Amanda Lester and the Orange Crystal Crisis

by Paula Berinstein

  Suddenly everything started shaking. Amanda grabbed Ivy and shoved her into a doorway, then held onto her while the building shook for what seemed like twenty seconds. It was one of the worst aftershocks they’d felt. Ivy was trembling so hard it was difficult for Amanda to tell what was coming from the outside and what was internal. Ivy had adjusted to the aftershocks better than she’d hoped, but she was still afraid. Who wouldn’t be? When the ground moves under your feet, nothing is stable. The only safe place is in an airplane flying high off the ground.

  Poor Nigel was shaking too. Fortunately when he was scared he’d come close to Ivy and lean on her, so he was under the doorway frame too. Simon never had made him a special protective device, although he had fashioned the breathing mask and it seemed to help. The dog wasn’t wearing it now though.

  When the shaking had stopped, Ivy said, “That was a bad one.”

  “Yes,” said Amanda. “The worst one yet. I wonder if anyone’s hurt.”

  “We should know quickly,” said Ivy. “With all this earthquake stuff going on, people have been communicating really well.”

  The girls waited a couple of minutes but no texts arrived, so they continued on their way. When they had arrived at their room, Ivy went to look for Nigel’s eye drops, and Amanda cuddled with the dog on her bed. She decided to take the opportunity to call her dad. She hadn’t spoken with him for a while and she was worried about him.

  “Hey, Dad,” she said when she’d reached him.

  “Hello, dear,” said Herb. He sounded breathy.

  “How are you?” she said.

  A pause. “What’s that?”

  “I say how are you?” She raised her voice.

  “Sorry, it’s hard to hear you in this asana. Let me straighten up.” What was he talking about? Asana? Wasn’t that yoga? “Ah,” he said much more loudly. “Those inverted poses are murder. Do you a world of good though.”

  “Are you doing yoga, Dad?” she said.

  “Yup. I’m studying with a fellow from India. Name of Krishna Samosa. Quite a revelation. You should try it.”

  “You think I should do yoga?” said Amanda. Ivy lifted her sunglasses in a way that said, “What in the world is going on?”

  “Absolutely. Change your life.”

  “Uh, okay, Dad. I will.”

  “See that you do. You okay?”

  “I think so. I mean . . .” He was not in a frame of mind to talk. He sounded spaced out. “Yes. I’m good, Dad. Really good.”

  “I’m glad, Amanda. I’ve got to go back to my practicing right now, but please find yourself a teacher. Okay?”

  “Sure, Dad. I will.”

  “Namaste.”

  “Uh, Namaste.”

  Amanda put the phone down and sat silent for at least a minute. It was the weirdest conversation she’d ever had.

  “What was that?” said Ivy finally.

  “I have no idea.”

  “Are you going to take up yoga?” said Ivy.

  “Oh, sure. That’ll find the whatsit and identify the body and help us figure out the crystals. Are you kidding?”

  “Think he’s okay?” said Ivy.

  “I don’t know,” said Amanda. “I really don’t.”

  “There are worse things than yoga,” said Ivy.

  “Not if you’re Herb Lester,” said Amanda. “He’s not a New Age sort of guy. He’s Mr. Practical. Well, he does have a passionate side. I never realized that until recently. All his career he’s been on a mission to get rid of bad guys and save the world. You have to be idealistic to be like that, don’t you? But that’s not the same thing as being a hippie.” She paused as the very idea hit her. “OMG, my dad is a hippie! I wonder if he has a ponytail. I’m freaking out. I feel like I don’t know him anymore. Maybe I never did. Krishna Samosa? Yeesh.”

  “Give him time,” said Ivy. “He’s been through a lot.”

  “Yes, you’re right. He probably just needs to get whatever all this is out of his system.”

  Then Ivy said, “I can’t find the drops. Can you help me?”

  “Sure,” said Amanda. “Nigel can’t smell them, can he?”

  “I wish,” said Ivy. “Don’t think so.”

  But the eye drops were nowhere to be found. The two girls turned the room upside down and after nearly half an hour they still hadn’t found them.

  “Oh no,” said Ivy at last. “What a dummy. I think I left them in the common room. Let’s go look.”

  Girls and dog trundled down to the Holmes House common room. On the way Ivy started to chuckle.

  “What’s so funny?” said Amanda.

  “I’m just a dope,” said Ivy. “I should have remembered where I put those things.”

  “No biggie,” said Amanda, stepping into the common room. “I do that stuff all the time.”

  Suddenly she heard, “Surprise! Happy birthday!” and just about fell over backwards. There in their favorite hangout was the entire Holmes House first-year gang, as well as a bunch of other students she knew, including Ivy’s sister, Fern, and the décor gremlins, who seemed to have outdone themselves yet again.

  The room looked like the FAO Schwartz toy store in New York. It was stuffed to the gills with plush animals, toy trains, puppets, games, musical instruments, building sets, books, art supplies, balloons, glitter, and the most tantalizing cakes and cookies ever.

  “But my birthday isn’t till next week” said Amanda. Then she caught sight of Amphora and Simon, who were grinning like Cheshire cats. “You knew about this,” she said.

  “Yup,” said Simon.

  “That’s why—”

  “Never mind,” said Ivy. “Let’s look at the gifts.”

  Amanda was astounded to see a huge pile of presents in the corner by the window. Someone, probably Simon, she thought, had stacked them as high as they would go in a tower-like structure that looked as if it would topple any moment. She hoped there wasn’t anything breakable inside the colorfully wrapped packages.

  “Come look at my cake,” Amphora said, pulling Amanda toward the other side of the room.

  “You made me a cake?” said Amanda.

  Amphora dragged her over to a gigantic cake. It had about a billion layers and was covered with bright blue frosting with curlicues and other decorations in different colors. Half of it was gorgeous, but the other half was lopsided and rickety.

  “Ha ha,” said David Wiffle, who had crashed the party. “What a stupid cake.”

  “Shut up,” said Amphora. “I worked really hard on that.”

  “Yeah,” said Gordon Bramble, who was back at David’s side. Amanda figured they must have made up.

  “It’s super ugly,” said Harry Sheriff, who was attending for some unknown reason. Amanda didn’t even know him. If that was the way he behaved, why did all the girls like him so much? “Is that your self-portrait on it?”

  “What’s the matter with you?” said Amanda. “She put a lot of effort into making this cake. I think it’s lovely.” Harry Sheriff indeed.

  “I’ll bet it cost the school a ton of money,” said Editta from behind her. Amanda was surprised to see her there, but glad. Maybe she was returning to normal.

  “It didn’t,” said Amphora, who was getting worked up. “And anyway, they can afford it.”

  “Don’t think so,” said Simon. “With all the earthquake repairs they have to make, they’re going to have to spend a lot.”

  “Oh, shut up, Simon,” said Amphora. “You ruin everything.”

  Ivy looked like she was about to say something but shut her mouth. Amanda figured this wasn’t the time or place to be fining those two and was grateful for Ivy’s good judgment.

  “You did this all by yourself?” said Editta. She was definitely sounding like her old self.

  “I did get a little help,” said Amphora.

  “Figures,” said Simon. “You only made this so you could spend time with Rupert. That’s why you made it so big. The bigger it was, the more time it would t
ake.”

  Ivy turned to face Simon and said, “That’s it, Simon. I’m not going to fine you for that. I’m going to kick you out.”

  “You can’t do that,” said Simon. “You’re not Thrillkill. I can be here if I want.” He sounded uncharacteristically petulant.

  “We’re going to have a talk after this,” said Ivy. “We need to get some things straight.”

  “Suit yourself,” said Simon, walking off. Then he turned around. “Oh, and by the way, Amphora, your precious Mr. Thwack isn’t here because I told him not to come. You should think about someone besides yourself for a change. He could get fired for mixing with the students. Put that in your cake and eat it.” He stomped out of the room in a way that was quite unlike him.

  “I’ve had enough too,” said Amphora, turning and huffing out after him. “Happy birthday, Amanda. It isn’t my fault your party is ruined.”

  Amanda stared at her. Here her friends had gone to all this trouble to give her a party, and now one by one they were spoiling their own event.

  She grabbed a piece of Amphora’s cake, which was delicious if a bit aesthetically challenged, and found a seat near the presents. She wolfed down the cake, smearing frosting all over her face, and began to open them. Maybe these people weren’t such good friends after all. Well, Ivy was, but the others were giving her so much trouble that they might not be worth hanging around with. Editta was sullen, Amphora prickly and selfish, and Simon rude. Sullen, Prickly, and Rude, attorneys at law. That sounded about right. But not for her. Maybe it was time to find some new friends.

  They had chosen cool gifts though. Ivy had given her a book of Irish folktales and said on the card that she hoped they would inspire her filmmaking. Amphora had given her a beautiful bracelet. Editta’s package contained, surprise, surprise, a good luck charm. Simon’s outsized package contained one of his adapted skateboards, which she thought especially nice for all the effort he’d put into it. Owla, Prudence, Dreidel, and Clive had selected thoughtful gifts as well. Even the gremlins had participated. Alexei had contributed a statue of a peacock, and Noel had picked out a Lucite vase. Amanda suspected that both items had come from the basement. Still, she was chuffed.

  Suddenly Holmes entered the room, empty-handed. Amanda didn’t remember seeing a gift from him, so he obviously wasn’t giving her one. He made a beeline for the food and piled a plate high, saw Amanda in the corner, and left. Left! Without even so much as a “Happy birthday.” What was up with him now? She didn’t even want to guess. From now on, everything weird that happened would be due to spores. That was the only explanation that made sense and she wasn’t going to waste valuable brainpower looking for another one.

  Then David Wiffle stomped up to her and said, “Your friend is in trouble now. I told on her.”

  “What do you mean?” said Amanda, hugging her new skateboard.

  “You can’t ride that,” said Wiffle. “It’s too dangerous.”

  “I can too, and since when do you care about my well-being?” said Amanda.

  “I don’t,” he said. “I mean it’s too dangerous for the people who aren’t skateboarding. They get nervous when they see you coming and run into each other and stuff.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” said Amanda. “What did you mean about telling? Who are you talking about?”

  “You know who,” he said. “That tall roommate of yours who thinks she’s so great.”

  “Amphora? What did you say?”

  “I told Professor Buck that she had been in the kitchen with the cook and used school supplies to make an illegal cake.”

  Amanda was gobsmacked. Illegal cake? What was he, the cake police?

  “You little weasel,” said Amanda. She felt like bonking him over the head again but knew she couldn’t get away with that twice. “What is wrong with you? She was just trying to make me a nice surprise.”

  “That cook is going to be fired,” he said.

  “You wouldn’t,” said Amanda. “You didn’t!”

  “I did,” he said. “You don’t get it, do you? If you break the rules, criminals can get in. You should know that better than any of us.” He smirked. “It was breaking the rules that got your criminal boyfriend into the school.”

  “Shut up!” she yelled. “It wasn’t my fault.”

  “Aha, so you admit you let him carry on his nefarious activities. It was your fault.”

  “Was not, was not, was not,” yelled Amanda. “You’re a hateful little prig and you’re going down, David Wiffle.”

  “What’s going on here,” said Ivy, materializing with Nigel in tow.

  “He’s an idiot,” said Amanda.

  “Nuh uh,” said Wiffle. “You’re the idiot.”

  “Shut up!” screamed Ivy. Everyone turned around and stared at her. Wiffle laughed in her face and clomped out of the room yet again.

  “Are you okay?” said Ivy.

  “Yeah,” said Amanda. “I sure hate that guy though.”

  “You know,” said Editta, suddenly appearing, “he isn’t such a great detective. Last term his house came in last on the school project. They thought the target of the garage bomber was Professor Pickle and it wasn’t. If he’s so smart, how did he mess that up? He blamed us for contaminating the evidence, but if he was any good he’d have realized that we didn’t and would have solved the mystery just as well as we did.”

  Amanda gaped. This was the most she’d heard from Editta since last term. What had brought this on? She looked at Ivy, who was also gaping.

  “Plus his grades aren’t all that good,” Editta continued. “I heard him and Gordon talking and neither one of them did all that well in their classes last term. So much for his little rules. They haven’t gotten him very far.”

  Suddenly Simon came running in. He stopped in front of the group and motioned to the door with his head.

  “What?” said Amanda.

  “Uh,” said Simon, “I was just wondering if you’d like a cup of tea.” He looked at Editta, then back at Amanda.

  “There’s tea here, Simon,” said Amanda. “Over there.” She pointed to a large teapot, which was sitting on the beverage table.

  “There’s other tea in the dining room,” he said.

  “Yeah, so?” said Amanda, who was still not happy with him for disrupting her party.

  “Just come with me for a second,” he said.

  “I’ll go,” said Ivy. “It’s getting a bit noisy in here.”

  “Okay,” said Simon. “Come on.”

  He practically pulled Ivy out of the common room. Editta looked at Amanda and said, “What’s up with him?”

  “Spores,” said Amanda.

  22

  The Whatsit

  Ivy was back in about two seconds with Simon trailing behind her. “I hope you had a fun party,” she said. “Now it’s time to go.”

  “Yeah,” said Simon. “You need to do that whoozit thing.”

  But they needn’t have worried about trying to sneak Amanda out of there. Editta wasn’t listening.

  “Oh,” said Amanda. “Right, the whoozit thing. Would you excuse me a moment, Editta? Thank you so much for the lovely good luck charm. I’m going to find a chain for it and put it on right away.”

  “You should,” said Editta. “It will help you a lot.”

  Amanda noticed that Editta was wearing one just like it around her neck. Somehow it wasn’t doing her a whole lot of good, but Amanda would wear it to please her friend anyway.

  Ivy and Simon hustled Amanda out of the common room, and checking around to make sure no one could hear, they told her that Simon had discovered that the crystals were formed from the virus-treated sugar!

  “OMG,” said Amanda. “That makes perfect sense. We found them where the cook put the sugar, or nearby anyway.”

  “The slime mold must have moved it around some when it was eating the stuff,” said Ivy. “That’s why the crystals formed where they did. The earthquake put tremendous pressure on the remaining su
gar. There was a lot of heat too, kind of like how diamonds are formed. That’s what did it.”

  “I found the virus in them,” said Simon. “I used the smartphone microscope Professor Kindseth and I made, and there it was.”

  “You realize what this means, of course,” said Amanda. “Any place the pink sugar was there could be crystals.”

  “You’re right,” said Ivy. “I hadn’t thought of that. There could be some at the Moriartys’ sugar factory.”

  “Right,” said Amanda. “It’s a good thing they’re in prison and can’t go back there. Although wait a minute. The earthquake wasn’t strong enough in London to make crystals.”

  “No,” said Simon, “but the explosion and the fire were.”

  “Oh no!” said Amanda. “I hadn’t thought of that. There could be crystals there. Do you think the crime scene investigators found them and—no. I saw the list of evidence. There was nothing about any crystals.”

  “Maybe they didn’t find them,” said Ivy. “They could be buried.”

  “Yes!” said Amanda. “We need to go see.”

  “I wouldn’t worry,” said Simon. “The Moriartys aren’t going to be able to get them. The police caught them before they’d have time to find them, and they’re still in prison. If there are any crystals they’ll be sitting there for a long time.”

  “But just for the sake of argument, let’s say the Moriartys—or their associates—did find the crystals,” said Amanda. “It wouldn’t take them long to discover their properties. They’d want to exploit them. And they wouldn’t care that they were living things. They’d take what they could get and just kill them.”

  “But then they’d have nothing,” said Ivy. “That wouldn’t be in their interests.”

  “Yeah, it would,” said Amanda. “Because they’d try to make more. And if they succeeded, they’d be breeding this wonderful new life form just so they could abuse and kill it.”

  “You’re right,” said Simon. “Technically, that would be genocide.”

  “Wow,” said Ivy. “It would.”

  The situation was so serious that the three friends wondered if they should tell Thrillkill after all. They knew they’d have to tell Amphora. It wouldn’t be fair to leave her out. Editta? Probably not—at least not now. Amanda almost wished they could confide in Professor Kindseth, but that was out of the question. In the end they decided to keep the news to themselves for a while, but they’d have to get to London to explore the ruins of the factory as soon as possible.