Priscilla the Great (3-Book Bundle includes study guide questions) (Priscilla the Great Omnibus)

by Sybil Nelson

  "Priss, have you been communicating with River's Bend?"

  "It's not what you think Dad. I've been very careful."

  "Priscilla, you know how dangerous that is. What if Colonel Selliwood traces your calls? He could find our location. You're putting us all in danger."

  "Dad, I'm sorry. I just couldn't bear to not talk to my best friend every day."

  "I don't want to hear it. This is unacceptable. Hand it over." My dad held out his hand as if waiting for me to drop something in it.

  "Hand what over?"

  "The cell phone or iPhone or walkie talkie or whatever it is you've been using."

  I placed the brush phone in his hand.

  He eyed it strangely. "What the heck is this?"

  "It's a brush phone. Tai designed it so you wouldn't find out we were communicating."

  My dad started staring at the device in a new light. The way he held it delicately in his hand and turned it over and over made it look like he was examining a diamond.

  "Fascinating," he said, his voice almost a whisper. He was so enthralled by the brush phone I was hoping he would forget that I had disobeyed his orders. I started tiptoeing out of the briefing room. Unfortunately, my dad was not one prone to forget things.

  "By the way, Priss," he said without taking his eyes off the brush phone. "You're grounded. Hand over the keys to the jet."

  "This is so unfair, so freaking unfair," I said as I handed him the electronic remote. Good thing I had a spare hidden in my room. I knew my dad would pull something like this on me one day. I had to be prepared. Once you get used to flying a jet around anytime you want, going back to begging your older brother for transportation just won't cut it.

  My dad sat me down at the table and gave me a stack of material to read about Elizabeth Gonzalez. He thought if I researched her a bit, we'd have a better idea of how to find her.

  Elizabeth Gonzalez was fourteen when her father was elected as the first Latin American president of the United States. The pressure was on her to be the perfect child. Everyone wanted her to do something embarrassing so people could point and say "I told you so. I told you we shouldn't have elected a Mexican. He can't even control his kids." Elizabeth was a good kid though from what I could tell. She was completely addicted to soccer, both playing it and watching it. Once she even ditched the Secret Service in order to go to a DC United game.

  Apparently she was very good at losing her Secret Service detail. When she sneaked off to the soccer game, she had dressed as a maid and just walked straight out of the hotel she happened to be staying at. Another time she dressed as a pregnant woman and lost them that way. Now that's creative. She was my kinda girl. We'd probably get along great if she didn't think I was a kidnapping psycho.

  A few hours later, Josh and Marco joined us in the briefing room. Josh did his psychic thing and tried to see the future or get any insight as to what was going on. Marco got on the computer and tried to find out anything he could as well. Everyone was working to find Elizabeth. Everyone except my mom. She was sick again and in too much pain to get out of bed.

  Finally, my dad said, "It's not a fake." He came and sat down next to me at the table where I used one of his laptops. "I've studied the recording over and over again. Every single shadow and reflection is in the right spot. No one doctored this tape. It is what it is."

  "Except I didn't do it, Dad. I was on a date with Kyle."

  "Of course you didn't do it, Sweetheart." He kissed the top of my head. "We just have to figure out what's really going on." He stretched and said, "I need some coffee." He stood to leave the room but stopped and added, "You kids want some milk and cookies or something?"

  "Daddy, what, are we three years old?" I rolled my eyes. But cookies actually sounded kind of good, especially his homemade chocolate chip double fudge macadamia nut cookies. "Make it cookies and ice cream."

  "You got it, Priss. I'll bring some for everyone."

  "I need a break as well," Marco said, standing. "I'll help you carry the refreshments."

  After my dad and Marco left, I scooted my wheelie chair over to Josh. "Alright, spill it."

  "What are you talking about?" he asked, eyes still closed for his meditation.

  "You know something. You're just as bad a liar as I am. Now what's going on?"

  He opened his eyes and sat up straight. "I think something's wrong with Mom."

  "That's obvious. She's been sick a lot lately." I suddenly got really nervous. "Oh no, is something going to happen to her? Should we be worried?"

  Josh shrugged. "I'm not sure."

  "Did you have a vision?"

  "Not really a vision, more like...an intuition." He shook his head. "I don't think we can trust her anymore."

  "Why not?"

  He leaned toward me and whispered, "I think her powers are coming back."

  We always thought that was possible. We were hoping that her body would revert back to its natural state after what the machine at the Selliwood Institute had done to her. After thirty five years of the same genetic code, Dad thought that her body would eventually try to regrow the DNA it was familiar with. I know my mother missed her powers and missed being able to help in the mission to take down Selliwood. This was a step in the right direction. This was a good thing. Why did Josh seem so freaked out about it?

  "Isn't that what we wanted? Isn't this a good thing?" I asked Josh.

  He shrugged."I'm not sure. I felt her in my head the other day. But when I asked her about it, she snapped at me and denied it. Why would she try to hide it from me?"

  That was a good question. I wasn't sure. If my mother's powers were coming back, I would think she'd be so happy she'd tell all of us. She had no reason to hide them.

  "Well, maybe you made a mistake, Josh. Maybe it was another Specimen trying to make contact with you. Maybe there's a Specimen in trouble somewhere who was just trying to ask you for help or something."

  "It's possible. But I don't think so. I'm pretty sure it was Mom."

  I thought about this for a second. If my mother was getting her powers back and lying to us about it, there had to be a good reason. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of one.

  Chapter 22: 8th Grade Sabotage

  A few hours later as I sat alone in the briefing room, my brush phone went off again. My dad had tried to hide it from me. But hey, I have super hearing. I tracked down the beeping phone to a locked drawer underneath my dad's computer table. I know it's wrong to break into things that are locked. I mean, parents lock things away from kids for a reason. But I just had to answer this brush phone call. I knew it had to be important. Tai and I usually didn't talk more than once a day. We thought it would increase the chances of us eventually getting caught. I couldn't help but think of the clone of me she had seen earlier. What if it had captured her or attacked her or something? Well, that didn't make any sense. If she was captured, I doubt if she'd be able to use the phone. Unless she was being held for ransom. I had to make sure she was okay.

  I pulled the drawer open, breaking the pad lock in the process. "Are you okay, Tai?" I asked once I clicked it on.

  "No," she sniffled. I could tell she was crying.

  "What's wrong?" If someone had put my friend in danger or hurt her in any way, they were about to get scorched.

  "The eighth graders said I can't come to their dance." She burst into tears.

  "Oh, Tai." I knew this was bad and that Tai felt like it was the end of the world, but I actually breathed a sigh of relief. At least she wasn't in danger of dying. "Tell me what happened."

  "They sent me all these nasty text messages and tweets saying that I'm not one of them and that I can't come to their dance."

  I knew they meant that she wasn't one of them because she was technically a seventh grader and had skipped a grade into their class, but I had a feeling that Tai was taking it another way as well. She probably felt it had something to do with the fact that she was black. Because she was the only black person in all of River
's Bend she always felt like she stuck out.

  "Tai, it's okay. Don't let them make you feel ostrage...austrial -"

  "Ostracized?" she sniffled.

  "Yeah, that's the word. Who needs their stupid dance anyway?"

  "I do! I need it. I thought they had finally accepted me."

  "Tai, it's just a dance. I know you think it's a big deal, but -"

  "They told me to go back to Africa," Tai said interrupting me.

  "Whoa, wait, what?"

  Instead of answering, Tai just sobbed some more. "Well, that just shows how stupid they are, Tai. You've never even been to Africa," I said, trying to cheer her up. It didn't work. She just kept crying. I had no idea that the tormenting had gone this far. Wasn't it illegal to discriminate against someone because of their race?

  All this time, I thought they were just being regular snobby eighth graders. I knew Tai had had a hard year with them. They wouldn't let her sit with them, they wouldn't let her eat the ice cream from the soft serve machine near the eighth grade tables, they ignored her inside and out of class, and now they were excluding her from a dance that she had every right to go to just because she was black. It wasn't fair. I had no idea what she was going through. We had learned about this type of thing in History class. It happened all the time in the 50s. But I thought this country had gotten past that. I mean, there was a Mexican American in the White House.

  There was no way I was going to let this slide. Tai didn't deserve this kind of treatment. No one did. I was going to do something about it.

  "I think I'm gonna hit the hay early tonight," I said later that night before our meeting about the First Daughter kidnapping. Hit the hay? I couldn't believe I said that. What a stupid expression. I mean who really hits hay and why? I did a dramatic stretch and yawn as I walked past my parents toward my room.

  Mom and Dad stared at me. They were both sitting on the couch. My mom had her feet on my dad's lap and he was massaging them while he read the latest about the kidnapping in the newspaper. "It's six o'clock," Dad said, looking at his watch.

  "Are you feeling alright?" Mom reached up. I bent down and let her feel my head.

  "Yeah, I'm fine, I just tired myself out... playing...um...having a snowball fight with the twins. Yeah, um, those little monsters are exhausting." No one could disagree with that statement.

  My parents nodded. "Go rest for a little bit then meet us at the safe house. Marco says he has a theory about the kidnapping."

  I went to my room and waited a few minutes until my parents were involved in something else. Then I climbed out of my window and dashed out of the house and to the corn field that held our jet. Hopefully, my plan wouldn't take more than a couple of hours. I needed to get to River's Bend to teach the eighth graders a lesson and get back before anyone realized I was gone.

  I tried not to worry about running into another specimen. Dad and W had fixed the jet last night. Hopefully, that meant I would not show up on any radar known to man. Hopefully.

  It was going to be fine. At most, I would be gone two hours. What could happen in such a short amount of time?

  I was concentrating so hard on my plan that I got careless. I didn't pay attention to my surroundings. I didn't even realize my terrible mistake until I had been in the air for a few minutes. And then I heard snickering. It was the distinctive snickering of my bratty little brothers. I put the jet on auto pilot for a second and left the cockpit.

  "Okay, where are you, you little demon seed?" They actually tried to be quiet and hide as if I would forget they were there. Hello? Didn't they realize I had super hearing?

  I focused my hearing for a second until I could hear their breathing. Then in one quick move, I dove behind a seat and grabbed Charlie by the collar and Chester by the hair.

  "What are you doing here?" I asked.

  "We were playing hide and seek with Marco," Charlie said.

  "Yeah, we were hiding in the jet and then you jumped in and took off."

  "So awesome, Priss. He's never gonna find us."

  "We're totally gonna win!" They hi-fived each other.

  I rolled my eyes as I dragged them to the cockpit. I tossed them both into the co-pilot's seat. "Buckle up and shut up. I'm taking you back home."

  "No, Priss. We wanna go with you."

  "Yeah, we wanna go with you."

  "No way."

  As I took over control of the jet, I looked at the time. It was already 6:15. The dance started at 7. I wouldn't have time to get them home and get to River's Bend in time to enact my plan. They would just have to come. And hey, they might even be able to help. I decided to bring them along, but I immediately regretted that decision.

  "Priss, Chester's touching me."

  "Of course he's touching you. He's sitting on your lap!" I said.

  "Ow! Charlie bit me!"

  "Charlie, stop biting your brother."

  "Owww! He bit me again!"

  "That's it! One more peep out of either of you and I will pull this jet over. Do you understand me?"

  Charlie and Chester decided to peep a few more times, but a few quick jet maneuvers that left them green in the face shut them up pretty nicely.

  I landed the jet in the woods right outside of River's Bend then took Charlie and Chester with me to the Polk Middle School gym where the dance was being held. I knew exactly how my revenge was going to unfold. I was a master prankster. Those snobby eighth graders were going to regret the day they tormented my best friend.

  Near the beginning of every eighth grade dance there was a balloon drop. Usually the pretty...and empty…balloons sailed to the ground and made the gym look all surreal like a fairytale dream. For the rest of the night, people danced around the balloons kind of like they were in some sort of bubbly fantasyland. There was also a little competition. If you spotted the one balloon with the picture of President Polk on the side of it you got to be the queen of the night. Or king if you were a boy, but usually the boy would give the balloon to his date and let her be the queen. Anyway, tonight there was going to be a little surprise in the balloons.

  I was actually happy that the twins were with me after a while. I gave them assignments and we got done with the project in record time. I let Charlie and Chester run back and forth to the rafters of the gym and retrieve the balloons. Then they would bring me the balloons in the cafeteria and let me fill them up. Soon the eighth grade was going to get all the soft serve ice cream they could ever want and more.

  When we finished with the set up, I went to get Tai. I wanted her to see this.

  I passed by my house on the way to Tai's. I didn't realize how much I missed my old home until I saw it. Maybe I'd have time to visit after Mission Sabotage was complete.

  When I rang the doorbell at Tai's house, something unexpected happened. Spencer opened the door. He looked almost exactly the same. Same dirty blond hair, even though it was a little shorter and same cute crooked smile. He was even wearing his same old raggedy vintage Van Halen shirt. I used to dream about him in that shirt...and out of it, actually.

  "Priss, how's it going? It's been months." he asked genuinely excited to see me. He actually gave me a hug. Then something even more unexpected happened. I didn't feel anything. Not a thing. I was completely over him.

  "It's good to see you, Spence," I said, squirming out of his embrace. "But what are you doing here? Where's Tai?"

  "We were supposed to go to the dance together tonight, but when the eighth graders told her she couldn't come she got pretty depressed. I just came over to try to cheer her up." He stepped aside and let me pass. "She's upstairs. I'm sure she'll be really glad to see you."

  I bounded up the steps two at a time. When I entered Tai's room, she was curled up on her bed practically hugging her rock box. Tai was basically a perfect, adorable, genius, but she did have one little quirk. Whenever she got really anxious, nervous, or depressed, she'd take out her special shoebox and take rocks out one at a time only to replace them one at a time. It was the only
thing that calmed her down.

  "Priss, what are you doing here?" she said with tears in her eyes. She must have been crying all day.

  "I knew you needed me, so I came."

  She sat up and hugged me, crying into my shoulder.

  "Don't cry, Tai. I took care of everything."

  "What do you mean?" She wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

  "Just get dressed and follow me."

  Charlie and Chester stood guard at the balloon drop location, making sure nothing started without us. One of the eighth grade teachers was in charge of dropping the net and letting the balloons fall, but we rigged it so that only we could make the balloons drop. We stood at the top of the gym in the rafters and waited until the dance was in full swing. Usually, the balloon drop happened about 30 minutes into the dance.

  Mrs. Talendy tugged on the rope and nothing happened. She called over to another couple teachers for help and when none of them could get it to work, they all left in search of the problem.

  "Priss, what did you do? I hope you don't plan on hurting anyone." Tai asked. She still hadn't caught on to what Charlie, Chester and I were planning.

  "Don't worry; no one's going to get hurt. Let's just say, those eighth graders are finally going to learn their lesson."

  I touched the netting and sent a flame that burned through it. Then I yanked it completely free and all the balloons fell to the ground, all the vanilla and chocolate filled balloons. Screams soon followed and then people started sliding around and falling as they tried to get out of the gym.

  Tai covered her mouth in shock at first, but then she started laughing hysterically. It was pretty funny. I turned to look and see if Charlie and Chester enjoyed it as well, but they were nowhere to be found.

  "Charlie! Chester!" I yelled. Where did those little monsters go? I grabbed Tai's hand and dragged her down the stairs with me to the main floor. There was no telling what they were getting into. I didn't really want to get caught as the one behind this prank. I was just going to let Tai see how it turned out, then take her back home and get back to Missouri before anyone missed me. Those little monsters were totally ruining my perfectly laid out plans.