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"No" Shelby ers "I don't want to talk about SAEB any uess you want to talk about Daniel Next"

That was fair But it wasn't exactly that Luce didn't want to talk about Daniel It was ht not be able to shut up She already sounded like a broken record in her own h the total of oh, four physical experiences she'd had with hi once he stopped pretending she didn't exist) Iine how quickly she would bore Shelby, who'd probably had tons of boyfriends, tons of experience Compared to Luce's next to none

One kiss she could barely remember with a boy who'd burst into ames A handful of very hot moments with Daniel That just about summed it up Luce was certainly no expert when it caain she felt the unfairness of her situation: Daniel had all these great h She had nothing

Until she looked up at her roommate

"Shelby?"

Shelby had her pu y red hood pulled over her head and was poking a stick into the wet sand "I told you I don't want to talk about hi, relimpse your past lives?"

This hat she'd been about to ask Shelby when Dawn fell overboard

"I never said that" The stick plunged deeper into the sand Shelby's face was ushed and her thick blond hair was frizzing out of her ponytail

"Yesyou did" Luce tilted her head "You wrote it on rabbed it out of es and glimpse past lives and which one did I need you to ll out--"

"I remember what I said But you misunderstood what I meant"

"Okay," Luce said slowly, "well--"

"Just because I have glimpsed a past life before doesn't mean I kno to do it, and it doesn't mean it was my own"

"So, it wasn't yours?"

"Hell no, reincarnation is for freaks"

Luce frowned and dug her hands into the wet sand, wanting to bury herself in it

"Hello, that was a joke" Shelby nudged Luce playfully "Tailored especially for the girl who's had to go through puberty a thousand tih for me, thank you very irl who'd had to go through puberty a thousand tiht about it that way before It was alh endless puberties seemed like the worst part of her lot But it was so o through a thousand more pimples and hormone uctuations if she could look into her past lives and understand more about herself, but then she looked up at Shelby "If it wasn't yours, then whose past life did you gli so nosy? Da "Shelby, ohod, throwa chill-out ht in Corona Things got pretty crazy, half- naked s?ances and shit, and--well, that's not really the story So I re, hard to see where I was going I turned the corner in an alleyway and there was this guy, kind of beat-up-looking He was bent over a sphere of darkness I'd never seen anything like it, shaped like a globe, but glowing, kind of oating above his hands He was crying"

"What was it?"

"I didn't know then, but now I knoas an Announcer"

Luce was li? What was it like?"

Shelby ruesome, Luce"

"I' because "

It felt like a big deal to admit what she was about to admit Francesca would de nitely be opposed to this But Luce needed answers, and she needed help Shelby's help

"I need to glimpse some of s have been happening recently that I'm supposed to just accept because I don't know any better--only I could know better, a lot better, if I could just see where I come from Where I've been Does that make any sense?"

Shelby nodded

"I need to knohat I had in the past with Daniel so I can feel surer of what I have with hiuy, the one in the alleydid you see what he did to the Announcer?"

Shelby scrunched her shoulders "He just sort of guided it into shape I didn't even knohat it was at the time, and I don't kno he tracked it down That's why Francesca and Steven's demonstration freaked ht, and I've been trying to forget about it ever since I had no idea that what I was seeing was an Announcer"

"If I could track down an Announcer, do you think you could guide it?"

"No proive it a shot You kno to track them down?"

"Not really, but how hard can it be? They've been haunting me all my life"

Shelby cupped her hand over Luce's on the rock "I want to help you, Luce, but it's weird I' you, you know, shouldn't?"

"When you broke up with SAEB--"

"I thought I told you not to--"

"Just listen: Aren't you glad you gured out whatever it was that made you break up with hied or so and only then--"

"Blech!" Shelby put up a hand to stop Luce "Point taken Now, come on, nd us a shadow" Luce led Shelby back across the beach and up the steep stone stairs, where dashes of battered red and yellow verbenas had pushed up through the wet, sandy soil They crossed the neat green terrace, trying not to interrupt a group of non-Nephiliame of ultimate Frisbee They passed their third-story dor At the edge of the forest of redwoods, Luce pointed to a space between the trees "That's where I found one the last time"