Angie’s smug confidence melted, and she slumped down, only her back against the Ford holding her from sinking to the dirt.

The hissing faded until it was lost in the wind, and then Rex’s body seemed to fold into itself again, back to its normal human size and shape. Jessica wasn’t sure if she’d really seen him change so completely or if the whole thing had been a massive psych-out.

He turned away from Angie. “Come on, guys.”

“But she knows more,” Melissa said.

“Not anything important. They told me what I really need to know.”

His voice was normal again, and as Rex strode toward Jonathan’s car, he looked tired, the energy that had coursed through his body during the sudden transformation now gone.

Jessica and Jonathan cast a wary glance at each other, then followed Melissa, who was trailing worriedly after Rex.

“What about her?” Dess called. Jessica paused and glanced over her shoulder; Dess was looking down at Angie as if she were a particularly interesting bug found smashed against the ground.

Rex didn’t turn back, just spoke to the empty desert in front of him.

“She’s walking. She knows the way out of town.”

19

6:23 P.M.

SPAGHETTI SITUATION

“The rule is in force tonight,” Beth announced.

Jessica glanced up from her physics textbook. “Um, Beth? I’d like to point out that I am in my own bedroom, not in the kitchen. Therefore there is no possible way that I can be found in violation of the rule.”

“I’m just warning you,” Beth answered.

“Warning me?” Jessica said with a look of annoyance.

It was Beth Spaghetti Night, which meant that her little sister was cooking dinner. Over the last four years, since Beth had turned nine, the ritual had been held every Wednesday night, interrupted only in the first few tumultuous weeks after the family had arrived in Bixby.

The one rule of Beth Spaghetti Night was simple: Beth cooked, and everyone else had to stay away from the food.

Even now, the scent of reducing onions was already drifting through Jessica’s open door. The familiar smell had been making her happy until this interruption.

“Warning me about what exactly?”

“That I am enforcing the rule in its maximum form tonight,” Beth said.

“What does that mean? That we all have to leave the house while you cook?”

“No, but just…” Beth wrinkled her nose and checked over her shoulder, as if the smell of something burning had reached her. “Just stay in here. Okay, Jess?”

“Why?”

Beth smiled. “It’s a surprise.”

Jessica considered getting Mom to pass judgment on this new and irksome interpretation of the rule, but it probably wasn’t worth the effort. Jessica had been planning on studying until dinner anyway, and maybe the threat of Beth’s irritation would keep her from winding up in front of the TV.

Physics was Jessica’s only test scheduled before Halloween, and it seemed a shame for the world to end on a D+.

“Please?”

“Sure. Whatever,” Jessica said, making sure to roll her eyes.