Tell her that it's a bet between you and Lynn.

You need to come up with an excuse, but still want to keep the truth away from the teacher. The best you can come up with is a lame reasoning that may be dumb enough to work.

“It’s uh… a thing we have going… like, if I catch her in a lie, she has to do something embarrassing like kiss my foot… you know, dumb stuff like that…”

Coach Sterns gives you a dubious look. “I doubt it’s something so innocent,” she says under her breath.

After you were caught with her and the entire cheer team in the girl’s shower, you can’t really argue with the coach. Instead, you just stand there, eyeing your pendant hoping it’s still a good enough explanation to get it back. Sterns takes another minute to decide whether she buys into your story or not. Finally, she hands the pendant over to you. Grasping the talisman in your hand, you breathe a sigh of relief. Your property is returned at last!

“Now, I don’t want to see you again, get out of here,” she tells you before leaving the shower. “And put some clothes on!”

You belatedly cover up your junk and wait for the teacher to be fully gone, then search for your clothes. It takes you a minute to remember where your clothes are, but you eventually gather them up and get dressed, securely hanging your pendant back around your neck. The others are gone by the time you’re ready to leave, but that’s fine with you. It would be an awkward conversation between you and anyone in the cheer squad after all that’s happened. You’re a little surprised Lynn didn’t wait behind to jump you though. You clutch the pendant tightly. You’re not going to let this thing go again!

Now to exact your ****! You picture Lynn standing in front of you.

Nothing happens.

Alarmed, you pull off the pendant and check to make sure it’s the real thing! It looks authentic. You weigh it in your hands and it has the same heft that you felt before. It also has the same inlay and patterning that you remember it did, but when you think back, you never really paid close attention to its details. Of course, if it was a fake, Lynn would have the real one and she wouldn’t wait to rub it in your face. So, if this is the real pendant, why isn’t it working? Could it be broken?

You run through the shower room event in your head, trying to remember the last time Lynn made a wish. She hadn’t made one. Could she really have swapped out the necklace as a dare to herself? When was the last time she made a wish? You remember her making that wish on Tammy that led to the bet that led to the naked cheer practice. So, she had used magic during the school day, so she had the pendant with her at school. If she swapped it between then and now, it might be in her locker. Of course, where would she get an exact replica of the magic pendant without wishing for one? If she’d wished for it, you would know… You rub your head, straining from all the mental exercise. If Lynn switched the necklace, she’d be going for the real one right now, if not, you have the real one and it’s not working. What can you do about this?

The only people who would have any idea about any of this would be Lynn, whom you do not look forward to talking to, and Amina, whom you aren’t quite sure where she is.