OVERFALLS (The Merworld Water Wars, Book 2) (24 page)

Before returning to their clouds, the sylphs handed all participants in the Overfalls a fluffy piece of cloud.

I heard Polly belch into her cloud and release the most pathetic groan imaginable.

“Thank you,” I said to the sylph handing me a bit of cloud.

“Ooh, cloud. How original,” griped Jex.

“Hey, angel boy, this
is
original to the land and water dwelling,” I said, elbowing him.

As the stadium began to celebrate the sylphs, a faint, yet growing orange glow from somewhere behind the cloud caught our attention. Torpedoing through the white fluff, a ball of fire rolled across the sand and stopped at the other end of the field. We leaned forward to see a man in red robes facing us. He held his arms up, as if to silence the already quiet crowd; with a swift drop of his arms, the man burst into flames. We watched in horror as he held out his fiery arms and small, flame-covered creatures fell from his exposed veins. The horned, devil-like beings pranced, danced, and threw fireballs at our feet and into the stands.

“Me! Throw to me!” shouted Polly, jumping up and down like some groupie.

“Polls, you can’t be serious,” I said.

“It’s not me,” she said. “The demon souls are celebrating my ass off right now! Over here, you sexy beasts!” One of the devilish creatures threw a fireball right at Polly’s chest; I was about to pop out the gel shield to protect her, but Jex grabbed my hands. Polly not only caught the fireball without any sort of discomfort, but she also transformed it to a red bow and arrow. “I’m awesome.”

“Think we just found her advanced talent,” said Jex.

“You mean…she can change fire into weapons?” I asked.

Jex nodded. “Look at the doc up there. He’s practically foaming.”

The man gathered his demon-children, disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, and reappeared on the stage next to Madame Helena.

“Salverz, the king of Salamanderall, home to the salamander, the elementals of fire,” said Madame Helena. She permitted the crowd to roar for a bit. “Thank you, Your Majesty. You may return to your dwelling.” King Salverz pulled the disappearing act once more. Madame Helena then turned her attention to us. “Teams, the Overfalls will be based on the elements: water, earth, fire, and air. There will be three team matches. Every team member will participate. The judges—Luxton Vipor, Principal Jeepers, and myself—will rank each contestant from best to worst. Each ranking carries a preset number of points—the higher you rank, the more points you’ll earn for your team. Mr. Anderson will then tabulate the points earned to determine each team’s overall score. At the end of each match, we will announce which team leads the points.

“Now, there is a catch. Your individual scores will remain unknown to everyone but the judges. After the third and final team event, we will announce one person from each side who earned the highest overall individual scores. Those two contestants will then compete against each other in a single face-off combining all three elements with the addition of the most strenuous element of them all...air. The winner of this thorny event will add twenty-five points to their team’s total, possibly securing the win or stealing the win for his or her team.

“Your first match will be on the eve of Halloween, October thirtieth, eleven o’clock at night. The element you will face is…water. We’ll see you here in October!”

As the fans went ballistic and fireworks danced in the sky above us, Jex said, “Son of a bitch. Water’s first! Giving them the edge right out of the gate.”

“We have a seal-water-dude on our side,” I said, taking Trey’s hand.

Jex took a deep breath. “True enough. And we have a Savior.” I gagged. “Yeah. Like I said, advantage merfolk.”

Chapter Eleven

Tharnossa, Tharnossa, Tharnossa

October: The spooks are real (nah, really, ya think?)

Monthly Life Caption: Every Mask Wears a Face

Mood: Hormonally challenged…well, just challenged in general

Eating: Yucky greens…while sneaking candy corn

Music: 90’s R&B

Words cannot describe how constipated my life has been over the last month and a half. School filled my days with its unrelenting bullying, while training for the first match ate my afternoons and evenings whole, leaving the crumbs—previously known as my dating life—for Savior sessions with Doctor Tenly. Speaking of Savior training, can we say killer? I suck so hard. My super speed refuses to turn on, except for short spurts that result in me slamming against wall after wall, like a bumper car; my super strength remains sporadic, but tends to be reliable when it means punching Jex (or smashing every new alarm clock Mom buys me); and while my body control has improved, I’m still a giant freak.

I’ve barely spent any time with Troy. With our preparations for the Overfalls keeping us apart, the time we do carve out for each other turns into naptime almost immediately following the ‘I’ve missed you’ kiss. Basically, my life needs an enema—or butt bullet, as Mom calls them. So, two weeks ago, Troy and I planned a night to make up for stolen time. Tonight, Troy will be handling my Savior training…solo.

Daydreaming about tonight has been the one sustaining bright spot in this otherwise persistently bleak haze. Though The Dealer hasn’t sent me another message, the weight of anticipation for the next card to shuffle through our mail slot was nearly unbearable. So many questions banged against my heart. Who was The Dealer? Where was The Dealer? Who was he or she after, and why? Did I do something to trigger this person’s presence? What if this was somehow my fault? Training left me with very little time to dwell; Thank God, otherwise I could conceivably lose my mind and run into town demanding a showdown with the cowardly bastard…or bitch.

Team training for the water element match has steadily improved for all Normals. Trey’s seal-water-dude alter ego has made him as strong and resilient as a submarine. Being underwater prisoners for such a long time boosted Ophelia’s confidence and spurred Polly to demon-out at the first drop of water on her skin. Meikle and I had no problems taking on any of the challenges Jex staged for us. The cyclones and stingray-filled undercurrents were escapable after a brief time; blindsides by a pair of non-stinging giant squid delivered their share of close calls, but we managed; we skillfully maneuvered our way around sand blasts, coral stabs, and electric eel swarms. Yep, the Normals looked good for being non-merfolk. There was, however, one concern: Gully.

Gully didn’t want to leave the cyclones because they were pretty; she tried to befriend the ‘cute’ stingrays and jumped rope with the squid tentacles (an act the creatures didn’t object to, oddly enough); and though she was brilliant with the blasts, stabs, and eels, Gully presented us with an even bigger problem than her lack of concentration: her palate hates ulva—the very thing Normals must ingest in order to breathe underwater. It takes at least five tries for her to get the stuff down. Mostly, Gully shoves it in her mouth, holds it for a second, gags, and spits it on the ground. Once, Jex thought she successfully swallowed it, only to have her barf it up on his wings, which, of course, sent me into an extreme gagging episode, Polly into a demon fit, and Ophelia keeling over into Trey’s arms. It certainly wasn’t one of our team’s finest moments.

For our final practice before the first match, Jex once again conjured his mock ocean wall in Knotty Nook Woods. Standing in front of the watery wall, one would think it was just an average hot tub, minus the tub part; once inside, it could very well be the dark, endless ocean.

“Okay,” said Jex, smacking his hands together. “Final practice means we clean up loose ends. First up…Gully.” Gully was humming, swaying, and smiling at the water wall. “Hello! Gully! Anyone home?”

“Huh? Oh, hiya Coach!” she trilled.

Jex cracked his neck two times. “Gully. This is important. You must be focused for the match. No making friends with ANY creatures—you battle them; no playing inside anything swirl-y or whippy—you escape them; no tangents—follow the task at hand. We on the same water-stained page, Gully?”

“Oh, yes, I’m there with you.” Gully frowned and pursed her lips. “Though it is awfully difficult to stay on one track, isn’t it? I mean, there are so many things to ponder.”

“I’m gonna kill her,” muttered Polly.

I grabbed Polly’s sleeve to keep her from offing Gully. “Uh, Gully, you remember the jar I had during the wish ceremony?”

“Sure do!”

“Remember that pretty string of sparkly light the star put inside it?”

Gully folded her hands, nodding. “I’d love to hold it!”

“Well, in order to do just that, we have to win each of these matches. So, the higher the ranking you can get, the more points for us and the closer we’ll be to hearing and holding the wish,” I said.

Gully’s eyes turned remarkably serious. “I’ll get us that wish.”

“How did you do that?” asked Jex.

“Gave her something bigger to focus on…bigger and shinier,” I said.

“Savior works her magic,” he teased. “Question is: can the Savior force-feed Gullivere her ulva.”

“You’re on your own, there, Coach,” I whispered.

Jex shrugged. “Not entirely on my own, Savior. Hey, Gulls, I need you to down this.” He handed her a wad of ulva, and poor Gully turned green.

Without hesitation, she slipped the ulva in her mouth, held it there for a second, opened her mouth, and kicked it out onto the ground with her tongue. “Sorry,” she said coyly.

“Right. Meikle, you ready?” asked Jex.

“Ready for what?” I asked.

“For this,” growled Meikle, sending a pink flash from her hands straight into Gully’s mouth and eyes.

Gully coughed out pink dust and cried rose-colored tears. “What was that?”

“Now, try this, Gully.” Jex once again handed her a handful of ulva, only this time Gully seemed eager for it.

“Ooh, I love cotton candy!” She took the ulva and downed it without issue.

“God, I love magic,” said Jex.

“What did you do?” asked Trey.

“Altered her sight and taste senses for ulva,” Meikle muttered. “Now we know it works. I’ll take care of it game day.”

“Stellar,” said Jex. “I’ll bring Gravity Gum for everyone as well, just in case walking on the ocean’s floor is necessary. Now that we have Gully fixed, I have one final challenge for my team. Where’s Maile? Maile! Maile!”

From behind a large tree partially hidden by the mock ocean wall, Maile stumbled forward. “Here! I’m here…sorta.” She paused a moment, dropped her head, and released a deep, gurgling belch.

“Are you bloody drunk?” shouted Jex.

“Not swo swure,” she said, slurring her words. “Rips offered me something to dwink. HICCUP. And I kept dwinking.”

“RIPS!” bellowed Jex. “Out! NOW!”

Rips shouted from deep within a hollow tree. “Yeah, I drunkened her up! Yeah, I know ‘drunkened’ ain’t a word, so don’t get all angel goody-goody on me! And, no, I ain’t comin’ out!”

“Little fart-flicker,” snarled Jex. “Where’d Maile go?”

“Puking behind that tree back there,” I said.

“I’m okay,” she said, wiping her mouth on a handkerchief she pulled from the pocket of her hot pink vest. “I’m just a little barf-y. Whatcha need, Coach?”

“You. Over here. Stand between Marina and Polly,” said Jex, less than thrilled. “Did you think it was cola? You know you can’t trust a demon.”

Uh, yeah, that just seared my heartstrings. I hope to heaven I can trust a demon because I’m helplessly, hopelessly in love with one…well, a partial one.

“I, uh, didn’t actually think he’d give me booze,” said Maile.

Polly raised her hand. “Can someone kindly give the drunkard a breath mint?”

“Sorry,” said Maile, taking a stick of gum from Gully.

“You’ll have to stick that on Doctor Tenly’s wall when we get home,” said Gully. “Don’t forget!”

“Jesus, he’s got y’all doing the chew and stick shtick?” I asked.

“All the time,” said Gully. “It’s fun! I’ve made two smiley faces with my gum wads.”

“It’s grotesque,” Ophelia groaned.

“He never asks me to do the gum thing,” said Trey. “Weird, right?”

“Weirder than keeping a wall of gooey gum wads?” I said. “Consider yourself lucky. He has been on my ass about finishing the pack he gave me for my birthday.”

“Right, then, can we focus, here, yeah? Let’s get started…finally.” Jex stood beside the wall of water. “As our final preparation, I want each of you to take a few minutes and stare into the water.”

“That’s it?” I asked.

“Well, no,” groaned our coach. “I want you to see what it shows you, read its message.”

“Huh?” I said.

“Mother of God. It’s like I have to explain everything to them,” he muttered under his breath. “You know how they say if a human listens to any body of water on the planet, he or she will hear a message?” asked Jex.

“Yeah,” I said. “Saw it in a movie.”

Jex grimaced. “Of course you did. Well, same deal, only I want you to
see
the message. It could give us some inside information on this upcoming match,” said Jex.

“Gotcha,” I said. “Okay, guys, let’s watch the water and feel like tools.”

We all stared into the wall. At first, the whole process seemed pretty pointless…until I saw Fairla, clear as day.

“Fairla!” I yelped.

“Uh, I see those creature things, the undine,” said Meikle. “They have their fight faces on. Ha. Should be a fun smack-down…with me doing the smacking.”

“I feel nauseous,” said Ophelia.

“What did you see,” I asked.

“Nothing. All it did was make my head spin,” she said.

“Yeah, I saw something gold and shiny, but I have no idea what it was,” added Trey.

Gully giggled. “Ooh, squid! Aren’t they cute…uh, but completely punch-able.”

Polly put her hands on her hips, stomped, and said, “Why the hell am I looking at flying sand? Why do I always get the boring crap?”

“Not boring, Polly—informative. All right. From what you all saw, I’m guessing there will be a mix of weather, creature, and sand obstacles, as well as a trip to Fairla, all of which involve something glittery,” said Jex.