"Not much," Jenny said. "I don't think I'd break my neck, though."

"Good. We have four horses," Sally said. "One of them's really gentle. We can ride over to the rimrocks some time. Take a picnic and climb around. Do you climb?"

Jenny shook her head. "Not yet."

"It's not as bad as it looks from a distance," Sally

told her. **You don't need climbing gear or anything, not for most of it. It's fun up there; you'll love it once you get used to it."

Jenny watched her ride off, smiling wryly to herself. There was no getting around it^ she guessed. Sooner or later, she was going to have to climb those rimrocks.

U

Chapter 2

"A 'cedilla'? Would somebody please tell me where we're supposed to find a cedilla?"

"Never mind where it is; first we have to figure out what it is."

"And what about this?" somebody groaned. " 'A Countenanced Pumpkin.' That's a jack-o'-lantern, right? Who's got a jack-o'-lantern in August?"

"Who has a pumpkin?" someone asked. "And what devious mind is responsible for this list?"

Loud laughter and lots of good-natured complaining greeted the scavenger hunt list. Jenny glanced at it, but she was too busy watching everyone and trying to keep names and faces straight to pay much attention to it.

"It's gotta be Latham," someone else said. "I see his tricky htJid all over it."

"Not guilty," a quiet voice said. "I tried, of course, but since Mr. Mayes refuses to use a computer, there was no way I could have any influence on this list."

"Mr. Mayes is one of the history teachers,'' Sally told Jenny. "And that's Dean Latham," she added, tilting her head toward the boy who'd just denied having anything to do with the list. "He's the class brain. Really into computers. I heard his room looks like an electronics lab."

At that moment, Dean Latham, a sandy-haired boy with pale blue eyes, was being teasingly pum-meled by another guy who easily outweighed him by fifty poimds. His name was Brad Billings, Jenny remembered; Evergreen High's one and only football star. "The team stinks," Sally had said cheerfully. "But don't tell Brad I said so. He absolutely refuses to face reality."

Sally had already introduced Jenny around. Sally was a fount of information, telling everyone where Jenny came from, which house she lived in, how she was trying to talk her into going climbing. Even the fact that Jenny's parents were leaving town for a few days wasn't left out: Sally kept reminding people to caU Jenny so she wouldn't be lonely.

Jenny didn't say much; Sally didn't give her a chance. But people seemed friendly, and she felt welcomed and glad she'd come.

Now, while the group read and joked about the list, Sally continued giving Jenny a quick character sketch of everyone gathered in the high school parking lot: Alice bordered on being an airhead, but she was genuinely nice; Marc thought he was every girl's dream of the perfect date, but Sally went out with him once and all he talked about was how he