The Chaos Curse (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #3) - Sayantani DasGupta Page 0,29
went through this day. Back then, he’d chased me as I drove off across the frozen soccer fields in a magical auto rikshaw toward Bangoma and Bangomee’s wormhole.
“All right, it’s almost time to go down to our special assembly!” said our science teacher. “I can’t believe we’ve gotten such an amazing guest to come here to Alexander Hamilton Middle School!”
The class erupted into noise as people started putting their textbooks in their backpacks and otherwise gathering up their stuff to go down to the auditorium.
“Special guest?” I slung my lizard-containing backpack on my shoulder. “Who?”
“Are you kidding, girl?” Jovi laughed. “Only your favorite television science celebrity herself!”
I felt another wave of dizziness. No, it couldn’t be.
“Shady Sadie the Science Lady!” said Ned the perfect sculpture boy.
“Shady Sadie? Here? In Parsippany?” I goggled. “But last time, we just watched her video on the computer.”
“Last time?” snorted Zuzu with a meanness unlike her normally sweet disposition. “Keep dreaming, Turnpike Princess!”
Jovi swirled her blond ponytail in Zuzu’s direction, then linked her elbow with mine and dragged me out of the room. “Haters to the left!” she said, but kind of teasingly, as we passed by.
“Shady Sadie the Science Lady is here?” I asked. “In Parsippany?”
“Well, sure,” said Jovi. “I mean, her atom-smashing labs are here in town, so I guess it’s not a long trip for her to come by our school.”
“But …” I didn’t finish the sentence. More than one thing had obviously changed since I’d last been in Parsippany. Shady Sadie the Science Lady had a national science television program that I’d been watching and obsessing over forever. And I knew for sure she didn’t work in an atom-smashing lab—or anywhere else—here in Parsippany, New Jersey! (Please, I was her biggest fan. If she’d worked in Parsippany, I would have been at her door every day begging for an autograph or something.)
Man, since I’d managed to solve the riddle of the three keys and traveled through the wormhole’s tiny door, I felt like I had been in a strange bizarro version of my life. But whereas most of the other weird things that had been happening seemed like nightmares—my parents’ behavior, my best friend and frenemy changing places, Naya disappearing—this seemed like a dream come true. My scientific idol—the rock-star scientist of the multiverse—was actually in my school!
And maybe, if I could figure out how to get a moment alone with her, she could help me understand what was going on, and get back to the right version of New Jersey, where poor Lal was trapped!
Jovi pulled me into the auditorium, which was super loud and rowdy as usual. When Principal Chen came up to the podium, though, the whole auditorium quieted down in less than a millisecond. Even the worst middle school bully knew that our principal took no prisoners and gave no second chances, and only a total idiot would mess with her short but lethal form. I noticed that Principal Chen looked just as pregnant as she had last time I’d seen her, when she’d chased me in her SUV down the icy soccer field. I really, really hoped she didn’t remember that.
“Why, thank you, students. Thank you so very much for quieting it down to a dull roar,” said the principal. “I was hoping against hope you wouldn’t further embarrass yourselves before our esteemed guest. At least all my hopes were not in vain.” Principal Chen looked at us over her pink cat-eye glasses with the deceptively cute rhinestones at the corners. She looked just the same as always, only with one major difference—her normally bone-straight hair was in double-helix-like curls about her face. Huh, when had our oh-so-serious principal gotten a perm?
“I know that some of you only appreciate the importance of scientific subjects when they are diluted by the false light of celebrity,” Principal Chen went on. “But so be it. In our solipsistic, selfie-obsessed culture, of course the only scientists given any respect are the ones with their own television programs!”
“That’s an interesting introduction. I don’t know why, but I’m guessing it wasn’t good old P. Chenny who invited Shady Sadie.” Jovi laughed.
“P. Chenny?” I repeated.
“Yeah,” said Zuzu, plunking down on my other side. “Don’t you think our principal is in desperate need of a good nickname?” She reached across me and gave Jovi a high five.
“That kid in her belly is either going to be another Vlad the Impaler, or like Mother Teresa or something,” Jovi whispered back.