Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) by C.DEANNA VERHOFF

bridge of his nose. “ Uh, h ow on Tullah did you forget your shoes?”
    She shrugged.
    Clash glanced at the p uppy covered bottoms and raised an inquisitive eyebrow. “Are those pajamas?”
    “I don’t want to talk about it.”
    His chuckled stopped abruptly. W orry spread across h is thin face.
    “ This isn’t related to what happened at the mesa ? I mean you’re feeling better . And aren’t…er… seeing things—are you?”
    “I’m not seeing things ,” She hissed. “ This has nothing to do with the mesa.”
    “ That’s relief. ” Clash produc ed h is Sliver, unfolded it, and shook i t under Glory ’s nose. “How about a round of Space Raiders ?”
    “No thank you , ” Glory said, eying the Sliver’s high definition screen . “Hey, do you have any data access minutes left ?”
    “ A few, but I need them for a science paper . ”
    She sighed . Most kids didn’t have to track every single free government minute the way Clash and Glory did, because o nce they ran out, they simply bought more.
    “ The new month starts next week — can it wait?”
    “ Do I have a choice? ” Being poor bit the big one. “W hat do you know about the l egend of Queen’s Mesa?”
    “ Only what your Grandpa told me. Come on, Glory , just one more game . I downloaded Princess Gala for you.”
    “ Princess Gala?” The news perked her up. “ I’ve been wanting to try her out a long time now.”
    “Here’s your chance.” He waved the Sliver under her nose.
    “Aren’t you tired of losing ? ”
    “I laugh in the face of your baseless comment , ha, ha, ha.”
    Sometimes Clash acted bizarre, wandering around the classroom at inappropriate times, getting on people’s nerves, but mostly he was fun .
    “You do know I’m the Space Raider Champion of yesterday, today and tomorrow,” Glory reminded.
    “Not anymore,” Clash smiled, offering t he Sliver. “I’ve already beat your highest score. See.”
    Glory snatched it out of her hands . “Gimme that. ” She bent the Sliver’s screen to a forty-five degree angle, then pressed the high score button . The number at the top of the display flashed . Clash had exceeded her top score by seven hundred points. Sticking the tip of h er tongue out the corner of her mouth, Glory got busy, s ending photon torpedoes into the side of an alien cargo ship .
    Olivia Wingfield sat in the seat in front of them and turned around to watch the game . With violet eyes , and silky yellow hair down to her waist , Glory thought s he was the prettiest girl in school, maybe in all of Cloverdale . If Glory could choose to look like anyone in the world, Olivia would be at top of the list, but her snooty personality left something to be desired .
    However, the Queen of Snooty was M andy Filmore , an upper c l assman who sat a couple of seats behind them . Worse than being snooty was the fact that Ted Filmore was her uncle . Normally Mandy didn’t ride the bus . Rumor had it this was punishment for driving her father’s car without permission .
    Both Olivia and Mandy were c ruel and probably heartless . That didn’t stop the boys from fall ing all over themselves in their presence . Even Clash got tongue-tied on occasion.
    Other girls wanted to be like Olivia and Mandy , or at least be in their inner circle, hoping their popularity would somehow rub off on them . Glory wonder ed how life might be different if she and Olivia’s elementary school friendship had blossomed . When they were little they did play dates, and up until Mom died , the two of them were best friends .
    No w they barely knew each other . A twinge of regret passed th r ough her, but oh well. She pretend ed to be unaware of Olivia’s attention while her own trusty fingers pressed the Sliver’s buttons .
    “Version four is out and you’re playing with version two ?” Oliv i a said with her nose in the air . “That’s sad.”
    The smile on Clash ’s face faded. Glory knew he had spent last summer pulling weeds from