NOBODY WAS BURNED. NO real damage was done other than the kids being kept on edge, wondering when the next dangerous accident would happen, and whether they might be the one caught in it. They had been lucky up till then, but how long would that luck last?
Everett was sitting in his usual spot at the circulation desk, glasses down on his nose, reading from the red book that held the story about Coppell Middle School.
“It’s a disruption, all right,” I declared. “There’s nothing right about anything that’s going on at that crazy school.”
I had left Coppell the same way I arrived…through the janitor’s closet in the boys’ room. It was weird to think that getting around that way was feeling less, well, weird.
“Any theories on who might be causing it?” Everett asked as he skimmed the new entries.
“Lots of the kids are blaming a weasel named Nate Christmas. But it doesn’t make sense that Nate could be doing all this stuff. It’s not like he’s got some strange powers. At least not that I know of.”
“He’s the only suspect?” Everett asked.
“Maybe. There’s a girl named Kayla who’s been square in the middle of a bunch of the events. But I can’t talk to her because she doesn’t speak. At all. To anybody. I guess she hasn’t said a word in years.”
Everett raised an eyebrow.
“She could be worth pursuing,” he said as he scanned the book’s pages. “There has to be a story there.”
The spirits who wrote the stories had already documented in the red book everything that happened. All Everett had to do was read to get caught up. Hard to believe, but that was starting to feel normal to me too.
“What d’ya plan on doing next?” Everett asked.
I headed for the door that led back to reality. My reality.
“I want to find out more about those kids,” I said. “But I’ll need help.”
“Lu and Theo?” Everett asked.
“Yeah. I made friends with the girl who’s president of the eighth grade. She can open doors for us.”
I walked quickly toward the exit.
“Marcus?” Everett called.
I turned back to him but kept walking.
“Yeah?”
“Exceptional work, lad. Your father couldn’t have done any better himself.”
His words meant more to me than he knew. My whole life I’d wondered if I was anything like my biological parents. Turns out that I was. At least in the sleuthing department.
Or maybe Everett only said that because he knew exactly how much it would mean to me and wanted to make sure I’d come back.
“Yeah, well, I haven’t done anything yet,” I said, and went for the door.
I pushed the exit door open and stepped into…
…my bathroom at home. No sooner did I close the door behind me than somebody knocked on it. I pulled it open expecting to see Everett with some last-second thought. Instead, I was jarred to see my dad standing in our upstairs hallway.
It took a couple of seconds for me to reset my brain and register how that was possible. There were some things about the Library I was still having trouble getting used to.
“You feeling okay?” he asked with a worried frown.
His question threw me.
“Uh, yeah. Why?”
“Because you ran up here like you were going to explode. I wanted to make sure you weren’t puking your guts out. Or something.”
Oh. Right. I had left my parents at breakfast and ran upstairs when I felt the Paradox key grow warm. Even though I had been at Coppell Middle School for a couple of hours, I returned home at the exact second I’d left. This time-displacement thing was yet another weirdness that needed some getting used to.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said. “False alarm. Gas…I guess.”
I flushed the toilet for effect.
“Oh. Good. Well, I’m glad you’re going to give some thought to what we suggested.”
“About what?” I asked.
He gave an exasperated sigh. “About looking into joining some extracurricular activities.”
Oh. Right. The domestic conflict of the day.
I laughed.
“Why’s that funny?” Dad asked, perturbed.
“Sorry, it’s not. Don’t worry. I’ll come up with something. See you tonight.”
I pushed past my dad and headed out of the bathroom, still laughing to myself. My parents wanted me to find some kind of extracurricular interest. They had no idea I was going on adventures that made joining some lame school club seem like a joke. The trick was to get them off my back so I wouldn’t have to actually join some after-school thing, because I was way too busy traveling through different dimensions.
The next morning, following a full day of school and a solid night’s sleep, I went right back to Coppell through the Library to continue the investigation. I waited until then because I didn’t want to crash and burn by living through too many thirty-six-hour days. Though my normal life went on hold and didn’t unfreeze until I got back home, my body kept going the whole time. I was still living and breathing when I was in a story, so I had to be careful not to spend too many hours in the Library or I really would end up like Rip Van Winkle.
At least on this trip I wasn’t alone.
“Marvelous!” Theo exclaimed while gazing at the ancient brick school building. “I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the original structure dated back to the 1800s.”
“Old” was Lu’s simple appraisal.
“Everett hasn’t forgotten about your stories,” I said. “He’s been looking, but there are a lot of books back there.”
“Maybe there’s nothing to find,” Theo said hopefully. “We may not be going through disruptions after all.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But if you are, he’ll find the stories. Or I will, if I have to look through every book myself.”
Lu gave me a big smile and said, “Like you’d do that.”
“Okay, maybe not, but I trust Everett. He’s got a lot more time to look than I do.”
“I get it. Let’s worry about one story at a time,” Lu said. “What do we do first?”
“There are three kids I want to know more about,” I said. “I’ll go for that d-bag Nate Christmas. He’s public enemy number one.”
“How could one kid do all of those things?” Lu asked, skeptically. “He may be a foul ball, but he’s not magical. Or is he?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Everett said people sometimes get trapped in situations they don’t understand because there’s nothing logical about them.”
“Well, that’s pretty scary,” Theo said.
“Yeah, Theo’s worst nightmare,” Lu said. “Stuck in a world with no logic. It would make his Spock brain explode.”
“I’m sure it wouldn’t bother you,” Theo shot back. “Seeing as you don’t understand much about science anyway.”
“I got a couple of lousy C’s!” Lu exclaimed. “That doesn’t make me an idiot.”
“No, just average.”
“Stop!” I shouted. “Can we focus, please? Theo, try to meet that girl Kayla. She was right in the middle of most of the incidents. It could be a coincidence, but you never know. She won’t talk to you, but maybe you can get a feel for what she’s all about.”
“I’ll try,” Theo said. “I’m quite perceptive.”
“Yeah, and it’s not like you know how to talk to girls anyway,” Lu said dismissively.
Theo scowled at her.
Lu smiled.
“What about me?” she asked.
“Find Ainsley Murcer. She runs this place and knows everything about everything. She might have seen things she didn’t even realize she was seeing. You’ll get along with her. You two are alike.”
“But I’m an original,” Lu said, aghast.
“I don’t mean exactly alike. Jeez, just talk to her. If anybody asks why you’re here, tell them you’re new. That’s worked for me.”
“Maybe we should say we’re all from the same family,” Lu suggested. “A white guy, an Asian girl, and a black guy—that’s not suspicious at all.”
“Yeah, don’t do that,” I said firmly. “It won’t be a problem. The adults here are so spun around by what’s happening they’re not going to care about a few extra kids wandering around. Learn what you can and meet back here when the bell rings before first period.”
“Marcus?” Theo said. “I’m feeling rather anxious about this.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “They’re normal kids. I think. But stay alert: you never know when something might fall on your head.”
“That doesn’t make me any less anxious,” Theo said as he glanced to the sky, expecting something to be headed his way.
“No sweat,” Lu said with confidence. “We beat the boogeyman. This’ll be cake.”
The three of us walked through the wrought iron gates and entered the early-morning bustle of the courtyard. I scanned the crowd, looking for our targets. It was as hectic as the day before, with kids being dropped off and hanging out until first period.
“There,” I said. “That’s Ainsley.”
She was sitting at a table, working intently on something, papers spread out in front of her.
“She doesn’t look anything like me,” Lu said, annoyed.
“I didn’t say she…oh, never mind, just go!”
Lu locked her eyes on Ainsley and went straight for her.
“What does Kayla look like?” Theo asked. “And in spite of what I just said about my superior perceptive abilities, how am I supposed to get information from a girl who doesn’t speak?”
“Because of what you tell me at least three times a day.”
“What’s that?”
“You’re smart. There she is.”
I pointed at Kayla, who was sitting by herself on a bench just inside the fence. After nearly getting sliced by a falling sheet of glass, she probably didn’t want to be anywhere near the school building.
Theo took a deep, nervous breath and said, “Wish me luck.”
He took off, headed for Kayla.
On my own again, I went looking for the infamous Nate Christmas.
I found him and a couple of his pals in a far corner of the courtyard, keeping to themselves. Or maybe everybody else was steering clear. The three of them were in a circle, kicking around a soccer ball.
“Hey, you okay?” I asked him as I strolled up.
He gave me a quick, dismissive look and said, “What’re you talking about?”
“The acid. In science. You get burned?”
I knew he wasn’t hurt, but I needed some way to open up a conversation.
“Oh yeah,” he said, looking at his friends. “Clark Kent here saved the day.”
“It was weird how that happened,” I said. “Nobody was close enough to the bottles to knock ’em over.”
“Yeah, almost as weird as you spying on us in the bathroom, perv.”
“I wasn’t spying,” I said, taking a deep breath to keep from letting him get to me. “But a lot of strange things have been happening here. Any idea why?”
Nate kicked the soccer ball hard, sending it sailing halfway across the courtyard.
“Hey!” one of his friends yelled angrily and went after it.
Nate walked up to me, getting uncomfortably close, and looked me square in the eye.
“You think everything’s my fault too?” he snarled.
I felt his hot breath on my chin, but there was no way I’d back down from this munchkin bully, so I stood my ground and locked eyes with him.
“Nah, I’m just worried about you, chief,” I said.
“Worried? Why?”
“Seems like you’re always there when something goes wrong. Maybe somebody’s got it out for you. Do you have any enemies…Nate?”
There was a subtle shift in his gaze, as if I’d told him something he hadn’t thought of before. It lasted only a second before he locked back on me.
“Nah, everybody loves me,” he said with a twisted grin. “What about you? Maybe you’re the one who should be worried.”
“I think we all have to worry a little,” I said. “Be careful, chief. People are watching.”
I turned my back on the guy and walked away. I wanted to make him nervous. If he thought people were circling him and about to close in, he might make a mistake that would tip his hand. It was the only thing I could think of doing.
I looked around for Lu and Theo and saw that they were with Ainsley and Kayla. Those guys were good. I knew I could rely on them. Later, I read about the details of their encounters.
WHILE MARCUS WAS SPEAKING with Nate, Lu marched right up to Ainsley and stood over her.
“Hi, my name’s Annabella. Marcus O’Mara says you’re the one who knows everything about this school.”
Lu always got right to the point.
Ainsley looked up at her with a big, welcoming smile.
“Well, I don’t know if I know everything, but pretty darn close. You have a pretty name. Are you new too?”
Lu sat down across from her.
“Yup. What’re you working on?”
“The Halloween dance is tomorrow night. Fright Night. I’ve got to keep track of all the decoration and food bills for the PTA.”
“Wow, that’s pretty…adult of you,” Lu said with genuine awe. “That’s a lot of work.”
“You have no idea,” Ainsley said with a sigh. “Nobody volunteers to do anything, so I end up doing it all.”
“And you still have time for schoolwork?” Lu asked.
“Sure. Late at night. If I don’t keep getting perfect grades, my parents will make me give everything else up, and I don’t want that to happen. The school would fall apart.”
“My parents are the same way!” Lu exclaimed. “I’m getting a C in science and I’m afraid to tell them because they’ll freak.”
“I hear you, but you have to tell them,” Ainsley said. “Hiding stuff makes it so much worse.”
“I’m not so sure about that. Have you ever told your parents when you messed something up?”
“Sure. Not that it happens a lot, to be honest, but I tell them. They get it. Truth is, they give me a harder time when I’m doing okay. That’s when they really push for me to do more. But when something doesn’t work out, they back off and give me a little slack.”
Lu let the words sink in. “That’s pretty cool.”
“The pressure can get intense, but I’m on top of everything. Most of the time.” The two chuckled like they were old friends.
“I heard there have been a lot of accidents around school,” Lu said. “What’s going on?”
Ainsley’s expression turned cold.
“Nate Christmas, that’s what’s going on,” she said.
“Really? How can one kid do all that stuff?”
“Who knows? But he’s got a whole posse to help him,” Ainsley said with disdain. “He’s bound to mess up eventually. He’ll get caught. I’d love to be the one to catch him.”
“I hope you do,” Lu said.
Lu had no trouble getting to know her subject.
Theo, on the other hand, was having a harder time. For a few minutes, he watched Kayla work on her iPad as she sat alone on the end of the bench. No other kid went near her. It was like she was radioactive. Theo braced himself, gathered his nerve, and stepped up to her.
“Hi,” he said brightly. “Mind if I sit here?”
Kayla looked up at him with no expression, then went back to her iPad.
Theo sat down a safe distance away, putting his backpack on the ground next to the bench.
“My name’s Theo,” he said. “I’m new here.”
Kayla didn’t look at him. Or respond.
“What’s your name?”
Still no response.
“Wait, I know who you are. Kayla, right?”
Kayla stiffened but didn’t look up.
“My friend Marcus told me about you. He’s new too. But it’s not like we knew each other before or came from the same school. Oh no, we’ve never met. I’m not even sure why I remember his name. He’s not really a friend. I’m not even sure if his name is Marcus. Is it?”
Theo was running off at the mouth and getting zero reaction from Kayla. Desperate to come up with another way to break through Kayla’s shell, he forced himself to shut up and sit in silence for a few seconds.
“It’s not fun being new,” he finally said. “Everything’s so strange. I feel like everybody’s sizing me up. Doesn’t help being black either. Just makes me stand out even more. It’s weird being in such a huge group of people and feeling totally alone. Makes me want to go hide somewhere.”
Kayla looked up and they made eye contact. Theo gave her a smile and a shrug. Kayla looked back at her iPad.
Her slight thaw gave Theo the confidence to try again.
“I don’t have a lot of friends at my school,” Theo said. “My old school, I mean. Kids think I’m a little strange. I don’t think I am, but what I think doesn’t count. I do have two good friends, though. That’s all you need. One or two people who watch out for you and don’t try to make you into something you’re not. The trick is to find friends like that.”
Kayla kept her eyes on her iPad.
Theo waited, hoping she would give him a clue that she had actually heard him.
“Well, thanks for listening,” he said with another shrug. “Sorry to lay all of that on you.”
He moved to get up, but Kayla’s hand shot out and grabbed his arm, stopping him.
Theo’s heart raced. Was she going to say something? He looked down at her as she held out her iPad for him to look at. She had typed something using the Notebook app.
Theo read aloud: “ ‘What you think counts for a lot. I hope you make new friends here.’ ”
Kayla offered Theo a small smile.
Theo beamed.
“Thanks, Kayla. I appreciate that.”
Kayla pulled the iPad back and looked down at it again. Interaction over.
“Hopefully I’ll see you around,” Theo said, then got up and strolled away.
We hadn’t solved anything yet, but at least we were making ourselves part of this school and learning more of its secrets. But was that enough? Didn’t seem so. The bell was about to ring and the three of us were going to have to figure out where to go until lunchtime, when we could blend in again.
“Hi, Ainsley,” I said as I stepped up to the table where she sat with Lu. “I see you met my friend Lu—I mean, Annabella.”
“She’s great,” Ainsley said in such a perky way I think she really meant it and wasn’t just being nice. “I wish she had gotten here sooner—I could have really used the help. What do you say, Lu? Would you give me a hand sometimes? It’ll be fun!”
Ainsley looked to Lu hopefully, waiting for an answer.
“Uh, sure,” Lu said tentatively. “I need to get registered and set up first, though.”
“No problem!” Ainsley exclaimed. “You can still help me with the dance tomorrow night. There are a million things I haven’t even gotten to yet.”
Lu gave me a helpless look, and was rescued by Theo, who ran up to join us.
“Success!” he exclaimed. “I made contact and actually got her to—”
“Uh, Theo, this is Ainsley.”
Theo was confused that I had cut him off, then focused on Ainsley and realized he had to be careful about what he said.
“Oh! Hi, I’m Theo.”
“You’re transferring too?” Ainsley asked. “Coppell is suddenly getting very popular.”
“Hey, look,” Lu said.
We all looked at where she was pointing to see Kayla headed our way, carrying Theo’s backpack.
“Oh man! I forgot it,” Theo said.
“Kayla’s bringing it to you?” Ainsley asked with surprise. “I…I…wow.”
Theo shot me a smug look.
Kayla made her way through the crowd, headed straight for Theo.
Theo moved to meet her and…
…Nate appeared from behind Kayla, pushing his way through a crowd of kids to get to her.
“Uh-oh,” I said. “Here we go again.”
Nate had his eyes locked on Kayla, no doubt ready to harass her again to try and get her to say a few words so he could win his cruel bet.
“Hey, Kayla!” Nate yelled.
Kayla froze. A moment before she had appeared relaxed and almost happy to be bringing the backpack to Theo. Now it was like she had been hit with a jolt of electricity. She tensed up, her shoulders hunched, and her face fell.
“Not this time,” I said, and started forward to head Nate off.
I had barely taken a step when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. It was subtle and quick, but I was in a perfect position to see it.
Ainsley was sitting at the table next to me. Her hand flashed up as if to gesture Stop!
An instant later, a large metal trash can flipped over and fell directly in front of Nate. It happened so fast that Nate didn’t have time to dodge it. He tripped over the heavy container and somersaulted forward, landing on his head.
Everyone laughed as Nate tumbled to the ground and the can rolled over him. I would have laughed too, if not for what I had seen a second before.
Kayla started moving again. She dropped the backpack at Theo’s feet, then hurried past him, headed for the school.
“Uh, thanks,” Theo said.
The bell rang. The show was over. Everyone started for the front doors.
Ainsley quickly gathered her papers.
“What just happened?” Lu asked, stunned.
I kept watching Ainsley. She didn’t even bother to put her papers in her pack, just jammed them under one arm. She wanted to be out of there. Fast.
I was the only one who had seen what she did.
“Ainsley?” was all I could manage to get out.
She ignored me and took off.
Nate got to his feet, acting all cool as if he had meant to trip and fall down like a fool. He brushed himself off and looked around to see who was watching.
Nobody was. Nobody cared that he had taken a fall or whether he was okay.
He headed for the school, glaring at the kids he walked past as if daring them to laugh.
“That was…odd,” Theo said.
“Tell me about it,” I said. “Change of plans. Let’s get back to the Library.”