“C’mon, Speck,” said Lily Blue. “Come back down here.”
Lily pulled a chair over to a classroom window in the Biology Building. She climbed onto the plastic seat. She reached up with her right hand and gently detached her pet chameleon Speck from the smooth glass. His tiny eyes blinked. His delicate toes flexed, bright apple-green.
“I know, I know,” she said, “You want to go out-side and ride the scooter some more.” Lily petted Speck’s tiny head, then stared out the window. When is Mom going to finish with this building? she wondered.
Lily’s mother worked as a security guard at the University of Metroville. Every day, twice a day, Sharon Blue patrolled the buildings on the east side of the campus. The Bio Building was the last building on her route. Then she would report back to the Security Headquarters, take a ten-minute coffee break, and start all over again, beginning with the Space Science Center. Right now, Lily’s mother was checking out the auditorium on the third floor. She was investigating a suspicious noise.
Classes had ended in the Biology Department. She and Lily were the only people in the building. But when they had reached the second floor, they both had heard a crash upstairs.
“Lily, wait in here,” her mother had said.
“I’ll be quiet—” Lily began.
“Don’t start,” said her mother. “You know the rules. You’re not even supposed to be in the building with me.”
Lily had talked her mother into taking her and Speck on guard duty so they could visit the new exhibit being set up in the Biology building. The exhibit was called THE WORLD’S FIRST DEFENSE TEAM: How Animals Protect Themselves. Lily hoped that she might find exotic chameleons on display. “You might meet some long-lost relatives,” she had told Speck. The third floor, where the exhibit was located, was the last floor her mother would patrol. That was also where the noises had come from.
“Sounds like breaking glass,” Lily had remarked.
“I have ears,” said her mother. “Now shush. Oh, and Speck,” she added, petting the tiny green creature that clung to Lily’s left ear, “I expect you to guard Lily ‘til I get back.”
“Careful, Mom,” said Lily as her mother shut the door.
Ten minutes had dragged by. Lily heard the hundred-year-old clock tower that stood in the center of the University. BONG … BONG …
Lily knew her mother was smart and could always call for more security guards on her radio if she needed help. That didn’t stop Lily from worrying.
As she stood on the plastic chair and stared out the window, Lily said to the squirming Speck now in her fist, “Not much of a view.” The window faced the narrow alley that ran between the Bio Building and the building next door. A sudden blink of silver glittered in the alley below. A blond boy was streaking into the alley on a streamlined scooter.
“That’s a Hurricane 5000,” she whispered to Speck. Lily knew as much about scooters as she did about chameleons. Speck rotated his eyecones, unimpressed.
A flash of red appeared at the opposite end of the alley.
“That’s the kid with the ice,” said Lily. Living a few blocks from the University, Lily had often seen the dark-haired boy with the red scooter delivering ice and groceries all over campus. “He’s riding a Fireball XL. It has a long footboard, but it’s fast.”
Lily’s grip tightened on Speck. His pink tongue flickered.
“They’re going to crash!” she said.
The two scooters rocketed toward each other, neither one of them slowing down.
Lily clamped both hands around the chameleon. The alley’s too narrow, she thought.
Without thinking, she closed her eyes. Speck’s eyes were open. He spied a fly buzzing in circles on the other side of the window. A fat, juicy fly. Like a bolt of green lightning, Speck flashed out of Lily’s fist.
“Speck!” Lily opened her eyes. Below, in the alley, the two scooters were now racing away from each other. Both boys had somehow avoided a terrible collision. Good riders, thought Lily. But where’s Speck?
Somewhere, glass was breaking. The auditorium! Lily heard something heavy bumping and twanging down the stairs outside in the hall. Where was her mother! And where was Speck?
The chameleon sat calmly on the windowsill. He had shifted color from green to soft brown, matching the wooden windowsill. The buzzing fly was still tempting Speck from the other side of the glass. A swift dart of his pink tongue, which hadn’t changed color, alerted Lily to his new location.
I wish I could do that. Lily scooped up Speck and set him on her left ear. Changing colors to match my surroundings. It’s almost as good as being invisible.
Speck shot one last hungry glance at the juicy fly as Lily rushed out of the room.
“Lily! I told you to stay inside!” Her mother was running down the steps from the third floor.
“What happened? What was that noise?”
“The exhibit’s been broken into,” said her mother. Without stopping, she turned and headed down to the first floor. “Follow me.” Then she quickly added, “Wait.”
The bumping and twanging noise had stopped.
“What was it?” whispered Lily.
“A bike, I think,” said her mother. “It rushed past me upstairs. A green-and-red blur. Then I heard it banging down the stairs.”
A bicycle in the Bio Building? A bicycle shooting down the stairs would have made those same bumps and twangs that Lily had heard.
“Stay here,” said her mother. “I’ll go downstairs and have a quick look.”