2.
Jason cleaned up from his supper as quickly as he could, packed a few things in his triangle backpack, and called his parents to let them know where he was going and to warn them about Blue Ice soda. A moment after he dialed the number he was on speakerphone with his parents.
"Jace," said his mother, "I just remembered, Kristi Cavanaugh's folks are out of town until next week! She's staying at a friend's house, a Veronica DiAngelo!"
"Oh yeah that's right," said Jace grimacing, "I forgot about that."
"Well," Said Jason's father, "Maybe we can ask the DiAngelos to put him up for the night too, since they're friends with the Cavanaugh family as well."
"No thank you!" said Jason emphatically, "I'd end up sleeping the broom closet!"
"Aren't you exaggerating a little, son?" asked his dad
"You've never encountered the DiAngelo's elitest attitude," replied Jason, "As far as they're concerned, I'm too much of a peasant to be considered an actual house guest."
"Okay," said his mother, "What can you do?"
"Well, Lisa Atwood, an old summer camp buddy of mine lives in Willow Creek too, remember? I'll ask her if she can convince her mother to let me camp out in their guest room."
"And if that doesn't work," said his dad, "I guess you just have to teleport back here, without being seen of course."
"Don't worry, Mom, Dad," said Jason, "I'll be careful. And you need to call Joules and warn her about those soda's I'd hate to think what would happen if some of them showed up at that slumber party she's at!"
His parents assured them they would as soon as they hung up with him. After ending the call with his parents, he pulled on his jacket. He was about to teleport away when his phone rang. It was Matthew Lake, Ashley's father.
"Hi, Mr. Lake," he said answering the call, "How's Ashley?"
"Better," said Mr. Lake, "She's awake and improving every minute! Whatever she was dosed with seems to be wearing off."
"Thank goodness," said Jason
"Jason," said Mr. Lake, "I want to hire you to investigate this blue ice business, whoever's behind this could have hurt my daughter badly."
"No need to ask," said Jason, "I'm already on the case!"
"Great, thanks." Said Mr. Lake, "We'll talk later?"
"You bet!" Replied Jason.
He said goodbye and disconnected the call. Then he closed his eyes and teleported away in a silver electric flash of light.
He rematerialized on an unused side street a block away from Lisa's house. It was one of the safest places for him to arrive in Willow Creek.
He looked at his watch and saw that it was around 6:30. p.m.
"Okay," he thought, "Lisa's not home right now, she and the rest of the Saddle club will be down at Karaoke Night at J.B.'s
Turning to the right he headed back onto the side street and teleported to the street JB's was on materializing in a nearby alley. He rushed out of the alley and straight toward JB's front door. when he got inside the girls were just finishing singing a song at the Karaoke machine. They stepped down off the stage and headed to their table. Jason started toward them. The girls were distracted by their drinks arriving. Jason's eye's widened when he saw the drink that was set if front of Lisa. It was a Blue Ice flavor designer soda.
Jason bolted forward and knocked the bottle out of her hand, the bottle shattered as it hit the floor. startling her and surprising everyone else at the table as well.
"Jason?!" Lisa cried bewildered, as Chewy came out to clean up the mess "What gives?!"
"I'm sorry Lisa," said Jason, "But I couldn't let you drink that! I know you may think I'm crazy but Ashley Lake just tried one of those new blue ice sodas a couple hours ago, and it caused her to feel dizzy and pass out!"
"What?!" Cried Stevie, "Is she alright?!"
Jason nodded.
"She's fine," he replied, "Her dad called me before I came here. He said she was conscious again and getting better. Whatever was in that soda, she drank, was wearing off."
"I'd better call and check on her," said Stevie reaching for her phone
"But just because that happened to her that doesn't mean it would've happened to Lisa," said Carole, "It may just have been something in that one bottle or maybe there was something in this soda flavor that she's allergic to."
"I might agree with that, if it wasn't for one thing," replied Jason, "She passed out right in front of the Bottlecap in Arlington and the place closed as soon as that happened."
"Hmm, suspicious," said Lisa furrowing her eyebrows.
"If what you say is true, and I believe it is, I'd better tell Maya and the other waiters that were not going to serve the designer sodas for a while!" said Chewy as he finished cleaning up the mess and headed back toward the kitchen.
"Who makes Blue Ice?" asked Stevie
"Morton Snacks Inc. right here in Willow Creek." Replied Jason
Lisa stood up and grabbed her jacket.
"Alright, we've got work to do!" she said
"I suggest talking to Ashley first," said Stevie, "She may have more information for us."
"That's a good idea," said Carole, "and we should talk to other people who've had Blue Ice and see if they've had similar symptoms."
Jason and the Saddle Club left JB's and met at Lisa's place 30 minutes later. they all sat on the floor in Lisa's room in a circle around Stevie's phone which was on speaker. They were talking to Ashley.
"I'll I remember," she was saying, "Was taking a couple swallows of the soda, I vaguely remember a slight berry flavor. Suddenly I started tingling and everything started spinning! Suddenly I saw swirling colors and flashing lights before my eyes, that's when I remember landing on you Jason, then nothing until I woke up at home!"
The girls and Jason exchanged a serious look before Stevie spoke to her cousin.
"Thanks, Ashe," she said, "Get some rest, we'll talk again tomorrow."
"Okay bye Stevie, bye guys," replied Ashley, "There was a small chorus of goodbyes before Stevie hung up.
Lisa stood up and walked over to her window. She stood there for a minute with a serious and thoughtful look on her face.
"What is it, Lise?" asked Stevie
Lisa took a breath before answering.
"Ever since Rafael and I have been seeing each other, I've been learning a lot about Romani clans." She began, "the symptoms that Ashely just described reminded me of several plants I heard about in the Moondance clan that could cause symptoms like that and therefore were either used very carefully, sparingly, for very specific conditions, or not at all!"
"Are you saying that Rafael might know what is in these sodas that could've caused Ashley's symptoms?" asked Jason
"I don't know," said Lisa with a determined look on her face, "I'll ask him."
To Be Continued…Please Review