The Casaday Girls, Book 1: Super Kids. Michael Inc. Markey

“You know what makes it even worse? The man said we were the ones in danger. What’s that all about?”

      “Yeah, and what did he mean about some magic portal, and a key?”

      “That part sounds exciting. Mysterious.” Rachael smiled. “You know I love adventures, and anything that involves supernatural events, and secret kingdoms. Perhaps if we could throw in a few wizards and fearsome creatures to make it even more exciting--”

      Alexa ignored her sister’s comments. “I guess this portal is some kind of passageway to this man, like a path to life itself. Yeah, and maybe he can’t get through it without a key. You know what that means?”

      Together the girls said, “Death.”

      “For the man, anyway,” said Alexa.

      Peanut started barking. She stood at the door, doing her constant beagle yelp, as if she heard, or sensed, something outside. At first their mother called to Peanut, but their “guard dog” paid no attention. She simply would not stop.

      “You think we should let her out?” Rachael asked Alexa.

      “No, after everything that went on tonight, maybe there really is someone out there, looking for us.”

      “Then what should we do, so she stops barking?”

      “I can fix that.” Alexa crawled off the bed and tiptoed down the steps. Rachael watched from the top of the stairway.

      “Peanut, puppy. What’s wrong?” Alexa asked, gazing into Peanut’s big beagle eyes as she stroked her back.

      Their dog stopped barking and met Alexa’s gaze. “Outside. I want to go outside, Alexa,” she answered in an interior voice only she and Alexa understood.

      “Why, Peanut?”

      “There’s someone in the neighborhood. They want to harm you and Rachael. I want to chase them.”

      “Come on, Peanut. Maybe it’s just another dog or a cat trying to annoy you.”

      “You’re in danger. Wicked people are out there waiting for you. I can make them stay away from the house.”

      Alexa reached out and caressed Peanut’s soft furry cheek. “Thank you, but it’s okay. We’re safe inside tonight.”

      She stretched out on the throw rug by the door, and Alexa rubbed her belly. “No more barking, puppy.”

      Peanut settled down, but still guarded the front door from her spot on the rug. Alexa returned to the second floor and the girls went back to Rachael’s room.

      “Works every time.”

      Rachael shook her head. “I swear, what you do inside that poor dog’s head is scary. She’ll never be quite right.”

      “You know I wouldn’t do a thing that would hurt Peanut. Sometimes we need to be thinking on the same wave length. Girl to girl, you know,” she said.

      “Show me how you do that someday.”

      “Yeah, and then you’ll want me to show you how I move objects around, too. I don’t think so, Rachael. Get your own powers if you want new ones.”

      “Meanie!” Rachael said. “By the way, how are we getting to the lake tomorrow?”

      “We’ll tell everybody we’re doing our daily run after school. Then we’ll go past the lake, sneak into the trees and see what we can find. If we go plenty early, it will still be daylight,” Alexa said.

      “It’s Friday. I don’t have Girl Scouts tomorrow, so it’ll be a good day for it. We’ll be prepared this time, in case someone wants to interfere, right?”

      “Wait a minute. Interfere? You really think someone wants to stop us?”

      “Doesn’t matter what I think. I’m just ready to give them a good fight.” Rachael flexed her muscles as if to do battle.

      Alexa’s eyes suddenly grew very big. “At this moment I’d say villains are the least of our worries. I just heard Dad’s car pull into the garage.”

      Both girls’ bedrooms went pitch black.

      CHAPTER 3

      INVESTIGATION

      “Hey Alexa, find any bodies in the woods today?” It was Shaun Wheatley, one of the bigmouths in her middle school math class. To her embarrassment, the comment broke up half the students in the room, especially the guys. “Heard you were in our neighborhood. You sure scared my mom last night. She’d like to run you and your wacky sister out of the development after all that excitement at the lake.”

      “We’re not crazy.” Alexa was about to explain what she and Rachael saw, but thought better of it. The important thing was to get back to the lake in the afternoon for more investigative work with her sister. They simply had to get to the bottom of this. Why debate the issue now?

      Rather than create a big to-do over their now-famous evening, she gave Shaun one of her super-stares. It worked. He suddenly stopped taunting her and went about his usual business, sharing ignorant remarks with others. At least he wasn’t directing them to her.

      Could twelve-year-old boys make stupid comments on their own, without her influence? She thought. Maybe so.

      Rachael fared no better at her elementary school, especially since it all happened just blocks away. “Get into trouble for what you did last night?” Jason Simpson asked as they went to lunch. “Are the cops going to arrest you?”

      “For what?”

      “Come on. You gave them the cool story about that man in the woods. Last time I did that--”

      “We didn’t make it up.”

      “Yeah, right. You gave them that awesome story, and it’s not even Halloween yet.”

      “Halloween has nothing to do with it.”

      “Did they try to lock you up? That would be excellent, seeing you and Lex in cuffs. Get pictures for all us guys if it happens.”

      Rachael was about to give the big doofus a shove, but she controlled her anger. “We saw what we saw. What more can I tell you?”

      “Ooh, I’ll bet your dad’s mad.”

      “We didn’t talk about it, Jason.”

      Not yet, anyway, Rachael thought.

      “Well, I’ll bet you will. Last time I did something like that, I was grounded for a month.”

      “Yeah, but that’s because it’s you. See, my parents understand these things. It is no biggie to them.”

      Jason just laughed. “That’s what I thought--at first.” He began to walk away. “Don’t forget pictures when they show up with the handcuffs. You Casadays will be heroes for all my buds.”

      After school, the sisters charged through into homework, just to get it out of the way. Then they changed clothes in preparation for that afternoon run. Of course, they also knew it was always good to do the right thing (homework already complete on a Friday) when there was a distinct possibility that they were in big trouble with the parents.

      Their mother checked in on Alexa before she began preparing the evening meal. “How is your homework coming?”

      Alexa looked up from her history book. “Nearly done, Mom. Was Dad mad about last night?”

      “We’ll talk about it at dinner.” She glanced into Rachael’s room. “You two upset the neighbors and we need to fix that. Get that run out of your system and then we’ll discuss it.”

      Alexa hoped to talk to Mom about the poor