The True Enemy Read online

  At the end of the day, we meet at my house. We had raised three hundred dollars. “Not bad!” Paulie said, counting up the donations. “I actually think it was a good first day.”

  Mika shook her head. “It was, but the problem is with these things is that the first day is usually the best day. There will be less and less people to talk to as the week goes on….”

  Paulie sat at his computer. “I’m entering our take now into the completion website.” He typed for a few minutes. He tapped the screen. “Yahoo!” he said. “We’re in first with $300, the cheerleaders are a distant second with $110! Nobody else has anything!” He smiled. “See a good day.”

  Mika nodded. “True, but it’s going to get tougher from here! You know the cheerleaders aren’t going to take this sitting down. After all, they are cheerleaders they hardly ever sit.”

  Sure enough, as the week went on we made less and less money each day. We’d make some here and there. But it was getting hard to find a house that hadn’t contributed yet and was willing. But by the end of the week between us and the Cheerleaders and the other teams, we had pretty much hit every house in town. Tabulating our collection by Friday night we had $610 dollars.

  Paulie went to the competition website to enter our donations. “I think it’s a pretty good haul,” he said. “Especially considering it is such an unusual charity…”

  “How we doing?” I asked Paulie.

  He tapped his screen, getting an update on the standings now. Paulie looked at the screen with great anticipation. Tapping his fingers he said, “come on load load load…”

  “Dude a watched website never loads,” Bart said.

  “I am sure we have done well,” Lance said.

  “Agreed,” Gail said.

  “We will see,” Mika said.

  Paulie’s eyes lit up. Then his mouth dropped open, “We’re in second…”

  “Oh man, how much did the cheerleaders raise?” I asked.

  “They got $610 also,” Paulie said.

  “Then we’re actually tied for first, right?” I said.

  Paulie shook his head. “Nope, the computer club has raised over three thousand dollars…”

  “Say what?” Brett said.

  “How? Those geeks know fewer people than Paulie!” Bart said. He looked at Paulie, “No offense bud.”

  Paulie nodded, “None taken, I’m a kid and I don’t get out much!”

  “Then how did they make that kind of gold!” Lance asked.

  “Dude it’s not really gold,” Mika told him.

  “No idea,” Paulie said.

  “I know,” Bart said. He held up his phone. It had a computer club of Camelot the C-cubed online petition for people to donate to homeless pets. “They used the web and took their campaign to the masses. They made more than us without ever leaving home. They probably played doom and league of legends while we walked our butts off.”

  “Ah...we still have our butts,” Lance said looking back at his behind.

  “Figure of speech dude,” Bart told him.

  “Not a very pleasant one. Besides, if we had walked our butts off, we couldn’t walk because our legs are attached to our butts, so it would defeat the purpose of walking so much…” Lance continued.

  “Dude, let it go,” Bart said.

  Wow, we and the cheerleaders had been outsmarted and out-maneuvered by the computer club.”

  Paulie chimed in. “We really shouldn’t have been all that surprised. They teamed up with the Chess Club and those guys know strategy.”

  “Looks like we’ll have to find another way to get up close and personal with Kristi,” Paulie said.

  “I’m not ready to give up yet!” I said. “Maybe we can team with the cheerleaders and work together to get better results? Then we and the fairies can meet Kristi.”

  My knights all looked at me.

  “You sure you can trust them?” Bart asked.

  “Not totally, but I’ll call a meeting with them tomorrow to see if maybe we can work something out.”

  I figured that was the best we could hope for now.

  My Notes:

  Wow, I thought the cheerleaders would be tricky...but we were getting our butts kicked by the computer and chess club. Yeah, I should have known better than to underestimate a bunch of smart kids who are good with computers! I had to admit that I was still shocked that even using online techniques they were still able to generate so much cash for such a silly cause.

  Chapter 7 - Meeting of Minds

  The next morning sitting at the breakfast table I had a lot on my mind. How could the computer club have gotten so far ahead of us? Could I trust the cheerleaders? I mean, magic flying monkeys with forked tongues certainly seemed like something they could conquer up. But they insisted they didn’t have anything to do with it.

  Mom looked at me slowly munching on some cornflakes. “What’s wrong honey?”

  “Hard to narrow it down to one thing,” I said.

  “Pick a place and start there,” Dad said.

  “The computer and chess club they are kicking our butts in this contest,” I moaned.

  Dad nodded. “Yeah, I heard they started an online petition. Pretty clever.”

  “Yes it was, but I am still shocked they could raise so much money from people they don’t even know. I mean this is a silly cause. A good cause but a silly one…” I said.

  Dad nodded. “So you saying they might have hacked something?”

  “You know dad, I wasn’t thinking that but that’s a good point… I’ll have Bart look into it.”

  “What else is bugging you, dear?” Mom asked.

  “When this started got attacked by magical flying monkey’s in the cafeteria,” I said.

  “Are there non-magical flying monkeys?” Mom asked.

  “No, of course not,” Merlin said from on top of the table. Merlin always had a way of popping awake at the most interesting times. “Don’t be silly.”

  “So somebody with magic had to conjure them,” I concluded. “But the fairies insist they didn’t.”

  “Therefore if the fairies are telling the truth they had to be conjured by somebody else in the school who can perform magic,” Mom said. “Can you think of anybody?”

  “Ms. Vivian comes to mind,” I said.

  I looked at dad. “Dad, can you get me to school early?”

  “Sure,” Dad said.

  Merlin looked up. “I can finish your breakfast for you. But do you think it’s wise to go alone?”

  I stood up. “I can handle her!”

  I found Ms. Vivian sitting in her office. Coach Locke was also there sitting next to her. The two were sharing a laugh. In the past, they were Robin Hood and Maid Marian so they had a common and complicated history.

  “What can I help you with, Gwen?” Ms. Vivian asked.

  “Magic,” I said. “My knights and I got attacked by flying monkeys with forked tongues in the cafeteria.” No matter how many times I said that statement, it never seemed quite right. Yep, my life was definitely different now.

  Ms. Vivian stood up. “So are you accusing me of having monkeys attack you?” she asked her hands started to glow.

  ‘I’m just saying the cheerleaders claimed they didn’t do it,” I said. “And there’s only one other person in the school who has enough magic to create weird freaky monkey’s with forked tongues and wings.”

  “Not my style kid,” Ms. Vivian said.

  “I have to agree,” Coach Locke said. “Seems more like the cheerleaders type of thing.”

  Ms. Vivian nodded. “Yeah, Celia is a big Wizard of Oz fan.”

  “But Celia fairy swore that they didn’t do it,” I said.

  Ms. Vivian sat down. “Oh Gwen, I thought you to be smarter than this,” she said slowly.

  I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing.

  Ms. Vivian sighed. “Gwen honey, when it comes to fairy swears, the wording is very important.”

  “I knew that,” I said defensively. Even t
hough I did know that it had never crossed my mind.

  “So what exactly did Celia tell you?” Coach Locke asked.

  “I actually can’t remember her exact words,” I said.

  Ms. Vivian reached forward and put a finger on my forehead. “Think!” she ordered.

  My mind shot back to the time when I confronted the fairies in the pool. I saw Celia and I heard her say, “Fairy swear, we did not do it.”

  I told Ms. Vivian and Coach Locke. “She said, Fairy swear we did not do it.” I kicked those words around in my mind. “Oh no!” I said. “That Celia! She played me. She said WE did not do it. That didn’t mean that she didn’t do it on her own!”

  “I guess there is hope for you after all,” Ms. Vivian. “Which is good since you are destined to be queen.”

  I looked at the two teachers. “Do you mind if I go kick a certain cheerleaders butt?” I asked.

  “Go for it!” Ms. Vivian said.

  As I stormed out of the room, I did hear coach Locke say, “As teachers, we probably shouldn’t encourage this sort of behavior.”

  “Celia has it coming!” Ms. Vivian said.

  I met Celia and Kat coming into the school. Thrusting a finger at Celia I shouted, “You lied!”

  Kat turned to her. “What is she talking about?”

  Nina walked up behind the two. “I’d like to know also.”

  “She used magic on us to slow us down. She sent a barrel of deadly flying monkeys at us!” I yelled.

  “Gwen hold you’ve voice down, people will think you are cra-cra,” Kat whispered.

  “No I’ve frozen the school,” Nina said. She looked at Celia.

  Celia dropped back a few stepped. “I did not lie. I said WE didn’t do it and we didn’t I did.”

  “But I gave my word!” Kat said.

  Celia laughed. “And you did not lie.”

  Nina stepped forward. “Gwen I am sorry Celia stepped out of line. But I think we’re going to have both put this behind us. It obviously didn’t slow you down much since you got off to such a great start.”

  I grinned. “Yep, it kind of fired us up.”

  “See I’m a cheerleader I’m supposed to fire people up!” Celia said.

  “We have a bigger problem now, how are we going to beat those computer and chess club nerds?” Kat said.

  I had to admit that did seem to be the most pressing problem now. I also had to admit I had no idea how. At least not without magic and that would be cheating.

  My Notes:

  I can be a bit dense sometimes. I had so forgotten how exact fairy swears have to be. Now the question was…was it worth cheating to meet Kristi?

  Chapter 8 - Cheating?

  I shot Celia a look. I certainly didn’t trust her one bit, but Kat was right we had bigger fish to fry. If we were to win this contest we would have to cooperate with the fairies.

  “How are we going to catch the computer nerds?” Celia asked.

  I looked across the frozen schoolyard I noticed Bart and Brett coming towards us. They were pointing at us. Brett looked happy. That had to mean they had something to tell us, something good. At least I hoped it was good.

  Nudging Nina I asked, “Why don’t you unfreeze everybody.”

  Nina looked around. “But they are all so quiet. It’s peaceful. Like being in the water. Just me and my thoughts. And of course, all of you guys. Maybe I should freeze you too…”

  “Nina please!” I said.

  “Fine,” she said. She snapped her fingers. Everybody started moving again.

  Bart and Brett raced over to us. Brett really did seem happy which was strange. I had never seen Brett like this.

  “We got em!” Bart said.

  “Them!” Brett said, barely able to contain himself.

  “Who?” Nina asked, “and if you say them again I will turn you both into ants and squash you.”

  Bart and Brett stopped in their tracks. They trembled a little.

  “Talk!” Nina ordered.

  “The nerds! They cheated!” Bart said.

  “How?” I asked.

  “Can you prove it?” Celia asked.

  The two boys stood there in silence.

  “Are you stunned by my beauty or are you just dense?” Celia asked.

  “Probably a little of both,” Kat said.

  The two boys took a couple steps back. Bart pulled out his phone. “The computer geeks are good we can’t prove they did anything wrong but almost all of their sign ups came in an hour span.”

  “And we are pretty sure they are all from dummy accounts,” Brett said.

  “So how do they plan to collect the money then?” Nina asked. “Dummy accounts don’t pay.”

  “No of course not,” Bart said. He sighed. “Wow, you are beautiful and smart.”

  Nina pointed at him. “Dude get to the point before I ant you!”

  “Right,” Bart said awkwardly. “But one of the non-dummy names they have signed up is Bradley Bartley. Apparently, he merged his efforts in the computer club and chess club once he figured out that his daddy can’t make one huge donation for him to win.”

  “But working with the chess and computer clubs they could make a bunch of fake pledges that Bradley would cover. Thus they win,” Brett said.

  “So they are secretly buying the competition,” Nina said.

  Bart sighed, “So smart and so beautiful…”

  Brett chipped in, “Thing is...we have no way of proving this!”

  Nina cracked her knuckles. She walked into the school slowly. I followed. The others all followed us.

  There at his locker stood Bradley, surrounded by a bunch of smiling members of the computer and chess clubs.

  “Nina, what are you going to do?” I asked.

  “Turn them all into that stuff between my toes!” she said turning red. “How dare they try to cheat against us!” She sighed, “That’s the problem with humans even without magic they always look for short-cut ways to scam the system. I’m getting tired of it.”

  I stood in front of her. “Nina, you can’t just turn them all into toe jam.”

  “I’m pretty certain I can,” she said to me. She looked past me. “Gwen, I respect you in the past and what you are trying to do here. But I do not tolerate cheating.”

  “Ah, Celia tried cheating, remember she sent flying monkeys of death after us,” I said. Still blocking her from getting clear access to the computer club kids and Bradley.

  Nina pointed at Bradley and his cohorts. “Yes, I will deal with Celia later. I admit she did cheat but she cheated in my favor so I am not as angry. And you must admit it was a pretty pitiful attempt. There’s no way a barrel full of monkeys could stop you.”

  I pushed her arm gently down. “Thanks, but that still doesn’t change the fact that she cheated too. Poor cheating is still cheating. And for an advanced and enlightened being, it shouldn’t matter if the cheating was for or against you,” I told her.

  Nina glared at me. “Your point?”

  “Let's make them pay!” I said.

  “Oh believe me making them into my toe jam is making them pay!” Nina said, raising her arm again.

  “Yeah but that doesn’t really help us in the long run, they are still ahead of us in the contest.”

  “True Gwen, but if they are all toe jam it won’t matter at all.”

  “Come on Nina, you are above this! You are a higher being. The Lady of the Lake.”

  Nina lowered her arms, she smiled at me. “You are wise Gwen.” A pause. “So how do suggest we proceed? Should I turn them into talking parrots? Then they can tell us what we need to know.”

  “Still won’t really help our cause,” I said. I started walking towards Bradley and the computer guys. I figured and hoped one of them would crack when pressured. Looking over my shoulder I told Nina, “Follow me.”

  “I’m not really a follower,” she said.

  “Please,” I said.

  “Fine.”

  Nina started to follow me. W
e were trailed by Bart, Brett, Kat, and Celia.

  As we approached, Bradley got cocky. “Well, well, look who’s coming, the teams that are eating our dust…”

  Nina walked past me. She got in Bradley’s face. “Look here Bradley, our nerds, well Gwen’s nerds have figured out that your bigger nerds have cheated the system.”

  “Hey just because we’re good with computers, doesn’t make us nerds!” Bart balked.

  “Yeah, we’re sports stars and such!” Brett said.

  “Dude you just said and such!” Bradley said laughing.

  Brett stood in Bradley’s space. Bradley was a tall blonde guy. He had the body of somebody who worked out but he wasn’t a fighter like Brett. Still Bradley held his ground. The boy was confident.

  “Look, Brett, I’ve had the best martial arts teachers money can buy. So I am not scared of you,” Bradley said.

  Brett made a fist. “Maybe you should be. Martial arts is about rules and discipline. I’m pretty sure I can teach you a thing or three.”

  Bradley stepped even closer to Brett. “This isn’t the time, or the place. Perhaps, we should meet after school, in my gym.”

  “Ha, you have a gym!” Brett said.

  “Actually yes I do,” Bradley responded.

  Brett dropped back a step. “Okay, that is actually pretty cool. I’d love to kick your butt in your own gym.”

  “Pick the time,” Bradley said.

  I stepped between the two boys. “No need for violence here, boys,” I said stressing the word boys. “I think we can solve this peacefully.”

  Nina stepped up to Bradley. “Bradley I’ve always respected you,” she said.

  “I appreciate that,” he said calmly.

  I had to give Bradley credit he was cool under threat from Brett. He stayed cool in the presence of Nina’s stunning good looks. The boy was so calm and collected. I didn’t think we could crack him, not without magic. I turned my attention to Bradley’s three cohorts or lackeys. Gabi Hayes, Craig Mars and Mitch Moon stood behind Bradley as if he was a wall protecting them from damage. Actually, knowing those three guys, it was more like Bradley was acting as a force field deflecting any potential incoming damage. Gabi and Craig were cousins but they looked more like brothers. They were both tall and skinny and a bit pale. They had the coloring of kids who didn’t spend a lot of time outdoors. They both turned away when I looked towards them. Mitch was short and stocky and seemed more confident, even though I truly had no idea why he thought he should be so confident. The pimples on his face looked a bit like a connect the dots puzzle.