  But Henry had already perked up at the mention of cookies. "I'd love some, Mrs. Carpenter!" He darted past Salina toward the kitchen, completely missing her look of horror.

  "Henry, wait—" Jessica started, but he was already stuffing a cookie into his mouth. His eyes widened with delight as he reached for another and another, seemingly oblivious to the faint silver sparkles that appeared around his head with each bite.

  "These are amazing!" he mumbled through a mouthful of crumbs, grabbing three more before Salina dragged him away from the plate. "What did you say was in them?"

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Mrs. Carpenter just smiled mysteriously and disappeared back into the kitchen, humming what sounded suspiciously like an incantation.

  What a total fat ass, Jessica thought.

  "We can use my room," Salina said, glancing at Henry. "I got all my witch stuff in there.”

  "Witch stuff?" Henry's voice cracked as he stuffed another cookie into his mouth. Silver sparkles now trailed behind him like a comet tail. "You're not actually serious about all this occult bullshit, are you?"

  Salina spun on her heel, fixing Henry with a stare that could freeze hell. "Dead serious. And if you breathe a word about it to anyone, I'll turn you into a toad faster than you can say 'you bitch!'"

  The color drained from Henry's face, cookie crumbs falling from his suddenly slack jaw. "You wouldn't."

  "Try me, science boy."

  Jessica bit back a smile. She'd missed this—Salina's dramatic flair, the way she could reduce someone to a stammering mess with just a look. It was so different from the fake niceness of the cheerleading squad. Plus, watching Henry stress-eat his way through what were probably drugged cookies was oddly satisfying.

  The bedroom was still the same: wall-to-wall bookshelves crammed with leather-bound tomes, their spines embossed with titles in languages she couldn't read. A massive oak desk dominated the room, covered in star charts and crystals that pulsed with their inner light. In the corner sat an ancient computer that somehow ran faster than anything at the school library, its screen cycling through geometric patterns that weren't standard Windows screensavers. And Salina’s queen-size bed with black frames, surrounded by black curtains, stood at the center.

  "Alright, Ballzack," Kevin said, dropping into one of the overstuffed armchairs. A small cloud of dust puffed up around him, forming what looked briefly like a skull before dissipating. "Show us what you've got."

  Henry hesitated, clutching his laptop bag like a shield and nervously licking cookie crumbs from his fingers. The silver sparkles around his head were getting more intense. "I don't see why I should help you. You all clearly think this is my fault."

  "Because if you don't," Salina said sweetly, "I might get creative with that toad spell. Maybe add some warts. Or make them glow in the dark."

  "You can't actually—" Henry started, then caught Salina's eye and quickly changed course. His hand unconsciously reached for another cookie, only to find his pocket empty. "Fine. But I'm telling you, I didn't program Trampolina to go berserk."

  He pulled out his laptop and began typing furiously, muttering under his breath about "paranoid goths" and "supernatural nonsense." Jessica leaned over his shoulder, watching lines of code scroll past. The silver sparkles from the cookies were now making it slightly difficult to read the screen.

  "See?" Henry pointed to a dense block of text, leaving a smudge of cookie residue on his screen. "This is Trampolina's base programming. It's perfect—state-of-the-art AI paired with advanced motor control algorithms. She was designed to be the ultimate cheerleader, not some kind of destruction bot."

  "Then what happened?" Kevin asked, moving closer to study the screen. "Robots don't just decide to go evil on their own."

  "Someone must have tampered with her code," Henry said. He pulled up another window, this one filled with angry red error messages that seemed to pulse in time with the crystals on the desk. "Look at these timestamps. Someone accessed her core programming last night after I'd already done my final checks. They turned her into a psycho Terminator!"

  Jessica frowned, scanning the dates and times. "But how? Wasn't she locked up in the science lab?"

  "She was supposed to be." Henry's fingers flew across the keyboard, leaving faint cookie crumbs in their wake. "But someone with access to the school's network could have hacked in remotely. The firewall's not exactly Fort Knox."

  “How did you build her?” Salina asked.

  Henry glanced at her as his lips quivered. “To be honest… I didn’t.”

  Kevin was the first one to drop his mouth wide open. “What? You mean you didn’t-”

  “My uncle built her for me! Okay? He works at a robotic company far from town.” Henry sniffed and fixed his glasses. “He was the only one who has the parts I needed. When the science fair was announced, I didn’t have time to build a decent project against my competitors. So I sent him my own idea, and he built her in secret for me. But trust me, I know how she works.”

  Salina crossed her arms. “But what did he use to make her so strong and immune to my… power?”

  Henry shrugged. “I don’t know, but he is a genius, and he has all the resources at his job to make her impressive. Someday… I want to become like him.”

  Salina narrowed her eyes at him. Before she could open her mouth, something strange happened.

  The runes carved into her desk glowed with an eerie blue light.

  "Uh, is that supposed to happen?" Henry squeaked, his voice an octave higher than usual. The silver sparkles around him flared in response to his panic.

  "No," Salina said, already moving toward the window. "Those only activate when—"

  She cut off abruptly, staring at something outside. The others crowded around her, peering through the dusty glass at a figure making its way up the winding garden path.

  "Well," Kevin said grimly. "Looks like we're about to have company."