Chapter 7

Chapter 7 LOOKING FOR GROUP! FINDING TROUBLE! Jodi couldn't stop thinking about the portal. If the Evoker King had meant to scare her away, then he'd made a big mistake. Telling Jodi not to do something only made her want to do it more. She was practically shaking with excitement as she waited for the others to meet her at the computer lab. Harper was the first to arrive. "I'm sorry," she said. "I had to tell my mom about dropping my phone. I told her I can fix it, but she wants to

go to the store and have it fixed professionally." Po showed up just as Harper was leaving. "Emergency basketball practice!" he said. "I'll see you tomorrow. I'm already late!" Ash had a scout meeting. "I can't believe I forgot it," she said. "Well, I guess I can believe it. It was a weird day…."

Morgan's excuse was the strangest of all. "Detention?!" Jodi said. "What did you do to get detention?" Morgan blushed. "I decided to warn some kindergarteners about the enderman roaming the halls. The teacher thought I was teasing them!"

"This is very aggravating," Jodi said. "I'm beginning to think the Evoker King scared you all away." "We'll deal with the Evoker King tomorrow," he said. "I'll see you at home. Don't go into the game alone." And that was Morgan's big mistake. He shouldn't have told Jodi not to do something. At first, Jodi told herself she'd just play Creative mode for a while. She hadn't used the headsets for that yet. It would be nice to spend some time building without worrying about getting poisoned or set on fire. But she and her friends were always in need of more supplies. They could use more coal for torches and more feathers for arrows. She still had to replace her sword. And if she was totally honest, she was a little annoyed at the last-minute change of plans. This

wasn't the first time in recent memory that her friends had been too busy for her. "I'll just connect for a little bit," she said to herself. "Gather some resources. That'll make everybody happy!" Her avatar rose from the bed she'd left in the mineshaft. She left the bed there, along with the torch they'd placed on the wall. She knocked away the dirt they'd used to enclose the underground bedroom. She poked her head out. No vexes. No spiders. Just the tantalizing purple glow of that portal… "I'll just take a quick peek," she said. "Then I'll come right back here." She stepped up to the ring of obsidian. She reached toward the purple light. But she hesitated.

She thought she should leave something. Just in case. A trail of bread crumbs. Bread crumbs didn't exist in Minecraft, though. She scanned her inventory for something else. Seeds. She'd been gathering them for weeks. She'd been hoping to use them to tame a parrot. But they'd make a decent trail. "So much for a pet parrot," Jodi said. She