Chapter 46

When we made it to the ranger station, there were plenty of phone calls to be made, explanations to be told, and millions of questions from the rangers.

"Where are your parents?" one of them asked, clearly not used to seeing a bunch of kids looking like they just got in a fight with a lawnmower or something.

"We… fell down. And got hurt," I lied. They looked sort of suspicious of us, but decided to go with it. "We got separated from our class and we couldn't find Daisy. She got attacked by a… wolf and then the rest of us got hurt too. We don't need to go to the hospital, except probably Daisy."

That was when the rest of the class decided to show up. They all gaped at us.

"Hey Mrs. Jenkins, Max and the others are here!" someone – Matt, I think – yelled. I heard Mrs. Jenkins angrily shouting, "Maxine, we do not run off in the fifth grade-"

Then she walked inside and her jaw dropped. "I look away for one minute and this is what happens," she said, angrily. I realized she thought I did something wrong. She didn't know we saved Daisy.

"We turned around and Daisy was gone," I told her, my arms crossed over my chest. "So we went to find her. If we didn't, she'd probably be dead."

My classmates shifted nervously, looking at Daisy, who we'd put down on a bench. One of the rangers was treating her injuries and another was on the phone, probably calling the paramedics.

"Hey, Mrs. Jenkins," I added, "you said yourself that you weren't paying attention. Shouldn't you have made sure Daisy was with the group?"

"That will be enough out of you!" Mrs. Jenkins yelled, then stormed angrily over to where Daisy was laying.

Our classmates swarmed around Fang, Iggy, Jaz, and I. "Hey, are you guys going to be okay?" they asked us.

"Did you run into a bear?" someone else questioned.

"Uh, sure," I responded. "Something like that."

Mrs. Jenkins came back over and told everyone to go look at the exhibits in the ranger station. Then, giving me another disapproving look, she hurried back over to Daisy.

I glanced over at Daisy. Just why had the Erasers attacked her? Wasn't her dad in charge of them?

"Something fishy is going on," I muttered to Fang and Iggy.

"That's nothing new," Fang remarked, and I stuck my tongue out at him.

"More fishy than normal, then." I murmured, and the two of them nodded in agreement. Jaz did too. "We've got to get to the bottom of this."

~~::~~

Luckily, our field trip ended after that.

When the bus pulled up to the school to drop us off at the end of the field trip, I spotted Jeb, along with Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge, waiting for us. As soon as the bus pulled up, they started waving and jumping up and down.

"Hi Max!" Nudge yelled. "We missed you! You were gone so long I thought I was gonna die!"

"We've been gone two days," I said, laughing at Nudge's reaction and waving at her through the window.

When we stepped off the bus, however, that was a different story. "What happened to you?" Jeb gasped, looking at our bandages.

I shook my head. "It's nothing," I said. "Iggy and I just got hurt when we went on the hike. We're probably already healed, but I didn't want to take off the band aids because then Mrs. Jenkins would be all suspicious." Truthfully, we were still healing. But I didn't tell Jeb that.

"Right," Jeb said, but he didn't look convinced.

Nudge and Gazzy helped us put our bags in Jeb's car as he had a word with Mrs. Jenkins.

"Okay, Max, what really happened?" Nudge asked, grabbing my arm. She looked around before whispering, "Was it Erasers?"

"Did they blow up the president?" Gazzy yelled.

Fang rolled his eyes. "The president lives in Washington DC."

"Yes, it was Erasers, and no, there were no explosions," I said, shaking my head at Gazzy. We piled into the car as Iggy whispered, "They came and attacked Daisy. She almost died."

Nudge gasped and Gazzy looked alarmed. "That's horrible!" Nudge cried.

We filled them in on the whole story while Jeb continued his conversation with Mrs. Jenkins. By the end, Nudge looked like she was about to cry.

"Is Daisy alright?" she begged to know. "She can't be dead, right?"

I shook my head. "No. I don't think so. Mrs. Jenkins told us that the hospital told her that Daisy's stable but it will be a little bit before she comes back to school. But after that things will go back to normal, so don't worry!"

"Now we just have to worry about Daisy's dad," Fang said.

Iggy nodded. "Yeah. What's up with him? I mean, why would he hurt his own daughter?"

I frowned. "Maybe the Erasers weren't supposed to hurt her. Maybe she accidentally got in the way or something."

"Well, at least we know one thing!" Iggy said.

"What?" we all asked him.

"Daisy's not evil."

"Huh?" Nudge asked. She and Gazzy hadn't known about Jaz's conspiracy of Daisy's potential evil-ness.

"Long story," I told her. "We'll do some more research about Daisy's dad when we get home. We need to put an end to this, and soon."

~~::~~

"And in other news, billionaire Roger Wells has been arrested for the attempted murder of his daughter, Daisy Wells," the TV blared a few days later as Iggy made dinner.

"Ugh, the news is so boring," the Gasman complained, ready to change the channel.

I looked up from the book I was reading to Angel. "Wait, Daisy? Did the news guy just say Daisy's name?"

"I bet there's something better on Disney channel," Gazzy said, picking up the remote.

"Don't change the channel!" Nudge and I screamed at him.

"This follows the announcement of his resignation from his extremely successful company Itex," the anchor continued to say as we gathered around the TV and Iggy listened from the kitchen.

"What's Itex?" Nudge whispered.

"Shh," Fang told her.

"We have been told that while on a field trip with her class in Colorado, Wells's daughter Daisy was kidnapped and beaten. Sources have confirmed that these men were employed by Wells himself and were hired to kidnap his daughter. His intentions are currently unknown, although investigators are working to figure out why this has happened. Daisy Wells is currently at a nearby hospital. She is in stable condition and will be released within the week."

Then the news was replaced by a commercial for Trix cereal.

We all stared at each other.

"Daisy's dad was arrested," I said in wonder.

"He's so mean!" Nudge shouted, hugging me.

"Daisy's going to be okay!" Iggy cheered, running in from the kitchen.

"Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!" Gazzy yelled.

We all stared at him.

"What?" he responded, pointing at the TV.

I laughed as I pulled my flock in for a hug. "Everything's going to be alright now," I decided, smiling. "Life will be back to normal."

Or as normal as it ever gets with us.