ZACH KING: THE MAGICAL MIX-UP. Text copyright © 2018 by Zach King.
Illustrations copyright © 2018 by Beverly Arce. All rights reserved under Inter-
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EPUB Edition © 2018
ISBN: 9780062677235
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FIRST EDITION
ZACH’S
King-dom
the adventure begins. . . .
Chapter 1
“Go!” Rachel shouted. “I can’t hold him much longer!”
She rode the giant alligator like a wild horse that
had to be broken. Jawzilla, an enormous, slimy,
scaly, mean-faced gator, had
been magically trans-
ported into the
principal’s
office from the
zoo by Zach
King’s magic snapbacks—and it was about to get
loose. Three other kids, including Zach, scrambled to
keep away from the gator’s snapping jaws.
Zach knew what he had to do. Rachel couldn’t
hold Jawzilla forever. He grabbed his magical snap-
backs, which operated like portals from one cap to
the other, and tricked the gator into jumping into one
cap. Then, Zach spun around and flushed the other
cap down the toilet in the principal’s private bath-
room. The gator vanished down the toilet, which gur-
gled briefly and then exploded spectacularly, spraying
water all over the trashed office. . . .
“Those were the days.” Aaron sighed as he watched the
alligator video on his phone for what must have been the
hundredth time. “Man, I wish you still had your magic.”
“Tell me about it,” Zach agreed as the two boys
walked across the parking lot toward the front entrance
of the mall. He yanked his distracted friend out of the
way of an oncoming car. “It’s like I’m right back where
I started—nowhere.”
It had actually been only a few weeks since Zach’s
magic snapbacks had been wrecked, but he was already
tired of being an ordinary kid. Zach came from a whole
family of modern-day magicians. All the Kings had a
unique object that enabled them to use magic—and
Zach was all too aware that to save his friends, he might
have flushed his magic powers away forever.
Or had he?
The clear glass doors of the mall entrance tempted
Zach. Once, not too long ago, he had somehow passed
through a similar door like a ghost. Maybe he could still
pull off that trick, even without his snapbacks?
It was worth a try.
“Get your phone camera ready,” he told Aaron, who was
all about capturing cool stuff on video. “I’m going for it!”
“Again?”
Zach had been trying to restart his magic for weeks
without success, but this time would be different . . . just
because. Taking a deep breath, he backed up to get a
running start, then sprinted straight toward the closed
door. In his head, he imagined himself passing through
the solid glass as though it wasn’t there.
I can do this, he thought. I have to do this.
WHAM!
His face collided with the door. Instead of passing
through it, he bounced off it, stumbling backward into
Aaron, who yelped in protest. Puzzled shoppers stopped
to stare at Zach, who felt like a total dork. His nose
“Ouch,” he said, clutching his bruised beak.
Aaron checked his phone. “I’m guessing that’s not
what you wanted me to film.”
“Not exactly.” Zach sighed and shook his head. “I
was sure I could do it again.”
“There’s got to be a trick to it. We just need to work
together to figure it out,” Aaron offered helpfully as
the friends entered the mall and made their way to the
food court. Zach’s nose was still smarting as they settled
into a booth at a diner-style fast food place and treated
themselves to milk shakes and a big plate of fries.
The mall diner was one of Zach and Aaron’s favorite
spots. The fries were crispy, the burgers were cheap, no
one rushed them out, and there was always a buzz of
activity around.
Hungry shoppers streamed past them as Aaron couldn’t
resist playing the alligator video again. Zach noted that
the video, their most popular ever, had just rolled past
fifty thousand views. He wondered how many of those
were just from his friend watching it again and again and
again.
“Seriously, dude, we gotta do something,” Aaron in-
sisted, nervously tugging on the collar of his shirt, like
he was trying to escape from it. “No magic means no
more cool YouTube videos, which means we’re going to
start losing subscribers quick, which means we’re going
to be yesterday’s news. We have to find a way to get you
your mojo back.”
Aaron’s videos of Zach’s magic tricks had helped them
both become a little more popular at school and online,
so Zach couldn’t blame his friend for wanting to keep
the videos coming after being picked on for years. As
for Zach, he was still new to public school, having been
homeschooled for most of his life, and the online magic
tricks had made fitting in a whole lot easier. Neither of
the boys was exactly part of the in crowd these days, like
Tricia, or considered as cool as Rachel, but they weren’t
at the bottom of the food chain anymore either.
“Magical objects just don’t grow on trees, you know,”
Zach said. “Well, except for my uncle Elvis’s object. He
has a magical leaf. Dude gets super nervous every fall.
It’s not easy to find one lost leaf if it’s been swept up in
a huge pile. . . .”
“I’m serious,” Aaron continued. “We can’t start coast-
ing on reruns. We need new content to protect our brand.”
“Our brand?”
“Sure.” Aaron explained, “we’re the magic trick guys.
We gotta keep doing bigger and more eye-popping magic
tricks or our audience will go somewhere else.”
“If you say so,” Zach said.
To be honest, Zach was less wo
rried about their
“brand” than about Rachel, whom he’d had a crush on
ever since the minute he’d met her. And it was his magic
videos that had first gotten her attention. Would she still
like him if he couldn’t do magic anymore?
He glanced down at the clock on his phone. Rachel was
supposed to have joined them by now. Was he just being
paranoid, or was she late more and more often lately?
“I don’t know what to tell you, man,” he said to Aar-
on. “The snapbacks are gone. My magic is gone. We’re
going to have rely on your cat, Michael, being cute to
get views.”
“Michael is on hiatus.”
“Hiatus? How can a cat be on hiatus?”
“Creative differences.” Aaron glanced around, then
lowered his voice. “Between you and me, Michael has
become a bit of a diva. He won’t even purr for the cam-
era without a bonus tuna treat.” He let out a weary sigh.
“Actors.”
“Well, then, we’re toast. You only get one magical
item,” Zach told his friend. “That’s just how it works.”
“But what if it isn’t?” Aaron called up another video
on his phone. “Watch this one again.”
The video, which Aaron had recorded just days after
the alligator incident, showed Zach suffering a serious
fast. He smacked one side of his head and ice cubes
tumbled out of his ear, clattering onto the table. “See—
magic!” Aaron pointed at the screen. “And you did that
without the snapbacks.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Zach said. “But I have no idea how.”
“That’s what we have to figure out.” Aaron shoved
a metal mixing cup full of ice-cold chocolate shake to-
ward Zach.
“Seriously?” Zach protested. “But I’m stuffed!”
“It’s science, dude. We have to keep experimenting un-
til we figure it out.”
“It’s not science. It’s magic. And seriously?”
“Seriously,” Aaron said. He called the waitress over and
asked her to bring one of every flavor shake they had.
“No way,” Zach protested. “More brain freeze isn’t
going to prove anything.”
“Well, then, you tell me how we’re going to get your
magic back,” Aaron said. “What else did you have with
you right before your head turned into an ice-cube mak-
er?”
Zach searched his memory. “A Popsicle, I think. And
before that, some fries with ketchup.”
“Ketchup, you say?” Aaron’s eyes lit up. “Just like the
first time, the day we met, with the snack machine!”
Zack knew exactly what Aaron was talking about. On
his very first day at Horace Greeley, Zach had fallen into
a cafeteria snack machine, passing like a ghost through
the clear glass front of the machine, and it’d happened
right after being “ketchupped” by Tricia Stands and her
mean-girl friends. He never had figured out how or why
he’d pulled off that trick. Or why he’d never been able
to duplicate it.
“What?” he asked. “You think the ketchup triggered
the magic?”
“Why not?” Aaron said. “It seems like the common
element both times you did magic without the snap-
backs!”
Excited, Aaron reached across the table and grabbed
the red plastic ketchup bottle.
“Wait! What are you—” Zach complained, but too
late! Aaron pointed the bottle at Zach, squeezed hard,
and squirted ketchup all over Zach’s favorite hoodie.
“Is it working?” Aaron asked. “Do you feel anything?”
“Besides annoyed?” Zach tried to wipe off the ketchup
with a napkin, but he just ended up smearing the bright-
red goo all over the place. He looked like the victim in
a slasher movie. The more he dabbed at it, the worse it
got. “Have you lost your marbles?”
“Never mind that. Try the ice cube trick again,” Aar-
on urged. “Let’s see if the ketchup makes a difference!”
“I’m not hungry!”
“Just go with it.”
“Okay, fine. Whatever.”
Zach sucked down a big slurp of ice-cold ice cream
shake as quickly as he could. The freeze went straight to
his brain. He winced in pain.
Aaron held up his phone to record the results of the test.
“Anything? Shake your head. Like you did last time.”
Zach shook his head.
“Harder,” Aaron urged.
He shook hard—but not a single ice cube tumbled out.
“Nothing.” Zach shrugged. “Maybe I just had some
leftover magic that one time.”
“I don’t know.” Aaron looked reluctant to give up on
his theory. He scratched his chin like a scientist ponder-
ing a difficult equation. “Perhaps we just need to find
the right kind of ketchup . . . or maybe some mustard or
mayonnaise?”
Zach groaned.
There had to be a better way to get his magic back!
Chapter 2
Zach came back from the bathroom with a huge, wet
patch on his hoodie. He’d done his best to wipe off the
ketchup, but it’d been impossible to get it completely
clean with just hot water and hand soap. He settled back
into the booth across from Aaron and noticed that all
the shakes his friend had ordered had arrived. And that
Aaron actually had done a pretty good job finishing off
a few on his own.
“Hey, you going to the school dance on Friday?” Zach
asked as casually as he could.
“I suppose,” Aaron said. “Wanna go over together?”
“Well, actually, I’m thinking of inviting Rachel.”
Aaron put down his phone. “Rachel? Well, you bet-
ter hurry. She’s a superstar now, thanks to our alliga-
tor-wrestling video, which everybody at school has
seen.” Aaron was understandably proud of capturing
Rachel’s exploits on camera while the rest of them were
just trying to avoid being gobbled. “Heck, she’s even
running for class president now.”
“I know,” Zach said. “That’s why I have to wow her
with the coolest invite ever. . . . I’m thinking about de-
livering the invitation by drone.”
“Do you even have a drone?” Aaron asked.
“Well, not exactly.”
“And if you got one, you sure you could pilot it?”
“Not exactly.”
“And you’re still completely out of magic, right?”
“That’s not the point,” Zach complained. “The point
is to wow her, and dropping in with a drone-powered
invite—she can’t say no to that.”
“True dat,” Aaron said, offering Zach a fist bump.
“So how—”
Aaron shut up abruptly—mostly because Zach had
reached across the table and clamped a hand over his
mouth.
“Hey, Zach,” Rachel called from across the restau-
rant. “Hey, Aaron.”
“Hey,” Zach said back.
“Mmrrph,” Aaron said, since Zach’s hand was still
over his mouth.
Every time Zach saw Rachel, it was like the first time
again. Zach was convinced that she was the prettiest girl
he’d ever seen. Her long, brown hair and amazing brown
eyes took his breath away. Today, she was dressed super
casually—a T-shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots. Fashion
was the least of her interests, but she somehow always
managed to look a hundred times better than all the
girls wearing the latest designer duds.
“Sssh!” Zach whispered to Aaron. “Not a word about
the dance or the drone to Rachel. I want to surprise her.”
“Mrow wips wre swerealed,” he said.
“What?” Zach asked, and Aaron lowered his glance
toward Zach’s hand still clamped over his mouth. “Oh,
sorry.”
“My lips are sealed.”
Rachel waved to the boys again as she headed over to
say hi, but before she got to their table, a younger kid,
who looked like he was nine or so, rushed toward her.
“You’re her, aren’t you?” he exclaimed. “The girl who
wrestled that alligator in the video? That was just sav-
age . . . and brave! I’ve watched that video a zillion times
already, and so have all my friends!”
“It’s not a zillion,” Aaron whispered to Zach. “We
only have 50,201 total views.”
“Thanks,” Rachel told the kid. “It was no big deal. I
grew up on a farm. To me, that gator was just another
critter to wrangle.”
Like Zach, Rachel was new to Horace Greeley Middle
School. Her family had only recently moved to the area
from Wyoming.
The star-struck kid held out a napkin and a felt-tip
pen. “Could . . . could I have your autograph?”
“You bet.” Rachel gave Zach and Aaron an apologet-
ic look as she graciously took the time to sign the nap-
kin. Grinning from ear to ear, the kid wandered away to
show off the autograph to his parents, who seemed utterly
dumbfounded, and Rachel headed toward Zach and Aar-
on. “Sorry I’m late, guys. Hope I didn’t keep you waiting.”