by Kim Long
Ron peered over Mal’s shoulder and reached for the tablet. She yanked it away, giving him a dirty look. “What now?”
Ron flicked the clue with his finger. “It asks specifically about Cinderella Castle. You said he built several castles. I was going to check to make sure the New-stuff-one is the right one.”
“Neuschwanstein,” Mal corrected, still holding the tablet out of Ron’s reach. “And yeah, I know what you said. This is it.”
As Ron stiffened, Lexi rubbed her temples. The second awkward confrontation between her teammates in as many minutes was eating up valuable time. She had to find a way to keep everyone on track or they’d be lucky to solve a single clue before being eliminated.
“Give her some space, Ron,” Lexi said as she adjusted her glasses.
Mal smiled as Ron spun to face Lexi.
Lexi spoke before Ron could say anything. “Mal’s got this, though there is no harm in double-checking.” She nodded to Mal. “Why don’t you show us what you found?”
With a shrug, Mal tilted the screen in her teammates’ direction. Lexi read a few lines. The website was clear that Disney’s Cinderella Castle was inspired by King Ludwig’s Neuschwanstein Castle.
Ron nodded. “Yeah, this is the one. Okay.”
“Perfect,” Lexi said as she headed to her backpack. “Now, all we have to do is find a teleport station near the castle.”
“How do we—”
With a flourish, Lexi pulled out a stack of papers, silencing Mal. She unfolded the pages, which she had taped together to form a large poster, and spread them across the picnic table.
“What—” Ron started.
“—is that?” Mal finished.
Lexi chuckled. “I call it my Teleport Tableau.” She circled to the opposite end of the picnic table and pointed to the first four pages. “This part is for the U.S. I organized it by state, and then under each state, I listed teleport stations in certain cities. I didn’t include every city, of course, only the major ones or where something important to teleport science happened.”
“And the other six pages?” Ron asked, eyebrow raised.
“Europe—organized by country, then cities within each country. Overall, I’d say there are about five hundred teleport stations on here.”
Mal’s jaw dropped. “Wow. That’s a lot of work.”
Lexi flattened the pages as much as possible. “Yeah, but public teleport travel has only been legal for a couple years, and it’s hard to find all of the active telepods without a teleport locator computer program, which we don’t have. This list should work just as well.”
Ron and Mal remained frozen, staring at the tableau.
Lexi stifled a laugh, unsure if Ron and Mal were impressed or instead were thinking she came maybe a little too prepared. “It really was no big deal,” she explained. “I love science and teleporting, remember? This was fun.”
Mal waved her off. “Oh, don’t worry. I get it. When it comes to design, I totally get into the details, too.”
Lexi joined Ron as he leaned over the chart. “All right,” she said. “Now we have to figure out where Bavaria is.”
“Oh, I know that,” Mal said. “Germany!”
Kneeling on the bench, Lexi looked at the Germany section, under which she had listed over twenty cities. She peeked at Mal, who fiddled with the tablet. “What’s the closest city?”
Mal bounced her head from side to side. “Munich’s the closest major city. But the castle’s still a couple hours away by train.”
Lexi found Munich on the tableau. She grabbed a Travel Request Form and started filling it out, but paused as she reached the blank for the station code. Two hours away? There had to be a closer station.
“Hey, Mal,” Lexi said. “Can you look for—”
“On it,” Mal said.
Tapping her pencil to the form, Lexi scanned the parking lot as she waited for Mal. Many teams remained, with the majority, like Team RAM, studying tablets. Of course they had tablets, as in plural. Team RAM only had Mal’s. Teams with three tablets would be able to work three times as fast.
With a small roar, the Mighty Sanbornes took off for the high school. So there they were—wearing incredibly ugly striped and polka-dot T-shirts. Seconds later, Haley’s Comets, the Physics Phenoms, and several teams followed.
Lexi lingered on Haley, who had her arm draped over Comet Emma’s shoulders. Lexi’s heart panged. Since the first grade, she and Haley had always hung out after school, often experimenting in the robotics lab or inventing gadgets (like the extra-long hand gripper they used to steal Haley’s brother’s Doritos right out from under him from across the hall!), but sometimes just lounging around, watching movies.
Lexi tried keeping it up after she moved, but it was impossible getting rides to and from Haley’s house after school. They video-chatted a few times for the first couple weeks, but then Haley kept missing their chat times and scheduling became harder and harder. For the most part, Haley had even stopped texting. To Lexi, the solution was as obvious as e=mc²: to save their friendship, she had to get her butt back to the academy.
“All right, here we go,” Mal said, jolting Lexi from her thoughts. “The closest cities to the castle are Schwangau, Waltenhofen, Füssen, Hohenschwangau, Enzen—” Mal stopped and eyed Lexi, who had just spun to face her. “Well?” Mal said. “This would go faster if you actually looked at your tableau thingy to see if any of these cities are on your list.”
Lexi refocused on the tableau. “Sorry. Can you start over?”
“Schwangau. S-c-h-w-”
“Not on here. Next,” Lexi said.
“Waltenhofen. W-a-l-t-”
Lexi slid a finger down the list of cities, then grimaced. “No.”
“How ’bout Füssen? F-u (with two dots)-s-s-e-n.”
Lexi raced through. Her eyes bulged. “Yes!”
“Great. There’s actually a train station there—it’s where the train from Munich stops. The teleport station’s probably connected.”
“Nice!” Lexi said, and she completed the form.
They bolted across the parking lot to the gymnasium, and Ron flung open the door. As her teammates ran to the temporary teleport station that had been erected at the far side of the gym, Lexi stood and stared, taking it all in.
A quantum computer, approximately two feet by three feet, stood by the bleachers. Lights beeped and flashed, and several keyboards poked out from its sides. A separate control panel was adjacent to the computer, where a telepod engineer punched keys into the display. Three portable telepods had been erected next to the wall. A kid in a blue shirt surged from the line, through a metal gate, and bounded up one of the platforms.
In a few minutes, she would be in his place, ready to travel across an ocean and to a new country in literally the blink of an eye.
“Earth to Lexi!”
Lexi jerked. Ron and Mal were waving frantically for her to join them in line. As another team raced through the doors from behind, Lexi took off for her teammates. She squeezed in line just before Edison’s Excellencies passed her.
“Badges, passports, and Tel-Meds, please,” the tournament official said. Team RAM handed everything over. “All right, everything seems to be in order. All I need is your Travel Request Form. Since this is a temporary teleport station, you won’t need teleportation tickets. The telepod engineer will scan your destination code into the quantum computer directly.”
Lexi provided the form and inspected the woman’s face closely as she looked it over. The engineer’s expression gave nothing away. If Team RAM wasn’t supposed to be going to Germany, they’d find out once they got there. The engineer opened the gate, and Ron darted through.
“The one on the left, please,” the woman called.
Ron advanced to the telepod, a clear square platform about a foot off the floor. He stepped up, carefully placing each foot in the marked area. After positioning his supersized backpack onto a smaller platform to the side, he bent over and unzippe
d the side of his gym shoe. Straightening, he held up his Tel-Med.
“Click it in place,” the engineer said as a small metal shelf rose out of the platform. Ron placed the Tel-Med onto the shelf, and the shelf’s rim flashed green.
“Straight as a board, arms at your sides,” the engineer called while punching keys into the panel. “Hmph,” she said. Then, “Try sliding your backpack a little closer to you.” Ron obeyed, adjusting the pack so it was as close to his platform as possible, though still technically resting on the smaller side-platform.
The engineer pressed a few keys. Seconds later, a thin glass shield rose out of the platform and encircled Ron. A similar shield surrounded the platform containing Ron’s backpack. Lights on the control panel glowed green.
“Ready,” the engineer said.
Ron flashed a thumbs-up before dropping his arm to the side.
“Keep still. It’s a three count… starting now. Three, two, one.”
A bright light flashed, and the platform glowed purple. A violet streak stretched through the telepod, and Ron and his backpack vanished.
Lexi shuddered. It’d been over six months since she’d teleported anywhere, and she’d forgotten how amazing it was to see someone disappear.
“Next,” the engineer said, tapping Lexi on the shoulder.
Lexi flinched. Oops. She got lost in her world again—Mal was already gone. She trotted to the telepod and snapped the Tel-Med in place. The shelf glowed green, and she straightened and focused on the engineer, waiting for the countdown.
“All set,” Lexi called.
The engineer pushed a button, and the clear shield encased Lexi. “Okay. Stand straight and keep still. Ready. Three, two, one…”
Lexi slammed her eyes shut, and a fraction of a second later, her body tingled. An instant after that, the light feeling faded, and a bell dinged. She opened her eyes in Füssen.
CHAPTER FOUR
The blue-and-gold tournament booth was easy to spot—the organizers had obviously expected an onslaught of teams because at least twenty tournament officials circled the check-in area. Within five minutes of landing, Team RAM exited Füssen’s station with public transportation passes for Germany, a bus schedule to local attractions, and a map.
Lexi needed only a second with the map. “Good news, the castle’s on here—it’s a short bus ride.”
“Woo-hoo!” Ron said. “Am I an awesome puzzle solver or what?”
Mal scrunched her nose. “Um, I’m the one who did the Internet search. What’d you do other than read the clue?”
Not wanting to referee another spat between her teammates, Lexi pushed her way through Mal and Ron and headed outside. She crossed the train tracks to a row of red buses. “Come on,” she called over her shoulder. “Let’s find our bus.”
“Found it!” Ron said.
Lexi and Mal stopped suddenly and stared at Ron. He hadn’t even glanced at the bus schedule. Smiling, Ron pointed to a bus at the end of the line. Several teams congregated outside the door, waiting for the driver to allow them to enter. “I’m thinking that one,” he said. “Right?”
After a shared eye roll with Mal, Lexi strode past Ron to the last bus. The driver opened the door, and teams spilled inside. Lexi did a quick scan. No Sanbornes, Comets, or Phenoms. She peered down the road, wondering how far behind her team had already fallen. When she pivoted to the door, it closed in her face.
“Hey!” she shouted.
The door opened. “Full here,” the driver said. “Next one will be along in about fifteen minutes.”
Lexi threw out an arm and placed a foot on the stair. “What? No!” Panicking, she fumbled for words. “Please? There’s only three of us. We can squeeze in anywhere. I promise.”
The driver looked past Lexi toward Ron. “Looks more like four with that pack.”
Lexi’s stomach tightened. Ron’s stupid swag was already causing problems. She opened her mouth to beg some more, but the driver stepped back and stared down the aisle. She squirmed, her mind racing for a more coherent argument, like maybe Ron’s backpack could ride on the roof?
“All right,” the driver said, returning to Lexi. “There’s four seats scattered along the aisle. You’ll have to sit separately.”
“No problem,” Lexi answered, motioning for Ron and Mal to follow.
As the bus left the station, Lexi peered out the window, searching for the Comets and other teams. She wondered how many buses ahead they were. Duh. She’d text Haley! Lexi dug out her phone, immediately noticing the battery was already down 50 percent. She’d begged her parents for a better one, but no luck. One quick text couldn’t hurt, though. She pressed the message envelope and scrolled to Haley’s name. Several unanswered texts from the last few days stared back at her.
With a sigh, Lexi returned the phone to her pocket. Who knew if Haley would even notice the text. Besides, Team RAM couldn’t be that far behind. She’d see Haley at the castle.
Lexi leaned back and closed her eyes.
“Green Bay Packers shirts and hats! Take your pick! Once it’s gone, it’s gone,” Ron belted.
Oh no. Lexi snapped open her eyes and spun in her seat. A man seated in the row behind her sneered in Ron’s direction.
“Ron,” Lexi whispered angrily. Ron didn’t respond and continued his sales pitch to the back rows. Lexi called him again. Still no response, but Sneering Man shifted. Lexi turned back around, slinking into her seat. It was so important for teams to get off to a good start, and with who knew how many buses in front of them, Team RAM couldn’t afford getting kicked off the bus.
Please. Lexi said silently as she crossed her fingers. Please don’t let anyone complain.
Fifteen minutes later, when the bus finally stopped, Lexi shot up and exited. Mal followed, and, eventually, after everyone else disembarked, Ron walked out with his backpack.
“Woo-hoo!” Ron shouted. “That was an awesome ride! I made, like, a hundred and fifty dollars!”
“Good for you,” Lexi mumbled. Eager to put the trip behind her and move on, she pointed to the ticket booth. “We’re going to need tickets for the castle.”
“I got it,” Ron said. “Give me your badges. I’ll be right back.”
As Ron hustled to the ticket station, Lexi looked skyward. Castle Neuschwanstein was located in the center of the mountains on a ridge camouflaged by tall pines. Stone white bricks and towering turrets poked through the greenery. Blue-black roof shingles covered the tower peaks, atop which thin spires stretched into the sky. It certainly resembled pictures of every fairy-tale castle she’d ever seen.
“Let’s cross the road,” Mal said, nudging Lexi. She held up the camera. “I can get a better angle.”
“Sure,” Lexi said, biting her tongue. They had to wait for Ron and their tickets anyway—no harm letting Mal grab a few photos.
The girls crossed the road, and Mal snapped away. Lexi untied the sweatshirt from around her waist and hung it over her shoulders—the crisp mountain breeze made the air considerably cooler than it had been at the station. As she tied a knot in the sleeves around her neck, she glimpsed a horse-drawn carriage near a “Castle Neuschwanstein” sign posted on a fence. She tapped Mal. “What’s that? Do we have to get in line to take a carriage up the mountain?”
Mal lowered the camera from her eyes. “I don’t know. I’ll check it out.”
Mal squeezed her thin, lanky body through the crowd, and Lexi lost sight of her until she broke out a couple minutes later. “Okay,” Mal said. “There are two ways to reach the castle: hike up the side of the mountain or ride up in the carriage. If we take the carriage, we’d have to pay for it out of our own money.”
Lexi winced. Since the tournament provided the essentials, she had figured she’d only need money for snacks and drinks and hadn’t brought much. Spending it so soon wasn’t the smartest move. She looked at the mountain trail again. It seemed long and winding, though some teams had already skipped the carriages and were hiking.
Mal
nudged Lexi away from the carriages. “I say we walk. The line’s real long, anyway. By the time we get a carriage, we can be at the castle.”
“Good point,” Lexi answered, relieved.
“Besides, if we walk, I can get a bunch of different angles. Come on, there’s Ron!”
“Wait!” Lexi shouted after Mal. Great. One problem solved, but now she had to deal with Mal wanting to stop and take photos. She reached Mal and grabbed her arm. “Hey, we have to get to the top as quickly as possible. We’re not gonna have—”
“Got ’em!” Ron interrupted, waving the castle tickets over his head. He returned their badges. “What do we do now? Wait in line?”
Mal pointed to the trail. “Nope. We’re walking. Come on.”
Team RAM started up the mountain, and it wasn’t long before Lexi stopped worrying about how much Mal would slow them down. Turned out, she was the slow-mo. After the first turn, superstar jock Ron was far ahead. Not that Lexi was surprised. Ron was already being scouted by high schools, and the local newspaper had published plenty of articles about the Filipino Flyer’s athletic prowess. But when Mal disappeared about a third of the way up, Lexi knew she was in trouble.
Trudging behind, she placed her hands on her thighs, dug down, and forced her legs to keep moving. To distract her mind from the constant ache, she quietly recited the Brewers’ major league roster. It was a trick her dad had taught her for when she had to run laps in gym class—concentrating on something else made the time pass faster. By the time Lexi reached the top, her raw throat stung, her muscles burned, and she knew with 100 percent certainty that any Magill athletic gene had skipped her.
Wearing a satisfied smile, Lexi lumbered past a mob of tourists to an out-of-the-way railing and slid off her backpack. Her sweatshirt was next, and as she inhaled the fresh, pine scent, she used the sleeves to wipe off her sweaty forearms.
Spying her teammates near the back of the crowd, Lexi approached. “Well, we made it,” she puffed as she removed her Brewers cap and tossed her head to dry her damp hair.
Mal fanned her shirt. “Yeah, that was a hike.”