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

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!”