“There were two sinks and two stalls I left completely untouched!” Charlie said.
“Plus the water damage . . . ,” Mac went on.
“Guys!” Maria said. “Drop it. Focus.”
Charlie scowled. It was one-third of the bathroom at most, and Kelly had told Maria that the custodian had turned off the water right away, so she doubted there was any damage from that. But she dropped it. “So what about my cracked screen?”
Mac shrugged. “Easy. The alarm flipped the switch that time. It startled you from a sound sleep, and bam, the strength was there, even though you didn’t need it or want it.”
It was all making sense. If Charlie could keep these triggers in mind, she’d be able to be more careful when they happened in the future. But there was something else on her mind, too. She shook her arm in frustration. “Why won’t it come off now?”
Mac pursed his lips. “When was the first time you tried to take the bracelet off and it wouldn’t unlatch?”
“In the bathroom.”
“When the powers were activated?” he asked.
“I guess.”
“Had you ever tried taking it off when it was activated before?”
Charlie thought back. “I don’t think so. I’ve only ever taken it off when it was cold.”
“Maybe doing that triggered a permanent lock or something as a defense mechanism.”
Maria sat up. “Ahh, defense mode,” she said, nodding. “The bracelet must have gone into lockdown—it detected that someone was trying to remove the bracelet when you clearly needed it to fight off the evil toilet and sink.”
“Very funny,” said Charlie. But that explanation made sense. “So why won’t it open now that I don’t have any powers activated?”
“Because you need to enter the secret code to tell it that you’re safe and all is good?” guessed Maria.
“Either that, or it’s a glitch,” said Mac.
“Oh. Well, either way, that stinks.” They stood in silence for a moment. Then Charlie shrugged. “So, now what?” she asked, idly walking along the halfway line as she gathered her thoughts. “I’m not being chased. I have no need to run. So we can’t test it.”
When neither of them responded, Charlie looked up. “Guys?”
Suddenly, from behind, Maria grabbed Charlie and screamed in her ear.
Charlie gasped. “What did you do that for?”
“Run!” Maria shouted. “Mac! Video! Now!”
Charlie ran. Maria chased after her.
Charlie left her in the dust.
CHAPTER 23
Testing, Testing
“Rough estimate,” Mac said, staring at his phone and then at Charlie in disbelief, “is seventy miles per hour. I have a feeling I know which animal that matches.”
Charlie blinked. “Seventy? Are you sure?”
“It’s right around there,” he said, picking up his iPad.
“That’s insane,” Charlie said.
Maria whooped. “It’s incredible!”
“I’ll have to do all the calculations to get an exact number. But meanwhile . . .” Mac worked on the tablet for a moment, then he looked up, shaking his head a little in disbelief. “Yup, my suspicions were correct. Congratulations,” he said. “You’re tied with the cheetah as the world’s fastest animal. Er—land animal, anyway, according to this,” he added. “You’re nowhere near the speed of a peregrine falcon. But unless you can fly, that hardly matters. Wait.” He looked at her dubiously. “Can you fly?”
Charlie looked stunned. “Fly? Um, no, I don’t think so. Did you say . . . ?”
“As fast as a cheetah?” Maria stared at Charlie, and then started jumping up and down and hugging her. “That’s as fast as the speed limit on the highway! This is so awesome!” she cried. “Wow!”
“I can’t believe it,” Charlie said. It was scary and exciting at the same time.
“You’re totally sick,” Mac said with a huge grin.
“Charlie Wilde, you are officially the coolest person I know,” Maria declared, beaming. She flung her arm around Charlie’s shoulders. Charlie’s laughter rang out.
Mac’s enormous grin faded. “Wow, okay,” he said quietly. “Thanks a lot.” He turned and scanned the horizon like he was looking for something.
Charlie and Maria didn’t notice him as they talked excitedly about the amazing speed and all the things Charlie could do with it.
“But we have to figure out a different way to activate the powers,” Charlie said. “You probably won’t be able to sneak up on me and scare me like that again—I’ll be expecting it, so it won’t work.”
“Yeah, I figured that,” Maria said. “Plus, I can’t go around doing that in front of people. But I was thinking about whenever I watch a scary movie or bring up certain memories. They can be strong enough to get my heart racing. Does that ever happen to you?”
“I guess,” Charlie said. “I’m kind of a lightweight, though. A scary Goosebumps book can mess me up, especially if I read it in the dark. Oh—and one time I saw a bad car crash—” She stopped abruptly. The horrible image of that crash was so intensely etched in Charlie’s mind that she knew she’d never forget it.
Maria nodded. “Exactly. So if you feel like testing the strength ability next, maybe you could picture the crash while you’re trying to pick up something heavy. See if that turns on the strength power.”
“I don’t know,” Charlie said, doubt in her voice. She didn’t like the idea of reimagining the accident. It made her stomach hurt whenever she did. But this was in the name of science. Besides, now that she knew how fast she could run, she was really curious about how much she could lift. “I guess I could try it.”
“Awesome.” Maria looked around for Mac. “Now we need to find something big.” She rolled her eyes when she saw Mac sulking. “What are you doing?”
Mac turned and looked at the girls. He jerked his head to one side and pointed toward the small, flat-roofed athletic building that was under construction. There was no one working on it today. Beyond the building was a line of Dumpsters.
“Let’s see if Super Chuck can lift one of those,” Mac said.
“A Dumpster?” asked Maria. “Good idea. She probably can’t destroy that. Come on.” She and Mac started toward them.
Charlie wrinkled her nose. “That’s disgusting.” But curiosity outweighed the gross factor, and she trailed along.
When she got to the nearest Dumpster, Mac was circling it, figuring out the best angle for his video recording.
“You’ve totally got this,” Maria said, trying to pump her up.
Charlie looked it over and stood at the front of it, intending to get a grip on its sides. But it was too wide for her arms, so instead she grabbed the long, horizontal bar that ran along the front of it. “How about I see if I can just lift this side of it,” she said.
“You can do it!” Maria chanted. “Mac, you got the camera going?”
“Check,” Mac said. “Go ahead anytime.”
Charlie nodded, wiped her hands on her pants, and gripped the horizontal bar like a weightlifter. She tried not to breathe through her nose—the rotten stench was pretty awful.
Closing her eyes, Charlie went back to that awful day in her mind when she was nine years old. She and her mom had been driving home from the dentist. Charlie had been reading a book in the backseat when Charlie’s mom hit the brakes harder than usual and said a swear word that Charlie had never heard her mother say before.
Charlie had looked up. It was almost like the crash happened in slow motion right in front of them. A green car had swerved, its tires squealing, and a blue car smashed into the side of it and flipped through the air like it was a toy.
“Hang on!” Charlie’s mother had yelled as their tires squealed and Charlie was thrown forward against her seat belt. In front of them, the green car hit a third vehicle. Charlie’s mom pulled safely off to the side of the road as the green car finally came to a stop.
“Are you okay, sweetie?” C
harlie’s mom had asked her, looking over her shoulder as she dialed 911.
Charlie had nodded, even though she felt sick.
“I’m going to see if anybody is hurt,” Charlie’s mom had said. “Stay in the car. Keep your seat belt on.” Her commands had been firm and very serious, which somehow made the situation even scarier.
“I will,” said Charlie in a small voice.
The emergency operator answered the call, and Charlie’s mom went into doctor mode, speaking clearly and calmly while reaching for her emergency kit and plopping it on her lap. She reached back and gave Charlie’s knee a gentle squeeze, then smiled reassuringly as she spoke. Turning to look out her window to make sure no unsuspecting drivers were barreling toward her, she took her bag and slipped out of the car.
Charlie hadn’t wanted to watch, but she did anyway. The green car was like a crumpled sheet of tinfoil with smoke rising from it. The blue car sat upside down in the median. The third car, a black one, was off the road in the ditch. Then she heard the sound of someone yelling and crying.
As Charlie remembered, she felt her chest constrict. She pushed up on the bar as hard as she could, straining to lift the enormous metal container.
After a moment she opened one eye to see what happened.
The Dumpster hadn’t moved an inch.
CHAPTER 24
Strength
Charlie let go of the bar and sighed. “Well, that didn’t work.”
Mac frowned and deleted the video. Maria patted Charlie on the shoulder. “Good try, though,” she said, smiling weakly.
Charlie shook her hands out and walked away from the Dumpster, trying to figure out what went wrong. Maybe it wasn’t a bad enough memory.
And then she remembered that the powers activated out of necessity. And in that memory Charlie hadn’t actually been in danger herself.
“You want to go home?” Maria called out.
Charlie didn’t answer. She was thinking hard. “I wonder . . . ,” she said under her breath. She looked up at Maria and Mac. “I’m going to try this again.”
She went back to the Dumpster, gripped the bar, and took a few deep breaths. She closed her eyes and thought back to the memory, back to the moment she looked up from her book and saw the green car careering across the lanes. And this time Charlie imagined herself in the street, next to the blue car. Now the green one was headed right toward her.
Charlie’s heart raced, and in her mind she screamed. She put her hands out, her eyes like slits, barely daring to look as the vehicle neared. She caught a glimpse of the driver’s frightened face. No! Charlie yelled. She braced her feet and leaned forward, and in slow motion, her hands met the grille of the car. She leaned into it with all her might, pushing and straining, knowing she had to stop it or it would run her down.
The car’s hood crumpled under her fingertips. Charlie’s feet slid backward on the pavement. And then they both came to a stop.
Charlie could feel her muscles crying out, her hands aching from gripping the Dumpster. She opened her eyes, expecting to see it in the air. Instead it was on the ground, exactly where it had been all along.
She whipped her head around to look at the others—had she lifted it and set it down?
Mac and Maria were staring intently at her. “Are you done?” Maria asked.
“Did I do it?” asked Charlie. She let go of the bar and stepped back.
Her friends exchanged an uneasy glance. “No,” Maria said. “It didn’t move.”
Charlie’s shoulders sagged. She wiped the sweat from her forehead. Her arms trembled. It certainly felt like she’d done it. “Are you sure?” she asked, knowing it was a ridiculous question. “Not even a little?”
“Nope,” said Mac. He deleted that video, then clicked off his phone and put it in his pocket. “My guess is, the device can detect the difference between real danger and a memory of danger.”
“So we need to find some real danger,” Maria said.
“Excuse me?” said Charlie.
“Exactly,” Mac said. “We need to do something different, like drop the Dumpster on her head.”
“What?” cried Charlie. “No stinking way. Are you nuts?”
Mac and Maria continued their conversation as if Charlie wasn’t there. “We’ve got rope back home,” said Maria, looking around. “Is there a way to do some sort of a pulley system so that you and I can lift it?”
Mac’s gaze fell on the nearby athletic building. A new section being added on to it. The building housed tools, athletic equipment, and the custodian’s golf cart. Evidently it had run out of room, because weathered-looking hurdles and some football equipment were stored outside. Mac’s gaze traveled up to the flat roof, where a newly placed beam jutted out from one corner. “I wonder if we can somehow use that for the pulley?” he mused.
“Hmm,” said Maria.
“Excuse me?” Charlie said, more forcefully this time.
Maria and Mac turned to look at her. “What?” asked Maria.
Charlie gave them an incredulous look. “You are not dropping a Dumpster on me.”
Mac turned toward Charlie. His look was just as surprised. “Why not? You won’t get hurt. Your powers will kick in, and you’ll catch it.”
“Oh, right,” said Charlie. “You’re a hundred percent sure of that?”
Maria scratched her head and glanced at Mac. “Well, not a hundred percent,” she admitted.
“Even if my powers kick in,” said Charlie, “we don’t know if I’m strong enough to stop the Dumpster from crushing me. Besides, you two won’t be able to lift it. It’s way too heavy.”
Mac wrinkled up his nose. “Yeah, I suppose you have a point there.”
“What if we try dropping something lighter on you?” Maria suggested.
Charlie looked skeptical. “Like what?” she asked, folding her arms over her chest.
Mac went to the football equipment and hurdles. “These won’t work—they’re all chained together.” He took a few strides away from the building, then turned and looked at the top of it. “Could we get a bike or the lawn mower or something from your shed, Maria?” he said.
“Sure,” said Maria.
He squinted against the sun and put a hand up to shield his eyes. “Actually, hang on. There’s lots of stuff up there: a bundle of two-by-fours and some beams and a big bucket of something.” He went around to the old side of the building and spied a pallet of cinder blocks. “I’m going to take a look.”
He pulled a few blocks off to make steps, then climbed to the top of the stack. From there he grabbed hold of the flat roof and hoisted himself up. He swung a leg over and rolled onto the pebbled rooftop. Then he went to where the construction supplies lay, disappearing from sight.
Charlie flashed Maria an anxious glance. “I hope he knows how to get back down again,” Charlie said. She was a little nervous about getting caught, but neither Mac nor Maria seemed to be.
“He does,” said Maria, sounding very sure of herself. “Mac and I have been on a few of these roofs, actually. Science building, language arts.” She shrugged like it was no big deal, but Charlie could tell she was proud of her feat. It was kind of cool to have fearless friends. It made Charlie want to be fearless too.
A moment later Mac reappeared. “There’s a big loose wooden beam up here,” he said excitedly. “I can slide it along the roof, but I can’t get it over the lip. Come up here, Maria. We can probably lift it together and push it over the edge.”
Maria didn’t need any urging. She ran to the pallet of cinder blocks and began climbing like Mac had done.
“But how will we get it back up on the roof?” asked Charlie.
“Your strength will be activated, so you can just toss it,” said Mac matter-of-factly.
“Oh,” said Charlie. “Yeah, I suppose.” Part of her was still troubled about this experiment—what if her strength didn’t kick in and the beam landed on her? But the other part of her was certain the bracelet would come through. Plus,
Charlie desperately wanted to be daring like her new friends. She really liked that Mac and Maria just assumed she was willing to test out her strength like this—they seemed to think she was as brave as they were. She didn’t want to let them down. Besides, she could always jump out of the way at the last second if she didn’t sense the bracelet getting warm.
Feeling better about her options, Charlie moved closer to the edge of the building and tried not to think too much about a big wooden beam hurtling down on top of her. It was better if she didn’t dwell on it.
After a minute or two of loud scraping noises, Mac’s and Maria’s heads appeared. With a huge grunt they hoisted the beam and balanced it on the lip of the roof.
Charlie looked up uncertainly. It was thick and long and very solid looking, with shiny metal plates on either end. “Gulp,” she muttered, wondering if there were any nails sticking out of it. She flexed her hands and wished for gloves. What was it her mother had said at the dinner table once about getting cut by rusty metal? Some horrible consequence—lockjaw or something. Even though the metal on the beam was shiny and new, she pulled her sleeves over her hands just in case.
Maria peered down at her. “You okay? Are you ready?”
Charlie broke out in a cold sweat. She centered herself below them and looked up. “How heavy is it?”
Mac glanced down at her as he and Maria struggled to balance it on the narrow lip. “It’s not that heavy,” he said. “And it doesn’t have far to fall, so it won’t pick up much momentum.”
“Okay,” Charlie said. Her voice shook. This is crazy, said a voice in the back of her head. Get out of here! With a glance at the ground next to her, she plotted her landing spot in case she ended up chickening out and diving to safety. But she kept her feet planted.
The bracelet was stone-cold. Charlie widened her stance and raised her arms above her head, fingers outstretched inside her sleeves. “Okay,” she said, so scared that she didn’t even feel like she was inside her own body. “I’m ready.”
Mac and Maria tilted the beam, almost losing their grip, then steadied it once again. “On the count of three,” Mac said.