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12:07 PM
LUNCH MEAT
"Okay, guys," Dess said "There&039;s soood news and some bad news"
The others looked at her tiredly, already shell-shocked frolad she&039;d waited until all five of the this twice
Dess found it oddly co here at the old corner table, the one farthest from the here she and Rex and the Vile One had always eaten together, back before Melissa had revealed her totally evil side The lunchroo around the for prime table space, unaware of the major trouble that was on its way
Rex, of course, spoke up first "Okay What&039;s the bad news?"
Dess shook her head "Sorry, Rex But it&039;s one of those things where the good news has to come first Otherwise there&039;s no punch line"
"Come on, Dess," Jessica said "This is serious Don&039;t you think this is serious?"
"Good question" Dess stared down at her pile of extreh calculations On the one hand, all their information had come from Constanza Grayfoot, which made it inherently suspect Her instant TV-star status had sounded more like a psycho-cheerleader wet dream than a prophecy of the end tied to undo thousands of years of hter rule in Bixby had also produced Constanza
But as the girl&039;s revelations in study hall had gotten weirder and weirder, Dess had stopped srim
The four of them stared at her expectantly, but she just waited That was the good thing about being the one who actually did the math Other people had to play by your rules
Finally Jessica sighed "Okay, Dess What&039;s the good news?"
Dess allowed herself a victorious soing to end"
That got a reaction Rex raised both eyebrows, and Jonathanfor five whole seconds Jessica was already freaking out, of course, but her expression angsted up a notch And Melissa Well, the bitch goddess looked like she always did at lunch: a bit pained by all the h she was supposedly in control these days
"Of course, the math isn&039;t 100 percent sure at this point," Dess admitted
"So wait," Rex said "What&039;s the bad news, then?"
"The bad news is that Bixby County, including the whole area of the blue ti chunk of Broken Arrow and probably Tulsa, and possibly the top half of Oklaho from Wichita to Dallas to Little Rock while we&039;re at it - et sucked into the blue ti a rush of relief now that the procla the first astrono dinosaur-extermination-sized asteroids on its way toward Earth Sure, this wasDess personally, but at least she got to announce it Doing the calculations always gave Dess a feeling of control After all, it was better to be one of the astronomers headed for the hills than, say, one of the dinosaurs
"And you just found this out," Rex said slowly, "in study hall?"
"The library is a wonderful place to learn new things, Rex"
"It was Constanza," Jessica said
"You got this from that cheerleader?" Jonathan snorted "Well, that ave hirandfather - who&039;s definitely not a cheerleader - knows so?" Rex said "But they don&039;t even live in Bixby"
"That&039;s the point, Rex" Dess spread her hands "Re? Well, it looks like Broken Arrow isn&039;t far enough away fro out, running away, heading for the hills Got it?"
Rex paused for a "
"And how far away is the old guy going?" Dess continued "Tulsa? Nope Oklahoma City? Sorry, too close What about Houston, oilman&039;s paradise? Five hundred h, apparently Because he&039;s taking hiranddaughter, all the way to California"
"Yeah," Jessica added "And there&039;s not much oil business in LA"
Dess leaned back and crossed her ar for their tiny little brains to catch up She wished she had a map to show them When astrono clobbered, they always had those fancy computer simulations to make the disaster come to life, or at least a whiteboard
"But how does he know anything?" Flyboy asked, his jaws still working on a peanut butter sandwich "Anathea&039;s dead There&039;s no other halfling to translate for thes, aren&039;t they?"
"Exactly," Rex said "And probably that&039;s why Grandpa&039;s freaking out Maybe since the darklings have stopped answering his es, he believes those words we left for him: YOU&039;RE NEXT"
Jessica shot Dess a puzzled look Apparently she hadn&039;t thought of that one
Dess had, though "I ads, Rex You made sure of that But he&039;s not just nervous; he&039;s working on a schedule"
"A schedule?" Rex leaned forward "How do you mean?"
"Okay: history lesson" She leaned forward, addressing Rex directly "Grandpa Grayfoot kicked Constanza&039;s parents out of the clan when they ht?"
"Because he knew about mindcasters," Melissa said "He didn&039;t want anyone in the family business here, where we could rip their h Dess "Lovely choice of words, Melissa But basically, yeah So maybe he doesn&039;t care what happens to her parents because they disobeyed the no-Bixby rule"
"But Constanza&039;s still his favorite granddaughter," Jessica said
"Mystifyingly," Dess muttered
"She&039;s really nice," Jessica said defensively "And it&039;s true, he really likes her He buys her tons of clothes"
Melissa nodded "We&039;ve seen the closets"
"Lucky you," Dess said "But closets full of tacky clothes are nothing co her with now He&039;s invited her to co to be a TV star But there are two catches One: she can&039;t tell her parents about it"
A guilty look crossed Jessica&039;s face "Actually, she wasn&039;t supposed to tell anyone at all"
"Yeah" Dess chuckled "GoodConstanza to keep a secret It would&039;ve been srab her Worked on Rex, after all"
"Like I said, he thinks the darklings are co after his family," Rex said "But that doesn&039;t prove the world&039;s ending"
Dess shook her head "No, it doesn&039;t Which brings us to catch nuet her butt out to Hollywood by the end of the &039;s off&039; And Grandpa&039;sthe rest of his clan out there in teeks - fros can&039;t reach Not yet anyway"
She let that sink in for a row around the stor?" Rex said "There&039;s no halfling to tell him"
"Maybe he already knew," Melissa said suddenly She squinted, chewing her lip "The oldest darklings did"
Rex shook his head, still unconvinced Dess realized what the proble he didn&039;t
Jessica spoke up "It&039;s so sad Constanza thinks that she&039;s going to an audition and that she&039;ll get an agent and acting lessons and stuff But she&039;s leaving her parents behind forever"
"She&039;s one of the lucky ones," Dess said "At least she&039;ll be out of town before October 31"
"Hey," Flyboy said "That&039;s Halloween!"
"Uht of that It&039;s kind of interesting, but it&039;s not nu about Halloween in the lore?"
"Of course not" He shrugged "There was no Halloween in Oklahoo"
Dess nodded "Fine, enough with history Here&039;s the math: when you boil it into nu deal at first I et three hundred-ten when you multiply No relevant numbers there But in the old days October wasn&039;t the tenth on, with eight sides?" They all looked at her blank-faced, and Dess suppressed a groan Next tiuys Eighth ht plus thirty-one is?"