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ACROBAT
Last year at PS 141 there&039;d been this really gross experiy
Jessica&039;s class had raised two bunches of flatworms in terrariums, which were basically aquariums but full of dirt instead of water The flatworular heads kind of like the spear points that Rex was so fond of They had two little spots that looked like eyes but weren&039;t They could detect light, though
In one terrarium the class always put the worht that they switched on at feeding tin: Come In, We&039;re Open
In the other terrarium the class just sprinkled the food randomly on top of the dirt
The flatworms in the first terrariuured out what the light ht at any side of that terrariu for food They would even follow the light around in circles, if wor hat you were into
Then, as it did in every biology class, the tiht as bait, the class collected all the clever light-loving worms from the first terrarium Then the teacher, Mrs Hardaway, put them into a bowl and squished them into worm paste Nobody was forced to watch, but a few kids did Not Jessica
In case that wasn&039;t gross enough, Mrs Hardaway then fed the squished wor, even other worathered around, and for the first tiht to the second terrariuht One by one the worry for food They had learned about the restaurant light by eating the wor french fries, except infinitely grosser
Tonight, sitting on her bed, waiting for ht, surrounded by unpacked boxes, Jessica Day had the aftertaste of hter in her mouth
Rex and Dess had kept her at thethey knew about the darklings, the blue tihters and their talents, and the secret history of Bixby, Oklahoround up years of incredible experiences and unbelievable discoveries and served theantic meal And of course Jessica had no choice but to eat every bite The secret hour was dangerous What she didn&039;t know could really hurt her
In the end, even Melissa had taken off her headphones to join in, explaining her oeird talent It turned out that she, not Dess, was the psychic - a real psychic, not the psychosomatic kind - but in a way that sounded co in a roo, all tuned to different stations And Rex had warned Jessica not to touch her; physical contact turned the voluh
No wonder Melissa was so much fun to be around
As Jessica watched the clock&039;s second hand sloeep out the re stoot before a test This was quite a test It included y, science, and ancient history And getting a single question wrong couldworm food herself
The day had probably been a lot more fun for Rex, Dess, and Melissa For years the three of them had kept an entire world secret They&039;d had to face the terrors and joys of ht alone So of course they&039;d been anxious to share them with someone new
Jessica just wished she could remember more of what they&039;d said After the first hour or three her sleepless night had started to take its toll, their voices turning into co ho how quickly a new and o from totally unbelievable to cootten back home just in time for dinner Jessica could tell that Mom had been all ready to yell at her about the still unpacked boxes But one look at Jessica&039;s exhausted face and her ears
"Oh, sweetheart You&039;ve been doing ho you in all those advanced classes, isn&039;t it?"
Jessica hadn&039;t bothered to disagree She&039;d half dozed through dinner and then gone straight to sleep But she&039;d set her alarht she wanted to be completely awake and dressed when the blue tih she couldn&039;t rehters had tried to teach her, she hadn&039;t forgotten the important stuff Jessica was armed with three neeapons: Deliciousness, Fossilization, and Jurisprudence, which were a coil of wire, a long screw, and a broken car-radio antenna They weren&039;t much to look at, and Dess had said that none was as foruaranteed they would light a fire under a darkling&039;s tail Or at least a sparky blue fireworks show Jessica had also borrowed a few recipes of Dess&039;s to create her own traps Her bedroom was slitherproof now
In addition, there was no way she was going outside tonight
The other three hters were headed for what Rex had called a "lore site" Apparently there had beenas there had been a secret hour, some born here and some, like Jessica, who&039;d stumbled into town Generations of seers like Rex had slowly collected knowledge about the blue tis and recorded their discoveries where only other seers could find thee, ancient rocks were marked with invisible runes that told the ancient stories
Rex said that he would search until he discovered why the darklings were so interested in Jessica "But ht was a coincidence," he&039;d said unconvincingly
"Maybe they just like you," Melissa had said, s her lips "As in, &039;I like pizza&039; "
Two o
Jessica sed and lifted her feet off the floor The slithers couldn&039;t possibly be here yet, but last night had brought all her childhood fears back to her There were things under the bed Maybe at the s, but she could still feel them down there
She looked at her clock, which was set to Bixby tiht" happened at a different moment in every city Time zones just kind of faked it But nohen her clock hit twelve, Jessica Day would be as far away froo
Jessica picked up Jurisprudence and pulled it out to its full length She swished it through the air like a sword The radio antenna was from a Chevy made in 1976, a year that apparently was aspecial
Jessica sotten, but she had to adood in her hand
The secret hour arrived
The overhead light seelow fro the trees ceased abruptly Her first tie, Jessica could feel as well as see and hear it So her forward, as if she were finishing a roller-coaster ride, the car gradually cohtness came over her, and she felt a subtle flutter of arrested le of the whole world, stopping around her
"Okay," Jessica said to herself "Here we go again"
However real she kneas, the blue time still seemed like a dreas to reassure herself The rough edges of cardboard boxes felt the same, the pinewood boards of the floor were as smooth and cool as always
"Real, real, and real," she affir, desk, the spines of books
Now thatwhat she was going to do with this extra hour A fewin the kitchen But she didn&039;t want to see the in her own roo to do She opened a few of the boxes and looked into their chaotic depths But the blue, shadowless light see so mundane She sat on her bed, picked up the dictionary she&039;d unpacked when she got hoisms
She&039;d found only one - splendiferous - when her head started to hurt frohters could probably read in the blue tiht; Jessica&039;s eyes did feel wrong, at least here in the secret hour
She glanced out theat the ht of so
She picked her feet up off the floor, lay back, and stared at the ceiling
Jessica sighed This could get very boring
Not much later, she heard the noise
It was a very soft thud, barely audible even in the absolute silence Jessica iht of panther paws and jumped off her bed
She picked up Jurisprudence and jingled Fossilization and Deliciousness to check that they were still in her pocket From the end of the bed Jessica couldn&039;t see very et any closer to the s She limpse of whatever was outside
A dark shape ripped the car antenna tighter Rex and Dess had proh to defend herself
What if they rong?
Her back was pressed against the door now She ih the front door and down the halls of the house, stealing up behind her It seemed incredibly unlikely that the thirteen thumbtacks stuck into the wood of her door would be a match for its powerful muscles
No more sound came from outside Was whatever it was still out there?
She had to take a look
Jessica sank to her hands and knees and crept along the floor against the wall until she was just below theShe sat there, listening as hard as she could The total silence seemed to roar quietly, like the sound of the ocean trapped in a shell
She inched her head up to peer over the sill
A face looked back at her
Jessica ju Jurisprudence in an arc before her so that it cracked against the glass She scraainst her bed Thebegan to slide open
"It&039;s okay, Jessica It&039;s just ap
Her car-radio antenna thrust out before her like a sword, Jessica blinked, forcing her brain to put together the fali with a wave of relief and surprise It was Jonathan
Jonathan perched at the , evidently a bit reluctant to co to take another swing at hirip, passed nervously fro folded under him, his other knee drawn up under his chin He certainly didn&039;t seem very scary now
He hadn&039;t saidfor her to calm down Unlike in the lunchroom at school, Jonathan&039;s eyes were open wide He didn&039;t look sleepy at all Maybe he was photophobic in the daylight too
She was glad he didn&039;t hide his eyes behind dark glasses, though They were very pretty eyes
He watched as Jessica slowly gained control of her breathing, his gaze intent but silent
"I didn&039;t know you were a ed
"They didn&039;t tell you?" He laughed "That figures"
"They know about you?"
"Sure Since the day I moved here"
Jessica shook her head in disbelief Six hours of hter lore and neither Rex, Dess, nor Melissa had bothered to hter in town
"Wait a second," Jess said as so occurred to her "Are you the only one they didn&039;t tell rinned "Just one of me," he said
She stared back at hi
"No, there aren&039;t any others," he said, more seriously "I&039;m the only person they didn&039;t mention"
"What, don&039;t they like you?"
He shrugged "I&039;uess, and Dess is actually pretty cool" He paused, obviously not wanting to get started on Melissa "But they take the whole thing way too seriously"
"Too seriously?"
"Yeah They act like they&039;re on a "
"There&039;s a Midnighters World Council?" Jessica asked
He laughed "No, but I bet Rex wishes there was He thinks this whole "
Jessica blinked It had never occurred to her to doubt that there were deep and mysterious forces at work It all seemed pretty deep and mysterious to her
"So what do you think, Jonathan?"
"I think we&039;re lucky to have a whole world to ourselves To play in, explore, do whatever ant Whypurpose?"
Jessica nodded Since the darkling had attacked her, the secret hour had becoe But that first, beautiful drea easy
"For Rex," Jonathan continued, "the blue ti for the final exaave hiround"
He shrugged "I&039;m faster than the bullies Always have been"
Jessica wondered how that could be true But Jonathan seeled his foot outside the , never checking over his shoulder, unafraid
"You guys all seem to enjoy the secret hour," she said sadly "You all think it&039;s exciting, for one reason or another For s - tried to kill ht"
"That&039;s what Dess told me"
"She told you about me?"
"Yeah, back when Rex first spotted you And this ave me your address What, did you think I used superpowers to find you?"
"The phone book, actually"
He smiled "You&039;re not in inforot the psychic 411 on you last night, so Dess called ave you my address, but she didn&039;t tell me about you?"
"She would have, but not in front of Rex He and I have this personality conflict Naet a new one But Dess prefers to stay out of it"
"Oh" Jessica leaned back against the wall "This gets more complicated every minute"
"Yeah, it&039;s awful that you ran into a darkling so soon," Jonathan said "But last night eird all over town It was probably just darkling New Year&039;s Eve or so Was that your first time out?"
She started to nod, then shook her head She&039;d al her head with ht about the dangers of the blue time, not the splendor of the frozen stor happy to be ahter&039; That&039;s Rex&039;s word"
Jessica frowned "It seems pretty appropriate to me Kind of makes the point and sounds better than &039;twelve o&039;clocker&039; "
"I guess it does," Jonathan adht Since I moved to Bixby, anyway"
Jessica took a breath and dared to look past him to the blue-lit street Even before the secret hour had cousty and draiant oak trees like flocks of dark and frozen birds Their brilliant reds and yellows had turned black in the blue light
She reertips had released theht&039;s hold Would the leaves also fall at her touch? She wanted to run through theo she had never been able to resist snapping off icicles, breaking winter&039;s spell
But a that had attacked her Its cruel for the frozen shapes outside She shuddered and turned away from the
Her bedrooht, like a fading ht is beautiful," she said "But cold, too"
Jonathan frowned "It never feels cold to ht"
Jessica shook her head "I didn&039;t mean that kind of cold"
"Oh, I see," Jonathan said "Yeah It feels kind of empty sometimes Like we&039;re the last people on earth"
"Thanks That makes me feel much better"
"You shouldn&039;t be scared of ht, Jessica"
"I&039; eaten"
"That was just bad luck"