Free Finders Keepers by Annalisa Gulbrandsen Page B

point like a shark’s.  
     
    Ellie’s skin felt cold but tiny beads of perspiration formed on her forehead making her bangs uncomfortably sticky.   She couldn’t stare at the floor, but she couldn’t look into their faces either.   After a few excruciating moments, conversation picked up again.   She breathed through her nose and relaxed her stance a little.   A very little.   On second thought…she barred her arms across herself, lowered her eyebrows and frowned.   If the stick dude even twitched, she was going postal.
     
    Two others slouched against a side wall arguing over a video game the larger one was playing.   It could have been a scene from any teenage household, except for the boy’s black hair which shimmered with color whenever his head moved in the light, like an oil spill.   The other, another boy, could have been her next door neighbor with his blonde hair, pale skin, jeans, and a t-shirt.   Both his eyes were blackened from what appeared to be a broken nose.   Ellie’s elbow twinged with recognition.    
     
                A hand so cold it felt like she’d brushed up against a metal freezer, touched her wrist.   “You’re a babe.”   The little guy had come up from behind her.   When he grinned, his sharp little teeth glinted like diamonds.   He twirled an unlit cigar between his fingers.   “Don’t worry, I’m older than I look.”   Ellie’s knees buckled.      
     
                When she came to, she didn’t open her eyes immediately.   She’d been halfway conscious convincing herself that this was all a bad dream and she’d wake up in her own room, in her own bed just like Dorothy, when the smell and feel of unfamiliar couch upholstery became all too apparent.   Her heart plummeted like that carnival ride that takes you up several stories and then drops you in a matter of seconds.   Taylor convinced her to try that one over the summer and she’d agreed in an attempt to appear fearless to Manny and his friends.   Compared to now, her experience on the Drop Zone felt like child’s play.   At the rate she was conditioning her heart to sudden bursts of adrenaline, she’d be ready to base jump in just a few weeks.   A chair scraped close by, close enough that she felt the small flutter from the person’s movements.   Her eyes flew open and like a Murphy bed she sat straight up which earned a chuckle in response.
     
                “So Sleeping Beauty awakes, and I didn’t even have to steal a forbidden kiss.”
     
                She turned to look at where Gibbs sat next to her on a stool.   In his hand he held his phone, on which it appeared he was playing skeeball .   She took quick surveillance of the common room and found it’d been completely emptied of goblins.   Gibbs was watching her closer than she expected because he said, “It’s almost midnight.   They’re preparing for the raids,” and answered her unasked question.  
     
                “I told Zak his pickup lines must have improved if they could make pretty girls like you swoon.”
     
                Ellie’s biting retort fell short on her tongue.   Pretty .   Really?   She waved her hand at the compliment as if swatting an annoying fly and the movement caused the corners of Gibbs’ mouth to twitch.   She scowled.   “Glad to see you’re enjoying your little game of abduction.   Maybe my parents are occupied presently, but sooner or later they’ll figure out I am missing and then there will be an Amber Alert and the FBI will be all over you, and then your little secret society of goblins will be found out.   We’ll see who is laughing then.”
     
                He sat back, crossed his arms over his chest, which with his jacket removed showed incredibly well under his tight t-shirt, and looked her over with interest.   “For someone who I’ve been told is constantly standing in her best