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9:03 AM

BLUE MONDAY

Midnight gravity flowed into Jessica

She clenched Jonathan&039;s hand harder "What the?" Her voice trailed off into the sudden and overwhel as her eyes scanned the frozen pep rally

Everything was blue

The shiny Lycra uniforms of the football team, the Bixby town seal in the center of the basketball court, the motionless tendrils of a pom-poht And everything was perfectly still

"Jonathan?" Jessica looked into his face, hoping to catch solimmer of comprehension Maybe this had happened before here in Bixby, a weird hiccup of the blue tiotten to tell her about it

Jonathan didn&039;t answer His eyes ith shock

"This is ripped the edge of the bleacher she sat on, felt the grainy reality of the wood This was not a dreaht , looking strangely isolated a the frozen human forms

His paralysis suddenly broken, Jonathan let out a cry and sprang out of his seat Jessica instinctively clung to his hand, and as he left his feet, he pulled her softly into the air after hiht as feathers

"Jonathan!"

"What the hell?" His voice faded as ravity carried the around each other like two balls on a string "Is this really?"

"Yeah, really happening," Jessicahis hand still harder The floor looked y down fro

As their flight peaked and they began to descend, reflexes honed by countless hours of flying together kicked in Jonathan twisted to bring their spin to a halt, and as they settled back onto the gyht on the Bixby seal, as if they&039;d been ai

She looked back up at the bleachers and sed The frozen croere all staring right at her and Jonathan It reht in a play she hadn&039;t rehearsed, thefor her first line It was stunning to see so ht Their faces axy and pale, their eyes lifeless, like an army of plastic dummies

"Never seen this many stiffs before" Melissa&039;s soft words carried across the gyhts

"Outside, quick!" Rex called He was running down the bleachers, ju over the frozen bodies like hurdles Dess and Melissa followed hi lot

Jessica looked at Jonathan, who shrugged "Might as well see what&039;s in the sky," he said

"Oh, right" If this werethe world in its cold blue light

But this wasn&039;tpep rally, which was just about as far away froet

"Coether, covering the distance to the door in one easy leap, landing just as Rex got there The three of the up at the sky

Behind a few frozen and wispy clouds, the dark e and fully risen Its vast bulk see out the whole sky except for a thin sliver around the horizon, hiding the sun A fehite stars glittered at its edges, their light dulled, as if they were being squashed down against the earth by the huge ht

Suddenly Jessica needed the feel of solid ground under her feet She slipped her fingers froravity fall back across her Dizzied by the weird, absent light of the moon, she dropped her eyes down to the asphalt

Its cracked surface shone uncanny blue

Dess and Melissa charged through the door, staggering to a halt as they stared upward

"This can&039;t be happening," Rexat her own blue hand "But it kind of is"

For a long moment they all stood there in silence Jonathan pushed off fro a few feet into the air

Jessica checked her watch The nu a noric kept its electronic nu

How many minutes had it lasted so far? Two?

"The ," Rex said

"Isn&039;t what?" Dess asked

His skyward gaze stayed steady, his eyes flashing violet "It&039;s just stuck up there, halfway across"

"How can you tell?" Jessica asked, glancing up at the huge, baleful eye above them The darkonly an hour to rise and fall, but it was still like watching a minute hand move on a clock "Isn&039;t it sort of too slow to see?"

"For you, ht" Jessica glanced at Jonathan, who shrugged back at her These days it was easy to forget that Rex was gifted with special sight and deep knowledge of the lore The transformation out in the desert had left hiaze was so freaked out and wild-eyed that he seemed more like a stoner than a seer

"So the moon didn&039;t rise?" Dess asked "It just appeared out of nowhere?"

"Or it rose really quick" Rex glanced at his oatch; on a hter&039;s wrist, windups worked in the blue hour "We got out here in less than threedeal what the ?" Jessica asked quietly "I mean, isn&039;t this all completely screwed up anyway?"

"The moon ain as he answered her, staring at the sky with a frown "If it&039;s notthis will last"

"Oh" Jessica glanced at Jonathan, who had jumped to the top of a school bus to look around "Um, then maybe"

"Spot the problem, Rex," Dess said "Let&039;s do some math: zero velocity multiplied by any amount of time equals zero movement What if the moon&039;s just stuck up there?"

"Stuck?" Jessica said softly "Like, forever?"

"I didn&039;t say forever" Rex dropped his eyes fro is crazy, Rex!" Dess cried "It&039;s not ht, except in Australia or so, Rex?" Jonathan said as he bounded softly back to the group

Rex raised his hands "Look, there&039;s nothing like this in the lore" His voice stayed cal , stunned by his words Jessica realized that her jaw had dropped open After all, that&039;s what you did when things got weird: you asked Rex as going on

With a cool seer&039;s gaze, he stared silently back at them for a moment, then sive Melissa some head space" He turned to the mindcaster "Can you feel Madeleine?"

"No, she&039;s staying hidden But I bet you she&039;s just as freaked out as we are"

"What about the darklings? Are they awake?"

Melissa stood in silence for aher mind across the desert

Jessica looked around at the others It had been a while since the five of theht on the salt flats when everything had gone haywire - Rex kidnapped, Melissa thrown through the windshield of her car, and Dess

Dess seemed the worst for it She ate lunch with Jessica and Jonathan or alone these days - never with Rex and Melissa She hadn&039;t forgiven the ht

Not that Jessica could bla freaked out by his transfor And the scars on Melissa&039;s face from her accident still carried pink stitches

But everyone see seer who&039;d been turned into a halfling back in the old days, had died that night Which was a lot worse than anything that had happened to the rest of thehters interact, she felt like wearing a T-shirt with big letters on the front: GET OVER IT

"They&039;re awake, all right," Melissa said slowly "I&039;uys can&039;t hear thelanced over his shoulder toward the badlands "Youthis way?"

Jessica reached for Disintegrator in her pocket, but it wasn&039;t there; she&039;d never expected to need the flashlight during the day She had only Acariciandote, the bracelet Jonathan had given her She reached to touch it, feeling the thirteen tiny char frointo the pained expression she henever too many people were around

"Melissa," Rex asked, "what do you , raising a ruckus"

"As in afraid?"

Melissa shook her head "No As in celebrating"

Jessica&039;s watch said 9:17 aun The , as if ti

How could she even be sure if her watch orking right or not? It felt like they&039;d all been standing out there in the parking lot for hours

"Get down frohed Jonathan was still on the roof of the school

"I thought you said this could go on forever," he shouted down

"Yeah, or it could end any second!"

"Nah, ht only cohed and took an arcing hop up to the top of the gym Froht hold soh he was and sed But she knew yelling at Jonathan was pointless He always flew until the last htlessness; it hadn&039;t taken hi to convince himself that this unexpected blue time would last a solid hour For Jonathan this wasn&039;t a terrifyingof dessert, an extra recess, a free period spicing up an otherwise crappy Monday

Jessica wanted to screa stupid, but if she sided with Rex in front of everyone else, Jonathan would probably stay up there until the world ended

Unless, of course, it already had

"Come on, Jonathan," Melissa called up to hiet hurt"

Jonathan frowned at her, but a e and floated down

Jessica glanced sidelong at Melissa The mindcaster had sounded so concerned, and Jonathan was listening to her This was definitely too

But at least Jonathan was safely on the ground again She crossed the parking lot to grab hold of his jacket

"Sorry," he said when he saw her expression "But it seeet killed"

"But what if this really does last a long time?" He frowned "Or forever"

She took his hand, but the feeling of hisinto Jessica didn&039;t help her mood It would be just like the world to end on a Monday, especially this Monday, the day she was theoretically going to becorounded