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ON THE LIBRARY’S TV SCREEN, BLACK-AND-WHITE IMAGES of Albert Einstein flickered The overhead lights were out That htly--but since not even the substitute cared about what "chemistry class" was up to, that worked just fine

"It’s Latin," Nadia whispered as she squinted down at the picture on Mateo’s phone "At least, I think so I’ve never studied it"

"Does Google Translate do Latin?" Mateo asked

"I’ll check and see" Nadia got to work on her own phone "Even at full nification, the words are kind of blurry It would be better to see the real thing"

"Oh, yeah, I can see it now ‘Hi, I’o there"

She put her hand on Mateo’s arm; the pain behind that joke was all too clear "Sorry I wasn’t thinking"

"It’s okay You should see it Just--after school, you know?"

Still, he looked shaken and tired Nadia rubbed his arh to whisper in his ear "Was it rough? Dealing with your grandmother? I kno hard that is for you"

Mateo took a deep breath "She wasn’t as bad as usual," he said "Which means she ful But maybe twenty percent less vindictive?"

"I say we call it a win"

He grinned, then pointed at her phone screen "We have a translation Okay, according to the internet, this Latin scriptlike ‘the road has three sections’"

They met each other’s eyes inmore ominous"

"It sounds more like directions from your GPS ‘In three hundred yards, turn left at the fortress of dooh "Maybe the internet translation is wrong?"

"Probably Do we know anybody who speaks Latin? My priest, maybe--"

"Excuse me?" One of the hall monitors stood in the doorway and spoke to their substitute "I’ Nadia Caldani to Ms Walsh’s office I’ve got a note"

Nadia had been dodging Ms Walsh and ignoring her e Of course, the eh for her to feasibly not answer--maybe we should talk, etc But apparently Ms Walsh could only be put off so long