Kingdom Keepers VI(40)
“I’ve kissed her. Okay, Willa?”
“It was just okay?”
“Stop messing with me.” Finn peered over the edge at workers sitting on a plank suspended by ropes, washing the hull.
“I’m sure it was more than okay for Amanda. Same for Charlene.”
“What’s Charlie got to do with this?”
“Are you that blind?”
“She likes Maybeck.”
“You got that right. She likes Maybeck.”
“Get your head in the game,” he said.
“There’s one checkpoint, Finn. How difficult is it to watch one checkpoint?”
There was a moment of awkward silence.
“The silent treatment is killing Amanda,” Willa said. “You know that, don’t you?”
“That’s ridiculous. She’s barely even spoken to me lately.”
“What’s she supposed to say? ‘Hey, Finn, I’m crushing on you big-time, and the way you gawk at Storey and the way you treat me leaves me in tears and unable to sleep at night’? That?”
“Oh…come on!” Finn said.
Willa rolled her eyes at him. “Seriously? Get… a…clue.”
The Disney Channel mini-blimp passed over the ship for maybe the sixth time. Passengers waved up at it.
“Do they have any idea,” Finn said, “that it’s a drone? That it’s way too small to carry even a pilot?”
“They probably think it’s filming them,” Willa said, scoffing.
“Yeah, right. Boneheads.”
“You should say something,” Willa said. “To Amanda. And it should start with ‘I’m sorry.’”
“For what?”
“Take your pick. Hurting her feelings? Not speaking to her? Being a boy?”
“Good one.”
They stood there for a long while before Willa spoke again.
“What do you suppose it means if they get a computer on board?”
“That the OTs become impossible to stop. Or nearly impossible.”
“Because of 2.0.”
“Yes.”
“But if Amanda’s ‘pushing’ tires her out when she’s crossed over, doesn’t that mean Maleficent’s powers would tire her DHI out, too?”
“No. Pushing tires Amanda anytime. Don’t confuse that with Maleficent throwing spells. We need to accept that with Maleficent in 2.0, there’s basically nothing we can do to stop her.”
Willa hesitated before speaking. “You don’t suppose the Imagineers want the OTs getting hold of 2.0, do you? Like, what if they want to test how invincible or how vulnerable 2.0 makes you? It’s not like we’re going to attack each other, right? There’s really no way to test that side of the upgrade without giving us a 2.0 opponent.”
“Do not say that stuff.”
“I’m just wondering.”
“Wayne would never do that. We’re not guinea pigs.”
“Are you sure?”
A boy stepped up alongside Finn and leaned against the stern rail.
“There’s a Cast Member making the rounds that I don’t trust. He’ll be here any minute.”
Finn looked over at the boy.
“Dill!”
Dillard looked older and more serious than normal. He also looked thinner. A lot thinner. Maybe he’d been wearing baggy clothes the last time he’d seen him, but the change was drastic.
“You should get going.”
“It was you at the Sail-Away.”
Dillard smiled at Willa. “Hi. We met before.” He offered his hand, and the two shook.
“Yes,” Willa said.
“Wayne sent you,” Finn said.
“Wanda. As your guardian angel.”
“Alone?” Finn asked. Storey had already told him about Kenny and Bart; now he was beginning to see a pattern to Wayne’s bigger plan to protect his team of Keepers.
“Alone. Listen, the aft staircase is safe. Head over to the starboard side of the restaurant. The guy’s searching the port side.”
“Ah…”
“You can thank me later. I’ll stall him,” Dillard said. He left, heading for the restaurant. A moment later they heard a crash. Someone’s tray had spilled.
“We’d better get out of here,” Finn said.
SHOOTING A DISNEY CHANNEL 365 while on a moving ship containing three thousand passengers is a study in “controlled chaos.” In this case, the chaos was controlled by the film director, Andy Meyers. The handsome, dark-eyed man was joined by Jodi Bennett, the Disney Cruise Line executive, a kind-faced woman whose managerial and organizational skills rivaled those of an army general.
Andy won the attention of Charlene and Willa with “Hello.” This was the fourth Disney Channel 365 the Keepers had shot; Charlene and Willa both had barely disguised crushes on Andy.