“I’m not imagining things, right? That road wasn’t there on Friday?” Otto whispered. Eleanor nodded. She looked at the bus driver, who had started forward again. Eleanor could see the woman’s reflection in the rearview mirror, an expression of utter bafflement on her face. As soon as they picked up speed, though, her expression smoothed. She reached over to turn on the radio, cranking Taylor Swift as loud as she would go.

Eleanor twisted to watch the strange road. She kept her eyes fixed on it, waiting for it to shimmer and vanish or to sprout teeth or something equally horrific, but it just stayed a road, until she couldn’t see it anymore.

“The Wending?” Otto whispered.

Eleanor pulled her journal out of her backpack and opened it to a page titled Possible Signs of Wrong Things, Mr. January, Etc. Most of the items on the list had been crossed off or were labeled “resolved” or “harmless” or “avoid.”

Roads that shouldn’t be there, she wrote at the bottom of the list, and strained to hear the sound of a ticking clock—the surefire sign of approaching trouble in the past. But there was only the rumbling of the bus and the nervous tapping of Otto’s fingers against the vinyl seat.

•   •   •

PIP WAS WAITING for them near the front steps, and she looked just as tired as they did. She had dark shadows under her eyes and her hair was a helpless tangle. She yawned and waved blearily to them as they approached.

They told her about the extra road as they meandered down the hall. They didn’t have classes all together until the afternoon, which meant as soon as the bell rang, they’d be split up. “So nobody hears the clock?” Eleanor finished.

“Not a tick or a tock,” Pip said. She peered at the two of them. “No gray eyes today. That’s something.”

“How long will that last, though?” Otto asked. “You’re forgetting more things, too.”

Pip shrugged. “Nothing important. Just kid stuff.”

Otto’s expression was hurt, but he looked away as if to hide it from Pip. Otto and Pip had been best friends all their lives. “Kid stuff” meant memories of their childhood together. Pip was acting like it didn’t matter at all.

The bell rang, giving them five minutes’ warning to get to class. They parted reluctantly, agreeing to meet up at lunch like they always did, and Eleanor headed for science class and slouched her way over to the table she shared with her lab partner, Katie Rhodes, a girl with a cheery round face and blond hair that always managed to look mussed.