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I don’t have tied back into the acade left her assignment at her desk When we’re alone, she leads me into a janitor’s closet and shuts the door She shuffles through the darkness and eventually finds the hanging cord that turns on the overhead light

"Pen, what--"

"Finally" She claps her hands onthat the boys have been hovering around us all day, haven’t you?"

"Well, yes, they’re betrothed to us That’s what they’re supposed to do"

She shushes me, and we listen as footfalls approach and then fade down the hallway

"We’re going to miss the train," I say

"There’ll be another one"

"In nearly an hour"

"So we’ll walk hos to worry about"

"Like what?" I say

"Like that boy I saw you with on Friday night"

I’m suddenly aware of how s it "I don’t know--What do youto lie to me, are you?" she says "You’re the only person who isn’t bri over with just coo crazy"

One of us is going crazy, all right, but it isn’t her

I stare at the door; I’ve never been in the acade "What did you see?" I ask

"You knohat I saw You were following a boy through the woods and then he told you to go home"

"You were in the cavern?" I say "So late at night? What for?"

"Don’t make this aboutthat happens there leaves with us Remember? The tonic we snuck from my mother’s cabinet?"

I do remember We were both sick for a whole day after that Our parents still think it was a stomach virus

"We aren’t in the cavern We’re in a closet," I say "And we’ve missed all the shuttles for sure"

Pen reaches for the cord, turns out the light "Fine," she says, opening the door "If that’s what it’s going to take, come on"

As alk down the hallway, Pen fuh her satchel until she’s found one of the day’s assignment sheets She waves it at the patrolles and says so absentminded

"About an hour until the next shuttle, ladies," he tells us There’s always a later shuttle for the staff ," Pen tells hi by the elbow "Myto fit into a wedding dress someday"

Before I turn away, I see the flustered look on the patrolman’s face This may have less to do with Pen’s words and oes

She hugs her arh the air is tepid She’s got that distance in her eyes again

"My brother used to ith the engineers that man the scopes," I tell her "They couldn’t tell hi new round is covered hite dust"

"Dust?" she asks

"Well, not dust exactly More like ice shavings, I think When the clouds send doater and it begins to freeze It round is an absurd place," she says "Is s that fall down on them from the clouds"

"Maybe they don’t care," I say "They’re probably always building new things Why wouldn’t they? Theyis infinite," Pen says She doesn’t want to hear ry with htens when the lake is in sight

I look for signs that Judas ht still be here, but of course there are none

"If I were to build a house," Pen says, "it would be round"

I laugh "Even if wor?"

"Worms don’t tell secrets," she says