Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (38 page)

BOOK: Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series)
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On the way to lunch
,
Mandy
encouraged a boy to trip
her in
the
hallway
.
Glory
’s books slid
over the
t
ile
.
Mandy and her flock of
friends pointed, laughed, and called her
a
clumsy
cow
. Normally, she’d be more upset, but it seemed
a
trifle next to
what was happening
at home
.
She
gathered up her books
in a daze,
so
preoccupied
that she barely noticed
their taunts.
Must get the magic for myself…

Classes went by in a blur as she pondered her next move
.
She was growing more excited about
bringing
Clash
into the situation.
He’d
take some convincing
. If
she had to sneak him through her bedroom window
in the middle of the night and wait for
the
Wybbils
to
reappear
, that’s what
they would
do.

One thing seemed certain

s
he
needed to
bring a Wybbil and the Elboni together. But the problem was how to bring them together
before
the Wybbil
tried
snatch it away without
making
a fa
i
r trade.  The binding ritual was the only way to ensure her dreams would come true.

D
uring Math
,
s
he
jotted down
the known variables
in a spiral notebook:

 

How To Get A Wish (
8
conditions)

 

1)
The wish must be for something very specific.

a.
unlimited credits

 

2)
elboni must be present.

 

3)
wybbil must take an oath.

a.
oath (noun): a formal or legally binding pledge to do something

 

 

“Hot bam!” she stood
up
in class. “
I got t
hree!”

Classmates snickered and t
he teacher stopped
t
he le
sson
to address Glory
.

“I don’t know what problem you’re working on, Miss Alley, but the answer is
31,622
. How did you get three?”

Glory’s cheeks burned, she muttered a
nevermind
,
and stuffed her nose behind her digital textbook.

The class quickly lost interest in her outburst. In no time
,
she was c
hewing the e
nd
of a stubby pencil,
s
tudying
the
paper
list
of conditions. Have I missed any of the known variables? She
strain
ed
h
er brain
cells
, revisiting conversation
s
with the Sliver, Grandpa, and the Wybbils themselves, but came up with nothing new to add to the list.
O
n the bright side
,
more than a third
of the conditions
were already there
.
If she could come up with the
rest of
them before the Wybbils returned… she imag
in
ed pulling up to school in a
limousine
, wearing designer clothes, with a hot guy on each arm, while Man
d
y Filmore looked at her in envy.

Failure is not an option
,

she whispered to herself.

After class she stood at her locker studying the list some more
.
Finally, f
olding the paper,
s
he shoved it into
her coat
pocket along with h
er
mangled pencil
.


Glory
.

She recognized
Clash
’s voice without turning around
.

“Why weren’t you on the bus this morning?”

“Missed it
.
Gotta phone call from my relatives overseas
this morning
. My papas
an’s
father died over the weekend.


Uh,” Glory struggled to say the right thing
.
She hadn’t heard
that
his grandfather was sick.
“That
’s terrible
. I’m so sorry.


Me, too.”

“Are you okay
?
I mean, do you need anything?”

“I’
m okay
. Only met him once a long time ago.
My parents are
scrambling to get the money to fly
overseas for the funeral.
I said they could save on airfare and let me stay home, but they
said my absence would shame the entire family.
I’ll probably miss
at least a week
of
school.”

You can’t go, Glory wanted to say
,
Not now! I
’m all alone and need your help
.
I
nstead
,
she placed a hand on Clash’s shoulder
.
“Let me know if I can do anything.”

“I will.”

The bell for the next class dinged and they went their separate ways
.
G
lory
went through classes like a zombie, barely aware of the happenings around her
.
B
y the time
s
he got home from sc
hool
,
she felt faint from all the worrying.

She
climbed the front porch and
halted at the sight of a red square of paper faste
ne
d to the
screen
door
.

 

Foreclosure Notice

 

The thick black words
couldn’t be more sinister.
S
he
came closer
to
read the smaller print
.
The
legal
ea
z
e
made her
head
spin, but
she
got the jest of it.
The
government was
seizing the house and land because Dad
hadn’t paid the taxes
.
And they had thirty days to vacate the premises.

Thirty days!


Oh no
,”
Glory
said,
feeling
as if the porch was sinking beneath her
feet, threatening to swallow the whole house, and all the All
e
ys with it
. What
the he
ck
are we
going to do
?

“No, no, no…this can’t be happening.

After standing there several minutes,
thinking she’d rather fight the
Hoogula
than the government,
s
he
p
ushed
the door open
.
T
he tangy smell of booze
and bad
breath
slammed her nose.

There was
Dad
on the front couch sprawled out in his boxer shorts and a grimy T-shir
t
.
A bottle of vodka sat on the coffee table next to a tall glass with a bit of orange juice at the bottom
.
Glory
s
tood in
doorway
,
cold breeze bl
owing from behind
, icing her spine
.

Dad
opened one eye.

“Do ya think I’m made of money!
” he tossed the remote
at
her
, but
she ducked, and
it
hit the wall
behind her head.

Don’t just stand there like an idiot, shut the
g
ul
da
ng
door!”

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