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6

12:01 PM

JONATHAN

Jessica headed to lunch, a fist of nerves clenched in her stoain, just like that first day in trig Jessica could see why Dess didn&039;t haveto connect, the girl wouldobservation, as if she wanted to convince Jessica that she had psychic powers All Jessica had wanted was soonometry, not a course in the arcane ways of Bixby, Oklahohed as she ht about it, Dess wasn&039;t really all thatJessica away on purpose The befuddling twists and turns of her conversations were probablywith people&039;s heads was easier than getting to know and trust them Maybe she was afraid

But Dess never seemed afraid, only calm and confident However off the wall her lines were, she always delivered the way Dess talked as if she lived in an alien world with completely different rules, all of which made perfect sense to her

Which was another way of saying she was crazy

On the other hand, so to co to help her understand her nen or ht about the weird dream Of course, that didn&039;t necessarily make Dess a mind reader and didn&039;t mean the Bixby water supply had caused it A lot of people had funny dreams when they went new places Dess probably realized that Jessica was freaked out aboutand had decided it would be fun to freak her out a little bit more

It had worked

As Jess reached the lunchroo swept out of the open double doors, along with the roar of hundreds of voices Jessica&039;s step slowed as she crossed the threshold As the new girl, she still experienced a few seconds ofto offend new friends or get stuck with people she wasn&039;t sure about

For a moment Jessica al lunches for her Waiting in line for official Bixby High School slop would have given her h school lunches had been invented It certainly hadn&039;t been for their nutritional value Or their flavor

As her eyes scanned the room, the butterflies in Jessica&039;s stoht at her The girl h the Bixby High maze She sat at a table in a distant corner with two friends Like her, they wore all black Jess recognized the boy from the first day of school She reh for the first tiely clear; the i knocked off was cemented in her mind Jessica wondered why she hadn&039;t seen hiuy should have stood out at Bixby There&039;d been a lot of kids like him and Dess back in PS 141, but there were only three or four here It was too war

Unless, of course, you were "photophobic," if Dess had even been telling the truth about that

Now the boy was looking at Jessica too, as if he and Dess were both expecting her to join the off into space, headphones over her ears

Jessica looked around for soames today She looked for Constanza or Liz, but she couldn&039;t see theirls from the library table Her eyes searched for a fanized no one The horde of faces blurred together into a bewilderingroar of voices assaulting her from all sides Her moment of hesitation stretched out, suddenly transformed into total confusion

But so her closer to Dess&039;s table The girl and her friends were the only stable part of the room Instinct carried Jessica toward thenized a face out of the blur A very attractive face

"I&039;m Jonathan, froh the fog enveloping her His dark brown eyes were very much in focus

"Sure Jonathan Physics" She had noticed him in class Anyone would have

Jessica stood there, unable to say anythingtoward Dess&039;s table

A look of concern crossed his face "Want to sit down?"

"Yeah That would be great"

He led Jessica to an empty table, in the corner opposite Dess&039;s Her dizziness began to subside She gratefully du and lunch sack onto the table as she sat down

"You okay?" Jonathan asked

Jessica blinked The cafeteria was back to its norer a roller coaster Her disorientation had vanished as suddenly as it had arrived "Much better"

"You looked like you were going to take a spill"

"No, I Yeah, h week" Jessica wanted to add that she didn&039;t usually act like a zouys but soht words "I think I just need to eat"

"Me too"

Jonathan overturned his lunch bag, spilling its contents onto the table An apple rolled perilously close to the edge of the table, but he ignored it It stopped just before falling to the floor Jessica raised an eyebrow as she looked at his pile of food It included three sandwiches, a bag of chips, a banana, and a carton of yogurt in addition to the ard apple

Jonathan was thin as a rail A hungry rail He grabbed a sandwich from the pile, pulled off its plastic wrap, and tore into it

Jessica looked at her own lunch As always, Dad had gotten bored last night and created soround meat, chopped lettuce, and tomato all occupied their own corners of a multisection container A couple of hard taco shells were visible through the plastic of another The tacos were already broken Jess sighed and popped open the containers, du to mix theood"

Jessica nodded The spicy aroe off the fried s into southwestern cuisine in a big way"

"Beats sandwiches"

"That one looks good"

"They&039;re peanut butter on banana bread"

"Peanut butter on banana bread? All three? That&039;s a ti bananas I can&039;t ever wake up early enough tofancy"

"But three of the Soht every hour"

"Sorry, I rinned He looked sleepy His eyes never quite opened all the way, but they twinkled when he sh calories, I&039;" He opened the second sandwich and took a huge bite, as if talking this much had put him behind schedule

"That reon my face in front of the whole school my first week here"

"You could always blame the Bixby water"

Jessica&039;s fork halted a few inches from her mouth "You don&039;t like it either?"

"I o, and I still can&039;t drink it" Jonathan shuddered

Jessica felt the fist of nerves in her stomach unclench a bit She had started to think that everyone else in town had been born and bred here and that she was the first outsider they&039;d ever seen But Jonathan was another stranger to this strange place