How Alexia Walker Almost Saved the World

Chapter 2

Lexi felt as if she was being twisted through a keyhole backwards. She was spinning so fast everything was a blur of bright colours and twinkling lights - the whining in Lexi's ears was deafening - she tried to keep her eyes open - she felt dizzy - something high pitched whizzed over Lexi's head, making her duck - a cold stream of air made her shiver. Lexi squeezed her eyes shut and waited for it all to stop.

"Lexi."

Lexi shuddered. She wasn't sure if she'd heard a voice or felt it.

"Who are you? Who's out there?" she called out into the strange blur. "Where have you taken me? I want to go back!"

Lexi heard no reply.

Instead, she fell with a sudden jerk. Lexi toppled forward into the playing fields face flat on the grass. Everything ached. The cast on her arm cracked. Lexi's hands were tingling. Her head started to pound and she didn't want to move. Lexi lay there, on her back in the mud, wishing all the aches would go away.

Tim leapt to his feet and raced over to her.

"Lexi! You're back!" he cried. "I thought you were gone forever! What happened to y- Oh!" Tim stopped suddenly, eying Lexi's hands. His smile dropped.

Lexi heaved herself up to sitting. "What?" she asked, "What is i- Oh."

Clutched between Lexi's hands, glowing warmly, was the orb. She'd caught it. Lexi stared at the orb as if she couldn't believe it was really there. She was gripping it so hard that she could see the whites of her knuckles. It wasn't heavy. It felt as light as a basket ball.

Lexi dragged herself to her feet and headed over to Tim where he kept staring at the orb. He almost flinched away from her but stopped himself before she noticed.

"I caught it," she announced, not knowing what else to say. She was stunned. Lexi felt as if her brain was stuttering, full of cotton wool. Maybe it was the rush of air when she'd grabbed the orb or maybe it was the fall but Lexi didn't feel herself at all. Her hands were tingling

Something Tim had said caught Lexi's attention and she managed to look away from the glowing orb, long enough to ask him what he meant.

"What are you talking about, I'm back? Haven't I been standing here the whole time? I mean, I fell over, but I was here, standing. There were all those clouds and that wind –"

"You've been gone for two hours," Tim interrupted. He showed her his phone. It was almost five o'clock.

"That must have been all the wind. I was ... I was somewhere else. But that was only a few seconds.. And I heard.." Lexi didn't know how to explain the voice in her head. "But.. how?"

Tim pointed an accusatory finger at the orb. "That's how." He shook his head. "What is it?"

"Quick. Take a selfie. Just in case it flies away."

Tim tugged Lexi's phone out of her pocket (long ago, it had been her mum's phone) and quickly snapped a photo before shoving the phone back.

"Look, your cast," said Tim, pointing to Lexi's arm.

The cast dangled from her wrist not offering much protection for her broken arm but Lexi somehow felt as if she didn't need the cast at all. She pulled it off.

"Want to hold the orb?" Lexi asked brightly, offering the orb to Tim. The tingling in her hands was starting to creep up her arms. "It's not heavy."

Tim jerked away, stumbling three steps back. He glowered at the orb as if Lexi was trying to hand him a dangerous snake or an enormous, angry tarantula. "No way! That thing could be dangerous! It could be radioactive or anything. It made you disappear! I can't disappear now, it's almost tea time. My mums will go spare!"