Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (57 page)

BOOK: Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series)
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Da
ng
,
it was cold this morning
.
Ice pricked her skin so deeply that h
er
teeth clicked together
.

“Brrrr!”

“My, my,” said Mrs. Spud, eyes opened wide as she looked h
er
up and down, stopping at h
er
feet
.
“Aren’t we eager to get to school today
?

“Wha
t
?

Glory
looked
where Mrs. Spud was looking
.
“I forgot my shoes!”

“And that’s not all you forgot.”

That’s when she noticed that t
he bus was eerily quiet
and all eyes were upon her.
Expressions ranging from shocked, nervous, amused
,
and astounded hung on the faces of her bus mates.

Clash
was there, e
yes wide
, as if the Blob that Ate Fort Jennings had stepped onto the bus from some sci-fi flick.
She
quickly made her way to the middle
seats.
Cold touched her skin
…everywhere
.
That’s when she looked down and realized
to her horror
that
she was
stark naked
.
The only item on her person was a bird necklace.

“Whah!

Glory’s a
rms
and hands
shot
to her chest
and to
her
private area
.

The
necklace
suddenly grew
hot
,
as did
t
he
rest of her.
If a full
body blush was possible, she was sure she looked like a big
fat
apple.
Somehow
,
she knew the silver bird could
end
her ridiculous
predicament
.
Unfortunately, she need
ed
to move strategically placed
hands
to blow it.

Clash
rushed towards
her
offering
his coat, but someone tripped him
along the way
.
A boy let out a hoop
.
Another whistled.
The bu
s
erupted into a mad frenzy

k
ids standing
, kids
hollering
, kids
shoving
and throwing things
.

She tried mak
ing
a hasty escape out the bus doors, but the aisle had filled with craziness.

“Glory,” she recognized
Matthew
’s voice.

Somehow
,
he
had
charged through the aisle to wrap her in his coat
.
S
he couldn’t have felt more gratitude.

Mandy Fil
more
stepped over
Clash
to
grab
at the coat
.
Glory
fought to hang onto it. Winning a game of tug-a-war had never been this important.

“What’s wrong with you—
Glory Alley,
coming on the bus
all naked
?
” Mandy
said in her superior way.

Are you high on drugs?

“Let go,”
Glory
said in
desperation.

Mandy
frowned the way men
frowned
at Dad when he fell down drunk in public.

Y
our daddy
’s
a lush,
Brandon’s
a
druggie
, your
other brothers are going to end up
in
prison,
and your sister’s a
slut
.
No wonder
you don’t know any
better than to go around
in the buff
.”

“Yeah,
Glory
don’t know any better,” one of
Mandy’s friends joined in
.

She
’s a loser like the rest of the
Alley
s.


Can’t you let up for even a minute, Mandy
?

Olivia Wingfield squeezed in to face Mandy. “Something terrible must have happened to her. Show some compassion.”
Olivia
turned to Glory. “Com
e
on, sweetie, I’m taking you home.”

The scene
seemed to
move in slow motion
.
Olivia steered her
toward the bus doors, using her own body as a shield against spitballs and flying pencils. She glanced behind her to see Clash fighting off classmates who had turned into vicious animals, hungry to humiliate her fu
r
ther. Matthew Cloude had taken position in front of Olivia, bouncing classmates out of the aisle.
“Get out of our way
!

When he spoke, other boys stepped aside.

“Home,”
Glory
said
.


It’ll be all right
,

Olivia tried to comfort.

“Her family is so poor they can’t even afford clothes
,

a
girl pointed and laughed.

“But by the looks of things, they can afford donuts,”
another faceless girl said
.

Did you see
that roll of blubber
?

More heat rushed to Glory’s cheeks.

Glory
shrank
inside
,
as t
he laugh
ter grew louder
,
and the taunts crueler
.
E
ach jibe felt
like
a
hammer
to her gut.

“Why are you helping an Alley?” Mandy said, trying to pull Olivia away
.

Her father had my uncle arrested.
If you step of
f
that bus with her, then you’re no friend of mine.”

“Please, don’t be mad at me,” Olivia said, giving Mandy an apologetic look
.
“But I
...
it’s the right thing to do.”

Mrs. Spud looked at her watch, then back to the
Alley
house which sat far from the road
.

F
or goodness sake
s
,
somebody give her some pants
.”


Fatty, fatty, two-by-four, can’t
get out bus four’s door. Her
mama’s dead, and her
daddy’s poor
, brother’s a dunce, and her sister’s a whore
.

T
he chant rose somewhere from the back of the bus, violating her ears.

She could never
face any of them again
.

Matthew clear
ed
the way
toward the door, shoving
boys aside who were trying to pinch her rear.

“Open the
friggin’
doors!
” Matthew
called out to the bus driver
.

Hurry
it
up,
Spud!

By the time they got to the bus steps, the four of them were a mesh of a
r
ms and legs trying to escape the chaos. As Glory’s feet
brac
ed
for the feel of
asphalt
against bare
soles
, she felt empty air instead. A moment later
,
she
landed
on
sandy ground. The u
nexpected softness made her stumble
to her knees.

She
rested in doggie position for a
few seconds,
clenching
sand between her clenched fists
, as
knowledge of the
Elboni
and Wybbil
s r
eturn
ed
.


Son-of-bum
,
I’m back in the Bamboozle
.

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