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“Did someone say alligators?”

Pia and Danya both looked up to see a man standing at the end of the aisle. He was short and old, with fuzzy gray hair and an actual eye patch over one eye. Danya's own eyes widened at the sight of the patch, and she looked him over, taking in his black vest, striped shirt, and bright red scarf. She looked down at his legs and actually gasped—his pant legs were rolled up, revealing two wooden peg legs. He looked like he walked out of the Pirate's Booty restaurant. Danya turned to Pia, almost expecting her to ask the pirate if her was afraid of the darrrrrk.

“Wow,” Pia said. “You're a real pirate, aren't you?” The pirate looked over at Pia and winked with his good eye, holding out a hand for her to shake.

“The name's Petey,” he said “Been working with the gators here for nearly twenty years.”

Petey narrowed his eye, considering the girls carefully. “Say, you two look mighty familiar. You come here often?”

Danya's stomach dropped.

“We're reality television stars,” Pia broke in before Danya could figure out what to say. “We're on that show
Square Dance Idol
.
You've heard of it, right?”

“You know, I sold my TV awhile back. Must've seen y'all on a billboard or something. Now is my hearin' goin' or did one a' you gals say you wanted to meet a real live gator?”

“Ooh! I did,” Pia said. Petey winked again (or maybe it was a tic? Danya couldn't be sure; he seemed to wink every few minutes). He spun in place and hobbled down the aisle.

“Reality television stars?” Danya hissed at Pia.

Pia smiled wide, showing off the missing space in her teeth. “Cool, right? I've been wanting to use that one for a while now. Come on.”

Danya opened her mouth to mention her hiding idea again, but Pia grabbed her arm and pulled her along after him before she could say a word.

Petey led the two girls through the rest of Gatorville, past a merry-go-round filled with alligators and crocodiles wearing funny hats and around Gator Splash!—a ride consisting of dozens of twisty waterslides that let out into a huge pool. The girls dodged crowds of people holding alligator-shaped souvenir cups and had to hurry to keep up with Petey as a parade of actors dressed in reptile costumes marched behind them.

“This place
rules
!” Pia exclaimed, turning in place as she tried to take it all in. “When I grow up, I want to live here.”

Danya shrugged. She could see what Pia meant—the place was pretty cool—but she couldn't keep herself from glancing over her shoulder every other minute, certain Violet and her mother had found them after all. Sweat gathered at her hairline, and she wiped it away with the back of her hand. Had it been this hot the entire time they'd been traveling? For some reason it seemed worse now. . . .

“You ain't seen nothing yet,” Petey exclaimed. “This is my favorite part!” He led them into a building and showed them the alligators' cages and where they got fed, explaining how the specifically designed lights lining their tanks kept them warm and cool at all the right times.

Finally, he took them out back, to a giant arena lined by rows and rows of cracked, plastic seats. The arena had a four-foot fence surrounding it. Danya felt her heart give a little leap, and for a split second she stopped worrying about how much time they were losing or whether Violet and her mother had caught up to them. This place was so cool! She walked over to the fence and wrapped her hands around the chain links, searching the arena for something exciting. Were they going to see a real alligator perform?

“Whoa there, little lady. Might want to take a step away from that fence. The show'll be startin' soon. . . .”

Danya nodded, but before she could step away, she caught sight of something in the middle of the arena, glinting. Something gold.

“Do you see that?” Pia said in a whisper, coming up behind Danya. Danya swallowed, studying her cousin nervously. Pia had that look in her eye. It was the same look she got right before she decided to climb up to the roof to test out her theory that a vacuum would work as a hovercraft.

“Pia,” Danya said carefully, “I don't think—”

“I think that's gold . . .” Pia interrupted her. Her eyes lit up like two matches. “And we need gold. For Sancho.”

Before Danya could say another word, Pia scrambled up the side of the fence and dropped into the arena. Her long legs were a blur as she raced toward the sparkling object in the center of the arena.

She dropped to her knees in the middle of the arena and began to dig. Swallowing, Danya glanced at the audience gathered around them. People in the stands leapt to their feet, yelling and shouting for Pia to get out. What had Pia been
thinking
? Someone was sure to recognize her crazy hair and long, gangly limbs now! Besides, the show was going to start soon, and if Pia didn't get back here, they'd be caught or worse—Pia would be trapped in the arena with a bunch of alligators.

A security guard made his way over, and, unsure of what else to do, Danya pulled herself over the side of the fence and started to run. Maybe she could get to Pia and they could outrace the guard before one of the audience members told him who they were—that is, if the guard didn't know already.

Pia enclosed her fingers around something and pulled it from the dirt just as Danya reached her and yanked her to her feet. Danya glanced back over her shoulder, but the security guard froze at the side of the arena. Danya swallowed. That couldn't be a good sign.

“Pia,
hurry
, we need to—”

“Look at this!” Pia said, holding something up. “Isn't it just—oh.”

Danya looked down at the object in her cousin's hands: a chocolate sheriff's badge covered in shiny golden tinfoil.

“I thought it was real gold,” Pia mumbled just as a space in the dirt slid open, revealing a secret trapdoor on the other side of the arena. Danya's heart thudded in her chest, and for a moment she forgot about Violet and the security guard and the crowd of people who surely recognized them from
Runaway Watch
. Through her fear she could only think one thing:
What's in
there?

For a long moment nothing happened. Then an alligator crawled out of the hole, whipping its long, rough tail. The green scales were dull, and the sound of its snapping jaws echoed over the arena. Danya's heart dropped as the gator wriggled across the dirt, moving faster than she thought possible on those stubby legs. The crowd in the stands let out a collective gasp.

“We . . . we've got to go,” Pia said, huddling close to Danya. The sound of Pia's voice made goose bumps crawl up Danya's arms. Pia sounded scared. Danya didn't think she'd ever heard her cousin sound that way before.

“Maybe it won't . . .” Danya started to say, but before she could finish her sentence, the alligator whipped around and its beady, black eyes found the two girls.

“See us,” Danya finished. Fear flooded her chest as the alligator started toward them.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The Alligators, the Fight, and the Escape

T
he alligator sped
toward Danya and Pia, its tail cracking behind it like a great, scaly whip. Its clawed feet kicked up dirt in the arena, filling the air around Danya and Pia with thick clouds of dust. It chomped as it moved, its jaws making wet clomping sounds that left Danya feeling ill. She stumbled backward, knocking into Pia. To her surprise, her fearless cousin was trembling.

“What do we do?” Pia hissed. Before Danya could answer, Petey leapt over the side of the four-foot fence and raced between the girls and the alligator, his peg legs leaving pockmarks in the dirt. He plopped down on the head of the gator, forcing its teeth shut with a snap.

“You little ladies should get out of here,” he shouted as the gator wriggled beneath him.

Just then, the gator pulled one of Petey's peg legs off and crushed it to splinters between its teeth.

“I think he needs our help!” Danya said, unable to pull her eyes away from Petey. He laughed at the alligator, but she could see the fear in his eyes.

“How's that taste?!” Petey said as the gator chomped his peg leg to pieces. “There's more where that came from—got a whole closet full of peg legs at home.”

“You need to grab its jaw and clamp it shut,” Pia yelled at Petey as they backed away toward the fence. She fumbled around inside her bag and pulled out a banana.

“Use your arms,” Danya added, trying to be helpful. Pia hurled the banana with a grunt. The alligator wriggling beneath Petey caught the fruit in midair and swallowed it with a chomp. “I saw on Animal Planet that the muscles to open their jaws are really weak and—”

“You girls need to get out of here!” Petey called again. “It isn't safe.”

The alligator was starting to pull free. Petey grabbed one of its stubby legs and flipped it onto its back.

“Take that!” Pia yelled. She pulled a croissant out of her bag and hurled it at the alligator's head.

“You can't fight an alligator with pastries!” Danya shouted.

Pia just shrugged. “Why not? They're hard as rocks.” She fumbled through her backpack and finally held up the glittery pink jump rope from the boat's lost and found. “Petey, use this!” she yelled, tossing the jump rope over to him.

“Tie its mouth,” Danya yelled. Petey fumbled one-handed for the rope and wrapped it around the gator's jaws. “Its mouth is the worst part.”

“I think he's good.” Petey stood, hobbling around on one leg as he wiped his hands on his jeans. The alligator tried to open its mouth, but the jump rope held tied. The moment he straightened, a sound like the roar of an ocean wave washed over all three of them. . . .

It was the audience. They were going wild! They were on their feet, shouting and hooting, clapping so enthusiastically Danya actually took a step backward, like she was worried the force of their applause would knock her down.

“Wow,” she said.

“Impressive, ladies.” Petey hopped over to the girls on the single peg leg still attached to his body. “I should be offering you my job.”

“Wouldn't say no to that,” Pia said, grinning. “And that's number eleven on the list—face a personal demon. . . . Snap? Hey, Snap, are you listening to me?”

Danya wasn't listening. Cold dread clogged her throat as she watched the audience leap to their feet, clapping and cheering. With all of those people watching them, someone was sure to recognize her and Pia from
Runaway Watch
! In fact, she suspected someone had already called the cops and told them where to find them. This was a disaster.

Almost as soon as that thought entered her head, Danya spotted someone in the audience—Violet! There was no sign of her mother, but Violet was shoving past cheering audience members as she tried to make her way to the arena, her red-framed glasses glinting in the sun. Danya grabbed Pia's arm.

“Pia . . .” Danya said. “Violet's here! We have to go. Like, now!”

“We can't go,” Pia insisted. “Petey just offered us a job.”

Danya blinked. “Wait, what? You can't take a job!”

“Why wouldn't I? It could be fun!”

From the corner of her eye, Danya saw Violet moving closer. “Come on!” she hissed, and yanked Pia toward the edge of the arena.

“Hey, watch it,” Pia muttered. “I'm coming, I'm coming.”

The two girls scrambled back over the side of the arena as the audience rushed in around them, snapping photographs and shoving scraps of paper into their faces for autographs.

“Runaways!”
Danya thought she heard someone say. Then, “Call the police. . . .”

“Pia,” Danya hissed. “Let's go!”

Pia was busy smiling at her fans, signing autographs, and posing for photos, but when Danya grabbed her arm, she rolled her eyes.

“All right! I said I was coming.”

“Where y'all going!” Petey called, hopping after them. “I'll be in my office if you change your mind! It's just down by . . .” The crowd's cheers grew louder, drowning out the sound of his voice.

“Wait!” another voice yelled. Danya glanced up in time to see the very tip of Violet's floppy sun hat shoving its way through the crowd toward them.

Ducking away from the crowd, Danya pulled Pia beneath the bleachers, where the two of them could catch their breath. It was dark under there, and the ground was covered in discarded soda cups, sticky wads of watermelon-flavored gum, and a thick film of gooey
something
Danya couldn't identify.

Danya nudged a discarded fish-shaped mask with the toe of her sneaker. “Maybe we should grab the mask? We could, like, use it to hide our identities. . . .”

Pia wrinkled her nose, and Danya thought her skin actually turned a little green. “You aren't seriously thinking of putting that on your face, are you?”

Danya swallowed, staring down at the mask. There was something brown crusted over the side, and the other half of the fish had been eaten off by mice. Pia was right—there was no way that was touching her face.

The two girls crept forward, bent low so they wouldn't knock their heads against the bottoms of the bleachers. Danya didn't think Violet had seen them hide, but she had no way to be sure. When she and Pia reached the end of the bleachers, she hesitated.

“Why did you stop?” Pia asked. “I thought we had to keep moving.”

“We do, but . . .” Danya swallowed. Just across the walkway leading to the arena was the ticket booth, with a rickety sign out front reading
GATORVILLE! $8 SHOW TICKETS! $10 FOR REAL BITE!
It looked deserted enough, but Danya had no way of knowing whether someone from the audience would wander around to this side of the bleachers and spot them. She didn't know if they could chance it.

Behind the booth was a tiny wooden shed—the perfect hiding place. But Danya and Pia had to make it across the walkway without Violet or anyone else seeing them first.

“Okay,” Danya said, letting out a whoosh of breath. “We run for the shed on three. One . . .”

“Three!” Pia squealed. Then she grabbed Danya's arm and yanked her out from under the bleachers.