Josh’s whistle blew as she dove to the other side. “Yesssss!” She dropped to her knees, grateful to be on solid ground.
“Team One is our winner—by six seconds!” Josh announced. “Team Two takes second place.”
April watched the members of the winning teams celebrate, jumping up and down, cheering and congratulating one another.
As she started to climb to her feet, Marlin and Anthony stepped in front of her.
“What was your problem?” Anthony demanded angrily. “Did you know it was a race?”
“Give her a break,” Marlin said. He pushed Anthony back. “She slipped, that’s all.”
“But what were you doing down there? Taking a nap?” Anthony demanded.
“That’s not fair,” Kristen said sharply, glaring at Anthony. “We’re all going to mess up sometime.”
“But we’ve got to be a team,” Marlin added. “We’ve got to stick together. We’ll get them next time.”
Anthony balled his hands into fists. His normally pale face was bright red. “We have to win!” he seethed. “My family really needs this money!”
“Calm down,” Kristen told him. “We’re going to win. I know it.”
“Just shape up,” Anthony snapped at April. “You weren’t even supposed to be here!”
April jumped back as if she’d been slapped. Anthony’s remark really stung.
Did everyone think the way he did? Did they all believe she didn’t belong?
“Don’t listen to him,” Kristen said, putting an arm around April’s shoulders. “He has a bad temper. I guess he can’t help it. He’s a redhead.”
For some reason, that made April laugh. She and Kristen followed the others back toward the Academy village.
They followed the dirt path through the thick island forest. Birds chirped in the trees. Broad palm leaves scraped and scratched overhead. Tiny brown lizards scampered over the path.
“You’ll probably beat everyone at the rock climbing thing tomorrow,” Kristen said.
The rock climbing competition.
April had forgotten that was the next event. It was going to be held at those strange blue rocks on the shore. The shimmering blue hills of rocks April had seen from the boat.
I want to do well in that competition, she told herself. I have to do well.
As they made their way to the village, she saw Anthony watching her.
How can I show Anthony that I’m a winner too? she wondered. How can I show everyone that I belong on this team?
She stared at the blue rocks. Shimmering like ice, they seemed to be calling to her, inviting her, drawing her toward them.
Yes, she thought. Yes. I know what I’m going to do.
17
After lunch, most of the other kids headed to the beach for a swim. April made her way along the curving shore to the outcropping of rocks.
I’m going to practice, she decided. I’m going to climb the rocks today and get a good feel for them.
I’m not going to be the one to mess up tomorrow.
The afternoon sun beamed down from straight overhead. April had a baseball cap pulled down over her hair. But she could feel the back of her neck burning. She sighed, remembering that she had intended to bring sunscreen.
She wore a pale-blue sleeveless T-shirt and white tennis shorts. Oh, well, she thought. I’m going to get a little sunburned today.
The rocks rose up in front of her like small mountains. They glowed under the bright sun. Waves lapped against the bottom of the stone walls, then retreated.
The wet rocks are going to be slippery, April thought. She stepped off the sandy shore onto pebbly stones. A few more steps and she stood in the shadow of the steeply sloping rocks.
She could see dark caves cut into the rock face. The jagged openings looked like the cave doors in cartoons.
What kind of stone is this? she wondered. I’ve never seen blue rocks before.
A flash of color caught her eye.
Something moved quickly—in one of the caves?
April squinted hard, shielding her eyes from the bright sunlight. Was it a bird? Some kind of sea creature using the cave as shelter?
Whatever it was had vanished.
She took a deep breath, leaned forward, and started to climb the rocks. To her surprise, she felt a puff of cold air.
Her sneakers slid over the slippery rock surface. She reached for the slab of rock at her shoulders to hoist herself up.
“Whoa!” April cried out in surprise.
The rock—it was cold.
April slid her hands over the rocks all around. Yes. They were cold. And the air around them carried a chill.
But how could that be? The sun was beaming down so strong. April’s shoulders were already burned pink.
These rocks were under the hot sun every day. How could they stay so cold?
April pulled herself up onto a ledge. The big flat stones sloped up gently. She could run across them easily.
Sunlight glowed off the rock surface. But she could feel the cold rising off the stones as she made her way up the slope.
Near the top, she turned and looked back. She had climbed higher than she had thought.
Down below, sparkling blue-green ocean waves lapped gently at the rocks on the shore. Far to the left, she could see kids swimming in the water.
It’s so beautiful here, April thought.
She turned back in time to see another flash of color in a cave opening.
And then something else caught her eye. Something piled on the rocks just outside the cave.
She scrambled over the sloping slick surface. And knelt down beside the pile of white objects.
Bones?
Yes. Delicate fish and bird bones were stacked in a tall pile that formed a perfect circle.
April studied the pile, then gazed around at the cave mouths cut into the rocks all around.
How did these bones get up here? she wondered.
Did an animal carry its prey up here to devour it in safety? Is this the secret eating place of some kind of island creature?
She stared at the bones. All picked clean.
An animal wouldn’t stack up bones so perfectly—would it? she wondered.
Another thought gave her a shiver. She turned and stared at the caves.
Is someone else living on this island?
18
“But the bones were in a perfect circle,” April explained.
Marlin shrugged his broad shoulders. “So? What does that prove?”
“An animal couldn’t do that,” April insisted. “It proves that we’re not alone on this island. There’s someone else here.”
Her three teammates shook their heads.
They were sitting on the sand, near the shore. A red ball of a sun was sinking slowly into the ocean, filling the water with a spectacular light show.
Seagulls glided lazily in the graying sky. Two tall white herons strutted up and down the beach, ignoring the four kids and their argument.
“I don’t understand why you don’t believe me,” April said. “I mean—”
“Marks told us that no one has ever lived on this island,” Anthony interrupted. “So why do you want to call him a liar?”
“I don’t. I’m not saying he’s a liar. But maybe he doesn’t know everything about this island.”
“How could anyone live on this island?” Kristen chimed in. “It’s impossible. There is absolutely nothing here. I think you should forget about those bones, April.”
“But—” April started to protest.
“What if Marks put those bones there?” Marlin asked.
“Yes. Right!” Anthony quickly agreed. “What if it’s part of a test? You know, one of the Life Games.”
“What if the bones are part of the loyalty test?” Marlin continued. “And you are ruining it for us by calling Marks a liar.”
“You are going to mess it up for us again!” Anthony said, glaring at April.
April felt herself lo
sing control. “What is your problem, Anthony?” she demanded. “You’ve been on my case ever since we arrived.”
His cheeks turned bright red. “Sorry,” he muttered. “Really. Guess I’m just losing it or something.” He stuck out his hand. “Shake?”
April shook his hand. She smiled at him. “Friends?”
“Sure,” he said.
Everyone here is so totally tense, April thought. All of us. We should be laughing and kidding around. It should be nonstop party time on this amazing island.
But everyone is totally stressed about the Life Games competitions. No one can relax.
Maybe I can do something about that, she thought. Maybe I can do something to get everyone to lighten up and have a few laughs….
19
The next morning, high clouds covered the sky. A cool wind from the ocean blew over the village. The boats bobbed roughly in the choppy waves at the dock. The wind made the trees creak and groan.
April hurried along the row of cottages to catch up to her three teammates. They were making their way into the mess hall for breakfast.
“Hey, wait up!” April called. “I’ll show you a cool magic trick.”
The four of them stopped in the doorway of the mess hall. Several kids were already seated at the two long wooden tables. April spotted Dolores in the center of the room, heading to the food table against the wall.
April grinned at her teammates. “Check this out. Watch what I can make Dolores do.”
She raised her right hand, pointed her finger at Dolores, and mumbled some words to herself.
In the middle of the room, Dolores suddenly stopped. Her eyes went wide. Her mouth dropped open. And she let out a loud cluck.
April waved her hand at Dolores, and Dolores began strutting around the room, clucking like a chicken.
Some cried out in surprise. Soon everyone was laughing.
Perfect, April thought. Everyone is enjoying my little magic act. “Now, watch this,” she called out.
April pointed at Dolores and mumbled some more nonsense words.
Across the room, Dolores’s body went stiff. And then she began to spin. Slowly at first, her arms dangling loosely at her sides.
Her long, blond hair whirled in the air as she spun faster. Her arms rose as if trying to keep her balance. “Help me!” Dolores wailed in horror. “Somebody—help me!”
The laughter stopped. The room grew silent. All eyes were on the tall, spinning girl.
Dolores spun faster, her hair whipping around her. She uttered scream after scream.
Just as we rehearsed, April thought.
She kept her finger pointed at Dolores and narrowed her eyes, pretending to concentrate her powers on her.
Dolores is a great screamer, April thought. She really sounds terrified!
When I asked her to help me with this little joke last night, she didn’t want to do it. She didn’t think she would be good at it. But she’s terrific!
April gazed around the mess hall. Kids were silent, gaping in wide-eyed horror. Beside her, Kristen hugged herself tightly, her dark eyes locked on the spinning girl. Marlin and Anthony kept staring from Dolores to April.
They’re buying it, April thought gleefully. They really believe I’m doing this.
We can all have a good laugh and relax when I tell them the truth.
April turned back to Dolores. The poor girl must be so dizzy, she thought. It’s time to signal her to stop.
April waved both hands at Dolores and shouted some strange-sounding words.
Did Dolores see the signal? April gave it again.
Why doesn’t she stop?
To April’s surprise, Dolores spun faster—and lifted off the floor!
The room rang out with screams as, spinning wildly, her arms flailing, Dolores floated up off the floor. She spun in midair, three feet off the floor.
Then floated higher.
April watched Dolores’s face twist in terror—real terror.
“Help me! Oh, help!” she shrieked. “April—stop it! April—please!”
20
Josh and Rick ran into the center of the room. Jumping. Reaching up. Desperately, they tried to grab Dolores and pull her down.
But the spinning girl rose higher, just out of their reach.
April pressed her hands against her cheeks and watched helplessly as Dolores shot up to the ceiling. Her head hit a wooden rafter with a deafening thud.
Dolores uttered a low groan. “Ohhhh. Please…somebody…make her stop!”
April gasped as she realized all eyes were on her now. Her three teammates had backed away from her. Still hugging herself, Kristen glared at her in disbelief.
“I—I’m not doing it!” April choked out.
Screams rang out again as the breakfast plates and glasses rose up from the tables. Eggs and toast and bowls of cereal, glasses of orange juice—all flew up from the tables, across the room.
The lights flashed on and off. Kids ducked under tables as plates and glasses flew at them.
Dolores screamed as her head thudded against the rafter again. April watched her slam into the wall, then slide to the floor. She sprawled there in a heap—and didn’t move.
The plates and glasses, the food and juice—it all clattered to the floor. Nothing moved now. An eerie silence fell over the room.
Kids climbed out from under the tables. Josh and Rick hurried over to Dolores and knelt beside her. She still hadn’t moved.
April felt all eyes on her. She turned away from the accusing stares of her teammates.
And saw Donald Marks staring at her from the doorway. He was rubbing his stubbled jaw thoughtfully, staring at her, staring so hard….
“I didn’t do it,” April whispered. “You’ve got to believe me. It was all a joke.”
Kristen continued to eye her coldly. Marlin and Anthony hung back against the wall, looking frightened, as if they expected April to make them spin next.
“I couldn’t have done that!” April shouted. “I don’t have any powers.”
She ran across the room to where Dolores was starting to stir. “Tell them!” April cried, bending beside her. “Dolores—tell them it was all a joke. We cooked it up last night. Tell them!”
Dolores gazed up at her blankly. “Go away,” she whispered. “Please, April—don’t hurt me anymore.”
21
April could feel Donald Marks’s eyes on her as she made her way with the other kids along the shore to the rock-climbing competition.
Josh led the way. He was in charge of the competition. But Marks had trailed along to watch.
Dolores, who was on Team One, was feeling better. As they walked to the sloping hills of blue rocks, she kept as far away from April as she could.
The others made their way over the sand in twos and threes. For the most part, team members stuck together. But April found herself walking alone.
Her teammates wouldn’t even look at her. The three of them walked far up ahead, chattering nonstop in whispered tones.
April knew they were talking about her.
Everyone here thinks I’m some kind of witch now, April thought miserably. I’m an outcast. A total outcast. Most of them are terrified of me.
What can I do? What can I do to prove to them that I’m just a normal kid? That I didn’t make Dolores and everything go out of control?
What did happen to Dolores?
April had asked herself that question over and over. What strange force made Dolores twirl into the air like that? What made the food and everything in the mess hall go crazy?
A shudder of fear ran down April’s back.
Too many weird things happening here, she thought. Martine and her burst eardrums…the ice-cold rocks…the pile of bird and fish bones near the rock caves…Dolores flying off the ground…
If only she could talk to her teammates about it. But now they really were afraid of her.
Lost in her unhappy thoughts, April was surprised to see that Josh had dropped b
ack beside her. He brushed a leaf from his wavy, dark hair and turned his dark green eyes on her.
“How’s it going, April?”
She sighed. “Not great.”
“Keep to the right, guys,” he shouted to the others up ahead. “We’re going to climb near those caves up there.”
He turned back to April. “That was pretty weird back there in the mess hall.”
“Everyone thinks I did it,” April replied, frowning. “You think so too—don’t you?”
Josh shrugged. “I don’t know what to think. I don’t really believe in people having powers like that.”
“I don’t either,” April said. “And I don’t have powers. It was supposed to be a joke. Dolores and I rehearsed it last night. It was just a joke. But…”
They walked on in silence. The blue rocks glowed ahead of them. “There is something strange about this island,” April said.
Josh kicked a stone out of the path. “You may be right,” he muttered.
April grabbed his arm and forced him to stop walking. “What do you mean? Do you mean you believe me?”
He shrugged again. “Maybe.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “I’ve been on this island for a month, before any kids arrived. I helped build the cabins with Rick and a bunch of other guys. And—” He stopped.
April saw Marks watching them.
“And what?” she asked.
“I had a feeling there was something strange here,” Josh whispered. “The guys and I were having a party on the beach one night. And…I could swear I heard a voice. A woman. Humming a song.”
April swallowed. “Really?”
Josh nodded. “I know, I know. The island is uninhabited. We’re the only ones living on it. But I swear I heard someone humming. It was probably just something echoing in the caves. But it was totally weird.”
“I found a pile of bones!” April blurted out excitedly. “Yesterday. Near the caves. Fish and bird bones. Piled up in a circle, like no animal could do it. But no one would believe me.”
“Uh…I’m really not allowed to talk to you kids about stuff like this,” Josh said. “I’m staff—right? I’ll get into major trouble.”