Read The Glass Wall (Return of the Ancients Book 1) Online

Authors: Madison Adler,Carmen Caine

Tags: #Fiction, #magic, #fairies, #legends extraterrestrial beings, #teen fiction juvenile, #Romance, #young adult, #science, #myths, #action, #fairy, #adventure fantasy

The Glass Wall (Return of the Ancients Book 1)

 

 

The Glass Wall - Book One

 

The Glass Wall

 

By

Madison Adler

 

Bento Box Books - First Edition

 

 

Published By

Bento Box Books

 

Edited By

Grace Benson

 

Copyright © 2011 by Madison Adler

 

ISBN: 978-0-9835240-1-4

 

 

Bento Box Books Edition License Notes

 

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and didn’t purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to MyBentoBoxBooks.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

 

This book is dedicated to the wonderful kids in my life.

I love you all.

 

To Jasmine - For your gentle, justice-loving soul and for being my biggest fan

 

To Hanna - For your creative “twisted” streak and your wonderful heart

 

To Hunter - For your thoughtful enthusiasm and chivalry

 

To Kailyn - For your incredible imagination, clever mind, and for being my secret buddy

 

To Kian - For being “Epically Awesome” and for your sarcastic wit

 

 

Table of Contents

 

 

Chapter 01…..The Neighbors

Chapter 02…..A Weird Coincidence or Two

Chapter 03…..Jerry

Chapter 04…..The Stealth-Twig

Chapter 05…..Halloween

Chapter 06…..What Are They?

Chapter 07…..Jareth Doesn’t Exist!

Chapter 08…..Caught
!

Chapter 09…..Bean There, Baked That

Chapter 10.….The Concert

Chapter 11.…First Day on the Job

Chapter 12.….Iron

Chapter 13…..Aliens and Tinfoil

Chapter 14…..The Red Tube

Chapter 15…..More Hints

Chapter 16…..Tinkerbell

Chapter 17…..Thanksgiving

Chapter 18…..The Tulpa

Chapter 19…..Avalon

Chapter 20…..Imprisoned

Chapter 21…..Raven

Chapter 22…..The Stair

Chapter 23…..The Glass Wall

Chapter 24…..Home

 

 

 

The Glass Wall

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter One - The Neighbors

 

 

I flipped my cell phone shut.

I’d just told Maya, my mother, goodbye.

Again.

It was her fifth stint in rehab. I felt sorry for her. I knew she tried her best.

The social worker sent me a sympathetic smile as she zipped along Mercer Island Parkway. Through glimpses between the evergreen trees, I could see flashes of Lake Washington as our car whizzed by. I wished she’d just keep her eyes on the winding road. She was a wild driver, weaving through bikers in spandex outfits and dodging incoming traffic at top speed.

I was seasick.

“Mercer Island is a nice place,” the woman repeated for the tenth time. “You’ll love it here. It’s always green in Washington State.”

Her name was Neelu.

Neelu was a chubby woman in her fifties, with hair dyed a most unnatural Clairol red. She wore traditional Indian attire and sported an armful of gold bangles that continually buried her watch. Shaking them aside, she glanced at the time once again. “We’ll have to hurry, Sydney. I only have ten minutes.”

She zoomed past a park and a surrounding greenbelt of trees before finally turning onto a tiny side street. With a sigh of relief, she stopped in front of the most obnoxious, blue-painted rambler I’d ever seen. There was a bright yellow Ford pickup truck with oversized wheels parked in the driveway.

I couldn’t get over the blue house. Who would paint their house neon blue? I wondered if the occupants were color-blind.

I glanced around.

It wasn’t a poor neighborhood, but it certainly wasn’t a wealthy one either. There were two houses across the street. The first was a little rundown but an average two-story home with minimal landscaping. In the front yard there was a for sale sign with the word “sold” plastered proudly over the smiling face of the realtor.

The second house rivaled the blue rambler in gaudiness. It was an ancient-looking Victorian house, painted a fading pink. The yard hosted a menagerie of lawn ornaments. Crammed in every conceivable corner were garden trolls, dwarves, deer (including Rudolph), pink flamingos, at least four different birdbaths, and even a replica of the famous Dutch peeing boy,
Manneken Pis.

Neelu sprang out of the car and clicked up the sidewalk in her heels to the blue house. “We have to make this quick, Sydney. Hop out!”

I slammed the car door shut and shouldered my backpack.

The social worker was already knocking on the door, frantically motioning for me to follow. “Come
on
, Sydney,” she called louder. “I’ve got another appointment!”

As I stepped onto the creaking porch, the door opened.

“Sorry, Neelu,” a mousy brown-haired woman apologized as she beckoned us inside. “I had to place another bid.”

“Sydney, this is Betty. Betty, meet Sydney,” Neelu said, introducing us.

I shook my new foster mother’s hand.

Betty was hard to describe. I could really see nothing unique about her. Her hair was medium length, and she was of average height and build. She could have been almost any age. Her face reminded me of at least a dozen others. She was one of those people who could pull off the perfect crime; no witness would ever remember what she looked like.

“Glad you’re finally here, Sydney,” Betty said, shaking my hand heartily in return. She glanced over her shoulder to the computer on the other side of the living room. “Got to go, Neelu, the cat toilet trainers are ending in five minutes. I can’t miss them this time!”

With a friendly smile, she picked her way over a sea of boxes littering the floor.

“Betty runs an Ebay business,” Neelu explained.

“I’m an Ebay reseller,” Betty said, waving her hand as she settled into the white plastic chair in front of her computer. “Make yourself at home, Sydney. I’ll call Grace to show you to your room. Grace! Grace!”

After a moment, the back door banged open. A tall girl appeared, dressed in red sweats and carrying a lacrosse stick in one hand. Her black hair was even darker than mine, and she’d pulled it back in such a severe ponytail that I found myself wincing on her behalf. She was big and muscular, and she looked mean.

“Hi,” she said curtly, watching me closely with her jet-black eyes.

I nodded warily.

Neelu had already told me that my new foster parents had a daughter my age, almost eighteen. This girl looked at least twenty.

“Good, then,” Neelu said, smiling in relief as she patted me on the shoulder. “You have my number. Call me anytime.”

With that, she was gone.

“I got them!” Betty leapt up from the chair and did a little dance.

It looked strikingly like the “Chicken Dance”, but I doubt that was her intention.

“Come on,” Grace said, nodding toward the hall with her chin. “Your room is this way.”

“Carry her things, honey.” Betty quit dancing to smile at me and asked, “Is your luggage on the porch?”

“I just have this,” I said, jiggling my backpack a little.

“I can carry it,” the girl offered. She reached as if to pluck it off my back.

“Don’t touch my things!” I snapped. My hands clenched the straps possessively.

They both blinked, a little startled at my aggressiveness, but I couldn’t let them see what was in there.

“Your things are safe here, honey,” Betty said, recovering first. Waving at us, she turned back to the computer and began to cackle about the next item on the screen.

Grace stalked down the hall, and I followed her, wondering if I’d just made an enemy.

She gave me a quick tour of the house on the way to my room.

Betty reserved the living room for her Ebay business and it contained her computer, a printer, and several tables overflowing with bubble wrap and cardboard boxes. Off to the side there was a family room with shaggy brown carpet, a shimmery gold couch, and an old TV. The kitchen was light yellow with vinyl tile and décor from the sixties. A giant wooden spoon and fork hung on the wall. There were four, square bedrooms, the last one down the hall had been converted into a storage room for Betty’s business.

My new room was simple but nice. I had a bed with a fuzzy tiger print blanket, an oak dresser and matching nightstand, and a rug shaped like a sunflower. Everything was clean and smelled of lemon furniture polish. A window, with yellow curtains, looked out onto a greenbelt of trees behind the house.

Other books

Feather’s Blossom by Viola Grace
Bring Out Your Dead by MacAlister, Katie
FanGirl Squeal (RockStars of Romance Book 1) by Jackie Chanel, Madison Taylor
The Unquiet Dead by Gay Longworth
If I Die Before I Wake by Barb Rogers
Witches Protection Program by Michael Phillip Cash
The Cleansing Flames by R. N. Morris
Dead Romantic by C. J. Skuse
As Cold As Ice by Mandy Rosko


readsbookonline.com Copyright 2016 - 2024