Lola Benko, Treasure Hunter by Beth Mcmullen

Author:Beth Mcmullen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2020-08-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22 THE HANNAH PROBLEM

OVER PANCAKES THE NEXT MORNING, Jin and I continue to throw out ideas about perfect stone-hiding places. He says under a tree. I say in a bank vault. He says in a pile of regular old rocks. I say this whole exercise is pointless and swipe one of his pancakes. He says I need to focus and get my own pancakes.

This is when Hannah shows up, plopping her breakfast tray down with a loud thud. Between Lipstick and the Shadow and the ticking clock and the missing stone, I forgot all about Hannah. But she did not forget about us. And she still has that incriminating video. Begrudgingly, I give her credit. She wanted something and she went for it with no apologies. I understand that. It’s why I’m wearing a cast on my arm.

“Good morning, teammates.” Hannah offers us a dazzling smile.

Jin glares at me. “This is on you,” he says. Doesn’t he realize I was just trying to protect him from getting kicked out of school or worse? And besides, yesterday I was all about kidnapping albino penguins. How was I to know that today we’d be on an actual quest for the Stone of Istenanya? I can’t see the future. Jin should cut me some slack. But his expression indicates I should expect that slack sometime around the next century. Or never.

“Good morning, Hannah,” I grumble.

She takes a big slurp of orange juice and wipes her mouth on the back of her sleeve. “I figure that when we find the stone and it talks to me—because of course it’s going to talk to me—I’m going to make things happen, starting with beating old Mr. Ghetti at chess. Boy, that would make his head explode. And the STEM fair? Well, that’s a given.”

Jin snorts. “No way that stone is talking to you. I mean, come on.”

“What? You think a magic rock is going to want to mind-meld with you? Your brain is like oatmeal. No way.”

“And your brain is Swiss cheese. All those empty holes!”

“Takes one to know one.”

“That doesn’t even make any sense.”

I put my head down on my arms and close my eyes. Neither of them pauses long enough to consider that Ördög cursed the stone, making its magic dark and ugly. They are both so sure the Stone of Istenanya will choose them and it will be Fortnite and chess wins for all eternity. They are drawn to the idea of magic despite the danger. I still refuse to believe that the stone is anything more than a rock, but I make a mental note to keep an eye on them, just in case. Power can tilt the minds of regular old people in weird directions. You just have to study history to know that.

Jin pats me on the head. “Don’t worry, Lola,” he says. “It will all work out.”

“Have you guys located it yet?” Hannah asks, returning to her breakfast with gusto. I shove my plate aside, appetite gone.

“No.” Jin spears one of my abandoned sausages.

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