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"Now, you kids listen to Jake He’s in charge Astrid’s gonna h the door fra lot She took a few steps forward, then turned to her right, looking at soround we could not see She see a bit

Then she turned and said, with force, "Now go on inside Go on! Don’t come out here It’s not safe Get inside Go Go have lunch"

She shooed us back in with her hands

Mrs Wooly had such authority, we all did what she said

But out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jake step out to see what it was that she’d seen

"You too, Simonsen," Mrs Wooly said "This ain’t a peep show Get back in there"

Jake walked toward us, scratching his head He looked sort of pale

"What?" Brayden asked "What’s out there?"

"There’s some bodies out there Looks like a couple of Greenway employees," Jake told us quietly "I don’t knohy they went out there in the hailstorm, but they sure are dead now They’re allout all over the place I’ve never seen anything like it Except maybe for that mess back on the bus"

He took a deep breath and shivered

"Tell you one thing," Jake said, looking atinside till she comes back"

CHAPTER THREE

METAL GATE

"Who likes pizza?" Astrid yelled

The little kids answered with a chorus of e up like it was a hand-raising competition

"Pizza party! Pizza party!" they chanted

Their excite to the about their favorite kinds of pizza, with the wind picking up the tendrils of her hair and bringing a flush to her cheeks

Listen, the tragedy of the day and the destruction of our toasn’t lost on me--and I orried about ht have affected the near Astrid

My mom believed that youthese old, maroon-painted letters that spell out MANIFEST The idea was if you thought and dreamed about the way you wanted your life to be--if you just envisioned it long enough--it would co

But as hard as I had manifested Astrid Hey into eous in my ear, she had remained totally unaware ofabout Astrid, for a guy like me, in my relatively low position on the social ladder of Lewis Palh, was idiotic And with her a senior and et it

Astrid was just lit up with beauty: shining blond ringlets, June sky–blue eyes, slightly furrowed broays biting back a smile, champion diver on the swim team Olympic level

Hell, Astrid was Olympic level in every possible way

And I wasn’t I was one of those guys who had stayed short too long Everyone else sprang up in seventh and eighth grade but I just stayed kid-size through those years--the Brayden-hair-gel years Then, last suhted inme new clothes basically every other week My bones ached at night and my joints creaked sometimes, like a senior citizen’s

I’d entered the school year with soe--even above-average--height, I her level I know it’s crass to talk about popularity outright, but re ti my way into her circle of friends seeht do the trick Sure I was skinny as a rail, but still, ood asset Ash-colored hair--okay Height--no longer a proble, but contacts gave lasses, and I couldn’t get Lasik until I stopped growing, so that was out for a while Teeth and skin--fair Clothes--sort of a wreck but getting better

I thought I had a chance but the sum total of our communication to date were the tords she’d said to me on the bus: Help ot the Pizza Shack oven going and turned on the slushiein a booth, wrapped in her space blanket I headed toward the soda dispensers to get her a drink, but I saw that she already had two Gatorades and a water on the tabletop in front of her