TITLE: Goozburg
AUTHOR: JackPhillipsGirl
DISCLAIMER: I don't own So Weird, In A Heartbeat, The Jersey, Even Stevens, Famous Jett Jackson, Lizzie McGuire, or Brink!. And, just so you know, I've never watched Lizzie McGuire, so I don't even know if I got her friends' names right. And I've seen about five minutes of Famous Jett Jackson, so that may not make sense either. Don't take this story seriously - I wrote it due to extreme boredom. Enjoy!
Chapter One
The Molly Phillips Tour Bus screeched to a stop and Annie Thelen yelped as her head hit the wall. "Ouch!" She rubbed the spot that was sore and glanced out her window. Her eyes widened at the sight of a blend of colors and flashing lights. She blinked, but when she looked again, all she saw were the friendly houses of a normal town. Annie shrugged, muttering to herself, "Must have took one to the head." She sighed and yelled, "Ned, where are we, exactly?"
"Some town in California."
"Ever hear of... Goozburg?" Molly asked, appearing in the doorway. She grinned, and then frowned when she saw Annie's hand at her head. "Hey, what happened?"
"I..." Annie began, letting her hand fall. "Did you see...?" She noticed the strange look Molly was giving her and stopped short. "Never mind. I hit my head, but I'm okay."
"Well, all right," Molly replied. "We're going to go into town now. I think we all need a little air after ten hours on this bus!"
Annie smiled. "Okay, I'll meet you in a minute."
Molly turned to leave and Annie walked over to look out her window again. "What kind of town calls itself 'Goozburg'?" she murmured. She made her way to the front of the bus; the others had already left. Where'd they all go? Annie wondered. Suddenly she noticed a blond girl approaching her.
"Hey, have you seen -" Annie started to ask, but she was cut short.
"Hi, I'm Lizzie," the girl said, "and I have my own new show."
"Ignore her," a small boy chimed in. "The name's Matt, and the show is all about moi."
"I -" Annie interrupted, and unsuccessfully.
"Excuse my brother Doofus," Lizzie continued. "My show stars me and my best friends, Gordo and Miranda." Another boy and girl were instantly at her side. They waved.
"Oh yeah?" Matt said. "I have a lizard!"
"Mom! Dad! Matt's trying to steal my show!" Lizzie screamed.
"Now kids, we all know it's our show," her mother told her.
"I thought it was Lizzie's show," her father said.
"Yes!" Lizzie exclaimed, sharing hi-fives with Gordo and Miranda. They all turned to Annie expectedly. "Well?" Lizzie demanded.
"Um..." Annie started. "Where am I?"
"Goozburg!" Gordo said happily. "Didn't you know? What planet are you from?" he joked.
Annie eyes widened. She swallowed hard. "You know about that?"
The three friends exchanged looks. "Uh, of course!" Miranda responded quickly. "So, what planet are you from?" she hurried on.
"Well, I don't know exactly," Annie whispered. "See, this panther guides me in my sleep... and then I met these aliens on Thanksgiving, and they told me I was one of them!"
Lizzie raised her eyebrows. "We were just j -"
Gordo quickly covered her mouth with his hand. "So, you see a panther in your dreams, huh?"
"Yeah!" Annie exclaimed. "I think he's my..." Her voice fell to a whisper. "My spirit animal."
Lizzie, Gordo, and Miranda stared at her, speechless. Then slowly their lips curled into smiles, and it wasn't long before they were rolling on the ground, convulsed with laughter.
"Aliens!" Miranda exclaimed, tears streaming down her face.
"A spirit animal?!" Gordo said, banging his fist against the ground. "Oh man..."
Annie glared at them, feeling hurt and angry with herself for having just revealed her deepest secret to complete strangers. She turned on her heel, marching across the street to find Clu, or Jack, or Carey.
"Wow," Lizzie commented, "what a weirdo."
Chapter Two
"Clu!" Annie shouted, running over to him. He was standing next to an ambulance conversing with four uniformed teenagers.
"So what you're saying is, you guys are like, teenage doctors?"
"EMTs," the blond girl corrected him. "Emergency Medical Technicians."
"Yeah, yeah, EMTs, but you're like doctors, right?" Clu asked.
"Yes, we're doctors," the brown-haired guy agreed in exasperation.
"Clu, let's leave the EMTs alone," Annie spoke up. They were in the middle of helping an elderly woman who had fell.
"Please, leave us -" the blond boy began, but his sentence came to a halt as he had a sudden change of mind. "I mean, you're not bothering us. It's okay." He grinned. "I'm Tyler, by the way."
"I'm Annie."
"Oh, I'm Clu, in case you wanted to know," Clu said.
"And I'm Jamie," the brown-haired boy added in a mocking tone. "Can we please get back to work?"
"Jeez, Jamie, since when are you so anxious?" the girl asked. She smiled at Clu. "My name's Val." She motioned to the guy next to her. "And that's Hank. Have you ever seen teen EMTs before?" she asked sweetly.
"No, we have adult ones at home," Clu explained. He smiled back.
Tyler made a low growling noise in his throat. "Don't even think about him," he hissed.
"Tyler, we're not going out and you don't own me," Val replied through clenched teeth. "Remember what happened at our little dinner date? Or what didn't?" Tyler looked away, embarrassed. Val looked back at Clu again. "So... I'll be seeing you around?"
"Not if I see you first!" Clu replied, instantly feeling like an idiot as the words left his mouth. "I mean, uh, yeah," he said. Val smiled and shook her head.
"Yeah, see ya," Annie said, grabbing Clu's arm and dragging him to the street. "God, what do you think you're doing?" she demanded.
"That Val is pretty cute," Clu said to nobody in particular.
Annie scowled. "Enough about her, we need to find Carey and Jack! Have you seen them?"
"Isn't that Jack right over there?" Clu said suddenly, pointing in the distance.
Annie followed his gaze. "Why didn't you say something before? Come on!" She ran off, with Clu not far behind her.
Chapter Three
"No way, Manny Ramirez is a much better hitter than Alex Rodriguez!" Jack exclaimed.
"Yeah, and if Manny's so much better, why wasn't he the one offered a $250 million contract?" a brown-haired boy argued.
"No, no, Jack's definitely right," another girl agreed. "A-Rod is overrated."
"Thank you," Jack said, smiling.
"Uh, Jack?" Annie interrupted.
Jack turned around. "Oh, hi, Annie. Hi, Clu." He motioned to the boy and girl. "That's Nick, and his cousin Morgan. They live in this town."
"Hi," Nick and Morgan said in unison.
"Hi..." Annie replied. "Jack, have you seen Carey?"
Jack shrugged. "Nope. I don't know where he is."
"We were just talking baseball," Nick explained. "Jack here thinks Manny Ramirez is better than A-Rod. What do you think?"
"Who and who?" Annie asked.
"She doesn't know anything about sports," Jack explained.
Morgan raised her eyebrows. "Whatever," she said. "What do you think?" she asked Clu. "Manny or A-Rod?"
"Definitely A-Rod," Clu said, nodding.
"Ha!" Nick exclaimed triumphantly.
"Wait a second, it's two against two. You haven't won anything," Jack said.
"There's only one way to find out," Nick said slowly. He reached into his backpack and pulled out an ugly, tattered yellow sweater. Annie stared in shock as she watched the sleeve of the jersey wrap itself around Jack's arm. Suddenly both he and Nick disappeared.
"Oh my God - what just happened?" Annie asked Morgan.
Morgan shrugged. "Beats me. Maybe they're at a Red Sox - Rangers game," she smirked.
"Okay, this is getting way too weird," Clu said. "Let's go find my brother."
"Yeah, let's go," Annie agreed quickly. They walked along the street, eyeing the yard of every house. "Hey, there he is!" Annie exclaimed. Sure enough, there Carey was, talking to someone Annie and Clu couldn't yet see.
"Carey!" Clu called.
Carey turned around, a pen and paper in his hand. "Hi, guys! Look who I found!" He stepped aside as Clu and Annie gasped at who was revealed.
"Oh my God, it's Silverstone! I mean Jett Jackson! Mr. Jackson, can I have your autograph?" Annie babbled incoherently.
"I can give only one at a time," Jett replied, flashing a quick grin. "But sure. Just a second."
"Wow, I didn't know that famous people lived in Goozburg," Clu commented.
"Well, it's just me," Jett replied. "I like the small-town life, you know." He scribbled his name on the piece of paper Carey had given him, and handed it back. He then did the same for Annie. "I've got to be getting back to work now," Jett said, motioning to the directors and cameras behind him. "We're in the middle of shooting. Nice meeting you!"
"Thanks, Jett!" Annie and Carey called together.
"Look, guys, now we have to find Jack," Clu said in a very serious tone.
"Why, what happened to him?" Carey asked, concerned.
"Dude, he just disappeared!" Clu exclaimed. "He was just standing there, and then this guy takes out a yellow sweater, and all of a sudden, they just vanished!"
Carey raised an eyebrow. "Why am I not believing this?"
"It's true," Annie confirmed. "But maybe they came back now. We have to split up. Carey, you go over there. Clu, go look by where the EMTs were. I'm going to head over that way," she said, pointing ahead. "We'll meet back at the tour bus at..." Annie glanced at her watch. "A quarter to five. That gives us forty-five minutes. Okay?"
"Okay," Clu and Carey agreed, and they headed their separate ways.
Chapter Four
Now where could Jack be? Annie wondered. Probably in another dimension, at this point... She sat down at a bench in a park. A group of skaters were at the far end. Wow, they're really good, Annie marveled, walking over to get a better view. She caught a glimpse of one of the boy's faces and gasped. "Jack!" She ran over to him. "Jack, since when do you skate?"
Jack looked at Annie strangely. He turned around, but no one else was nearby. "Are you talking to me?"
"Jack, I've been looking all over for you. Why didn't you ever tell me what a good skater you are?" She looked at his shirt. Pup and suds?
"Do I know you? And who's Jack?"
Annie's jaw dropped. "If you're not Jack, who are you?"
Just then, another boy skated over. "What's going on here, Peter?"
Annie stared at him, agape. "Clu? But I thought you were... I thought..."
The two boys stared at her, confused. "Are you okay?" Clu asked. "Look, I don't know who Clu is, but this is Peter, and I'm Brink."
"Brink? Peter?" Annie repeated. "I'm really not having a good day..."
"Yeah, you seem a little out of place," Peter said. "Who's Jack?"
"My friend - I swear, he looks just like you..." Annie replied.
"And let me guess, this Clu looks just like me, right?" Brink said.
"Well, actually - yeah," Annie said.
"Maybe you've been in the sun too long," Peter suggested. "Or maybe you were eating a lot of candy. Sugar can mess you up."
A girl with long dark curly hair skated over to them. "Hey guys, are we going to skate or what?" she asked impatiently.
"We'll be there in a second, Gabriella," Peter said. "Are you going to be okay?" he asked Annie.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Annie assured him. "Um, if you see someone who looks just like you, tell him Annie was looking for him, okay?"
"Sure thing," Peter replied.
"Okay, thanks." Annie smiled, walking away.
"What a nutcase," Brink commented to Peter once Annie was out of earshot.
"Tell me about it."
Chapter Five
Annie wandered along the streets, still trying to process what had just happened. Brink and Peter, she thought. Weird. She looked ahead and saw a huge crowd around a store window. What's going on? Annie wondered. She walked over, deciding to find out. She pushed to the front of a crowd but all she saw was a curly-haired boy bouncing on a bed. HOURS SLEPT: 4, a sign read.
"It's just a kid in a bed," Annie said aloud, disappointed. "That's what all the fuss is about?"
"Thank you, someone is normal!" a brunette girl said to her.
"Well, that's something I haven't heard yet today," Annie replied.
The girl laughed, even if not quite understanding what Annie meant. "I'm Ren Stevens," she introduced herself. "His sister." She nodded her head in direction of the boy.
"Annie Thelen," Annie replied. "What's with the people in this town, anyway? They must be easily amused to cause such a commotion over a boy in a bed."
"Well, what can I say, the people of Goozburg just tend to be different," Ren said. She and Annie found their way out of the crowd and began to walk along the street.
"Hey, you wouldn't happen to know anything about this old yellow sweater owned by two kids named Nick and Morgan, would you?" Annie asked.
"You mean, the jersey?"
"I think so..." Annie said.
"Only rumors. According to their friend, this little guy named Elliot, I think, they supposedly put on the jersey and are whisked into the body of a star athlete. I can't say I believe it, though. Why?"
"Well, I think the jersey has my friend Jack," Annie explained. "The jersey wrapped itself around his arm and I swear he just disappeared."
Ren didn't look convinced. "If you say so," she said. "Well, it's been nice talking to you, but I've got to go. I hope you find your friend. Bye!" Ren called.
"Bye," Annie shouted. She looked at her watch. 4:43. She walked onto the tour bus. "Carey? Clu?" she yelled.
"They're not here."
"Jack!" Annie exclaimed, running into the community room. Jack was sitting on the couch. He looked up from the magazine in his hands.
"Yes?"
"Jack, we were looking all over town for you," Annie told him. Just then Carey and Clu stepped into the room.
"Jack!" they both shouted.
"It's already been established," Jack replied. "I was here the whole time! I decided to take a little nap."
"What?" Carey asked in disbelief.
Jack shrugged. "It's true. Sorry, I guess. But anyway, I had the craziest dream... I was in the body of Manny Ramirez! Isn't that weird?"
"Oh, weird isn't the word," Annie replied. Just then, Molly, Ned, and Irene came onto the bus.
"Everyone ready to go?" Ned called out. Within moments the gang was on its way out of Goozburg.
Annie ran to her room and opened her laptop. "Please, Fi, be on..." she murmured. She clicked the InstaGab icon and, as luck should have it, Fi just happened to be online.
Do you know anything about really unusual towns? Annie typed.
Usually a clue to the town is hidden in its name, Fi wrote back.
"In its name?" Annie repeated. She recalled what had happened in another strange town, Hiveburg. "They were bees, and the town was their hive!" Annie remembered. "So, then Goozburg... but what's a Gooz?" Hmm, what is a Gooz? [Plays Twilight Zone theme...]
THE END... OR IS IT?
AUTHOR: JackPhillipsGirl
DISCLAIMER: I don't own So Weird, In A Heartbeat, The Jersey, Even Stevens, Famous Jett Jackson, Lizzie McGuire, or Brink!. And, just so you know, I've never watched Lizzie McGuire, so I don't even know if I got her friends' names right. And I've seen about five minutes of Famous Jett Jackson, so that may not make sense either. Don't take this story seriously - I wrote it due to extreme boredom. Enjoy!
Chapter One
The Molly Phillips Tour Bus screeched to a stop and Annie Thelen yelped as her head hit the wall. "Ouch!" She rubbed the spot that was sore and glanced out her window. Her eyes widened at the sight of a blend of colors and flashing lights. She blinked, but when she looked again, all she saw were the friendly houses of a normal town. Annie shrugged, muttering to herself, "Must have took one to the head." She sighed and yelled, "Ned, where are we, exactly?"
"Some town in California."
"Ever hear of... Goozburg?" Molly asked, appearing in the doorway. She grinned, and then frowned when she saw Annie's hand at her head. "Hey, what happened?"
"I..." Annie began, letting her hand fall. "Did you see...?" She noticed the strange look Molly was giving her and stopped short. "Never mind. I hit my head, but I'm okay."
"Well, all right," Molly replied. "We're going to go into town now. I think we all need a little air after ten hours on this bus!"
Annie smiled. "Okay, I'll meet you in a minute."
Molly turned to leave and Annie walked over to look out her window again. "What kind of town calls itself 'Goozburg'?" she murmured. She made her way to the front of the bus; the others had already left. Where'd they all go? Annie wondered. Suddenly she noticed a blond girl approaching her.
"Hey, have you seen -" Annie started to ask, but she was cut short.
"Hi, I'm Lizzie," the girl said, "and I have my own new show."
"Ignore her," a small boy chimed in. "The name's Matt, and the show is all about moi."
"I -" Annie interrupted, and unsuccessfully.
"Excuse my brother Doofus," Lizzie continued. "My show stars me and my best friends, Gordo and Miranda." Another boy and girl were instantly at her side. They waved.
"Oh yeah?" Matt said. "I have a lizard!"
"Mom! Dad! Matt's trying to steal my show!" Lizzie screamed.
"Now kids, we all know it's our show," her mother told her.
"I thought it was Lizzie's show," her father said.
"Yes!" Lizzie exclaimed, sharing hi-fives with Gordo and Miranda. They all turned to Annie expectedly. "Well?" Lizzie demanded.
"Um..." Annie started. "Where am I?"
"Goozburg!" Gordo said happily. "Didn't you know? What planet are you from?" he joked.
Annie eyes widened. She swallowed hard. "You know about that?"
The three friends exchanged looks. "Uh, of course!" Miranda responded quickly. "So, what planet are you from?" she hurried on.
"Well, I don't know exactly," Annie whispered. "See, this panther guides me in my sleep... and then I met these aliens on Thanksgiving, and they told me I was one of them!"
Lizzie raised her eyebrows. "We were just j -"
Gordo quickly covered her mouth with his hand. "So, you see a panther in your dreams, huh?"
"Yeah!" Annie exclaimed. "I think he's my..." Her voice fell to a whisper. "My spirit animal."
Lizzie, Gordo, and Miranda stared at her, speechless. Then slowly their lips curled into smiles, and it wasn't long before they were rolling on the ground, convulsed with laughter.
"Aliens!" Miranda exclaimed, tears streaming down her face.
"A spirit animal?!" Gordo said, banging his fist against the ground. "Oh man..."
Annie glared at them, feeling hurt and angry with herself for having just revealed her deepest secret to complete strangers. She turned on her heel, marching across the street to find Clu, or Jack, or Carey.
"Wow," Lizzie commented, "what a weirdo."
Chapter Two
"Clu!" Annie shouted, running over to him. He was standing next to an ambulance conversing with four uniformed teenagers.
"So what you're saying is, you guys are like, teenage doctors?"
"EMTs," the blond girl corrected him. "Emergency Medical Technicians."
"Yeah, yeah, EMTs, but you're like doctors, right?" Clu asked.
"Yes, we're doctors," the brown-haired guy agreed in exasperation.
"Clu, let's leave the EMTs alone," Annie spoke up. They were in the middle of helping an elderly woman who had fell.
"Please, leave us -" the blond boy began, but his sentence came to a halt as he had a sudden change of mind. "I mean, you're not bothering us. It's okay." He grinned. "I'm Tyler, by the way."
"I'm Annie."
"Oh, I'm Clu, in case you wanted to know," Clu said.
"And I'm Jamie," the brown-haired boy added in a mocking tone. "Can we please get back to work?"
"Jeez, Jamie, since when are you so anxious?" the girl asked. She smiled at Clu. "My name's Val." She motioned to the guy next to her. "And that's Hank. Have you ever seen teen EMTs before?" she asked sweetly.
"No, we have adult ones at home," Clu explained. He smiled back.
Tyler made a low growling noise in his throat. "Don't even think about him," he hissed.
"Tyler, we're not going out and you don't own me," Val replied through clenched teeth. "Remember what happened at our little dinner date? Or what didn't?" Tyler looked away, embarrassed. Val looked back at Clu again. "So... I'll be seeing you around?"
"Not if I see you first!" Clu replied, instantly feeling like an idiot as the words left his mouth. "I mean, uh, yeah," he said. Val smiled and shook her head.
"Yeah, see ya," Annie said, grabbing Clu's arm and dragging him to the street. "God, what do you think you're doing?" she demanded.
"That Val is pretty cute," Clu said to nobody in particular.
Annie scowled. "Enough about her, we need to find Carey and Jack! Have you seen them?"
"Isn't that Jack right over there?" Clu said suddenly, pointing in the distance.
Annie followed his gaze. "Why didn't you say something before? Come on!" She ran off, with Clu not far behind her.
Chapter Three
"No way, Manny Ramirez is a much better hitter than Alex Rodriguez!" Jack exclaimed.
"Yeah, and if Manny's so much better, why wasn't he the one offered a $250 million contract?" a brown-haired boy argued.
"No, no, Jack's definitely right," another girl agreed. "A-Rod is overrated."
"Thank you," Jack said, smiling.
"Uh, Jack?" Annie interrupted.
Jack turned around. "Oh, hi, Annie. Hi, Clu." He motioned to the boy and girl. "That's Nick, and his cousin Morgan. They live in this town."
"Hi," Nick and Morgan said in unison.
"Hi..." Annie replied. "Jack, have you seen Carey?"
Jack shrugged. "Nope. I don't know where he is."
"We were just talking baseball," Nick explained. "Jack here thinks Manny Ramirez is better than A-Rod. What do you think?"
"Who and who?" Annie asked.
"She doesn't know anything about sports," Jack explained.
Morgan raised her eyebrows. "Whatever," she said. "What do you think?" she asked Clu. "Manny or A-Rod?"
"Definitely A-Rod," Clu said, nodding.
"Ha!" Nick exclaimed triumphantly.
"Wait a second, it's two against two. You haven't won anything," Jack said.
"There's only one way to find out," Nick said slowly. He reached into his backpack and pulled out an ugly, tattered yellow sweater. Annie stared in shock as she watched the sleeve of the jersey wrap itself around Jack's arm. Suddenly both he and Nick disappeared.
"Oh my God - what just happened?" Annie asked Morgan.
Morgan shrugged. "Beats me. Maybe they're at a Red Sox - Rangers game," she smirked.
"Okay, this is getting way too weird," Clu said. "Let's go find my brother."
"Yeah, let's go," Annie agreed quickly. They walked along the street, eyeing the yard of every house. "Hey, there he is!" Annie exclaimed. Sure enough, there Carey was, talking to someone Annie and Clu couldn't yet see.
"Carey!" Clu called.
Carey turned around, a pen and paper in his hand. "Hi, guys! Look who I found!" He stepped aside as Clu and Annie gasped at who was revealed.
"Oh my God, it's Silverstone! I mean Jett Jackson! Mr. Jackson, can I have your autograph?" Annie babbled incoherently.
"I can give only one at a time," Jett replied, flashing a quick grin. "But sure. Just a second."
"Wow, I didn't know that famous people lived in Goozburg," Clu commented.
"Well, it's just me," Jett replied. "I like the small-town life, you know." He scribbled his name on the piece of paper Carey had given him, and handed it back. He then did the same for Annie. "I've got to be getting back to work now," Jett said, motioning to the directors and cameras behind him. "We're in the middle of shooting. Nice meeting you!"
"Thanks, Jett!" Annie and Carey called together.
"Look, guys, now we have to find Jack," Clu said in a very serious tone.
"Why, what happened to him?" Carey asked, concerned.
"Dude, he just disappeared!" Clu exclaimed. "He was just standing there, and then this guy takes out a yellow sweater, and all of a sudden, they just vanished!"
Carey raised an eyebrow. "Why am I not believing this?"
"It's true," Annie confirmed. "But maybe they came back now. We have to split up. Carey, you go over there. Clu, go look by where the EMTs were. I'm going to head over that way," she said, pointing ahead. "We'll meet back at the tour bus at..." Annie glanced at her watch. "A quarter to five. That gives us forty-five minutes. Okay?"
"Okay," Clu and Carey agreed, and they headed their separate ways.
Chapter Four
Now where could Jack be? Annie wondered. Probably in another dimension, at this point... She sat down at a bench in a park. A group of skaters were at the far end. Wow, they're really good, Annie marveled, walking over to get a better view. She caught a glimpse of one of the boy's faces and gasped. "Jack!" She ran over to him. "Jack, since when do you skate?"
Jack looked at Annie strangely. He turned around, but no one else was nearby. "Are you talking to me?"
"Jack, I've been looking all over for you. Why didn't you ever tell me what a good skater you are?" She looked at his shirt. Pup and suds?
"Do I know you? And who's Jack?"
Annie's jaw dropped. "If you're not Jack, who are you?"
Just then, another boy skated over. "What's going on here, Peter?"
Annie stared at him, agape. "Clu? But I thought you were... I thought..."
The two boys stared at her, confused. "Are you okay?" Clu asked. "Look, I don't know who Clu is, but this is Peter, and I'm Brink."
"Brink? Peter?" Annie repeated. "I'm really not having a good day..."
"Yeah, you seem a little out of place," Peter said. "Who's Jack?"
"My friend - I swear, he looks just like you..." Annie replied.
"And let me guess, this Clu looks just like me, right?" Brink said.
"Well, actually - yeah," Annie said.
"Maybe you've been in the sun too long," Peter suggested. "Or maybe you were eating a lot of candy. Sugar can mess you up."
A girl with long dark curly hair skated over to them. "Hey guys, are we going to skate or what?" she asked impatiently.
"We'll be there in a second, Gabriella," Peter said. "Are you going to be okay?" he asked Annie.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Annie assured him. "Um, if you see someone who looks just like you, tell him Annie was looking for him, okay?"
"Sure thing," Peter replied.
"Okay, thanks." Annie smiled, walking away.
"What a nutcase," Brink commented to Peter once Annie was out of earshot.
"Tell me about it."
Chapter Five
Annie wandered along the streets, still trying to process what had just happened. Brink and Peter, she thought. Weird. She looked ahead and saw a huge crowd around a store window. What's going on? Annie wondered. She walked over, deciding to find out. She pushed to the front of a crowd but all she saw was a curly-haired boy bouncing on a bed. HOURS SLEPT: 4, a sign read.
"It's just a kid in a bed," Annie said aloud, disappointed. "That's what all the fuss is about?"
"Thank you, someone is normal!" a brunette girl said to her.
"Well, that's something I haven't heard yet today," Annie replied.
The girl laughed, even if not quite understanding what Annie meant. "I'm Ren Stevens," she introduced herself. "His sister." She nodded her head in direction of the boy.
"Annie Thelen," Annie replied. "What's with the people in this town, anyway? They must be easily amused to cause such a commotion over a boy in a bed."
"Well, what can I say, the people of Goozburg just tend to be different," Ren said. She and Annie found their way out of the crowd and began to walk along the street.
"Hey, you wouldn't happen to know anything about this old yellow sweater owned by two kids named Nick and Morgan, would you?" Annie asked.
"You mean, the jersey?"
"I think so..." Annie said.
"Only rumors. According to their friend, this little guy named Elliot, I think, they supposedly put on the jersey and are whisked into the body of a star athlete. I can't say I believe it, though. Why?"
"Well, I think the jersey has my friend Jack," Annie explained. "The jersey wrapped itself around his arm and I swear he just disappeared."
Ren didn't look convinced. "If you say so," she said. "Well, it's been nice talking to you, but I've got to go. I hope you find your friend. Bye!" Ren called.
"Bye," Annie shouted. She looked at her watch. 4:43. She walked onto the tour bus. "Carey? Clu?" she yelled.
"They're not here."
"Jack!" Annie exclaimed, running into the community room. Jack was sitting on the couch. He looked up from the magazine in his hands.
"Yes?"
"Jack, we were looking all over town for you," Annie told him. Just then Carey and Clu stepped into the room.
"Jack!" they both shouted.
"It's already been established," Jack replied. "I was here the whole time! I decided to take a little nap."
"What?" Carey asked in disbelief.
Jack shrugged. "It's true. Sorry, I guess. But anyway, I had the craziest dream... I was in the body of Manny Ramirez! Isn't that weird?"
"Oh, weird isn't the word," Annie replied. Just then, Molly, Ned, and Irene came onto the bus.
"Everyone ready to go?" Ned called out. Within moments the gang was on its way out of Goozburg.
Annie ran to her room and opened her laptop. "Please, Fi, be on..." she murmured. She clicked the InstaGab icon and, as luck should have it, Fi just happened to be online.
Do you know anything about really unusual towns? Annie typed.
Usually a clue to the town is hidden in its name, Fi wrote back.
"In its name?" Annie repeated. She recalled what had happened in another strange town, Hiveburg. "They were bees, and the town was their hive!" Annie remembered. "So, then Goozburg... but what's a Gooz?" Hmm, what is a Gooz? [Plays Twilight Zone theme...]