The Silver Moon Elm (37 page)

Her mother shook her head. “Jennifer…”

“You have to forgive him!”

“For heaven’s sake, Jennifer, calm down! It’s not what you think. It’s like I told you on the highway. I don’t need your relationship advice.”

With that, the woman reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out…her own silver moon elm leaf.

“I figured I’d spend the night here and clear my head,” she explained. “As I drove up, this flew into the windshield. At that point, all I figured I had to do was—”

“—eat a bowl of double chocolate ice cream?” Jonathan guessed.

Her eyes narrowed again. “I was going to say, ‘wait for the love of my life to show up.’ But at this point, Mr. I-Can’t-Let-My-Wife-Finish-a-Single-Sentence, a second bowl of ice cream is looking better and better.”

Seeing a possible opportunity slip away into sarcasm, Jennifer panicked. “So are you forgiving him or what, Mom?”

“Of course I’m going to forgive him, honey. I’m just mulling over the price.” A sly grin spread over her face, and she reached out to grab her husband’s earlobe.

Jonathan returned the smile. “How about we go negotiate upstairs?”

“Deal.”

“Oh, that’s—” Ugh. Gross? Twisted? Sweet? Romantic? “Gross! Yes, please, you two, take it upstairs.” She continued calling after them as her mother’s clothes came tumbling down the stairs. “By all means, celebrate our family reunion by ditching your daughter for a blundering roll in the hay! It’s not like you owe her anything, not even a simple ‘thank you!’ Because you know what? You’re not welcome! Yeah, that’s right, you’re not…”

“Jennifer, honey.” Her mother’s voice came drifting down along with her father’s giggles. “You’re really killing the mood here. How about you fly around the lake for a while, pick up some firewood, rake some leaves, build a shed…?”

CHAPTER 20
New Tuesday

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Jennifer was still fuming by the time she staggered into school Tuesday morning. She had spent hours circling the cold farm last night before she had finally lost patience with her parents, reentered the house, and screamed up the stairs that she was going back home to commiserate with any teenaged boy who happened to be staying there as a guest. That had gotten them moving, but they hadn’t made it home until after midnight. Unfortunately, school started just as early here as it had in the other, more wicked universe.

She ambled blearily though the front door, letting Eddie race ahead with an energetic wink good-bye. Trying to wink back, she ended up closing both eyes and drifting off until a group of kids bumped and shoved past her. Beaststalkers, she sighed to herself. So rude. They don’t even appreciate what you did for them. Where are the balloons and cake? Where’s the welcoming committee?

Working her way to her locker, she was just reaching for the handle when the most beautiful voice in the world sounded behind her.

“You’re still a bitch for blowing me off.”

“Oh, Susan.” With a slow sigh, Jennifer stumbled around and draped her tired arms around her best friend. “I missed you. I’m sorry. I’ll cancel on Amanda and Bob as soon as I see them.”

“Hmmph.” Susan kept her back rigid and her books held tightly against her chest as Jennifer tried to make herself comfortable, maybe get a quick nap in. “I guess you sound sincere. Hey, what the hell happened to you last night. You’ve got circles under your—”

“My parents did it. Like, for two hours.”

“Oh, you poor thing!” The brunette let her books drop to the hallway floor and accepted Jennifer in a warm hug. “You poor, wretched thing! Did you go to your happy place? Whenever my dad brings a date home, I use a memory of snorkeling off a Caribbean beach with no one there but me and some completely asexual fish…”

I have a happy place too, Jennifer thought. And I’m back in it. Her nose nuzzled Susan’s neck, taking in her friend’s cheap, apple-scented perfume.

“Woot! Go, girls!” The dull roar of Bob Jarkmand’s voice startled them both out of the forgiving embrace. He and another football friend were mere inches from them. “Matty, check it out, my date’s goin’ at it with another babe! Yeah, Jennifer, you can bring Sandy along here with you to Amanda’s Friday night! The three of us can—”

Susan was actually faster than Jennifer. She reached up, grabbed Bob Jarkmand by the lapels of his letter jacket, and shook him violently. “My name is Susan very simple name Susan S-U-S-A-N and I wouldn’t go to party with you or kiss you or do anything else with you even if you flayed the skin off my fingers and IT’S A VERY SIMPLE NAME!”

“Bob,” Jennifer added with as soft a smirk as she could manage, “I’ve had a change of plans. I can’t go to Amanda’s Friday night.”

“Aw, man.” His dreams of sexual adventure in tatters, Bob hung his head. “So, um, when do you think we can go out?”

She reached up and locked fingers with Susan’s hands, forcing her friend to relax and let go of the giant boy. “When you can remember my girlfriend’s name. You, me, her, Eddie, Amanda, a few others. It would be nice to go out to the movies, maybe talk a bit. No macking. No feeling. No girl-on-girl action.”

“Huh. Whatever.” With all interesting options removed from consideration, Bob put a desolate arm around his buddy Matty and walked away, grumbling about fickle girls and a certain time of the month.

“He’s a real winner, Jennifer. I can see why you fell for him.”

“Yes, a rude comment about female anatomy really is the way to my heart.”

Susan took Jennifer’s arm and walked her down the hall. “Hey, by the way, did you do your geometry homework last night? Most of that stuff, I couldn’t get. I don’t think Mr. Slider even cared if we got it all done!”

Mr. Slider. The name made Jennifer draw a sharp breath. Is he here? Did he survive? Does he remember anything?

The sight that greeted Jennifer in geometry class nearly broke her heart. Edmund Slider was there, in his usual position at the head of the class. His useless legs spilled off of the wheelchair, and his blond head was in his hands, unkempt strands of hair escaping through his fingers, with elbows jammed against awkward knees. The clothes he wore were wrinkled and scented with stale sweat. The only parts of him that looked presentable at all were his feet, enshrined in two polished black shoes that had certainly never been used.

He raised his head off his palms as she passed, and she found her legs fixed to the floor as if he had cast a sorcery upon her. She could not look away from him. There was no anger there, just overwhelming frustration and despair. They stared at each other, she clearly wanting to say something but not knowing what, and him clearly not ready to hear anything at all.

The bell rang. Everybody else took their seats.

“If you would turn to page 252 in your texts, class.” His voice was a hoarse whisper, and he did not look away from her.

She tried. “M-Mr. Slider, I—”

“Page 252, class.” He did not move. “Ms. Elmsmith, if you would be so kind as to read aloud from the beginning of the chapter.”

Jennifer didn’t turn, and she knew Susan was also unsure of what to do. After a long pause, her friend began to read:

“ ‘Chapter Seven. Geometric Transformations. A transformation is a change in the form of a mathematical object. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to: First, explain the basic types of transformations; second, make use of transformation terminology to describe elements of the changing world around you; and third, change shapes using interactive computer software modules that illustrate rotations, reflections, translations, and enlargements. You will also…”

It didn’t work
, she mouthed silently to him as Susan kept reading.
It’s over
.

There was no humor in his voiceless reply:

Wait
.

“Wasn’t he weird?” Susan wrinkled her nose at the memory of Mr. Slider’s class. He had not said another word the entire time, other than to change chapter readers at intervals. “I mean, he never even asked us for our homework!”

“He will,” Jennifer said thoughtfully. “He doesn’t know what went wrong, but he’ll try again.”

“Well, duh, he is the teacher. You sure you’re okay? You’ve been acting weird today.”

“I’ll explain later. Maybe over lunch, if there’s…Hang on, there’s the A-List. Hey, Anne!”

The freckled blonde broke chatter with Amy and Abigail long enough to look up. “Hey, yourself.”

“Where’s Amanda?”

Anne shrugged.

“If you see her, tell her I’m out for Friday.”

Amy examined Jennifer’s figure and smirked. “What, Bob decided he could say ‘no’ to you after all?”

Susan stepped in front of Jennifer as they walked by. “No, she’s just spending the evening with friends. Thanks for passing on the word to Amelia.”

“Amanda.”

“Whatever.” And with that, Susan pushed past the A-List, letting Jennifer grin as she stumbled behind.

A few steps later, Susan stopped short. “Jennifer!”

Jennifer followed the direction her finger pointed down the hall. When she spotted the target, half her heart leapt while the other half sank.

“He looks terrible.”

Jennifer had to agree with Susan. Skip Wilson was at his locker, staring down the hall, without really seeming to see her or anyone else. His chocolate hair was more unkempt than usual, and there were bloody spots on the whites of his tired eyes.

“Give me a sec, will you?”

Jennifer walked up to him and handed him Dianna Wilson’s jade envelope. “This is for you,” she told him. “Your mother asked me to deliver it.”

Suddenly recognizing her, Skip reached out and opened the note. He read it for a few moments, and Jennifer backed up a step or two when she saw tears escape down his cheeks.

“You’ve read this,” he said when he was done.

“No,” she answered truthfully. “But I don’t have to. I can imagine what’s in there pretty easily.”

“It was you. You stopped it all. This morning, when nothing changed, Mr. Slider and I tried to figure out what happened. You seemed like the most likely explanation.”

She sighed. “Your mother stopped it. She saw the consequences, and she didn’t like them.”

“But you had something to do with it, I’ll bet,” he barked, crumpling the paper up and jamming it in his jacket pocket. “The Great Jennifer Scales, Wonder of All Wonders. Couldn’t stay out of it. You ruined everything. You always—”

“HEY.” She stepped toward him and grabbed him by the front of his shirt. “You can gnash your teeth some other time, buddy. You’re lucky you’re still alive, after what you tried to do.”

He shook her hand off and wiped his face. “You would have been fine! I was going to save you.”

“I know,” she said. “But as it turns out, I ended up saving you.”

One side of his mouth rose in an uncertain sneer. “You’re not making any sense.”

“It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to save me, Skip. What you thought would happen today—it will never happen. Your own mother won’t allow it, and your family can’t do it without her. You’re stuck with the world you’re in, for better or worse.” She briefly remembered Mr. Slider’s threat—
Wait
—but pushed it firmly out of her mind.

He rested his head against the locker behind him and slumped his shoulders. “So that’s how it is. Jennifer Scales gets her way, yet again.”

She resisted the impulse to knee him in his intransigent groin. “I know it’s hard when you’re not in control, Skip. When it feels like the whole world’s against you. I found friends, when I needed them. You just have friends, too. You just have to reach out.”

“Friends.” He spat. The familiar defiance was returning to his features. “Friends like disowned Eddie, or babbling Catherine, or useless Susan. No thanks.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way. I guess I have something else to tell you, then.” Leaning in close, she gently smoothed out the fabric of his flannel shirt. “I promised your mother I’d forgive you this time. And I have. But right now, my parents are putting out word to every dragon and beaststalker about what you and your family have tried. I would expect an awful lot of eyes will be on the Saltins, Wilsons, and Sliders of this world, for a very long time.” She looked up meaningfully at him without smiling. “Be careful, sweetie. I would feel horrible if you got hurt.”

Looking back down at her, he bit his lower lip. “So I’m supposed to be afraid? I don’t care. Witch-hunters like your mom and the mayor don’t scare me. Nobody does.”

“I know.” She sighed and touched his ear. “That’s why I still kind of like you.”

He backed up a step. “You only like me as long as I behave. As long as I stay on your leash.”

“Skip…”

“It’s all about control with you, isn’t it? As long as you can stop me from doing things you don’t like, you’ll tolerate me. I can be your pet, as long as I’m house-trained.”

“No, I’m…”

“You stop me from reuniting with my mother by turning her against me. You stop me from connecting with my half-sister by murdering her. You even stop me from getting close to you by lying through your teeth. You’re just an expert at stopping things, aren’t you?”

“Skip, that’s not fair—”

“That’s the difference between us, I guess,” he finished with a vicious arrogance. “Guys like me try to create and make things happen, and uncaring bitches like you just get off on stopping things from happening. Do you get that from your mom, or—”

She slugged him across the jaw.

“Gosh, Skip, I’m sorry,” she said as he reeled back and fell against his locker. “I just couldn’t stop that from happening! I must not be as good at this sort of thing as you say I am.”

She turned quickly so he wouldn’t see the gathering tears and marched away.

Jennifer was standing alone for a moment, reflecting on the laughing and jostling teenagers filing out of the cafeteria, when she saw someone who nearly made her drop her textbooks.

How is this possible?

“Hi, Jennifer.”

“Huh?”

“I kinda tagged along when you left.”

“I don’t…I…how did you do it? Are there other—”

“Relax, Jennifer. I’m the only stowaway. When we shifted the universe the first time, we realized it might not work out. This was our Plan B. Unlike our bloody Plan A, the only thing Plan B has cost is a single life—someone to keep the balance. I chose Amanda Sera. Nothing personal against her. I’m just not a big fan of queen bees.”