Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (13 page)

“Yes, you are.”

“Jerk.”

She
took h
er
flashlight from the top of
the
bookshelf and continued to look through h
er
book. Some stones shared certain
characteristics with h
er
indigo find
but none seemed to match.

“Wrap it up,
Glory
.
”

“
This is my room and
I’m not hurting anything.”

“I can hear the pages flipping and that annoys me.”

“Your face annoys me.”

In the blink of an eye
,
Brandon wrestl
ed her
to the floor, yanking
away the
flashlight
,
grabbing the book out of h
er
hands.

“Give it back
,
you
butthead
!”

“No way
.
The flashlight’s mine anyway
.
I gave it to you, and now I’m taking it back.”

“That’s SO wrong! You can’t give somebody something
and
then take it back!”

“Yo
u’re right,” Brandon said with an evil
gleam in his eye
.
“But, I can do this.
”
He walked over to the window
.
The bedroom was on the second story, but that didn’t stop him from tossing
her
book and flashlight into the night
.

“Maybe your devil-dog will fetch them for you.”

Glory
wanted to punch h
er
obnoxious brother in the face
.
Instead
,
s
he sat down in front of the closet to put on
her hikers
, muttering
the whole time
.

“Where you going?
”
Brandon
wanted to know as
he crawled into bed.

“Wh
ere
do you think, moron
,
to get my stuff.”

“It’ll still be there in the morning.”

“I
t’s supposed to rain tonight.”

“Be quiet when you come back in or I’ll pound you.”

Glory
scowled, put on
her
coat on the way out the door and tiptoed down the hallway
.
It was well after midnight and everyone was sleeping, including
Nana
and
Grandpa
whose heavy snoring wafted up the stairway.
Randy and Danny were home, appearing as nebulous blobs of clothing on the other side of the room. Even though they made her life miserable at time
s
, it was good to have the family whole again.
She
noticed George had kicked off his blanket, so she
pulled
it
up around h
is ears and
kissed h
im
on the cheek
.
Blue eyes flicke
re
d open and he smiled.

“
Gwo-wee
.
Song?”

“Just one
,
”
she whispered.
As usual,
s
he made-up the lyrics as
t
he
y
went along
.

Hush a-bye, don’t you cry,

Go to sleepy little G
eorge-
eeee,

When you wake, we’ll eat cake,

And set sail through outer spac
e-
eeee.

He
turned on
to
h
is
side
to
snuggl
e
deep
er
into
the
covers
. Something about watching him contently
sucking h
is
thumb
made her feel peaceful, as if for a moment the world was a good place, and everything would be okay.
George had already fallen asleep.
In the morning
,
he wo
uldn’t
even remember
she
was here.

“Pleasant dreams,
sweetie
.
”

The tricky part would be getting past the living room where
Dad
was
wasted
on the couch
.
A government-sponsored
show about how the struggling economy would
benefit
from a single one
-
world currency
droned from the television
—typical boring stuff
.
E
very creak of the floor
made
Glory
wince
.
Slowly,
carefully, s
he opened the front door and stole outside.

Whew, now for that missing flashlight
.

The drizzle
seemed to
a
bsorb every bit of light
, making the
darkness
extra intense
.
She
slopped around the wet yard for several minutes, but no sign of the flashlight or book. The porch light would be useful about now but
possibly
waking
Dad
wasn’t worth the risk.
She decided
the
spelunking light
in the barn would be her best bet
.

Upon opening the door
,
Glory
realized that
s
he was the last one in the barn and had left the lights on
.
If it wasn’t for Brandon
being a bully
,
the mistake would have went unnoticed until
Dad
discovered it at the break of dawn
.
Burning bulbs burned money and that was a crime in the
Alley
house
hold
.

On the plus side
,
at least the
barn was
toasty
dry
, but even with the
lights on the
place
was scary at night
.
The unseen feet of nocturnal animals made scratching sounds as they scurried through the straw
.
The mice were cute, but coons and foxes could be menacing if caught unaware
.
She’d learned the hard way t
hey were especially fond of the loft, so
s
he took a rake down from a peg, just in case, thinking how
s
he’d much rather be in bed
…but
thanks to my loser brother I’m out here in the middle of the night, looking for a friggin’ flashlight in order to find a friggin’ flashlight
.

Rake in
hand
;
s
he headed for the wooden ladder, which leaned against the loft. An attached rail made for a sturdy handhold
.
The loft was rarely used these days.
She
had turned it into h
er
own private retreat for doing
girl
things like sorting through rocks, reading
sci-fi books
and
playing with her Glam
Dolls
—a pastime she should have outgrown long ago
.

Unfortunately, Brandon had recently discovered the spot and had taken up smoking
and looking at dirty magazines
in h
er
sanctuary
.
Glory
began to climb
the ladder
.
Halfway up
,
something rustled in the loft
.

“No luck,” a gravelly voice sounded from above
.
“There’s nothing but useless
Tullah
n junk up here.”

A bosomy
Glam D
oll
with a tiny waist,
fashion boots
,
and a
sequined
mini skirt
,
fell out of the
lo
ft
, almost hitting
Glory
on the way down
.
Tiffany
?
S
he noted
in alarm
.
A second later a
nother
doll dropped
.
There goes
Ashley
—
w
hat the heck
!