3:59

TWENTY-TWO

11:15 A.M.

JOSIE DASHED INTO THE SECOND-PERIOD PHYSICS classroom as the final bell rang. Barely on time, as usual. She smiled to herself. You can take the girl out of the universe but you can’t take the universe out of the girl.

She had no real excuse for almost being late. Even though she was dazed from her interaction with Nick, physics was in the exact same room as in her own version of Bowie Prep, but it had taken her freaking forever to get there. Every hall she walked down, it was like everyone made a point to say hello to her. No one approached her, no one walked with her to class, but people were falling over themselves to smile and be polite. Still, Josie noticed a distinct lack of genuine warmth in their salutations. In fact, Josie thought she detected a trace of fear from most of the students as they fired off a quick “Hi, Jo!” then scurried back into the anonymity of the crowd.

It was kind of like being the world’s most popular leper—the focus of everyone’s attention and no one’s affection—and it made her incredibly uncomfortable. Was that what it was like to be popular? A kind of cold, fearful isolation?

But the moment she entered the physics classroom, all of her discomfort faded away. The room was an exact replica of her own beloved Bowie Prep science lab. The same metal tables and ancient stools. The same equipment lining the walls in floor-to-ceiling bookcases. Even the same students at the same tables, including the Kaufman twins in the front of the room, and the Swedish exchange student sitting prim and proper near the door. And at the same table—without a lab partner—was Penelope.

“Hi, Pen,” she said, taking the empty seat next to her old friend. “How’s it going?”

Penelope started and cast a furtive glance at Josie from behind the thick, black hair that hung half in her face. Josie saw in Penelope’s eyes the same look she’d seen from some of the students who greeted her in the hallway: fear.

“Look, I already told you,” Penelope said, her voice guarded and low, her eyes fixed on the lab table. “I’ll make sure you pass, okay?”

“Um, okay.”

“Just do what you promised.”

Josie was utterly confused. “What I promised?”

Penelope’s head snapped up. “The Grid. You promised to make sure we don’t get cut off.”

“Oh!” Josie smiled and tried to act like she had any idea what Penelope was talking about. “Of course. Already taken care of.”

Penelope’s body relaxed somewhat.

Mr. Baines clapped his hands and the class came to attention. Josie pulled a notebook and pen from her bag, and caught the look of confusion on Penelope’s face as she stared at both.

The lecture was pretty standard, a lesson on fields: electromagnetism, strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, and gravity. Practically remedial as far as Josie was concerned, so she didn’t even bother to take notes. Hell, she could have taught that class. Penelope appeared to be of the same mind-set: Josie saw her occasionally scribble down a name or an equation, but for the most part she doodled on her page. At one point she caught Josie watching her draw a diagram of relativity, showing the grid lines of space warping around the mass of a giant object. Penelope quickly flipped to a new page in her notebook, and carefully shielded her page from Josie’s view for the rest of class.

Bored and disturbed by the fact that Penelope was not only not Jo’s friend but appeared to be terrified of her, Josie zoned out for most of the lecture, until one of Mr. Baines’s questions grabbed her attention.

“Which brings us to the last question before the bell,” he said, with a dramatic flourish at the equations he’d spent most of the period diagramming on the whiteboard. “And your homework assignment for tonight. Despite being the weakest of the four fundamental fields, gravity is also the most important. Tell me why. At least five hundred words.”

A groan rippled through the class, and Josie was surprised. Really? That was hard? She couldn’t help herself; she laughed out loud.

“Miss Byrne,” Mr. Baines said, his voice full of concern. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, sorry,” she said, composing herself.

Mr. Baines’s glance shifted to Penelope, then back to Josie. “Is everything okay with tonight’s assignment?”

Really? The teacher was asking her if the assignment was okay? Josie looked nervously around the classroom. “No, it’s fine. It’s just kind of easy.”

She had no idea why she said it. Perhaps her combative nature with her own version of Mr. Baines was bubbling to the surface. But as soon as the words flew out of her mouth, she regretted them. The color drained from Mr. Baines’s face, and a chorus of whispers raced through the room. What had she said? What mistake had she made now?

“I just meant,” she said nervously, trying to make it better, “the idea that gravity is the only field that works on all particles regardless of mass is pretty basic, right? And the only field that can unite quantum mechanics and general relativity in one . . .”

Josie’s voice trailed off. Every single person in the room was staring at her, eyes wide, in several cases mouths agape. No one said a word; no one moved. They just stared at her like she was sitting there in class completely naked.

She turned to Penelope, who stared at her too, but with something more than the shock reflected in every other face. Penelope’s narrow eyes were closed to thin slits, wary and alert, and her brows were scrunched low.

Josie swallowed hard. Did Penelope suspect that Josie was an impostor?

The bell rang, saving Josie from any further muck-ups. Mr. Baines repeated the assignment and scurried from the room without even a look in Josie’s direction, and the rest of the students followed suit. It was as if the room were on fire, people were so anxious to get out of there.

Josie packed up her things slowly. Holy crap, she’d better keep her mouth closed for the rest of the day before she ruined the whole masquerade. She stood up and saw Penelope standing silently by the door of the empty classroom.

Her chin was jutted out and her arms folded across her chest. “What was all that about?”

Damn. Josie must have made quite a faux pas. “Sorry,” Josie said. “I didn’t realize I was being rude.”

“Rude?” Penelope laughed drily. “You’re Jo Byrne. You own this school. Hell, you have your own parking spot reserved every day. No one would ever think you were rude.”

“Oh.” Josie was confused. “I just thought . . . I mean, everyone got quiet.”

Penelope tilted her head to the side, scrutinizing Josie. “You know why.”

Josie’s mind raced. “Um . . .”

“You’ve never answered a question in class.”

So science wasn’t Jo’s strong suit. Of all the things they had in common, Josie found it ironic that an aptitude for science wasn’t one of them. “Oh, well, you know I’m not good at science.”

Penelope pulled her chin back. “You’ve never answered a question in any class. Ever.” Then she caught her breath. A look of fear washed over her face and before Josie could say anything else, Penelope spun around and dashed out the door.