Chapter Three—The Waiting

 

The Listians wanted my blood.

“We have to go around the world and pick up the rest of the List.” Mollie wet her lips, attempting to keep calm. “Do you know how long that will take? How many countries we’ll have to visit?”

“Not to mention how many of us there are!” added Jess, who had joined us shortly before.

“We have no money, or mode of transportation!” Tawnya threw her hands up in the air. Northstar was writing again, but she glanced in my direction and gave me a Look.

Beth and Daisy, however, were sitting peacefully on either side of me.

“It’ll be fun.” Beth insisted, putting a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “And I didn’t have any plans this week anyway.”

“Maybe you didn’t…” mumbled Stephanie.

“I’m sorry.” I said again, eyes downcast.

“Forget about it.” Daisy turned to face me, a smile on her face. “Pretty soon, more of the American List members will check their mail, and we can start. We’ll be done before ya know it!”

I perked up. She was right; feeling sorry for myself wasn’t helping any. So I did what came natural to cheer everyone up.

“Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered…”

And in no time at all, all of us were reciting The Words.

“You have no power over me!”

“Ladies,” a voice boomed above us, “you’ll not do that again!”

We looked at one another until we couldn’t contain ourselves any longer.

And broke into fits of laughter.

 

*                      *                      *                      *                      *

 

“Does anyone have a watch?” I asked, shielding my eyes from the sun. Jareth had gone through the trouble of making us uncomfortable; that was for sure.

“It’s 1 o’clock,” replied Lori. I felt bad for her; she was wearing baggy pants and a flannel shirt, and looked like she was roasting.

“Never have I wanted people to read their e-mail as badly as I do right now,” Stephanie remarked. At least she had a way to keep cool: she beat her wings to create a breeze.

“Maybe some of the American members are at school, and can’t get to a computer.” Starlight commented. It was a possibility. We had a few college students on the List.

Starlight stood behind Stephanie, her silk dress and forest green velvet cloak swaying as the Faery beat her wings.

The appearance of Starlight had been an interesting one, to say the least. Apparently, she’d been at Jareth’s castle when he found her and brought her to the rest of us. In a flash of silver light, both King and Listian appeared. They argued, Starlight saying that he was a bit uptight and Jareth countering that her flooding his bathroom didn’t exactly make his day.

“You just can’t take a joke, your Highness.” Starlight said calmly.

“Ha! The day you present to me a joke that I approve of is the day I admit it’s a sock!”

The only way I can describe the following moments are utter silence and dropped jaws. Excluding Starlight, who had a wry smile on her face. The King’s face grew red and he muttered something inaudible before vanishing in a cloud of glitter.

“I think almost all of us are here.” Helen sighed. “We only seem to be missing—”

“Me.”

The group looked up to find a familiar figure. She had short brown hair and glasses, and was wearing jeans and a David Bowie T-shirt.

“Anakerie!”

“You’re damn right, it’s me! I wouldn’t miss another chance to make fun of Our King.”

I got up and ran to my dear friend and fellow Listian. The other girls did the same. We were happy to have another ally and List veteran with us. Now we were ready.

“Jareth, we’re all here!” I announced impatiently. “What country are we going to first?”

“You think it’s that easy?” the King’s voice echoed sinisterly.

 

Back  Chapter Four

Chapter Two  Home