“It’s the curse.” The voice was solid but wavy—like an aged piece of oak. The people on the bank all turned. Their eyes locked onto an old woman. She was wearing a ragged brown dress and a cloak, even though it was hot. Her tin-colored hair hung tangled to her waist, and she was leaning on a warped walking stick.
Alexis couldn’t tell if it was a costume or not. The lady definitely looked like some kind of medieval hag. The woman reminded her of the old hag in The Princess Bride, who cursed Princess Buttercup in her dreams for giving away her own true love.
“What curse?” someone called from the crowd.
“Don’t you people keep up on your history?” asked the old woman. She was speaking from the top of the little green hill near the bridge. Everyone could see her as she lifted her hands to speak over them.
“History!” the woman repeated. “The London Bridge never remains whole for long, no matter how you rebuild it. From the time of the Romans, it has always sunk, burned, or crumbled!” She pointed toward the crack with her stick.
The crowd began to murmur. Some were nodding. Alexis made a mental note to ask her grandmother about the bridge’s destructive past. The old woman continued.
“When the bridge was brought to Lake Havasu, the curse of the River Thames followed. Now it will prey on two cities, instead of one! London and Lake Havasu City are sisters in destruction!”
The people began talking among themselves again. Some wandered back to whatever they had been doing before the commotion. Some called after the woman, asking her questions, but she was already out of reach. She walked toward town singing softly in a croaking voice, “London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down….”
When the crowd had thinned out, Alexis and Elizabeth wandered closer to the bridge. From the grassy slope they could easily see the crack. It looked strange—harmless and menacing at the same time. Elizabeth sat on the grass and crossed her lanky legs. Alexis plopped down beside her.
“Do you think a crack that small could really bring a whole bridge down?” Elizabeth asked.
“I have no idea!” answered Alexis. “I’m just glad nothing happened while we were up there this morning.” Alexis ran her hand through the short grass.
“I just don’t get it,” she said, picking a small clover. “This bridge shouldn’t just fall down. I read about it before I came. The outside layer of stone is from the real London Bridge, but everything underneath is solid steel and cement. It shouldn’t be crumbling, Elizabeth.”
Alexis was puzzled. What could possibly bring down such a huge structure? The bridge wasn’t old—barely thirty years. And it wasn’t like Lake Havasu got a lot of severe weather or anything. That only left one possibility.
“The curse,” said Alexis, almost in a whisper.
“Alexis, come on,” said Elizabeth. Now her gangly arms were crossed as well as her legs. “You can’t really believe what that lady was saying. Curses aren’t real!”
“I know,” said Alexis. “But it sounds like a mystery, don’t you think?” She looked sideways at her friend and raised her eyebrows. Elizabeth’s mouth stretched into a wide smile.
“Mmm, I was hoping something like this might happen…. I mean, not the crack!” she apologized to the bridge. “You know what I mean. Do you happen to have that little pink notebook of yours?”
“What do you think?” said Alexis. She drew the notebook out of her back pocket and started scribbling as Elizabeth listed people they should try to talk to.
Problem: There’s a crack in the London Bridge.
Plan: Track down more information. Start by talking to the old woman—maybe there’s more to this curse thing than we realize. Maybe it’s a stunt for the tourists.
Alexis thought back to the conversation surrounding the bridge only moments before.
“Elizabeth,” she said. “What if they cancel the parade? No parade means no bed race! That would be a total bummer!”
“I know,” said Elizabeth. “But it’s even worse than that. No London Bridge means no Lake Havasu. They built this town around that bridge, Alexis. How many tourists will come to see a pile of rocks?”
“Who knows,” said Alexis. “It works for Stonehenge, doesn’t it?”
Elizabeth didn’t laugh.
“Stonehenge is a pile of big rocks in England that were propped upright sometime way before Jesus was born,” Alexis explained, in case Elizabeth didn’t know. “They don’t know who put them up or why they’re standing in a circle in the middle of a field….”
“Oh, I know about that,” Elizabeth said. “I saw a program about it on the History Channel. I was just thinking.”
“Look!” Alexis whispered. She pointed across the road to where a short, slouched figure was walking quickly away, leaning on a stick. It was the old woman.
“Come on! Let’s go talk to her!” Elizabeth exclaimed.
Both girls jumped to their feet and dusted off their backsides before jogging across the street. They wanted to catch up and ask her a few questions about the bridge and this so-called curse, but it wasn’t that easy.
The closer they got to the woman, the faster she seemed to walk. Soon she was almost running. She zigged and zagged through the streets of Lake Havasu City, leading the girls deeper and deeper into the teeming crowds of tourists. The old woman took a sharp left into an alley behind a bakery, and the girls almost lost her.
They stood panting on the sidewalk, being jostled by purses. Alexis noticed that some of the purses had small dogs in them. She would never understand what made people carry their dogs around everywhere they went.
“It’s like she knows we’re following her and is trying to lose us!” panted Elizabeth. “She must be up to something devious, or she wouldn’t run.”
“I know,” wheezed Alexis as a Pomeranian nipped at her elbow from inside its rainbow-colored Louis Vuitton. “Can you see anything?”
Elizabeth used her height to peer over the heads of the crowd.
“There!” she cried. The old woman emerged from an alley farther down the street. She bent low, as if she didn’t want to be seen.
The girls resumed the chase.
“Maybe she’s late for an appointment,” said Alexis, fighting against the pressure of bodies as they weaved through yet another crosswalk. At that moment the woman turned around. The girls emerged from a clump of people, and they made eye contact.
The woman ran.
Now Alexis knew that the woman was definitely avoiding them. But why? It didn’t make any sense. She was the one who had stood near the bridge yelling about a curse. All they wanted was a little more information, for goodness’ sake! And for a rickety, old-looking woman, she sure ran fast!
They ran for half a mile or more, making three left-hand turns and four to the right. Then Elizabeth stopped.
“She’s gone,” she huffed.
“Are you sure?” asked Alexis.
“Sure.” Elizabeth bent over to catch her breath. “I haven’t seen her for a few minutes. She got away.”
Alexis slumped against the nearest window. It was cold to the touch. The store must have had the air-conditioning going full blast. Well, she thought, there’s nothing left to do now but go back. She looked around… and recognized nothing.
“Elizabeth, do you know where we are?”
Her friend only shook her head. Great. They were alone in a strange city, and they had followed the old woman without even thinking about how they would get back. Alexis thought of Hansel and Gretel.
“Those two were smart,” she said.
“What?” asked Elizabeth.
“Hansel and Gretel were smart. They left a way to get back home.”
Elizabeth laughed. “Sure. I’ll keep a few bread crumbs in my pocket for our next high-speed chase through a strange town!”
“I guess we can go in a shop and ask someone,” said Alexis.
Elizabeth was about to answer when they both jumped.
Hundreds of screams ripped through
the streets of Lake Havasu City.
Imposters
The air was quiet for a moment or two. Then it happened again. Hundreds of people screamed.
Alexis looked at Elizabeth. By the fear on her friend’s face she could tell that Elizabeth was also worried. They were two young girls alone in a strange place. Frantic screams filled the air. They did the only thing two Camp Club Girls would have done. They ran…toward the screaming.
When they rounded the last corner, the screaming finally made sense. Alexis and Elizabeth stood facing a huge building. Glittering letters on the side of it told them it was Lake Havasu High School, home of the Fighting Knights. The noise was coming from inside the gym. A few straggling students made their way through a pair of double doors.
“Look, Alexis.” Elizabeth pointed to another sign. It was splashed bright with purple and gold poster paint: PEP RALLY TODAY! GO KNIGHTS!
“Want to take a look?” asked Alexis. She had been to one pep rally at her middle school, but it had been pretty lame. It hadn’t been for a sport or anything. Just an assembly meant to encourage the students to do their best in school this year. Who had ever heard of a “Yay for Homework!” rally?
Alexis had never even been inside a high school. How cool would it be to tell her friends she’d seen a high school pep rally, even if it was from the outside?
The girls edged toward the doors, trying to get a peek before they closed. A voice behind them made them jump.
“Hey! Get in there, or you’ll miss it!”
The man ordering them into the building was obviously a teacher. Elizabeth tried to explain that they were tourists, but the man held up a thick, pink pad of paper.
“Please,” he said. “Don’t make me give out two more detentions.”
At that point the girls figured it was useless to protest. He lightly nudged them through the doors, followed them in, and closed the doors with a snap.
Immediately the girls’ senses were overloaded.
The horns of the marching band wailed what must have been the school song. The rhythm of the drums was constant and violent, like the heartbeat of an enormous beast. The bleachers exploded with a chant, “Go, Knights, go! Fight, Knights, fight! Go! Fight! WIN!” Then more of the screaming the girls had heard from the street.
Alexis didn’t know whether to be afraid of high school or extremely excited to be a part of it. Just then she saw something that made up her mind. Five of the cheerleaders, dazzling in purple and gold, gathered in a small clump. The girl in the center disappeared for a moment, and someone yelled, “One, two!”
The cheerleaders moved down together, and when they rose, the tiny girl in the middle exploded toward the ceiling. She completed a backflip before slamming her hands out to meet her toes and falling gracefully back into her teammates’ waiting arms.
Alexis’s mouth hung open in shock. She had never seen a stunt go that high. Sometimes the girls throwing her in practice barely got her above their heads. She was sure this cheerleader had almost hit the rafters of the looming gym. And she knew that she was going to fly like that one day. No matter what it took.
Someone nudged her. It was the teacher again. He pointed over to the bleachers labeled FRESHMEN, and Alexis and Elizabeth squeezed into the front row.
“Hey, you don’t go to school here.” The voice came from a blond boy next to Elizabeth. It wasn’t accusing, just amused. “I’ve never seen you before. You’re imposters! I would have noticed you,” he added, winking at Elizabeth. The girls ignored him.
A tall girl with purple face paint walked to the center of the gym. She was holding a microphone.
“Attention, Fighting Knights! It’s time for the class competition! Now we’re going to pick one member from each class. Who will win? The freshmen? Sophomores? Juniors? Or seniors?”
The students roared, and before Alexis realized what was going on, the blond boy had shoved her from her spot on the bench.
“Alrighty! I have a freshman volunteer,” the tall girl said, grabbing Alexis by the hand.
Alexis looked at Elizabeth frantically, but Elizabeth just shrugged in a hopeless “What can I do?” expression.
The tall girl with the purple face dragged Alexis onto the hardwood. Alexis stood in front of a thousand teenagers, petrified.
Didn’t they know she didn’t belong here? Surely it was painted on her like one of their posters. The blond boy had known right away.
Whether or not they knew, nobody said anything. Three older students joined her in the middle of the floor: one sophomore, one junior, and one senior. Cheerleaders pulled two red wagons into the middle of the floor.
“Here, you two work together,” the tall girl commanded as she placed Alexis next to the sophomore—a short, chunky boy with glasses. The girl holding the microphone gave Alexis a broomstick and then spoke to the crowd.
“Since this week is the London Bridge Festival, our competition today is the wagon joust!” The gym erupted. “Each team will have two chances to collect as many rings on their broomsticks as possible. As always, seniors and juniors first!”
The other team got ready. One got in the wagon with the broomstick, and the other got ready to pull. Small hula hoops hung from fishing string down the middle of the gym. The person with the broom was supposed to grab them by passing the broom through the middle as they raced past.
All at once, the wagon took off. It was more than a little bit wobbly. The person pulling the wagon had a hard time steering, and the team missed the first three hoops because they weren’t close enough.
They weaved some and grabbed two hoops before getting tangled in the third and tumbling over. The students in the gym laughed as the competitors got up and tried their second run. They got three more hoops, giving them a total of five. The older students roared their approval and booed as Alexis climbed in her wagon.
“That’s probably a good idea that they gave you the broom,” her partner said with a laugh. “I don’t think I would fit in that wagon! And if I could, I don’t think you’d be able to pull me!”
“Just keep us going straight, okay?” said Alexis. She took a deep breath. How on earth had she gotten herself into this?
They were off. The boy was pulling Alexis a lot faster than she had expected to go. How long had it been since she had been in a wagon anyway? No time to think about it. The first hoop tore by before she realized it, but the next three slid easily onto the end of her stick.
Cheers erupted from the younger side of the gym.
When she picked up a fourth hoop, the broomstick got heavy, and it slipped off before she could lift the handle. They reached the end of the gym and turned around. Alexis only needed to get three more hoops to win.
They tore back down the way they had come, and Alexis aimed for the three hoops left behind. Two slid on easily, but the third spun round and round on the handle, threatening to fly into the audience. The wagon stopped suddenly, and Alexis flew out.
The crowd gasped.
Alexis was lying on her back. She lifted her broomstick in the air, and the girl with the microphone counted out loud.
“Six!” she cried. “The freshmen and sophomores win, probably for the first time in ten years!”
The boos of the older students were drowned out by the higher-pitched cheers of the freshmen and sophomores. Alexis scooted back to her seat, blushing like crazy.
“Alexis, you’re amazing!” said Elizabeth.
“Thanks,” said Alexis. She elbowed her way in next to the blond boy. “Thanks to you, too,” she said, pushing him playfully.
“It wasn’t that bad, was it?” He laughed.
The microphone girl called for silence.
“Now,” she said, “it’s time for the reason we’re all here in the first place! Let’s give it up for your Lake Havasu High School swim team!”
Again the crowd went wild.
“The swim team?” said Alexis and Elizabeth together. Elizabeth leaned over Alexis and addressed the blond boy.
“Aren’t pep rallies usually for football or something? I’ve never heard of a pep rally for the swim team.”
“I know,” replied the blond boy. “This is the first time the school has had a pep rally for the swim team. But this is more for one guy than the whole team. You see those?” He pointed up to the gym ceiling, and Alexis noticed a collection of banners for the first time. They were purple satin lined with gold. Each one had STATE CHAMPION embroidered along the top with a different event underneath. 100 m Butterfly, 100 m Freestyle, 400 m Individual Medley. All six of them were labeled with the same name: David Turner.
“That’s him,” said the blond boy. He pointed across the gym to where one member of the swim team stood a little behind the others. “He’s only a freshman, too. He won all of those last year, before he was even in high school. The guy’s a machine. So they decided that the swim team is worthy of being honored this year with a pep rally.”
“Wow,” said Elizabeth. Alexis was speechless. Something about the swim champion bothered her. Everyone in the school was clapping and screaming for him, but he didn’t seem to like it. He was off to the side, the hood of his sweatshirt pulled in front of his face and his lanky shoulders stooped. Alexis got the feeling that he wished he were invisible.
The coach who was with the team grabbed a microphone and announced that the team would have a swim meet the following afternoon. It would be held at four o’clock at the Aquatic Center in town.
From the noise and excitement of the screaming crowd, Alexis guessed that just about everyone would be there. She thought it was kind of funny. She wondered if the schools in her area even had swim teams. She made a mental note to check when she got back to Sacramento.
The gym began to empty, and students filed out of the gym to go back to their classes. Alexis and Elizabeth slipped out the door to the street, making sure to avoid the teacher who had led them inside. They walked back the way they had come.
Soon they were melting in the heat. A sign up ahead rocked in the breeze. It had a triple-scoop ice cream cone on it.
Alexis and the Arizona Escapade Page 2
