Watch Your Step by T. R. Burns

Author:T. R. Burns
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Aladdin

Chapter 19

DEMERITS: 1720

GOLD STARS: 850

Oh. My. Goodness! These. Are. So. Cute! Aren’t they? Hello? Guys? Do you even see this?”

See this. See you. As in . . . me.

“You alright, Hinkle?” Abe asks, ignoring Gabby.

I nod. Even though I can’t stop thinking about the rearranged fish sticks in my parents’ cabin.

“Don’t worry,” he says. “If the Incriminators want to play, we’ll give them a game they won’t forget. That’s why we’re here.”

“Here” is the Kommissary. As soon as the Olivers returned to camp, Annika had a golf cart take us to our shopping destination. The second Abe, Gabby, Elinor, Lemon, and I were seated and buckled, the cart took off like a rocket. Traveling at the speed of light, we shot through what seemed to be hundreds of acres of dark forest, and reached the school store in minutes flat.

“Watch me!” Gabby exclaims now.

We do. She’s standing a few feet away, by the eye-enhancement products. I’m not sure what we’re supposed to be looking at because at first nothing seems to happen. She blinks a lot, like she has something in her eye, but that’s it.

Until she sneezes. And we get caught in a blinding glitter storm.

“Vision Vortex Lash Extensions!” Gabby exclaims. “How amazing are they?”

“Not as amazing”—Abe coughs—“as my”—chokes—“retaliation”—coughs again—“will be!”

I turn away, wipe my eyes with my sweatshirt sleeve. When I turn back, the silver cloud has started to dissipate. A billion tiny, shimmering shards float down, covering our shoes and the floor.

“How do they work?” Elinor asks, shaking the shine from her hair.

“First,” Gabby says with a grin, “they trick you into believing they’re just normal eyelashes. Even though they’re really long and silver. I could just be wearing special mascara, you know? But every time you blink, pressure builds at the base of each lash. Sneezing is the trigger. When you’re ready, you just . . . ah-choo!” She releases a smaller sparkly cloud. “And voila! A total tinsel tornado.”

“The Incriminators will have no idea what they walked into,” Elinor says.

“I think I’ll get twenty pairs.” Gabby slides the Kommissary’s entire supply of Vision Vortex Lash Extensions off of the metal display bar and dumps them into her shopping basket. “Now let’s find you something!”

Gabby hooks one arm through Elinor’s, and they hurry down the aisle.

“I don’t like the looks of this,” Abe says.

“Why not?” I ask. “Shepherd Bull and his friends will never expect to get caught in a sparkle storm. That could come in handy.”

“I’m not talking about Gabby’s demo.” Abe jerks his head toward the next aisle, where Gabby and Elinor talk and giggle. “They’re getting close. Too close.”

“They’re friends,” I say. “What’s wrong with that?”

“Like it or not, Gabby’s an alliance member. Elinor isn’t.”

“And remind me again why not?”

He counts off the reasons on his fingers. “Um, let’s see. She zones out during class. She barely does the assignments. It took her years to graduate from a freshman Troublemaker to a sophomore one. Her mother’s turning bad kids into dirty criminals.”

“Not everyone wants to be the best Troublemaker ever,” I say.

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