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2:59 PM

MAJORETTE

"Don&039;t worry, I&039;ll take you over to Madeleine&039;s at uys have already talked about all the ihed and looked away, apparently tired of her whining

Jessica rubbed her ankle, which wasn&039;t helping her radually better all day, but it still twinged with pain The three of the on the school&039;s front steps Around the the school buses The laas dotted with clusters of people saying goodbye or arranging rides ho up for band practice drifted across the football field

Jessica, of course, aiting for her father to pick her up for a final night of being grounded

"You won&039;t be , Jess," Dess said

"Madeleine probably doesn&039;t know anythan we do I doubt this is a mindcaster issue"

"But she&039;s all old and stuff," Jessica said

"Yeah, but if anything like this ever happened before, it wasn&039;t fifty years ago More like five thousand, if Rex doesn&039;t know about it" Dess nodded slowly, rubbing her hands together "My guess is, this is a job for a polymath"

"But doesn&039;t she have all those memories in her head?" Jessica said "All that stuff passed on from mindcasters in the olden days?"

Dess see up the subject of mindcasters and memories Madeleine had alsoto keep her existence a secret fros

After an unco would be in the lore They wouldn&039;t just use ed "ButI can&039;t wait to ask her if that blue time was shaped funny"

"Shaped funny?"

Dess&039;s eyes lit up "Yeah, like, did it go all the way to the edge of Bixby County? Or was it sht? Like focused in soed "That&039;s just the way the blue time is: it has a shape"

Not for the first time, Jessica tried to wrap her head around that concept These days Dess talked about the ht hourwith- as usual - with her electronic gadget that spat out coordinates

To Jessica it seemed weird that the blue tie of the world the way people iined it before they realized it was round

"So, Dess," she said "What would happen if you went all the way to the edge of Bixby at o past the ht boundary? You wouldn&039;t or couldn&039;t Tiht would end as you took that step But if anotheryou, they&039;d see you freeze up for the rest of the hour, just out of reach"

Jessica&039;s head spun with that iht&039;s, like, a bubble around us?"

"You mean a sphere? Well, it&039;s luht on the border whenand half of you freeze up?"

"And then you&039;d slide into two pieces," Jonathan added "Like those guys in sahed "Why don&039;t you try it and tell me?"

"Here they co their unhurried way through the throng, their fingertips touching lightly, their expressions tranquil As usual these days, the crowd seenored the stares of the few fresh past thehed "I can see why you&039;re bu skanky tea and putting up with two"See you"

"Yeah, really," Jonathan said "You&039;re lucky to ave Jessica&039;s hand a squeeze and stood

"Yeah, so lucky," Jessica said "If only I could be grounded all the ti her lip and cursing her parents&039; calendar logic Didn&039;t they know she had rounded these days?

For the first time ever, her dad was late

He had faithfully picked up Jessica every day of her grounding, on the theory that left to ride the school bus, she would fall back into her criminal ways But Don Day&039;s car wasn&039;t anywhere to be seen a up their kids

Maybe after all the debate about exactly how long her grounding should last, he had gotten confused about whether it ended today or not

For this one with the olf ht days, which ht But her parents had cruelly opted for the calendar month, and as her father liked to repeat: "Thirty days hath September (April, June, and Noverounded tonight Jessica had been detained and returned to parental custody (technically not arrested) on a Saturday night So thirty days later should be a Monday night, to any sane person But both her parents had raised the technical point that she&039;d been brought houn until Sunday night, which meant that it was Tuesday before her sentence would be served

Jessica had kept arguing until her dad had gotten angry and threatened to invoke the fact that ood conscience extend her grounding until Wednesday Even Mom had rolled her eyes at that one, but Jessica had finally realized she was beaten

She looked at her watch, which she&039;d reset to regular Bixby ti the eclipse Her bus would be leaving soon If she got on it and her father showed up looking for her later, he would go ballistic and ground her again Of course,her to walk ho up late

Unless she&039;d forgotten soe in plans Since the weird events of this ue All day she&039;d kept expecting tiain and blue amber to capture everyone around her Every lull in the noise of lunchtime had made her juht and other huood

Finally Jessica spotted the familiar car, Beth&039;s head visible in the front seat next to her father&039;s, and suddenly she remembered why he was late Beth had deh school on the other side of town so she wouldn&039;t have to walk hoht," Jess said, sain

She ran through the horde of cars, opened the door, and slid herself into the backseat

Beth whirled around "Not one word"

Jessica s in purple and gold"