Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (58 page)

S
he rolled onto her back to
see the green door. It was still opened and so were the bus doors beyond
.
There was
Mrs. Spud sitting in the
driver’s
seat
, hands on the door lever,
with the kids
laughing
in the background
.

The door
s
started to close.

“
Screw the Bamboozle, screw the test, I’m going home!
”
She sc
r
ambled to her feet,
r
ushed
toward the door
. “Tullah!”
But the
green
door slammed shut
just before she could climb aboard
.

She
tried to turn
the knob
again
.
This time it was locked, but
s
he refused to give up
, but a
mom
ent later the door vanished, leaving h
er
empty handed.

Glory
stepped back from the wall
glad to be alone again
.
She felt the
weight of
her
clothes
instantly return. Thank goodness for small favors, because t
he
idea of roaming around Wybb
in
the buff wasn’t exactly comforting.
Thinking
of
the bus fiasco
made her
hands go over her face.
“Boy
, oh boy,
do I hope that didn’t really happen
.”

That’s when she realized Matthew’s coat was among her belongings.
“
Oh, no
,
”
s
he wailed, “No
w
I’ll have to
drop out of school
and go live under a bridge
where I won’t have to see any of them ever again!”

“
Why
did
I
dare go up against the Wybbils
?
Th
ose squirrel munchers
play
dirty!”

Never in a million years did she expect a test like that.
The
utter
humiliation
of being exposed before her peers
was too much to handle
! S
he
hung her head in shame.

“
Wait
…
that’s
exactly how the Wybbils wanted her to react…
defeated.” She
straightened her back and humphed.
“So what if my classmates saw me
without any clothes?
I’m still the same person.”
She took in a deep breath. “Right?”

“
Next time,
”
she tightened her resolve,
“
I’ll be ready
.
”

T
he sound of a throat clearing
scattered her thoughts
.

She
sprang to her feet, heart thumping
, fists raised
.
“Who’s there?!”

“
Uh, i
t’s me,” a shaky voice called from the shadows
.

“
Clash
?
” Glory’s rapid breaths stilled ever so slightly, but uncertainly lingered
.
Her voice maintained a suspicious edge “
How’d you get here?”

Fo
ur
figures stepped into the light
beneath the tall stem of the Bamboozle.

Every muscle tensed
.
What if they were hallucinations
?
The freckled scrawny
kid
in round
glasses certainly looked like
Cl
ash
.
A
second
tall
er
teen
with
broad shoulder
s
stepped into the light
. He carried
a
duffle bag
over one shoulder
and
had
a
slingboard
strapped across his back
. Matthew Cloude?
H
e looked
uncharacteristically uncertain as he eyed
the concave walls
.
A slender girl with straight blonde hair down to her waist
,
and
fashion b
oots
up to her knees,
st
ood inside the Bamboozle—Olivia.
Then there was the
girl
w
ith
a flawless
skin
,
plump
red lips
,
stylish
black
hair
, and the
perpetual frown that
said
I think you’re below me
.
Mandy Filmore
…j
ust my luck to travel across the universe and
run into her.
Man
d
y took over the patch
of sunlight
,
frantically searching through
her sequin
ed
purse
.

“Where’s
that
stupid
phone?
”

“
Great bloody gut bucket, where
are we?
”
Clash
asked, eyes darting every direction
as he filmed everything with his Sliver
. “And how did we get here?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Mandy stepped forward, shaking a finger
.
“
There’s no reception.”

Glory cautiously
tried to explain
.
“
Um, when we stepped off the bus, we were transported to the
, uh,
Bamboozle
.”

“
You drugged me,
Glory
Alley
, didn’t you?
”
Mandy
accused
. She
turned to
Clash.
“
Or maybe it was you
.
I felt you bite my ankle back there on the bus, but maybe it was actually a needle.
”
She balanced on one foot pulling her foot up for closer inspecting
.
“I swear that looks like a pin prick
.
What’d you inject me with?”

Everybody stood in a circle to peer at Mandy’s an
kle
.

“Looks like
a hair follicle
to me,” Clash said, zooming in on the spot with his Sliver’s built-in video recorder.

“Put that thing away!”
Mandy said, taking a swipe at it.

“Calm down
.
” Matthew spread his arms between
the
Mandy and Clash
.
“There has to be a logical explanation for all of this
.
Let’s go over what
happened.
”

“I was
stepping off
the bus
.
” Olivia
s
aid, slowly turning around to survey the scene, eyes brimming with tears. “Now I’m here in some kind of cave, but I don’t understand how it happened.”

“
Nerd
boy and his
loser
girlfriend
have drugged us,” Mandy accused. “That’s what’s happened.”

“
We
didn’t drug you
.
”
Glory
was still
trying to process
what had happened herself, so she struggled how to explain.
“
And I’m not Clash’s girlfriend. We’re friend
s
and that’s it.
He had nothing to do with this.”

“So you’re admitting that you do?” Mandy asked.

“I assure you it wasn’t intentional, but yes, I’m to blame. See, you’re standing in the Bamboozle.”

“Never heard of it,” Matthew said
.
“And I’ve been a lot of places.”

“
The Bamboozle is the name of this s
tructure—a place of testing
.
It’s on an island in
the
middle of a great ocean, one I guarantee none of you have ever visited
until
now.”