In a World Just Right by Brooks Jen

Author:Brooks, Jen [Brooks, Jen]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

I SHOOT TO THE SITTING-UP-AFTER-A-NIGHTMARE position, shivering all over even though the sheets are soaked with sweat. I have this lingering image of seat belts in a tangle, arms and legs and necks strapped to a chair like in an execution, the buckles on those seat belts rising up and floating away. In the shadows I might even detect the echo of a scream I think I made.

I’ve thrown my comforter to the side, and the sweat on my body cools in the bare air, only making me shiver harder. I pull the bedcover back around me and hunker down against the mattress, working through the shivers and calming my breathing. I check the clock and find it’s just after two a.m. The dream recedes as dreams do, and my body slowly rediscovers its own warmth.

Apparently my body also thinks it’s slept long enough, because my brain clicks into worry mode, assaulting me with memories of the previous day. One Kylie’s pseudo-affection in creative writing, one Kylie’s pseudo-rejection in the shed. The snickering in the hallway. Is it really so bad for people to think real Kylie might like me? Shouldn’t I go to school tomorrow and strut around all proud or something? Maybe it’s time to finally show up in my fancy red car. If I’m seeing Kylie, that should bring me only good attention, right?

But the dark side of my soul says no one in the real world could think it’s natural for Kylie to like freakish Jonathan Aubrey with the faded scar and the BEWARE OF LONER sign. In the real world people won’t be happy for me. They’ll be horrified for Kylie. And they’ll be right. What’s happening to her is not natural.

A movement of air behind me causes my warmed skin to prickle again. Someone is in my room.

“If you’re gonna be awake all hours of the night, you may as well be productive, Big Brother.”

My first instinct is to tell her to go back to wherever she came from, but my second instinct wins out. I roll over.

“So . . . are you ready?” she asks.

“Ready for what?”

Tess smiles and flips some of her gorgeous dark hair. “Only the most important lessons you’ll ever get in your life.”

“And that means . . .”

“I’m going to show you the full power of being a world-maker.”

“Does that mean I get to visit your make-believe worlds?”

“Not even in your dreams.”

“But that time at the mall, when we ended up at the beach, that was your world, right?”

“That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

“That answer gets less and less funny with time.”

“Forget my worlds, Jonathan. I’ll teach you what I can to help you save Kylie. That’s it. Most of what I’m going to show you is stuff you should have figured out on your own already. You’re just too chicken to experiment.”

“What? I’ve experimented.”

“Yeah, right. You made your first world by accident. The rest was just the same exercise over and over. Get up and get dressed,” she commands.

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