The Radiant Rangers

Chapter 3

Juliet was white as chalk. Her eyes and her mouth were frozen wide open in an expression of stunned surprise. Cynthia's expression was worse. Cynthia's mouth hung open with her lips slightly parted and her eyes were wide. Her face was stuck in an incredulous expression, an unblinking stare, shaking her head in disbelief.

"It's empty..." said Juliet. Juliet had a disappointed look on her face. "Is this some type of dumb prank dude?"

Cynthia looked down into the cardboard box that rested in her palms, it was empty. There was no sign or even a trace of anything that could have been in there.

"We have to find it!" yelled Cynthia frantically. She dropped to the ground flabbergasted and her eyes scanned the area.

"It wasn't even in the box whenever I opened it..." said Juliet. "I doubt it fell out and if it did there's no way you're going to find it in here."

Cynthia's mind ran through the list of places it could have went. "We have to find it Juliet, get down here and help me search."

Juliet sighed and dropped to the ground picking up a large pile of clothes and throwing them behind her. Her room had been messy for so long that the filth didn't seem to bother her anymore.

Cynthia checked off the places she had already searched. When she gazed around Juliet's room, she realized that that the jewel might actually be impossible to find. Juliet's room was a disaster.

After a few minutes of searching, Juliet's room began to look like a place that had been burgled. A huge pile of clothes laid on the far east side of the room while another pile of toys laid on the other. Papers, pencils, and small plastic items were still shattered throughout.

Then it occurred to Cynthia that often things are found as they are being tidied up, so she set about the task with a meticulous approach. When she shifted and sorted her eyes were constantly on the look-out for any gleam of a vivid colored jewel that might have come out of that box.

Cynthia had been pacing back and forth like a caged tiger before Juliet yelled. "I think I found something!"

Cynthia's eyes lit up and she came over to Juliet who was in the middle of picking up old deflated soccer balls. Juliet had always been the sporty type.

"Is this it?" Juliet asked holding up a small blue jewel.

Cynthia quickly took the jewel out of Juliet's hand and examined it carefully. It was small, smaller than her red one. It glittered attractively in the sunlight but wasn't as vivid as Cynthia had expected it to be. Cynthia gave it a hard tap which caused it to crack. The crack spread throughout the jewel.

"Cynthia!" Juliet yelled.

"This isn't a real jewel." Cynthia said cracking it in half. "It's made of cheap glass." she ran her fingers over the polished now-broken surface.

"How do you know man?" Juliet said. "And that was a good jewel too!" She grabbed the blue jewel back from Cynthia with a frown on her face.

"The shine, luster, color quality, and durability. This jewel isn't vivid enough, plus gemstones have a crystalline structure and this one does not." said Cynthia.

Juliet groaned. "Okay smarty pants. Can we just give up on searching for this thing?"

Cynthia sighed, they had been searching for at least half an hour. She didn't want to give up knowing that the jewel could cause major damage to Juliet if she were to react to it in here.

"No," started Cynthia. "I got the exact same box-" she paused. "And by same I mean exactly identical to this one. And inside was a vivid red jewel that caused quite a ruckus." She paused again, this time longer. "Coincidence? I think not."