Mr. Lemoncello's All-Star Breakout Game: Chapters 16–23

“Because my team is a real team. We’re all working together. Nobody’s in it for the gift cards.”
“Those are merely performance incentives,” said Charles defensively.

“No,” said Andrew, fidgeting with his snug gloves and headpiece, “we look like speed skaters who just got pelted with Ping-Pong balls.”

“For you, Andrew,” Charles said snidely, “that’s a vast improvement.”

Purple and yellow bunting was being draped wherever the set decorators could find a place to drape it.

Kyle noticed a booth on an elevated scaffold with two bright yellow director’s chairs stationed in front of a pair of TV cameras.

Charles Chiltington and his crew of eighth graders—the Bookworms—were already lurking in the lobby, standing right in front of the burbling statue of Mr. Lemoncello with his head tilted back so water could arc out of his mouth like he was winning a nonstop spitting contest.

“Pay no attention to these simpering seventh graders,” Charles told his teammates.

Overhead, the ten wedge-shaped ultrahigh-definition screens of the rotunda’s Wonder Dome were swirling with a flurry of famous book covers.

“And they keep changing,” added Andrew, staring up at the iridescent ceiling. “It’s making me dizzy.”

Dr. Zinchenko, dressed in a glamorous red-sequined gown, gracefully sashayed behind him.

“I’ll try it,” said Kyle, reaching out and grabbing what looked like a door handle created by the spine of a book jutting out just a few inches farther on the shelf than all the others.

“It’s just a gaping black void!”

“Behind this wall,” boomed Mr. Lemoncello, gesturing grandly, “is a labyrinth of rooms where stories come to life—and you become their main characters. In each scenario, you will be presented with a puzzle. Solve it, and you will break out of that room with a key that will unlock one of the five locks on your codex!”
“Our what?” said Charles.
“An ancient manuscript text in book form,” said his teammate Morgan Peden.

“From the Latin word codex, for ‘block of wood,’” added Ryan Capruso.
“Later denoting a block split into leaves or tablets for writing on,” said Mirabai Keshap.

“It wouldn’t be a game without a few devious devices and treacherous tricks, now would it?” said Mr. Lemoncello proudly.

Everywhere Kyle looked, he saw bustling TV crew people.

“You’re not with the paparazzi, right?”

Acting as nonchalant as he could, Kyle strode over to where Haley and her TV star teammates were hanging out.

He had a grip like a vise.

“Dude?” said Jaylen, who had a slow and easy drawl.

But deep down, he wondered if the two teams from the local middle school were like the team of unlucky stooges who always played against the undefeated Harlem Globetrotters.

Even though she was now a star and could afford to fly them all to Ohio, she had to be prudent with her finances.

On the nearest monitor, Haley watched Kai Kumar, the slapstick comedian who starred in Sludge Dodgers, warm up the crowd outside with a series of rapid-fire jokes and pratfalls.

On the nearest monitor, Haley watched Kai Kumar, the slapstick comedian who starred in Sludge Dodgers, warm up the crowd outside with a series of rapid-fire jokes and pratfalls.

Right on cue, gallons of chunky applesauce tumbled out of a giant vat and slimed Kai.

He bowed and made a grand show of locking and sealing the library’s heavy front door by twirling its shiny copper spindle—a wheel that looked like it could steer a steamship.

Kai Kumar, who had quick-changed into a dry T-shirt and jeans (the same clothes he always wore on Sludge Dodgers), came bounding in from his gig warming up the crowd outside the library.

And should your career in Hollywood falter, as, I fear, most do, we would be happy to have you and your family return to Ohio.

He gestured at a waist-high console that reminded Kyle of a miniature ATM on a swivel arm.

“You’ll fall down to the basement, where you will be rolled out to the emergency exit by the swelling sea of our undulating inflatable floor. It’s very safe. Like being in a bouncy house or surfing on a wave of whoopee cushions.”

The Wonder Dome became a kaleidoscopic prism of geometric shapes and colors.

Today, these three intrepid teams will be writing their own stories inside my revolutionary new Fictionasium as they try to break out of my library!

While Jimmy, the smooth-as-melting-butter announcer, crooned through the names of all the local contestants, the live feed cut to iconic images of the players superimposed over the cheering crowd out in the town square.

When Kyle’s name was announced, his whole family leapt to their feet to give him a standing ovation.

“Funnyman Kai Kumar! Sensational songstress Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Grande! Newcomer Haley Daley! The cooltastic dabbing dude himself, Jaylen Swell. And, of course, the dashing and daring Peyton McCallister!”

Clarence, his twin brother, Clement, and Dr. Zinchenko ceremoniously wheeled in a library cart carrying three locked codexes.

A camera operator with a handheld unit moved in to cover the action as Dr. Zinchenko presented each team captain with their elaborately decorated locked book.

The kid was brandishing a rolled-up newspaper with a sizzling fuse.

The plastic trash bags he wore as tights rustled and crinkled.

The comic-book hero pointed to a hologram of a digital spinner that materialized right in front of Sierra.