It took her a long time. In her mind, Deedee had to keep saying the alphabet forward, in order to figure out the next backward letter.
She could hear footsteps coming closer, and then Maurecia came up alongside her.
“What are you stopping for?” Maurecia asked.
Deedee looked around. The woman with the long fingernail was gone. “C, B A!” she finished, just in case.
Deedee and Maurecia continued up together, reaching the twentieth floor at the same time. The mustache man was back again.
“How many toes does a three-toed sloth have?” he asked.
That had to be the easiest question yet, thought Deedee. “Three,” she said.
“Twelve,” said Maurecia.
Deedee was sent back down to the fifteenth floor.
Now she really had to turn on the jets. She leaped around and over the other kids on her way down, and then, using her uneven legs, she practically flew back up the stairs, as she answered all the questions correctly.
She shot past Maurecia between the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth floors, answered a question about the different kinds of dirt, and then finally reached the top of the stairs where Mrs. Jewls was waiting.
“How many points on a fork?” Mrs. Jewls asked.
“I already had that question,” Deedee said as she took several long deep breaths. Her heart was pounding.
“Good, then you know the answer.”
Once again, Deedee tried to picture a fork in her mind. It was either three or four.
“Twelve!” she declared, still confused about the sloth, with its three toes and four feet.
She trudged back down.
“Hi, Deedee,” said Maurecia on her way up.
Deedee didn’t say hi back.
After school, only three of the Unbreakables could be seen by the flagpole.
Maurecia was still inside the school. Photographers were snapping her picture, and she was being questioned by newspaper reporters from all around the world.
When she finally came outside, she was carrying a giant trophy.
“Sorry I took so long,” she said.
“You must think you’re really great,” said Joy.
Maurecia shrugged.
“Well, you should!” said Ron.
“Because you are!” said Deedee.
Maurecia set down her trophy and said, “You guys are the greatest friends ever!”
They held out their hands, locked pinkies and thumbs, and shouted, “Unbreakable!”
Friends stick by each other when one is down. That is a true test of friendship.