Wait, what? “So … you decided just to hang out here and let him play instead of looking for me while I was, oh, I don’t know, fighting for my life?”
Neel looked surprised and guilty. “Sadie said she had seen you in your school, and that there had been some kind of a fire drill, and that you were probably still there.”
“It wasn’t just a fire drill. And I seriously could have dealt with some help, you know. I was only battling mythological creatures from multiple different cultures!” When Neel blanched, I sighed. “But hey, at least I was able to rescue Lal.”
Neel turned to his younger brother with a protective glance. “Are you all right? Dude, look at the size of your ankle!” Then he turned back to me. “I’m really, really sorry, Kiran, that I wasn’t there to help you.”
“Sure, whatever. I guess it all worked out in the end.” I had to raise my voice a little to make myself heard over the endless dum-dum-DA-dum of the table tennis game, which was still going on. “But, Neel, what are you doing in this dimension in the first place? Did you get my lizard-gram?”
Neel waved for the scientists to stop playing so that he could respond, but they had such an intense volley going that they still didn’t notice us.
“Take a break, scientists!” Tuni yelled. When neither Sadie nor Professor Das stopped their playing, the bird jumped up and caught the next shot in his mouth. Both players looked at Tuntuni in surprise.
“That is against intergalactic table tennis regulations!” sputtered K. P. Das. “No player on either doubles team may eat the Ping-Pong ball while in play! Your team forfeits the point! It’s my game, set, and match!”
“Wait a minute, don’t be such a stickler!” protested Sadie, who seemed very upset at the possibility of losing. “Those regulations are only applicable on Sundays during an intergalactic apocalypse!”
“We very well might be in the middle of an intergalactic apocalypse!” said K. P. Babu triumphantly.
“Ha ha, the joke’s on you, then!” crowed Sadie. “Because it’s Monday!”
I decided to ignore the bickering players and turned back to Neel, happy to be able to hear myself. “Seriously, what are you doing here?” Then I turned to Tuni. “And how did you and Bunty make it here? I thought for sure you were back on the other side of the wormhole and we’d lost you!”
Since Tuni couldn’t exactly reply with a giant Ping-Pong ball in his beak, he shot it out at me with a ptu sound. I caught the little missive in midair.
“Say, Princess!” squawked my birdie friend. “Why was Cinderella kicked off the soccer team?”
“Tuni, seriously?” Neel was helping his limping brother into a chair, playfully messing with Lal’s hair as he did. I felt bad for being so snippy before with Neel. He was obviously super happy to see his brother again. And I guess he couldn’t have known I would be battling a Gorgon and a dragon right here in Parsippany.
“Who is this Cinderella?” Lal heavily sat down, wincing as Neel helped him prop up his injured foot.
“She’s a 2-D-story princess,” I explained. Then, to make up for my bad mood before, I guessed, “Um … Cinderella got kicked off the soccer team because her glass slippers weren’t cleats?”
Tuntuni landed on my shoulder, squawking, “No! Because she kept running away from the ball!”
I laughed at the bird’s silly joke, then realized Shady Sadie was waving her hands maniacally, gesturing for me to throw her the Ping-Pong ball. Ugh, I couldn’t stand them starting up again.
“It’s time for a Ping-Pong intervention!” said Bunty. I tossed the plastic ball at the tiger, who promptly crunched down on it and ate it in one gulp.
“Aw! That’s not fair!” protested Shady Sadie.
When Bunty responded with a loud roar, both players looked a little sheepish. “Okay, maybe it’s a little fair,” amended the television scientist.
“I’ll dock your grade for this, Prince Neel!” grumbled K. P. Das. “You too, Prince Lal! And no hope of extra credit!”
Lal looked a little worried, but Neel rolled his eyes. “We’re not even in your class anymore, Professor. And we’ve got more important things to worry about right now. Could we stay on topic?”
Both scientists seemed to get their acts together at the scolding. “Sorry, perhaps we got a little carried away,” said Shady Sadie.
“Ping-Pong always brings out the worst in the scientific community,” agreed K. P. Babu.
Finally realizing who was in the room, Shady Sadie came over to me and started shaking my hand so hard I thought it would fall off. “I knew you’d make it, young scientist!” she said, her eyes dancing behind her glasses. “Your friends the tiger and tia bird were doubtful, but I told them to give you time, that you’d heard my message about the darkness and the light and you’d make your way here!”
So Shady Sadie had been looking at me during the end of the assembly! “You showed that slide of the Smarty-Pants Science Corporation building on purpose so I would know where it was!”
“That’s why I set up that visit to your school in the first place,” explained my scientist idol. “When your tiger and bird friends got dropped here by the wormhole and told me about you, I assumed your coordinates were somewhere close by and you would make it to your school somehow.”
“But then Shady Sadie came back without you and we got worried.” Bunty padded over to me and rubbed a big head against my side. “She wouldn’t let us leave to go look for you either!”
“Said it would be hard to explain a talking bird and a giant tiger roaming around Parsippany,” Tuni sniffed.
That was actually fair. It would be a problem to explain a talking tiger and bird wandering around Parsippany. Weirdly, I didn’t feel as irritated at Tuni or Bunty for not coming to help me as I did at Neel.
“But then why did you and K. P. Babu come to New Jersey, my brother?” Lal asked. “I heard you were canvassing the countryside, looking for support from our people. That you got crowned temporary Raja.”
At Lal’s words, Neel got a funny expression on his face. “Now that you’re free, we’ll make sure the crown goes to you as soon as we get home, okay?”
I was hoping Lal would say something wise and magnanimous, about how their father should never have stripped the crown prince title from Neel anyway, and how Neel should hang on to the crown, but instead, the younger prince just said, “Okay, sure.” He was holding his lips a little funny, and I wondered if he was in pain or just upset that Neel had been made Raja instead of him.
I took a quick glance at Neel, wondering how he was taking his brother’s reaction. Unfortunately, his face got all still, like he’d brought down a mask over it that refused to let through any emotion. “Cool, cool, cool,” he said. “You’ll make a great Raja, Lal. Plus, I can’t wait to get rid of the responsibility.”
“No surprise there,” said Lal, more teasing than mean, but I could tell the words hit his brother like a slap. Neel winced a little and turned around, busily putting away all the paddles and balls.
As I was trying to figure out what to say to take down the tension in the room, Tuni squawked, “Hey, Princess, what did Delaware?”