by Gini Koch
Meaning that some kid was on the Algar Channel for me, because this scene was pretty much acting out the song lyrics and Algar liked his little jokes.
Spun around to try to find the kid with the music. Which was a good thing, as I was able to duck just in time to have a cupcake thrown with intent sail over my head. Risked a look to see who it’d hit. Evalyne now had a cupcake on her chest and a seriously pissed expression.
Looked back to spot the thrower and saw two kids, a boy and a girl. The boy was on the shorter side and heavy. The girl was taller and thinner, but with a sturdy build. They both had dark curly hair, dark eyes, olive skin, and their features were similar. They looked related and about the same age, and about the same age as Lizzie. They were throwing food at anyone and everyone, but mostly toward Lizzie’s group and me and the animals. They were throwing far less at Charmaine and her entourage. And they were laughing, the kind of nasty laugh that the mean kids use when they’re tormenting the weaker kids.
Figured I’d spotted Charmaine’s twins and Lizzie’s new nemeses. And that meant it was time to get more involved. “Bruno, my bird, I think I need to have a talk with those kids.”
Bruno lifted off from my shoulder and headed for them. As he did that, I stood up and Bellie dove down and landed on my other shoulder. “Bellie loves Floaty!”
“I’m so glad. Let’s help Bruno,” I said to Prince.
The dogs allowed me out of the Dog Protection Barrier and we headed for the kids I was prepared to swear, as we got closer, were Charmaine’s twins. They looked nothing like her other than the shape of their eyes and their expressions, but I figured that was probably enough.
The girl threw a cupcake right at me while the boy threw one at Bruno. But Bruno was a guard bird and he dodged it easily and I was a jock and I wasn’t panicked. Caught the cupcake and dropped it on the ground. “Stop it. Right now.”
“Why should we?” the boy asked.
“Because your mother’s not going to like it when I tell her you two are who started the food fight and are keeping it going.”
The girl smirked at me. “She won’t believe you. She knows we’d never do something like that.”
“I’ll bet. Prince? Share our views on this.”
The dog trotted up to them and growled. The deep, dog growl that said that dogs were just wolves who’d chosen to play nicely with humans, and that the humans who were getting growled at were about to lose their play nicely privileges.
Both kids stopped smirking. “He’s going to kill us!” the girl shrieked.
This might have been effective under normal circumstances. But when people are screaming and running and things are utterly chaotic, no one’s paying much attention to a faked out teenaged scream.
Shrugged. “Only if you throw food at anyone again, me in particular.” Both of them dropped the cupcakes they were holding. “Nice to see you’re smarter than you look.”
Somehow, the music was still audible. Had to find the kid who was playing this music. The song now was “Calm & Collapsed” by the Exies. Algar was once again giving me a hint for what to do, as if getting things calmed down wasn’t my desired outcome.
Realized that what I hadn’t seen around were any A-Cs. Sure, I had Daniel and Joshua with Jamie, but Lucas and Marcus had been assigned to Lizzie and Wasim, and Manfred had been with me. And yet, I didn’t see any of them moving at hyperspeed or even human speed. Couldn’t look for them, though, until I’d calmed things down here.
The music changed to “Pride” by Saliva. Pondered this for a moment, then went with the only thing I could think of. “Look, you two have a choice. You can continue to be jerks, or you can actually act like campus leaders. If you act like jerks, I’ll ensure that I have a camera crew following you around to capture your every jerkish move. If you actually act like campus leaders, however, that camera crew will want to interview you about how you helped get this situation under control.”
They looked at each other. “Okay,” the girl said slowly. “What do you want us to do?”
“Not that we’re saying yes to it,” the boy added.
“Of course I wouldn’t expect Charmaine’s kids to do anything for an altruistic reason.”
Shockingly, they both jerked. “We’re nothing like our mother,” the girl hissed.
“At all,” the boy added.
“Really? I’m not seeing any dissimilarities at the moment.”
“Fine.” The girl tossed her head. “We’ll show you. Seth, you get the others to stop throwing and get the tables set back up.”
“What will you do, Shelby?” Seth asked suspiciously.
“I’m going to lead adults over to safety.” She pointed to the circular driveway. It had grass in the center, and people were there. Realized that the A-Cs had been pulling people out of the chaos and putting them there, but that meant they had to keep them there. So Marcus and Lucas were on crowd control and Manfred and Abigail were bringing people over. However, they were having to do it at human speeds because the last thing we needed was people throwing up and apparently they’d figured that out.
“Great plan. Seth, go to that group of kids first.” Pointed to Lizzie’s team. “They’ll help you. If, you know, you ask for their help instead of ordering them to help. And Riley, you go with him.” The dog wuffed—he was clear on his role.
The twins stared at me for a long moment. “Got it,” Seth said. He trotted off, Riley at his side, stopping at each teenager they came to. They stopped whatever they were doing and started to help.
Meanwhile, Shelby and I split up, with Duke going with her and Prince sticking with me. One by one we grabbed people and told them to calm down. This rarely worked on the first go, but since the food wasn’t flying anymore, it was easier to point out that it had only been food flying.
In less time than I’d have thought, the teenagers were all working together to calm down the adults, and everyone was moved off to the circular drive area. The only injuries were minor and all related to panic, not food, other than the few people who’d slipped and fallen. Oh, sure, everyone was covered with baked goods, but once the A-Cs didn’t have to do crowd protection duty, they were able to collect the money and cashboxes using hyperspeed.
Was about to congratulate myself on a job well done, in that sense, when I looked toward the street.
There were news vans on the street. Lots and lots of news vans.
CHAPTER 47
“SO,” READER SAID as we sat in the Original Situation Room and watched the footage on every TV screen, “want to tell us what happened?” It looked far worse than it had while it had been happening. The only saving grace was that Jeff was already at the Intergalactic School and so wasn’t sharing this experience with us.
“It wasn’t Kitty’s fault!” Lizzie said. She, like Wasim and the Valentino kids, was pretty much covered in pastries. We hadn’t had time to change clothes.
“It’s never Kitty’s fault,” Tim said. “We’re all aware of that. You all look delicious, by the way.”
“Thanks for that.”
“The birds are going to be a bigger problem,” Claudia said. We were watching Charmaine’s moment in the news sun.
“That woman set killer birds on me!” Charmaine screamed into the camera. The camera zoomed to me, standing with Bellie on my shoulder and Bruno in my arms. The birds looked amazingly calm and had no food on them anywhere. Same could not be said of me, but still, I was one of the cleaner ones in view.
The camera swung back to Charmaine. “She tried to kill me!” she shrieked. One of her entourage nudged her and she got herself under control. “The First Lady is a menace to our school, and I can only assume that all the children in her care will be as well. They have no place here at Sidwell. She insisted on being involved despite our concerns about the increased security risk if she attended, but she wouldn’t be stopped. And now look a
t what’s happened!”
“That is a total lie!” Charmaine was really lucky I hadn’t heard her say this live at the scene. As it was, I still wanted to go find her and pummel her to death.
“We know,” Vance said soothingly, while he nursed a black eye.
“You seem unhurt,” a male reporter said to Charmaine. “By either birds or the First Lady.”
“Whoever that man is, I want to send him a fruit basket.”
“By the grace of God,” Charmaine replied with a mighty sniff. “Those birds are killers.”
“I think we’re going to have to put the birds into quarantine or something,” Lorraine said.
“No, you’re not,” Adam said strongly. “Good Day USA! is the only team with any footage of the birds in action, and we’ve already destroyed that portion.”
The Kristie-Bot nodded. “We don’t want to do anything to jeopardize Code Name: First Lady.”
No one replied to this, mostly because we were now watching the interview with Mrs. Paster. She looked like she’d been an extra in the pie scene from The Great Race. “This is highly unusual for our school, however, mishaps do happen. I’d like to reassure all those with loved ones at Sidwell that we are just fine. There was no real damage done, we have only a few minor injuries that have already been attended to, and while the upper school has been excused and sent home, the middle school and lower school were unaffected and are still on campus. Safely on campus.”
“Missus Paster gets a fruit basket, too. A big one.”
“Is it true that it was the Washington P.D.’s K-9 squad that started the skirmish?” a female reporter asked her.
“I really have no idea,” Mrs. Paster said, taking a big one for the team. Was pretty sure she’d been in position to see the dogs knock everyone out of their way.
“You are so lucky,” Melville muttered to Prince.
Prince whined, lay down, and put his head on his paws. Duke and Riley did likewise.
“Did this happen because the First Lady insisted on being involved, as we heard from another witness?” the reporter asked.
“To my knowledge, the First Lady was asked to take part. We do have our parents and guardians as involved as possible.”
Mrs. Paster was giving calm, noninflammatory information. Which meant that, naturally, the camera feed went to someone else. We now had a group of students. “That was totally parkour!” one of the boys said.
“This was the best first day of school ever!” a girl shared.
The teenagers were all for the food fight, so that was good. The cameras stayed on them for a while. Other stations had more Charmaine, parent helpers, more kids. The parents weren’t nearly as thrilled as the kids, but for the most part, I wasn’t getting all the blame. The security teams were, however, which wasn’t good.
“Was there a reason that Bellie started this?” Reader asked me, as he gave the parrot an icy look.
Bellie had decided that we were now the best of besties and was still on my shoulder. Oliver hadn’t argued, possibly because he, Jenkins, and Dion looked as covered with pastries as Mrs. Paster. Reader hadn’t allowed any of us to clean up once Manfred had called for a floater gate and gotten all of us out of there.
“Charmaine was insulting me and looked about to attack. I think Bellie thought she was protecting me.”
“And just what were you all doing while this was going on?” he asked Manfred, Marcus, and Lucas, his Commander Tone on Full. His gaze went to include Evalyne and Phoebe, too, and all the other security staff standing against the walls, K-9 officers included. They all looked like they’d been mud wrestling where the mud was made of frosting. The cleaning staff was going to have their work cut out for them in this room.
“Trying to control the situation,” Manfred said. “Unsuccessfully.”
“That’s not true,” I interjected. “It all happened really fast, and everyone did what they could.”
Reader turned back to the screens. “What they could. Really. I’m looking at people trained to stop superbeings or bullets, trained to handle terrorist and hostage situations, trained to keep it together and keep people safe. And yet what I see them doing is being unable to power through a barrage of baked goods in order to get to the First Lady and cover her.”
“The dogs made it through, and Bruno was on the case.”
This earned me Reader’s Death Glare. “Ah, yes. Bruno. From what we’ve managed to gather from your various descriptions of the event, it was Bruno appearing out of nowhere that caused the panic.”
“No,” Oliver said. “It was Bellie. I take full responsibility for all of this. And I’m willing to go on record and meet the press, so to speak, and declare that.”
One of the stations had a replay of the action. The only saving grace we had was that the news vans hadn’t been there at the start, so the video feeds had started sometime after the birds had settled down. However, it still looked like the Carnival of the Ridiculous, with a lot of panicked people slipping, sliding, and running, and a lot of teenagers throwing food. Some adults were throwing food, too.
“Hey, freeze that.”
Tim had the controller, since Raj was with Jeff, and he dutifully hit pause. “Why?”
“I want us to zoom in on the adults who are throwing food. I think they’re part of Charmaine’s gang.”
Tim rewound the footage a bit and we all took a closer look. Sure enough, once my back was turned, all of Charmaine’s people were tossing food around.
“That’s interesting,” Tim said slowly. “It’s as if they wanted to make this worse.”
“I think they did,” Serene said. “Look at their expressions. They look sly.”
“Like they’re happy this is happening,” Lorraine added.
“Why would they want that?” Claudia asked.
“To discredit Kitty,” Lizzie said. She looked around. “Where’s my dad?”
“Your father, Kevin, Wruck, and Buchanan are still on-site,” Reader said. “They’re the reason the news vans were delayed. But once this broke out, they couldn’t hold the news crews off any longer.”
“Go Team Tough Guys. But who tipped them off that things were going on? I mean more than a successful bake sale, which is what we were having right up until Charmaine started in on me.”
“Hmm,” White, who was sitting next to me, said.
We all waited. “Hmm what, Richard?” I asked finally.
“It’s no secret that you’re close to the K-9 squad. Prince was on camera saving Jeffrey’s life during the national convention after all. I don’t believe it would be a stretch to think that Charmaine was trying to incite an animal reaction. I believe that she just got the one she wasn’t expecting.”
“You mean you think she was trying to get the dogs to attack?” Abigail asked. “Why?”
“To cause havoc,” Naveed said. “Frankly, that no one was truly hurt is amazing.”
“We focused on that,” Marcus said. “Because Lucas and I at least are fully aware that the First Lady can take care of herself.”
Lucas nodded. “We used hyperspeed to get to those about to be truly harmed and to get them out of the way. There were only four of us,” he nodded at Abigail, who managed a grin, “and it was a different kind of chaos than we’re used to, so it took us more time.”
“It’s harder to spot who’s in danger when there isn’t a giant monster or a madman with a gun,” Manfred added.
“So, Richard, what you’re saying is that Charmaine was trying to bait me in order to get the dogs to get involved? Why?”
“I’d say it’s a simple answer,” Reader replied before White could. “To shove you and the kids out of the school.”
“But why would they want to do that, dear?” Mrs. Maurer asked. She looked almost as pristine as when we’d gone over, because Manfred had gotten her to safety first, under
the very correct idea that this was what I’d have wanted. “Having the White House children is an honor that the school cherishes. It’s why the principal and vice principal have been so supportive and unwilling to blame you or the rest of us.”
Looked at White, who nodded, then at Reader. “You want my guess?”
“Always, girlfriend.” He grinned at my expression. “Yes, I’m mad at all of you, but no, not in a long-term way. So, what’s your theory?”
“I think Charmaine and her crew are up to something they don’t want us discovering. And that means they’re up to something with major ramifications.”
“Makes sense.” Reader nodded. “Like espionage.”
CHAPTER 48
“SO WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?” Lizzie asked.
“You?” Reader said. “Nothing. The five of you are going to get cleaned up and then be ready to help get the younger kids and bring them safely back here. Period.”
“Aww, but we can help,” Lizzie protested.
“If it’s okay, Lizzie and Wasim could come to the Intergalactic School with me. Potentially to give us a good story, versus a bad one.” And also potentially to check it out. I was pretty much now on the side of Lizzie’s idea of sending all our kids there—it had to be safer than having them where the Evil Kangaroo held sway.
“If you insist,” Reader said with a sigh.
“Why not the rest of us?” Claire asked.
“Because your older sister’s there, and I think James is right—we need you guys to help with the younger kids. Besides, I actually do want you doing something at the school.”
The Valentino kids perked up. “What?” Sidney asked.
“I want you befriending Seth and Shelby Cordell.”