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“Someone will hear you!” Danya whispered to her. “Hold still.”

“Can't help it,” Pia mumbled back. “I feel like I'm in a jail cell.”

Danya waited until they hadn't heard the men's groans or footsteps for five whole minutes before she released Pia's foot.

“Finally,” Pia grumbled. She threw open the lid and crawled out. “I thought we were going to be in there forever.”

“We need to find Sancho,” Danya said, crawling out herself. She wasn't as tall or bony as Pia, so it hadn't been so uncomfortable for her to curl up inside the trunk, but her neck was still a little sore. She stretched as she wandered around the dark luggage area, looking for Sancho. Pia stood on her tiptoes to peer through a circular window.

“Hey—we're moving!” she said.

Danya's chest clenched, but then she saw Sancho's trunk sitting beneath a pile of duffel bags and relaxed. She hurried over to the trunk and pushed it open. Sancho's head popped up, a pair of men's flannel boxers sitting over one ear.

“How you doing, buddy?” Danya asked, tickling him beneath his chin. He shook his head, sending the boxers flying.

“Come on,” Pia said, crouching next to her. “We need to get to the East Wing so we're out of sight of the other passengers.”

The girls helped Sancho out of the suitcase, then hurried to the exit. There were two staircases—one twisting off to the left and the other going right. The right-handed staircase had a thick rope strung across it, holding a sign reading
_{EAST WING: CLOSED FOR RENOVATION}
. Pia ducked beneath the rope, leading the way.

Violet was right—the East Wing was abandoned. Long, empty hallways stretched out before Danya and Pia and Sancho, carpeted in swirly red and gold patterns. Elaborate glass sconces lined the walls. They couldn't see the Gulf of Mexico from here, but Danya could feel the water moving beneath them, causing the ship to lurch and sway. Without thinking, she wrapped a protective arm around Sancho's neck.

“We should find a room,” Danya pointed out. “It's nearly dark.”

“Good thinking,” Pia said. The girls crept all the way down to the end of the hallway and pulled the door open. The room was huge—a suite. Circular windows overlooked the inky black sea, and at the foot of the queen-size bed was a towel folded up like a stingray, a pair of sunglasses perched where his eyes should be. Danya grinned at her reflection in the sunglasses, wondering how long the stingray had been sitting here.

“Cool!” Pia said, pulling open the mini-fridge. It was filled with jars of nuts, fruit, and sodas.

Sancho curled on the foot of the bed next to the stingray. Before drifting to sleep, he nudged the towel animal with his nose, like he wasn't sure if it was actually real.

While Sancho slept, Danya and Pia went out on the balcony. From there, they watched the cruise ship pull away from the dock in New Orleans.

“Here we go!” Pia shouted. She waved at the city lights as they grew smaller and smaller. Even Danya couldn't help feeling happier. They were finally really headed to Florida. This was actually going to work. They were going to make it to her grandmother's!

But just as quickly as the rush of happiness hit her, it ebbed away. Sure, it looked like they were going to make it to her grandmother's house—and now that they were on the abandoned wing of a cruise ship, no one would recognize them. But what did that mean? What if her grandmother decided not to help her after all? What if all of this had been for nothing?

Danya's fear stayed with her long after Pia pulled her back into the room, the shores of New Orleans far behind them.

The girls took turns showering. As Danya pulled on her very last clean T-shirt, she realized she'd need to be more careful in the coming days. She wouldn't want to meet her
abuelita
for the first time covered in mud from the river or in a goat-gnawed sweater. This T-shirt would have to last all the way to Florida.

The room had cable, so Pia insisted they stay up late watching television—but then promptly fell asleep on the bed, cuddled up next to Sancho and snoring softly. Flipping the television off, Danya grabbed a blanket and pillow and tried to make Pia comfortable. But Danya just wasn't tired. She couldn't stop the worries from circling her head. What if her grandmother didn't recognize her when she showed up on her doorstep? Or what if she recognized her but didn't care what happened to Sancho? What if she didn't even
live
there anymore?

As she stood, she noticed the Ferdinand and Dapple book lying open on the nightstand. Danya picked it up. It was open to the list of hero's tasks. The next item read:
Experience a profound shock
.

Sancho snorted and nudged Danya with his nose.

“Oh, hey buddy,” Danya said, rubbing him under his chin. “Didn't realize you were still awake.”

Sancho grunted and pawed at the bed with his hooves. Danya knew what that meant. He was getting cabin fever. Usually when he felt like this, Danya took him on a ride around the neighborhood. That didn't quite work on a boat.

“Come on,” Danya said. “I have an idea.”

Sancho leapt down from the bed, and Danya grabbed the Ferdinand and Dapple book and then, at the last minute, pulled a notebook and her lucky purple gel pen out of her backpack as well. She led Sancho out of the room and up to the top floor deck. The cool wind brushed against her cheek like a kiss. All around her was water—deep black nothingness stretching forever. The sky above her was dark and velvety and speckled with stars.

Danya let out a breath, feeling overwhelmed. She'd never imagined the world could be like this—magical and exhilarating, but also heartbreaking and scary. Just like something from a story.

Sancho came up next to her, nudging his head into the crook of her elbow. She looked down into his dark eyes and couldn't help chuckling a little.

“Do you need some attention?” she asked, scratching behind his ears. Sancho purred like a cat. “Oh, buddy, I didn't mean to ignore you. I've just been thinking.”

Sancho shook out his mane, and Danya took that as a cue to continue.

“I've always thought adventures were only for stories, you know? But this . . . this is starting to feel like an adventure. Life is starting to feel more and more like a story every day.”

Danya hesitated, trying to make sense of her complicated feelings. “The only problem is I don't know what kind of a story we're in yet. Amazing things have happened . . . but there have been a lot of scary things, too. Things I wish hadn't happened at all.” Danya sighed, thinking back to that afternoon and how scared her parents had sounded on the phone. “I'm hurting people I love, Sancho. I don't know what any of it means.”

For a long moment, Sancho was quiet. Then he chomped down on Danya's book with his front teeth.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Danya said as he pulled the book from her grip. She yanked it back out of Sancho's teeth, rubbing the drool from the pages.

And that's when she noticed it—the page Sancho had turned to was one of her favorite parts of the story. Ferdinand and Dapple has just defeated the evil bandit who'd stolen Ferdinand's aunt's cattle, and now they were lying together in a field, staring up at the stars, wondering how their lives were going to turn out. They were nervous about their future and frightened that the bandit would come back and seek revenge, but they were still able to enjoy the beauty of the stars.

Danya looked over at Sancho, surprised to find there were tears stinging in her eyes. This moment with Sancho was just like that. Ferdinand and Dapple's journey hadn't been easy, either. They'd faced evil, and they'd been scared, but they'd stayed together. Maybe, if she kept trying, Danya really could become a hero someday, too.

Swallowing hard, she closed the book and set it on the deck next to her feet, sliding her notebook and lucky pen out of her back pocket. Propping the notebook open, she wrapped an arm around Sancho's neck and looked back up at the stars, enjoying the wind on her face.

Maybe, just this once, real life could be better than some story
, she thought. Maybe that was her profound shock. Then she uncapped her pen and began to write for the first time since Jupiña died.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Fear and Personal Demons in Gatorville

T
he next morning,
Danya and Pia woke to find half-eaten candy wrappers and empty peanut canisters strewn around the floor. Across the room the mini-fridge door hung open, with Sancho's wiggly bottom sticking out of it.

“Sancho!” Danya sat up in bed. Sancho froze, then slowly eased out of the fridge. There was a candy bar wrapper stuck to his cheek and chocolate smeared across his long nose.

Pia leapt out of bed and checked inside the fridge. “Ugh, he ate
everything
,” she said.

Danya rubbed the sleep from her eyes. The first thing she saw was her writing notebook. It was on the floor, hidden beneath a pile of candy wrappers. She jumped out of bed and grabbed it, flipping open to the last page. Three or four pages had been ripped from the notebook, leaving behind only a smudge of chocolate on the last cover.

Last night, while looking out over the sea with Sancho, Danya wrote down all her strange thoughts, questions, and fears. She'd written about life and stories and what she thought it meant to be a hero. She even thought it was pretty good—probably one of the best things she'd ever written. And Sancho had
eaten
it.

Sancho crept across the room, his tail between his legs. Chocolate covered his hair, and he had a guilty look on his horsey face. Danya groaned, licked a finger, and wiped the chocolate from his fur. Sancho tried to nuzzle her hand, but Danya frowned and pulled away. She'd
liked
that story.

“What are we going to do for breakfast?” she said to Pia, tossing her ruined notebook in the garbage can next to the bed. Sancho harrumphed and plopped onto the floor, pouting.

Pia pulled on her sneakers without bothering to untie them, then opened their room door, peeking into the hall. “It's cool, Snap. Cruises like this always have huge buffets. I'll just sneak downstairs and grab us some pastries.”

“Someone might see you!” Danya said. Pia shrugged.

“And what are they going to do? Call the cops? We're in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.” Without another word, Pia slid out the door and padded down the hall.

While she waited for Pia to return with their food, Danya switched on the television and flicked through the channels. Her mattress wobbled as Sancho climbed onto the bed and curled up next to her. He put his pony head on her knee and snorted, but Danya slid off the bed and sat down in the nearest chair.

“I'm not ready to forgive you yet,” she grumbled. Sancho shook out his mane and swatted the bed with his tail. There wasn't much on TV, and Danya was just about to turn it off when she saw something that made her mouth drop open.

It was a photograph of her and Pia! Danya turned the volume up as loud as it would go, her fingers shaking.

“It's now day three of
Runaway Watch
here on channel three, and there's still no sign of Danya and Pia, the two wily eleven-year-old girls who've stolen the country's hearts since their disappearance last Sunday. . . .”

Before the newscaster could finish, the hotel door swung open. Danya leapt to her feet, the mattress wobbling beneath her legs. Someone must've seen the broadcast! Someone knew they were hiding on the boat! She grabbed the first thing she found as a weapon—the stingray-shaped towel—and held it over her head.

Pia stumbled into the room, Violet right behind her, holding her by the arm.

“I knew it!” she said. “I knew you'd take the hint and sneak onto the boat.” Violet pushed the door shut behind her, and her eyes went to the television across the room, which was still blasting the news report on Danya and Pia's disappearance.

“Shoot, I was hoping you wouldn't see that.” Violet dropped Pia's arm and plopped down on the edge of the bed.

“You knew we were the missing girls?” Danya asked.

Violet switched off the television. “Of course! This report is running on nearly every television on the boat. I've seen it like six times. I'm just glad you guys decided to sneak on board. I was worried you'd be too nervous to hide in the luggage.”

“You wanted us to sneak on?
Cool,
” Pia said, putting the pastries, a few juice boxes, some silverware, and plates of fruit down onto the breakfast table.

“Pia, this is not cool,” Danya interrupted, slowly lowering the stingray-shaped towel. “She knows about us. She could tell someone.”

“I'm not telling anyone anything,” Violet said. “Look, when I saw you guys in that restaurant, I just thought this was a good chance to get the scoop on the biggest story of the year. If you let me hang out with you for a while and answer a few of my questions, you can stay here as long as you like. Okay?”

Sancho nudged her with his nose, and finally, grudgingly, Danya scratched him behind the ears to show she'd forgiven him. “I don't know. If you post that stuff on the Internet, won't people come looking for us?”

“Yeah, you'd have to agree not to write anything until we got to her grandmother's house,” Pia said.

Violet pursed her lips, considering this.

“Deal,” she agreed, and she and Pia shook. Danya hopped off the bed and crossed over to the table of pastries, pulling the map out of her back pocket. She unfolded it and spread it over her lap. Violet came up behind and looked over her shoulder.

“The ship is docking in Florida, right . . . there,” Violet said, pointing to a spot on the map.

Danya was so excited that for a moment she forgot Violet was there.

“We're close, Pia! If we walk all day today and all day tomorrow and only stop to sleep for like an hour, we might be able to make it to my grandmother's house by . . .”

Violet pulled a notebook and pen from her back pocket. “That's twice you've mentioned your grandmother now. Is that where you're going, to visit her?”

Danya turned bright red. She'd have to be more careful about what she said! “Maybe,” she mumbled, taking a bite of a croissant to cover up her fumble.

“Don't forget, we have to face a personal demon,” Pia interrupted, picking at a bagel. “That's next on the list.”

Violet pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Wait, I don't understand. Why do you guys have to face something? And what list are you talking about?”

Pia tried to explain the hero's list while Danya pulled her orange juice box across the table and took a big gulp, turning this all over in her head.

“We should probably skip the personal demon thing,” she said when Pia was done. She counted the days back in her head and swallowed. “It's already Wednesday, and we're still so far away. . . .”

“No way!” Pia waved Danya's suggestion away. “You can't tell me you don't believe in this, Danya. Not after everything that's happened. All we have to do is battle one little demon.” Pia speared a piece of pineapple with her fork.

Danya folded the map up and stuck it in her back pocket. It sure did seem like things were happening out there that she couldn't quite explain. But they had a goal, and now that everyone was watching
Runaway Watch
, it was even more important that they stay under the radar. How did Pia not see that?

After another hour or so, Violet left, explaining that they'd be docking soon.

“We have to go, too,” Danya said as soon as Violet slipped out the door. Sancho nudged Danya's elbow in agreement.

The girls gathered their things and what was left of the pastries from breakfast. The bagels and croissants had all gotten hard and gross, but Danya was already hungry for lunch and didn't know when they'd be able to find food again, so she insisted they stuff them in their backpacks. Together they snuck down the hallway to the steps leading outside. There was a little alcove at the end of the corridor. On one wall was a door marked
OFFICE
and just past that was a long hallway, at the end of which a long line of people stood waiting to be let off the boat.

“We'll just hang back till they're all gone,” Pia said. She stopped by the office door, where there was a cardboard box labeled
LOST AND FOUND
. “Ooh, sparkly,” she said, pulling out a pink jump rope and a skateboard covered in band stickers. “Hey, Sancho, want a ride?”

Danya shushed her, frowning. Voices sounded on the other side of the office door.

“Violet!” Danya hissed to Pia, pointing to the door. She lifted a finger to her mouth, motioning to keep quiet.

“Mom, you don't understand,” Violet said behind the closed door. “I've already betrayed them.”

“
I
don't understand?” another older voice said angrily. “Violet, it sounds like you're telling me that those two missing girls are hiding on this ship!”

“Well, yeah, but look at this! Look at all this money.”

“She sold us out,” Pia hissed. Danya nodded, a lump rising in her throat. She couldn't believe Violet would do that. She'd thought she was trying to help them. “What money do you think she's talking about?”

“Our parents must be giving a reward to whoever turns us in,” Danya said, her voice cracking. Was this the
profound shock
? Her parents couldn't afford a reward. That was almost worse than Violet's betrayal.

“We've got to go. Now,” Danya said. But before the girls and Sancho could sneak into the hallway, the door shot open. Violet stood in the office holding a laptop, a tall woman with the same short-cropped black hair and glasses right behind her.

When she saw Danya and Pia, Violet's eyes became two wide circles. “No! You can't leave!”

“Violet, please calm down and call the police,” said her mother. “Girls, I'm going to need you to come with me.”

“Wanna bet?” Pia said. As Violet's mother headed toward them, Pia belly-flopped onto the skateboard and launched forward. Violet and her mother leapt out of the way as Pia went barreling down the hall past them. “Danya, Sancho, come on!”

Danya quickly climbed onto Sancho's back and pulled his ear. He tore down the hall after Pia, Violet and her mother stumbling after them.

“Danya, Pia, wait!” Violet called. But Danya and Pia were going too fast to slow down. Pia's skateboard shot toward the line of people, who, screaming, pushed to the sides of the hall to let her past. Pia leapt from the skateboard before it rolled off the ship and grabbed for Sancho's reins, tugging Danya and her pony off the ship and down the dock toward land.

Danya brought Sancho into a trot, Pia running beside them. The dock led from the
Sailing Swan
down to a half-empty parking lot. They turned a corner at the end of the lot, and walls loomed ahead of them. A green-and-white sign announced that they'd reached Gatorville.

“Let's go inside,” Pia yelled to Danya and Sancho. “It's our only choice!”

Danya glanced back over her shoulder at the ship. She didn't see Violet and her mother yet, but she knew they had to be just behind them. “Fine,” she told Pia. “Let's go.”

The entrance was shaped like the long, scaly mouth of an alligator, complete with jagged teeth and bloodred eyes. Just beyond the alligator head looped a huge roller coaster. Danya could hear the distant sound of children laughing and screaming. Sancho stopped walking and shook his head, taking several steps back.

“Come
on
,” Danya said, grabbing hold of Sancho's reins. She managed to pull the pony forward another few feet, but then Sancho dug his back hooves into the dirt and snorted, absolutely refusing to take another step forward.

“It's okay,” Danya said, sliding off his back. “He'll have to hide out here. We probably can't bring ponies inside anyway.”

The girls tied Sancho up near a small clearing of grass and dandelions, hidden from view by a thicket of trees. Sancho immediately started munching on the weeds, and when he turned his face up to watch Danya walk away, his whole muzzle was already yellow from the flowers.

The girls peeked out from behind the trees, but there was still no sign of Violet.

“Maybe we should just keep moving,” Danya whispered. “If they haven't caught up to us yet . . .”

“You think it's going to be hard for them to catch up to us on the road?” Pia said. “They'll expect us to keep moving. If we hide out here until they give up, we'll have a better chance. Come on.” Pia quickly paid their entrance fee, and together the girls crept beneath the rows of gator teeth.

Just inside Gatorville was a souvenir shop. Posters of alligators in swamps papered the walls. Danya ducked behind a stand of ceramic alligators and baseball caps designed to look like alligator heads.

“Maybe we should hide,” she said. Pia bounced down the aisle behind her.

“Nonsense! Let's start looking for actual alligators.” She stood on her tiptoes to see over the cases of souvenirs. “I wonder if there's a place where they let guests wrestle them. Do you think it costs any money?”