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mouth before Lyssa could think about them. “My mom will understand. When I find her, you’ll see—”
    “Find her?” Michael interrupted. He rubbed his eyes. The red patches on his cheeks had disappeared, and now he looked just like Lyssa felt: cold, wet, and miserable. “But Lyssa, your mom is—”
    “No!”
Lyssa screamed. She didn’t want to hear Michael say the next word. “I don’t have to listen to you!
You aren’t my dad
.”
    Before he could react, Lyssa spun around and ran into her room, slamming the door behind her. It cracked inside its frame, sending a loud, booming noise down the hall.
    Lyssa paused for a second, taking a deep breath and forcing herself to hum a few bars of her favorite Athena song. But her old trick wasn’t working this time. Maybe, Lyssa thought, that’s because the time for staying calm had passed.
    Now it was time for action.
    Suddenly, Lyssa realized what her nightmares were about. Her mom had been trying to send her a message in her dreams. And then, this paper airplane—just like theones she and Ana had learned to make on her fifth birthday—showed up telling her to go to Austin. It was Ana’s special brand of magic. Lyssa knew it in her bones.
    Right now, the Texas Talent Show needed her. As for Michael…well, there was just so much that Michael couldn’t understand. Like how summers should be
exciting
, or that flower planters were more important than fancy speakers, and that shoes and backpacks should be yellow—like the sun—not pink like unicorns. And he wouldn’t even let her explain about the flyer, which proved he didn’t get her.
    Maybe going back to Austin now would bring back some of her mother’s magic. Michael might not understand that, but there was still one person who would.
    She went to her computer, found Penn’s name on her contact list, and hit
Connect
.

CHAPTER FOUR
Paper Airplanes, Peanut Jars, and Plans
    S econds later, Penn flickered onto the screen. She was upside down: her brown curls brushed against the floor while the rest of her body disappeared near the top of Lyssa’s screen. Lyssa squinted at the image of Penn’s room, realizing that Penn was hanging upside down from her mini-trapeze. She kept it in her bedroom and it was kind of like an old stuffed animal or a security blanket. Penn only used it when she was really upset, because she had a much bigger, professional trapeze in her backyard.
    Lyssa’s computer screen was so big that the image of Penn was nearly life size. It was almost like Penn was in the room with her, except Lyssa couldn’t smell the strawberryshampoo she used or the faint scent of smoke that always lingered in her bedroom because she practiced her fire breathing in the corner.
    “Penn!” Lyssa grabbed the sides of the computer monitor. “What’s going on? Did you hear what’s happening with my mom’s house?”
    “Lyssa, I’m so sorry.” Penn’s voice was shaky. “My parents found out last night. A development company bought your mom’s land—her house, the garden,
everything
. Lyssa, they’re going to knock the house down.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” Lyssa thudded down into her desk chair. She couldn’t believe it. Penn always told her everything.
    Penn’s eyes were ringed with red, as though she had been crying. “I—I thought you knew! I thought Michael would tell you.”
    “He didn’t,” Lyssa said bitterly. She closed her eyes and opened them again. She needed to focus. “What about the community center?”
    “They’re saying you can’t build a community center in a residential area. It’s against some stupid law. Wait—hold on a second.”
    Penn’s head disappeared. There was a whooshing sound and her screen trembled a little. Lyssa had seen Penn dismount from her trapeze a million times and shecould picture the perfect flip she’d just performed in her room.
    “Okay, are you still there?” Penn swiveled her computer around so Lyssa could finally get a good look at