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"Put solanced at herBeth a puzzled look with her sleepy eyes, the pot in one hand,in the other The coffeemaker let a last few drops fall onto its hot ry slithers as they boiled away

"Be polite, Beth," Mom finally said "Say &039;please&039; "

"I&039;ly polite" Jessica depressed the toaster&039;s handle and stared down into its double lowed red "For exa around when you&039;re not wanted"

"Yeah, and always on ti about?" theirher to go ahead and blab to their ht before, Jonathan, whatever she wanted It gave Jessica pleasure to think that no matter how much Beth snitched about, she didn&039;t know half of as really going on

And for thatin troubleshe knew could disappear at any ti - her whole reality sed by the darklings She definitely wasn&039;t going to let a little twerp like Beth push her around in the meantime

Besides, her boyfriend could fly Grounded was a relative state of affairs

She stared at Beth and thought, Go right ahead

"Nothing," Beth finally said "We&039;re just fooling around No big deal"

Their hed and looked at her watch "Okay, whatever I&039;ood day" She looked at Jessica and held up her cell phone "Callafter school, okay?"

"Sure, both of you No problem"

Beth&039;s toast popped up, and Jessica carried it to her little sister on a plate "Here you go"

"Thank you, Jess See, Mom? Totally polite"

"That&039;s nice, Beth &039;Bye, you two"

The sisters said goodbye, then waited silently as theironto her shoulder and walked, footsteps fading, to the end of the hall The door opened and closed

Jessica turned to her sister, as chewing toast thoughtfully "Thanks, I guess"

"For what?"

Jessica sed "Not telling Moed

"Like I said, Jess, I don&039;t want you in trouble I just want to find out what&039;s going on here in Bixby" She gave her older sister a sweet smile "And I will too one way or another"