Poached (17 page)

It started on the stuffed koala. Whoever was filming was right at the glass trying to get a decent shot of it, thinking it was really Kazoo. “He's just sleeping,” someone off camera said disappointedly. “C'mon. Let's go see something interesting.”

There was a sudden commotion by the exit door. The camera swung that way in time to see Dad and me push through and then get cornered by Bubba and Marge against the glass. The guy filming was right next to us, though I hadn't even noticed him in the heat of the moment.

“That's you, right?” Violet asked.

“Yeah, it's me,” I admitted.

A murmur of excitement went through the Royals.

“Everyone stand back!” Marge ordered on the video. “This kid is dangerous!”

“Are you?” Violet asked.

I looked up from the video to find she and everyone else were now watching
me
. “Am I what?”

“Dangerous,” Violet said.

“Vance Jessup certainly thinks so,” Dash said, and everyone laughed.

“No,” I told them all. “I'm not dangerous.”

“Then why did that security lady say you were?” Violet asked. Her green eyes were fixed tightly on me.

“She thinks I stole Kazoo,” I said.

A lot of the Royals went “oooh” in response.

“Hey!” Ethan called. “This is the best part!”

Everyone returned their attention to the video in time to see Marge and Bubba crash through the glass. Only whoever had filmed it had slowed it down. Instead of happening in a few seconds, the chaos now played out leisurely. Even on the tiny phone screen I could see the panic on Marge's face as she tumbled into the exhibit, then Bubba's surprise as he sailed in after her, followed by the looks of horror on the spectators as they watched the koala get crushed flat.

The Royals were laughing hysterically, even though
they'd seen it many times over. “That must have been wild, being there,” Dash said, and everyone echoed agreement.

The video resumed normal speed, zooming in on the pancaked body of what everyone thought was Kazoo. “Oh my,” the person recording it said. “That doesn't look good.”

“I didn't steal him,” I said.

Everyone looked up from the video again and back at me.

“In case you were wondering,” I explained. “Marge—the guard who just squashed Kazoo—is wrong about me.”

Violet stared into my eyes for a moment, then nodded. “Cool,” she said. “I believe you.”

The Royals around us nodded in agreement. I wasn't sure if I'd sounded convincing or if they were all merely following Violet's lead, but it was reassuring to see.

“Is that why you've got the ankle bracelet?” Ethan asked.

Most of the Royals, including Violet, looked at him curiously, not knowing what he meant. Ethan kept his gaze locked on me, though.

“I saw it in the bathroom,” he told me. “Go ahead and show everyone. It's pretty sweet.”

I pushed my chair back from the table and hiked my jeans up, revealing the monitor cinched around my leg.

I'd expected that my fellow students would be put off by the hardware, lumping me in with future criminals like Vance Jessup. Instead everyone seemed impressed.

“What's that for?” Violet asked.

“It tracks me,” I said. “So the cops know where I am.”

“Can I touch it?” Violet asked.

“Uh, sure. I guess.” I propped my leg up on a chair.

Violet tentatively touched the monitor, like it might explode. “Excellent,” she said.

The other Royals crowded in to examine the bracelet as well. I had to lean back to give them all room.

As I did, I caught a glimpse of the video, still playing on Violet's phone. The camera was now panning back and forth between Pete Thwacker and the people trying to extricate the stuffed koala from beneath Bubba and Marge. As it did, it repeatedly caught a man in the background. He was dressed like all the other tourists, but something seemed strange about him.

“Can you pause that?” I asked Violet.

She did. “Do you not want to watch it anymore?”

“Actually, I want to take a closer look,” I said. “Can I borrow your phone?”

“Sure.” Violet handed the phone to me, intrigued.

I rewound to the man. He was thickset and muscular, like a wrestler, wearing jeans, a winter jacket, and an orange Houston Astros baseball cap. While everyone around him seemed to be either disgusted or saddened, he was watching the whole scene stoically, his mouth a flat, emotionless line.
That was understandable, however. Not everyone reacted to tragedy the same way. There was something else about him that had caught my attention.

“Do you know that guy?” Xavier asked.

“No,” I said. “I've never seen him before.”

“Then why are you so interested in him?” Dashiell asked.

“He's wearing sunglasses,” I said.

“So?” Xavier asked. “Lots of people wear sunglasses.”

“He's inside,” I said. “Plus, it's pretty dark inside the koala exhibit. And it was cloudy yesterday. Not the kind of day anyone would be wearing sunglasses
outside
.”

Now everyone's attention had shifted from the bracelet back to me again.

“Suspicious,” Ethan said. “You think he stole Kazoo?”

“I don't know,” I admitted. “Maybe.” In truth I knew the sunglasses weren't
that
suspicious. Wearing them inside on a cloudy day wasn't much evidence against someone. But something still struck me about the man in the Astros cap. I suddenly had the feeling that maybe I
had
seen him before, only I couldn't recall where. It was hard to get a good idea of what he looked like on the tiny screen.

I handed the phone back to Violet. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” she said. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Word is, you live at FunJungle, right?”

I swallowed, surprised Violet knew that about me—or anything about me, for that matter. “Yes. Both my parents work there.”

“That's pretty cool,” Dashiell put in, and a lot of the Royals echoed agreement. “So you get to hang out there after the park closes?”

“Sometimes,” I said.

This was met with murmurs of excitement from the group.

I couldn't help but smile. I'd always figured that living at a zoo would be considered weird by the Royals. Instead they were all intrigued.

“Do you ever get to play with any of the animals?” Ethan asked.

“Well, that's not really good for the animals,” I said. “But I've been in with the gorillas a few times.”

This produced even more excitement.

“Ooh! I
love
gorillas!” one of the cheerleaders squealed. “Could you ever get me in there?”

“Maybe,” I said. In truth the answer was
no
, but I wasn't about to shoot down a cheerleader right then and there.

“That's not what I wanted to ask about . . . ,” Violet began.

Before she could finish her thought, however, a football player called out, “How about the tigers? Have you ever been in with the tigers?”

“No,” I said. “But I was right there when the tiger escaped at that big party last year.”

That
really
got everyone's attention. Now I was being peppered with too many questions to answer. Some kids wanted to know about the tiger escape. Others wanted to know what other animals I'd been able to interact with. Most wanted to know if I could get them free tickets.

Violet kept trying to get a word in edgewise, but the others drowned her out. Finally she snapped. “Hey! Let me speak!”

Everyone fell silent deferentially. They seemed almost embarrassed that the queen had been forced to raise her voice.

Violet returned her attention to me. “There's a rumor going around about you,” she began. “I just want to know if it's true.”

“Shoot,” I said, wondering what it could be. The fact that I'd grown up in the Congo? Or that I'd helped solve the mystery of Henry's death last summer? Or that I'd been responsible for the debacle at Henry's funeral?

“Are you friends with Summer McCracken?” Violet asked.

I hadn't expected that, although I realized I should have. Sometimes I forgot Summer was just as famous as FunJungle. As the daughter of one of the richest men in America, she
routinely ended up on the Internet or the covers of tabloid magazines.

“He is,” Xavier said proudly. “In fact, he talked to her last night!”

This provoked the most excitement so far. The Royals immediately forgot about everything else.

“What's she like?” Violet asked, and everyone else quickly seconded the question.

I took my time answering. I didn't mind milking my life at FunJungle to get in with the Royals, but it seemed wrong to use my friendship with Summer the same way. I'd always thought the major reason Summer liked me at all was because I had never taken advantage of our relationship. Now, I was afraid that the moment I said anything revealing about her, it would spread like wildfire through the school.

So I went with the blandest thing I could think of. “She's nice.”

“I knew it!” Violet said triumphantly. “She always seems nice on TV.”

The others jumped in, bombarding me with questions.

“Have you ever been to her house?”

“How often do you talk to her?”

“Does she dye her hair?”

Violet, however, was front and center, commanding the most attention. She put her hand on my knee and got
face-to-face with me. “Next time she's in town, could you introduce us?”

“I don't think she's going to be in town for a while,” I said, trying to duck the question.

Before Violet could follow up, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. All around the cafeteria, students snapped to their feet and hurried off for their next class—although the Royals took their time, less concerned about getting tardies. However, the bell gave me an excuse to break away from them. As much as I'd enjoyed getting to spend time with the popular kids, I didn't want to have to share any more about Summer. “It was really nice meeting all of you,” I said, then turned to Ethan and Dashiell. “Thanks again for saving me.”

“Get Summer McCracken to go to the school dance with me and we're even,” Ethan said, and everyone laughed.

“Don't listen to this moron,” Dashiell told me with a grin. “It was no big deal.”

I smiled back and turned for the door.

Xavier was right on my heels. “That was crazy,” he said. “In my whole life, I never thought I'd get to sit with the Royals. . . .”

“They're just kids,” I told him. “They're no different from us.”

“They're
way
different from us,” Xavier corrected. “They're popular. And now
you
could be popular too. Did
you see their faces when they heard you knew Summer? The cheerleaders flipped.
You
ought to ask Summer to the school dance. If she came with you, you'd be the coolest kid in the history of this school. Maybe the history of Texas.”

I started to tell Xavier I would never use Summer like that, but before I could, someone tapped my shoulder.

I spun around to find Violet there. For once she wasn't surrounded by her fellow cheerleaders. They were all heading out the door. Violet checked to see if they were watching her, then handed me a scrap of paper. “This is my cell number,” she said. “Call me.”

I was so surprised, all I could think to say was “okay.”

“Great!” Violet flashed a quick, surprisingly shy smile, then ducked away before anyone noticed she'd been talking to me.

Xavier's jaw dropped in astonishment. “Whoa,” he gasped. “Violet Grace gave you her digits! That's incredible!”

“She just wants to meet Summer,” I said.

“Maybe not,” Xavier replied, though he didn't look like he fully believed that either.

“I'm a seventh grader who nearly got swirlied at the beginning of lunch and she's the head cheerleader,” I argued. “You really think she wants to go out with me?”

“
I
think you're cool,” Xavier said.

“That makes one of us.” I slipped Violet's number into my pocket.

And then, out the window behind Xavier, I saw Vance Jessup.

He'd cleaned himself off and changed his shirt, probably in the school gym. Now he was staring at me. Vance had always been scary, but at that moment the look of hatred in his eyes was downright terrifying. I wondered how long he'd been watching me.

He pointed through the window at me. It was a subtle gesture, but it was loaded with meaning. Things weren't over between us. Not by a long shot.

Then, before anyone else noticed him, Vance ducked away and vanished from sight.

I managed to avoid Vance
for the rest of the day. He'd apparently ditched school after I saw him by the cafeteria. Even bullies could be embarrassed, and Vance's plunge into the Toilet of Doom was the primary topic of conversation at school that afternoon.