Read Online The Seventh Crystal by Gary Paulsen - Free Book Online Page A

his backpack through a jagged hole and started to climb through after it.
    “What’s the big hurry, Chris?”
    Chris had one leg through the hole in thefence. He looked up. Shawn had stepped from behind the oak tree and was standing over him, smirking. Chris pulled his leg back and turned to run.
    “Now, don’t do that.” Cliff had already swung around the fence and cut off Chris’s escape. “We have some business to take care of, remember?”
    Chris took a step backward. Cliff grabbed the front of his T-shirt and pushed him into the fence. “You better have something good for us after keeping us waiting all this time, shrimp.”
    “Look, guys,” Chris said, gulping, “I’m not carrying anything you’d want. My grandmother forgot to give me my lunch money. All I had for lunch was an apple left over from yesterday.”
    Shawn picked up Chris’s backpack and rummaged through it. “You know, Chris, it looks like you may be telling the truth this time.” The hulking boy turned the pack upside down and dumped Chris’s books and papers on the sidewalk. “But since we knowhow much you hate to disappoint us, we’ll just take this fine backpack your granny bought you.”
    Cliff laughed. He twisted the collar of Chris’s shirt even tighter. “Thanks, Chris.”
    “What’s going on here?”
    Chris felt Cliff release his grip. The bigger boy stepped back and put his hands innocently into his pockets.
    Chris wheeled around. He couldn’t believe his luck. Mr. Higgins had driven up beside them.
    Shawn knelt and started putting books back into Chris’s bag. “There’s nothing going on, Mr. Higgins. Chris here just dropped his backpack, and Cliff and I were being neighborly. You know, helping him pick up his stuff.”
    Mr. Higgins’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Is that right, Chris?”
    Chris nervously scratched the back of his neck. “That—That’s right. They were helping me.”
    Shawn handed him the backpack. “Here you go, Chris.” He slapped Chris hard on theback. “We like helping out our good friend Chris. Don’t we, Cliff?”
    Cliff nodded, and the two bullies sauntered down the sidewalk. Shawn looked back over his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Chris, we’ll always be around to
help
you.”
    Chris breathed a sigh of relief as he watched them leave. He picked up the rest of his papers and had started to cram them into his pack when he noticed that Mr. Higgins was still there watching him, waiting for an explanation.
    Chris gave the teacher a halfhearted smile, backed down the sidewalk a few feet, shrugged—and ran.

C HAPTER 3
    “I’m home, Grandma.” Chris dropped his backpack onto one of the kitchen chairs and took the lid off the cookie jar. It was full of freshly made chocolate chip cookies. He put one in his mouth and scooped up a handful to take to his room.
    From the living room he could hear the television blaring. His grandmother was watching her favorite soap opera. He decided not to bother her and instead went straight upstairs to get down to business.
    Business consisted of trying to find the secret path to the ancient palace in the Valley ofZon. He’d been working on this particular computer game for almost three days and had made it only as far as the River of Storms.
    It was unusual for Chris to have trouble with any video or computer game. Most of them were too easy for him. His mind just seemed to know what was going to happen before the computer made it occur.
    But this game was special. It had come in the mail three days ago with no return address and very few instructions. The first night he worked on it until two in the morning. The graphics looked so three-dimensional that when he turned it on, it almost seemed as if the people and places were real.
    The game opened with a medieval scene—a huge castle shrouded in fog. Then words scrolled up the screen, telling the mysterious legend of a beautiful princess with magical powers. This princess ruled her people well until a