She managed to catch a few more minutes of sleep before she felt someone standing over her. Pammy was fully dressed in her cheerleading outfit with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.
“Cheerleaders can’t be lazy,” she snapped.
“Um, tired! Attacked by pirates—almost eaten by a shark!”
Pammy rolled her eyes. “Boo-hoo! Let me play a sad violin for you! Get dressed.”
Matilda swallowed her impulse to deliver a roundhouse kick to the snotty girl and instead called out to her. “Listen, I know we don’t know each other well, but maybe we could be friends.”
“Friends? You’ve been watching too much Sesame Street,” Pammy said.
“I don’t know the first thing about you,” Matilda said. She tried to remember Gerdie’s file. What had it said about her sisters? Were they triplets? Yes! “Like, do you have any brothers or sisters?”
Pammy turned and looked at Matilda for a long time, then sighed in surrender. “No, I’m an only child. My parents wisely decided to spend all their time and money to make me the amazing person that I am today. Now, if you’ve got enough info for your biography, you better get outside and be ready to cheer in five minutes!”
As Pammy stomped out of the cabin, Matilda jotted in her notebook that she was an only child. She tucked the notebook under her pillow, then leaped out of bed. A moment later she was dressed and rushing outside. She hoped that Tiffany would notice her eagerness and not abuse her as much as usual; her mostly sleepless night was starting to catch up to her. She also hoped she’d have a chance to talk to her other suspects, especially Lilly and Kylie. Unfortunately, she was the last one to arrive for practice. Lilly was propping up McKenna, as the effects of the memory wipe were clearly still causing balance problems, and poor Kylie was forced to follow Tiffany around with a hot cup of cocoa in case their leader needed a sip.
“I thought Pammy told you to get ready!” Tiffany snapped at Matilda.
“What? I am ready!”
Tiffany laughed. “Your hair is ugh and where’s your makeup? When we practice, we have to look like we’re going on stage. You may think you’re a natural beauty, but I promise you that you’re not. Oh, and take Kylie. She could use some work, too.”
Matilda enjoyed a beautiful little daydream about body slamming Tiffany into the muddy practice field, but she also realized that their leader was doing her a favor. Now she would get some alone time with one of her suspects.
Matilda and Kylie stood in front of the bathroom mirror. They debated blush and eyeliner while Matilda pretended to know the difference between them.
“So you’re makeup challenged, too?” Kylie said.
Matilda nodded. “I wasn’t exactly a girlie-girl before cheerleading entered my life.”
Kylie smiled. “Nice to know someone else was going through an awkward phase.”
“Awkward, huh?”
“The worst. Sometimes I wondered if I was even human—but hey, look at me now. I’m hot!” She licked her finger, set it on her arm, and then made a sizzling sound.
“I’m so hot I have a fever!” Matilda said. She couldn’t help but like Kylie. Unlike the other girls, who seemed proud of how shallow and superficial they could be, Kylie had a sense of self that couldn’t be touched by petty insults. She didn’t seem to care what the others thought of her.
“So, where are you from, Kylie?”
“Oh, everywhere. My mom moves us around a lot. You?”
“Well, I was born in San Francisco but moved east when I was a baby. My parents wanted me to get a good education. I’m a bit of a math prodigy. Do you like math?”
Kylie smiled. “I can barely add two plus two,” she said. “And I wouldn’t walk around bragging about being smart in front of the rest of the squad. There’s nothing that makes dumb people angrier than having a smart person reminding them that they’re morons.”
“HEY!” Tiffany’s voice bellowed from outside. “Let’s go! The portal is opening right now!”
How is that possible? Matilda thought. She and the NERDS had confiscated it.
They raced into the forest and saw Toni and Jeannie vanishing into the huge white ball. This time, Shauna was wearing a bridge device, brand-new and just as pink and sparkly as the last.
Tiffany and McKenna were in the midst of a heated argument as more girls disappeared into the portal.
“I’m sorry!” McKenna cried, though somewhat sleepily.
“How do you lose a machine that opens a door to other Earths?” Tiffany shouted. “Do you think these things grow on trees?”
“Where did you get that one?” Matilda asked.
“Don’t you worry about where I got it, newbie!” Tiffany said. “Just get through the portal!”
Matilda and Kylie did as they were told. In a flash the camp was gone and they were tumbling into a humid rain forest. Ancient trees soared overhead, while a gurgling stream slipped over a stone riverbed. Insects as big as Matilda’s fist buzzed around the girls’ heads.
“Um, I think there’s supposed to be treasure,” Jeannie complained. “Whose idea was it to let Shauna use the glove?”
“Harsh! The scanner said there’s a temple in this forest with a huge stockpile of gold,” Shauna said defensively.
“Pair up and spread out,” Tiffany said. “The temple has to be close by.”
“I’ll go with Lilly,” Matilda said. She could tell Kylie was a little hurt, but when major landmarks were vanishing from Washington, D.C., you had to have priorities.
Lilly seemed just as put out, but Matilda ignored it. She looped her arm through the girl’s and marched her into the brush.
“I thought we could use the time to get to know each other,” Matilda said.
“Whatever,” Lilly said.
“So, Lilly, tell me about yourself,” Matilda said.
“What do you care? Are you spying on me?”
“Of—of course not,” Matilda stammered.
“Everyone on this squad is the same—two-faced. I hate how we all gang up on each other, and I’m sure anything I tell you will just get used against me when Queen Tiffany decides to dole out her favors.”
“I promise I’m not out to get you,” Matilda said. “Just making conversation.”
“You’re actually interested?”
Matilda nodded. “Sure.”
“You first then. Tell me something about yourself that you don’t want anyone to know. You spill and I’ll spill,” Lilly said, swatting at a rather large jungle beetle.
“I have six brothers.”
“Wow, it must have been very painful to tell me that,” Lilly said.
“OK. OK!” Matilda said. She didn’t want to tell this stranger her deep, dark secrets, but if it would get her to open up … “My parents are going to get a divorce and I cry at night sometimes hoping they will get back together.”
“They won’t,” Lilly said flatly. “My parents are divorced, too. They even tried to get back together. It’s just not going to happen.”
“Is that why you’re angry?”
Lilly took a step back. “You think I’m angry?”
Matilda nodded.
“Yeah, I guess I am,” Lilly said.
Matilda knew from Gerdie’s file that her parents were divorced. Could Lilly be the Mathlete? Did she have sisters? Did she ever live in Arlington?
Just then, something brown and hairy leaped down from the trees above their heads. It was a chimpanzee, but not like any she had seen in a zoo. This one was wearing a strange harness that covered his chest, legs, and arms. He was also carrying a bushel of bananas under one of his stringy arms. He eyed the cheerleaders carefully, and then, much to Matilda’s shock, he tapped his nose and said, “Flinch here. I have found two of the invaders.”
He quickly peeled a handful of bananas and shoved them into his mouth. As he chewed, his harness began to glow. He pounded on his chest and shouted, “I am mighty!”
Matilda peered closely at the creature. This chimpanzee was Flinch—a very hairy version, but Flinch nonetheless. There was Flinch’s harness, and the sugar, and the chimp was even shouting his catchphrase. And he wasn’t alone. Soon, a cute yellow monkey no bigger than a house cat swung through the trees by its tail. By the way it was scratching its arms and legs, Matilda guessed it was this world’s Ruby Peet. An orangutan leaped from tree to tree as if its feet and hands were covered in glue—obviously Duncan. Rushing up behind them was a baboon Jackson Jones, with a bright red nose, blue face, and enormous robotic appendages coming from its mouth. But the most startling was the razorback gorilla that flew overhead with the help of two tiny inhalers.