26
100 FEET UNDER THE FARM
TUNNEL
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH
10:07 P.M.
Charlie locked hands with Allie J in the dark. They were pressed up against the aquarium on the tunnel just left of the vestibule, and Allie J kept muttering something about milk shakes.
BAAAAAM!
They squeezed harder.
BAAAAAM!
And harder.
If Shira caught Allie J, she’d go back to her fans and successful career. Big deal. But Charlie? She’d be on the next PAP to some boarding school in New Jersey with no hope of ever seeing Darwin again.
“What should we do?” Allie J chattered.
“Shhhhh,” Charlie hissed, more frustrated with herself than with the songstress. She usually had all the answers. And now, when she needed them most, she—
“Charlie?” a familiar voice whisper-called through the concrete door.
“Skye?” Charlie and Allie J giggle-sighed with relief.
“Let me in!”
Charlie reinserted the key into the padlock. It flashed once. The lights flickered on, and the door began to lift slowly.
A flurry of footsteps sounded in the outer vestibule. Either an octopus was on the loose, or Skye was not alone.
“Great directions,” she limped forward.
“Hello, pretty, pretty fishy.” A red-haired bun-head tapped on the glass, drawing a heart with her polished fingers around a yellow-and-blue swimmer.
“Wow. This place is amazing,” said the pretty Hawaiian girl. Charlie recognized her and the one with the big head from the spa. “It feels like we’re in a video game.”
“See, I told you I wasn’t the spy. Would a spy bring you here?” Skye flashed a knowing wink at Charlie, like their secret was still safe with her.
HA!
“You brought them here to prove you’re not a spy?” Charlie snapped.
“Yup.” Skye nodded proudly and knelt to examine a little puffer fish beneath the floor. “And they believe me now, right?”
The bun-heads nodded yes, still marveling at their surroundings.
“So where are the boys?” asked a girl with pencil-straight posture.
Charlie lowered the temperature on her uniform to keep from boiling over. She had never been so angry in her life: not when Taz head-bombed her Popsicle-stick replica of the Empire State Building; not when that little boy in Greece swiped her backpack; and not when Shira ripped the picture of Darwin out of her cameo bracelet. Because those people hadn’t taken her trust and tap-danced all over it. They’d never pledged friendship. They’d promised her nothing. And Skye had.
“What are you doing?” Charlie demanded. “This was supposed to be a secret thing. We said to the grave, remember?”
“I know, I’m sorry. But they won’t tell.” Skye smiled innocently. “They promised.”
“Just like you did?” Charlie snapped.
“You’re so cute!” Ophelia, oblivious to the argument, pressed her lips against the glass and kissed a pearly pink starfish.
“See? They’re totally harmless.” Skye looked at Charlie with big pleading turquoise eyes.
Charlie opened her mouth to scream, but couldn’t. What was it about pretty girls that made them so impossible to reprimand? It felt like smacking a flower.
“If we get caught, it’s your fault,” Charlie hissed.
“Don’t worry.” Skye limped forward and tried to hug her. “I never get caught.”
Charlie didn’t hug back. One lone eel slithered under their feet. Maybe Shira was right. Maybe there was no such thing as true friends—just relatives and contacts. And if that was true, she had nothing to gain by sharing the tunnels.
“Mission off!” Charlie barked.
“What?” the redhead squeaked.
Skye’s eyes widened with hurt, like Charlie actually had smacked her.
“It’s too risky.” She nudged everyone back through the door to the staircase, then activated the skeleton key.
The bun-heads began moaning their disappointment.
“I told you, Charlie,” Skye urged. “I never get—”
But it was too late. The door began to close. Just before it shut they heard the whoooosh of the chairlift as it sped off.
“Whoooooo!” Allie J called. “See yaaaaaa!”
“Allie J, no!” Charlie cried. But the dark-haired singer was gone. How had she not noticed Allie J had left the group?
“We need to go after her,” Skye said, her eyes wide with hope. “What if she gets into trouble and needs us?”
The girls nodded their agreement.
Charlie knew their pleas had more to do with chasing down the boys. But at the same time, Skye had a point. Allie J shouldn’t be down there alone.
With a reluctant sigh, Charlie reinserted the key.
“RE-JECT-ED!”
“What?” she gasped. Her insides melted to wobbly goo.
She entered the code again: 2-4-2-7-5-4-3
“RE-JECT-ED!”
2-4-2-7-5-4-3
“RE-JECT-ED!” 2-4-2-7-5-4-3
“RE-JECT-ED!”
Charlie covered her mouth, warding off the panic-puke. “Oh. My. God. Shira knows.”
As if on cue, all five of their aPods beeped.
SHIRA: ASSEMBLY IN 20 MINUTES. REPORT TO THE PAVILION.
“Ohmuhgod!”
“What are we going to do?”
“Run!”
Everyone raced for the hatch.
Skye grabbed Charlie’s arm frantically. “What about Allie J?”
“We can’t help her now,” Charlie replied coldly. After all, Darwin was great in a crisis. He would take good care of her.
But as usual, Charlie was on her own.