The Dream Spies by Nicole Lesperance

Author:Nicole Lesperance
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2021-12-07T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Three

Maren found one of the sleepwalking video gamers leaping and dodging around invisible obstacles at the edge of the bonfire clearing.

“Yeah! I made it to Jupiter, guys!” he yelled to nobody, pumping his fist and then launching into a weird dance that involved flapping his arms and squatting repeatedly. He looked like a chicken trying to lay a difficult egg.

“Take me out to the ball game!” he sang, even though he clearly wasn’t taking a baseball dream. Maren crept closer as he adjusted his invisible headset and called out to the rest of his squad, then listened for their response. Even though she knew the whole thing was happening inside the boy’s head, Maren found herself straining to listen too.

“Hold still,” she whispered, pulling an extra-minty waking antidote from her pocket. She’d cut a tiny hole in the edge of the sachet to add the spearmint. Although she didn’t have any way to sew it back up, it was holding together fairly well.

“Copy,” said the boy. “We’re all clear for phase two!”

Maren froze. Could this dreamer be talking about the same secret plans as Calvin and Malvin and the mysterious letter writer? He started checking his pockets and loading invisible weapons, and she realized she didn’t have time to stop and wonder. She had to wake him before he ran off again and hurt himself. Slowly, silently, she crept closer, then reached out and tapped his shoulder.

“AARGHH!” The boy swung around, brandishing his invisible gun, and as he yelled, Maren stuffed the waking antidote into his mouth. He yelped again and spit it out onto the ground.

“No!” Maren was not a gamer, and she racked her brain for the appropriate lingo, something she’d heard Amos and his friends say. “That was your…um…your power-up.”

“My what?” The boy whipped his head around, evidently unable to see Maren in his dream.

“The, uh, thing that gives you extra energy and strength,” said Maren. “You have to eat them on Jupiter.”

“My energy boost?” said the boy, looking dubious.

“Exactly!” Maren picked the antidote out of the grass and wiped it on her shorts. She didn’t have enough to waste this one. “Open up.”

“Eh, I don’t know,” said the boy.

“Do you want to win or not?” asked Maren. “There are like ten guys heading this way. You’d better, um, energy-up.”

The boy shook his head again, but Maren didn’t wait. She stuffed the waking antidote back into his mouth and gave him a thump on the shoulder. “There, now you’re at like four thousand…energies. And maybe you might want to think about opening your eyes?”

“My eyes are open,” The boy did the flapping/squatting dance again with his eyes firmly shut. “Thanks for the boost!”

With no warning, he launched forward, slamming Maren’s shoulder with his and sending her toppling backward.

“Stop!” she yelled, scrambling to her feet. But it was too late. The boy had disappeared into the woods.

“I saw you do it this time.”

Maren spun around, and there stood Ivy, arms folded over her chest.

“It’s not…what you think,” stammered Maren.

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