Alexis

by Erica Rodgers

  Elizabeth didn’t laugh.

  “Stonehenge is a pile of big rocks in England that were propped upright sometime way before Jesus was born,” Alexis explained, in case Elizabeth didn’t know. “They don’t know who put them up or why they’re standing in a circle in the middle of a field….”

  “Oh, I know about that,” Elizabeth said. “I saw a program about it on the History Channel. I was just thinking.”

  “Look!” Alexis whispered. She pointed across the road to where a short, slouched figure was walking quickly away, leaning on a stick. It was the old woman.

  “Come on! Let’s go talk to her!” Elizabeth exclaimed.

  Both girls jumped to their feet and dusted off their backsides before jogging across the street. They wanted to catch up and ask her a few questions about the bridge and this so-called curse, but it wasn’t that easy.

  The closer they got to the woman, the faster she seemed to walk. Soon she was almost running. She zigged and zagged through the streets of Lake Havasu City, leading the girls deeper and deeper into the teeming crowds of tourists. The old woman took a sharp left into an alley behind a bakery, and the girls almost lost her.

  They stood panting on the sidewalk, being jostled by purses. Alexis noticed that some of the purses had small dogs in them. She would never understand what made people carry their dogs around everywhere they went.

  “It’s like she knows we’re following her and is trying to lose us!” panted Elizabeth. “She must be up to something devious, or she wouldn’t run.”

  “I know,” wheezed Alexis as a Pomeranian nipped at her elbow from inside its rainbow-colored Louis Vuitton. “Can you see anything?”

  Elizabeth used her height to peer over the heads of the crowd.

  “There!” she cried. The old woman emerged from an alley farther down the street. She bent low, as if she didn’t want to be seen.

  The girls resumed the chase.

  “Maybe she’s late for an appointment,” said Alexis, fighting against the pressure of bodies as they weaved through yet another crosswalk. At that moment the woman turned around. The girls emerged from a clump of people, and they made eye contact.

  The woman ran.

  Now Alexis knew that the woman was definitely avoiding them. But why? It didn’t make any sense. She was the one who had stood near the bridge yelling about a curse. All they wanted was a little more information, for goodness’ sake! And for a rickety, old-looking woman, she sure ran fast!

  They ran for half a mile or more, making three left-hand turns and four to the right. Then Elizabeth stopped.

  “She’s gone,” she huffed.

  “Are you sure?” asked Alexis.

  “Sure.” Elizabeth bent over to catch her breath. “I haven’t seen her for a few minutes. She got away.”

  Alexis slumped against the nearest window. It was cold to the touch. The store must have had the air-conditioning going full blast. Well, she thought, there’s nothing left to do now but go back. She looked around…and recognized nothing.

  “Elizabeth, do you know where we are?”

  Her friend only shook her head. Great. They were alone in a strange city, and they had followed the old woman without even thinking about how they would get back. Alexis thought of Hansel and Gretel.

  “Those two were smart,” she said.

  “What?” asked Elizabeth.

  “Hansel and Gretel were smart. They left a way to get back home.”

  Elizabeth laughed. “Sure. I’ll keep a few bread crumbs in my pocket for our next high-speed chase through a strange town!”

  “I guess we can go in a shop and ask someone,” said Alexis.

  Elizabeth was about to answer when they both jumped.

  Hundreds of screams ripped through the streets of Lake Havasu City.

  Imposters

  The air was quiet for a moment or two. Then it happened again. Hundreds of people screamed.

  Alexis looked at Elizabeth. By the fear on her friend’s face, she could tell that Elizabeth was also worried. They were two young girls alone in a strange place. Frantic screams filled the air. The did the only thing two Camp Club Girls would have done. They ran…toward the screaming.

  When they rounded the last corner, the screaming finally made sense. Alexis and Elizabeth stood facing a huge building. Glittering letters on the side of it told them it was Lake Havasu High School, home of the Fighting Knights. The noise was coming from inside the gym. A few straggling students made their way through a pair of double doors.

  “Look, Alexis.” Elizabeth pointed to another sign. It was splashed bright with purple and gold poster paint: PEP RALLY TODAY! GO KNIGHTS!

  “Want to take a look?” asked Alexis. She had been to one pep rally at her middle school, but it had been pretty lame. It hadn’t been for a sport or anything. Just an assembly meant to encourage the students to do their best in school this year. Who had ever heard of a “Yay for Homework!” rally?

  Alexis had never even been inside a high school. How cool would it be to tell her friends she’d seen a high school pep rally, even if it was from the outside?

  The girls edged toward the doors, trying to get a peek before they closed. A voice behind them made them jump.

  “Hey! Get in there, or you’ll miss it!”

  The man ordering them into the building was obviously a teacher. Elizabeth tried to explain that they were tourists, but the man held up a thick, pink pad of paper.

  “Please,” he said. “Don’t make me give out two more detentions.”

  At that point the girls figured it was useless to protest. He lightly nudged them through the doors, followed them in, and closed the doors with a snap.

  Immediately the girls’ senses were overloaded.

  The horns of the marching band wailed what must have been the school song. The rhythm of the drums was constant and violent, like the heartbeat of an enormous beast. The bleachers exploded with a chant, “Go, Knights, go! Fight, Knights, fight! Go! Fight! WIN!” Then more of the screaming the girls had heard from the street.

  Alexis didn’t know whether to be afraid of high school or extremely excited to be a part of it. Just then she saw something that made up her mind. Five of the cheerleaders, dazzling in purple and gold, gathered in a small clump. The girl in the center disappeared for a moment, and someone yelled, “One, two!”

  The cheerleaders moved down together, and when they rose, the tiny girl in the middle exploded toward the ceiling. She completed a backflip before slamming her hands out to meet her toes and falling gracefully back into her teammates’ waiting arms.

  Alexis’s mouth hung open in shock. She had never seen a stunt go that high. Sometimes the girls throwing her in practice barely got her above their heads. She was sure this cheerleader had almost hit the rafters of the looming gym. And she knew that she was going to fly like that one day. No matter what it took.

  Someone nudged her. It was the teacher again. He pointed over to the bleachers labeled FRESHMEN, and Alexis and Elizabeth squeezed into the front row.

  “Hey, you don’t go to school here.” The voice came from a blond boy next to Elizabeth. It wasn’t accusing, just amused. “I’ve never seen you before. You’re imposters! I would have noticed you,” he added, winking at Elizabeth. The girls ignored him.

  A tall girl with purple face paint walked to the center of the gym. She was holding a microphone.

  “Attention, Fighting Knights! It’s time for the class competition! Now we’re going to pick one member from each class. Who will win? The freshmen? Sophomores? Juniors? Or seniors?”

  The students roared, and before Alexis realized what was going on, the blond boy had shoved her from her spot on the bench.

  “Alrighty! I have a freshman volunteer,” the tall girl said, grabbing Alexis by the hand.

  Alexis looked at Elizabeth frantically, but Elizabeth just shrugged in a hopeless “What can I do?” expression.

  The tall girl with the purple face dragged Alexis onto t
he hardwood. Alexis stood in front of a thousand teenagers, petrified.

  Didn’t they know she didn’t belong here? Surely it was painted on her like one of their posters. The blond boy had known right away.

  Whether or not they knew, nobody said anything. Three older students joined her in the middle of the floor: one sophomore, one junior, and one senior. Cheerleaders pulled two red wagons into the middle of the floor.

  “Here, you two work together,” the tall girl commanded as she placed Alexis next to the sophomore—a short, chunky boy with glasses. The girl holding the microphone gave Alexis a broomstick and then spoke to the crowd.

  “Since this week is the London Bridge Festival, our competition today is the wagon joust!” The gym erupted. “Each team will have two chances to collect as many rings on their broomsticks as possible. As always, seniors and juniors first!”

  The other team got ready. One got in the wagon with the broomstick, and the other got ready to pull. Small hula hoops hung from fishing string down the middle of the gym. The person with the broom was supposed to grab them by passing the broom through the middle as they raced past.

  All at once, the wagon took off. It was more than a little bit wobbly. The person pulling the wagon had a hard time steering, and the team missed the first three hoops because they weren’t close enough.

  They weaved some and grabbed two hoops before getting tangled in the third and tumbling over. The students in the gym laughed as the competitors got up and tried their second run. They got three more hoops, giving them a total of five. The older students roared their approval and booed as Alexis climbed in her wagon.

  “That’s probably a good idea that they gave you the broom,” her partner said with a laugh. “I don’t think I would fit in that wagon! And if I could, I don’t think you’d be able to pull me!”

  “Just keep us going straight, okay?” said Alexis. She took a deep breath. How on earth had she gotten herself into this?

  They were off. The boy was pulling Alexis a lot faster than she had expected to go. How long had it been since she had been in a wagon anyway? No time to think about it. The first hoop tore by before she realized it, but the next three slid easily onto the end of her stick.

  Cheers erupted from the younger side of the gym.

  When she picked up a fourth hoop, the broomstick got heavy, and it slipped off before she could lift the handle. They reached the end of the gym and turned around. Alexis only needed to get three more hoops to win.

  They tore back down the way they had come, and Alexis aimed for the three hoops left behind. Two slid on easily, but the third spun round and round on the handle, threatening to fly into the audience. The wagon stopped suddenly, and Alexis flew out.

  The crowd gasped.

  Alexis was lying on her back. She lifted her broomstick in the air, and the girl with the microphone counted out loud.

  “Six!” she cried. “The freshmen and sophomores win, probably for the first time in ten years!”

  The boos of the older students were drowned out by the higher-pitched cheers of the freshmen and sophomores. Alexis scooted back to her seat, blushing like crazy.

  “Alexis, you’re amazing!” said Elizabeth.

  “Thanks,” said Alexis. She elbowed her way in next to the blond boy. “Thanks to you too,” she said, pushing him playfully.

  “It wasn’t that bad, was it?” He laughed.

  The microphone girl called for silence.

  “Now,” she said, “it’s time for the reason we’re all here in the first place! Let’s give it up for your Lake Havasu High School swim team!”

  Again the crowd went wild.

  “The swim team?” said Alexis and Elizabeth together. Elizabeth leaned over Alexis and addressed the blond boy.

  “Aren’t pep rallies usually for football or something? I’ve never heard of a pep rally for the swim team.”

  “I know,” replied the blond boy. “This is the first time the school has had a pep rally for the swim team. But this is more for one guy than the whole team. You see those?” He pointed up to the gym ceiling, and Alexis noticed a collection of banners for the first time. They were purple satin lined with gold. Each one had STATE CHAMPION embroidered along the top with a different event underneath. 100 m Butterfly, 100 m Freestyle, 400 m Individual Medley. All six of them were labeled with the same name: David Turner.

  “That’s him,” said the blond boy. He pointed across the gym to where one member of the swim team stood a little behind the others. “He’s only a freshman too. He won all of those last year, before he was even in high school. The guy’s a machine. So they decided that the swim team is worthy of being honored this year with a pep rally.”

  “Wow,” said Elizabeth. Alexis was speechless. Something about the swim champion bothered her. Everyone in the school was clapping and screaming for him, but he didn’t seem to like it. He was off to the side, the hood of his sweatshirt pulled in front of his face and his lanky shoulders stooped. Alexis got the feeling that he wished he were invisible.

  The coach who was with the team grabbed a microphone and announced that the team would have a swim meet the following afternoon. It would be held at four o’clock at the Aquatic Center in town.

  From the noise and excitement of the screaming crowd, Alexis guessed that just about everyone would be there. She thought it was kind of funny. She wondered if the schools in her area even had swim teams. She made a mental note to check when she got back to Sacramento.

  The gym began to empty, and students filed out of the gym to go back to their classes. Alexis and Elizabeth slipped out the door to the street, making sure to avoid the teacher who had led them inside. They walked back the way they had come.

  Soon they were melting in the heat. A sign up ahead rocked in the breeze. It had a triple-scoop ice cream cone on it.

  “What do you think?” asked Alexis. “We can ask for directions to the hotel and get a snack at the same time.”

  “Perfect!” said Elizabeth.

  The girls walked into the shop and sighed with delight as the cool of the air-conditioning mingled with the warm smell of fresh waffle cones. Alexis ordered a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of rainbow sherbet.

  “Those don’t go together!” said Elizabeth.

  “Of course they do!” said Alexis. “What am I supposed to do when I can’t decide between chocolate or fruity?”

  The girls sat in a squishy booth near the front window and watched the tourists amble by. Their conversation shifted back to the Lake Havasu swim champion.

  “I can’t believe that!” said Alexis. “He must be really good to have won all of those championships.”

  “I know!” said Elizabeth. “And he beat a bunch of older swimmers to get them!”

  The bell on the ice cream shop door jingled.

  The mayor walked through the door and up to the counter, followed by the bridge commissioner and a crumpled old man sniffling into a hankie. Alexis choked on a bite of her rainbow sherbet.

  “Elizabeth, look! What is Dr. Edwards doing with Mayor Applebee and the bridge commissioner?”

  “Shh!” said Elizabeth. She motioned to Alexis, and the girls slumped down in their booth. The three men sat in the next booth over.

  “You sure you don’t want anything, Dr. Edwards?” asked the mayor. The only answer was another sneeze. “I suggested the ice cream shop just to get out of the office,” continued the mayor. “All I’ve heard about all day is that silly curse. My phone has been ringing off the hook!”

  “I can assure you, Mayor,” said Dr. Edwards, “there is no such thing as the curse of the Thames. History never mentions it. It’s just a story someone has made up to scare the tourists.”

  A deeper, calmer voice broke into the conversation. Alexis knew it had to be the bridge commissioner.

  “Curse or not, something’s wrong with our bridge. The engineers are flying in tomorrow. If there is any structural damage, the parade can’t happen.”

  �
�Aren’t you being hasty, Commissioner?” said Dr. Edwards.

  “Are you trying to tell me how to do my job, Doctor?”

  “Gentlemen, gentlemen,” said the mayor. “Let’s get along, shall we?”

  “We can’t let years of tradition be stopped by a tiny crack!” Dr. Edwards pounded the table.

  “Have you ever seen an avalanche, Doctor?” asked the commissioner. “It all starts with a tiny crack, and then . . . boom! Everything goes down, and there’s no stopping it.

  “To take a chance on the parade would be totally foolhardy. Can you imagine the bridge collapsing with dozens or even hundreds of people on it? Imagine the injuries and even deaths.”

  “But the chances of that are probably slim,” Dr. Edwards said, his voice rising. “If we have to cancel the parade this year, many people probably won’t return next year. Our tradition will be lost. That would be foolhardy!”

  “Yes,” said the commissioner. “And imagine how many people will never return and what will happen to the tradition if a tragedy should happen.”

  “Alright, alright!” said Mayor Applebee. “No more fighting! We all want the parade to go on as planned, but safety must come first. If the bridge is okay, it will happen. If something is wrong…” He sighed heavily and stood up, carrying the last of his now dripping ice cream cone. The other two men followed him out of the shop, still arguing.

  “Why is Dr. Edwards so concerned about the parade?” asked Elizabeth.

  “I have no idea,” said Alexis. It didn’t make sense. “The mayor might have asked him about the curse, since the doctor is an expert in English history. But why did Dr. Edwards get so angry about the idea of canceling the parade?”

  “I wouldn’t have thought Dr. Edwards was the type of person who would even enjoy a parade,” said Elizabeth. “Actually, I can’t imagine him enjoying anything.”

  “That’s what I was just thinking,” Alexis said.

  “Well,” said Elizabeth, “do you want to walk back to the hotel? We could hit the pool and go swimming before dinner.”

  “Sounds good,” said Alexis. They got directions and walked the streets silently. Alexis was still trying to figure out why Dr. Edwards cared so much about the problem with the bridge. It sounded like the bridge commissioner was pretty worried. Alexis couldn’t stop thinking about one thing he had said. “It all starts with a tiny crack, and then . . . boom!”