Two Schools Out - Forever

114

"I want my own treehouse like that," Gazzy said around a mouthful of cotton candy. "I mean, for all of us. Wouldn't that be so cool?"

"So, so cool," Angel agreed, ice cream dripping down her wrist. "Can we do the Swiss Family Treehouse again?"

I handed her a napkin. "Maybe after lunch." Biting off a piece of my ice-cream sandwich, I did another 360 sweep. No Erasers. I couldn't say for sure we were the only mutants here because, you know, Disney World. But so far no one had morphed right in front of us.

"We could make one," Iggy said. "Find a humongous tree and build our own treehouse."

"Yeah!" said Gazzy, pushing another wad of cotton candy into his mouth. "We could do it! I know we could."

I rubbed his shoulder. "Okay. I'll put that on our list of things to do. Try not to eat too much junk, huh, Gazzy? I don't want you hurling on Splash Mountain." He grinned at me, a lighthearted child's grin that tugged at my heart. Yeah, yeah, if only.

"This way to Frontierland," Fang said, pointing to a sign.

I scanned the crowd again, then looked down at my map. "First Frontierland, and then-looks like the only good thing in Liberty Square is the Haunted Mansion."

"I want to see Mickey's Country House," Angel said.

"That's in the Toontown Fair place," I told her. "We need to go through some other stuff first. But we'll go."

She shot me a beautiful, innocent smile, and I tried to put all thoughts of our country's government out of my head.

"You know what's creepy?" Nudge said, eating caramel popcorn. "A chipmunk that big." She pointed at an adult-sized costumed chipmunk who was waving and strolling around.

"Who is that?" Total asked. "Chip? Or Dale?"

"Don't know," I said. "As long as he doesn't turn into a huge, chipmunky Eraser, I'm good. Yo-look. There's Splash Mountain. Line doesn't seem too bad."

"Is your dog talking?"

I turned around. A sunburned child was looking at Total suspiciously.

I laughed. "Our dog? No. Why? Does your dog talk?" I gave her a patronizing smile.

"I thought he was talking," she muttered, still staring at Total.

I said to Gazzy, "Jason, have you been practicing your ventriloquism again?"

Gazzy shrugged with the perfect amount of bashfulness and nodded.

"Oh," said the girl, and looked away.

I narrowed my eyes at Total, who pulled his lips back over his teeth in an embarrassed, ingratiating grin.

Not amused, I glanced over at Fang. He smiled, lighting up our immediate area, and offered me some Cracker Jack.