Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) by C.DEANNA VERHOFF

only to be ridiculed . She hadn’t even gotten to the best part — the beautiful mysterious rock ! Served him right — Brandon wasn’t worthy to hear about IT anyway.
    He leaned out of bed and flipped off the lamp .
    “Turn that back on , Brandon . I’m not done reading.”
    “Yes, you are.”
    “Jerk.”
    She took h er flashlight from the top of the bookshelf and continued to look through h er book. Some stones shared certain characteristics with h er indigo find but none seemed to match.
    “Wrap it up, Glory . ”
    “ This is my room and I’m not hurting anything.”
    “I can hear the pages flipping and that annoys me.”
    “Your face annoys me.”
    In the blink of an eye , Brandon wrestl ed her to the floor, yanking away the flashlight , grabbing the book out of h er hands.
    “Give it back , you butthead !”
    “No way . The flashlight’s mine anyway . I gave it to you, and now I’m taking it back.”
    “That’s SO wrong! You can’t give somebody something and then take it back!”
    “Yo u’re right,” Brandon said with an evil gleam in his eye . “But, I can do this. ” He walked over to the window . The bedroom was on the second story, but that didn’t stop him from tossing her book and flashlight into the night .
    “Maybe your devil-dog will fetch them for you.”
    Glory wanted to punch h er obnoxious brother in the face . Instead , s he sat down in front of the closet to put on her hikers , muttering the whole time .
    “Where you going? ” Brandon wanted to know as he crawled into bed.
    “Wh ere do you think, moron , to get my stuff.”
    “It’ll still be there in the morning.”
    “I t’s supposed to rain tonight.”
    “Be quiet when you come back in or I’ll pound you.”
    Glory scowled, put on her coat on the way out the door and tiptoed down the hallway . It was well after midnight and everyone was sleeping, including Nana and Grandpa whose heavy snoring wafted up the stairway. Randy and Danny were home, appearing as nebulous blobs of clothing on the other side of the room. Even though they made her life miserable at time s , it was good to have the family whole again. She noticed George had kicked off his blanket, so she pulled it up around h is ears and kissed h im on the cheek . Blue eyes flicke re d open and he smiled.
    “ Gwo-wee . Song?”
    “Just one , ” she whispered. As usual, s he made-up the lyrics as t he y went along .
     
    Hush a-bye, don’t you cry,
    Go to sleepy little G eorge- eeee,
    When you wake, we’ll eat cake,
    And set sail through outer spac e- eeee.
     
    He turned on to h is side to snuggl e deep er into the covers . Something about watching him contently sucking h is thumb made her feel peaceful, as if for a moment the world was a good place, and everything would be okay. George had already fallen asleep. In the morning , he wo uldn’t even remember she was here.
    “Pleasant dreams, sweetie . ”
     
    The tricky part would be getting past the living room where Dad was wasted on the couch . A government-sponsored show about how the struggling economy would benefit from a single one - world currency droned from the television —typical boring stuff . E very creak of the floor made Glory wince . Slowly, carefully, s he opened the front door and stole outside.
    Whew, now for that missing flashlight .
    The drizzle seemed to a bsorb every bit of light , making the darkness extra intense . She slopped around the wet yard for several minutes, but no sign of the flashlight or book. The porch light would be useful about now but possibly waking Dad wasn’t worth the risk. She decided the spelunking light in the barn would be her best bet .
    Upon opening the door , Glory realized that s he was the last one in the barn and had left the lights on . If it wasn’t for Brandon being a bully , the mistake would have went unnoticed until Dad discovered it at the break of dawn . Burning bulbs burned money and that was a crime in the Alley house hold .
    On the plus