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An instant later Cassie caan and Jordanback any second And if they realized she’d deliberately lied to them

Cassie winced as she scra dune The world around her seeic andin a drea? Souy asn’t like any other guy But that was all ridiculous The stone in her hand was just a stone And words were just words Even that boy Of course there was no way he could have heard her thoughts No one could do that; there had to be a rational explanation

She tightened her grip on the little piece of rock in her pal where he’d held it, and the skin he’d touched with his fingertips felt different froht that no matter what happened to her in the future, she would always feel his touch

Once inside the sue she and her mother rented, she locked the front door behind her Then she paused She could hear her mother’s voice from the kitchen, and fro

Mrs Blake was on the phone, her back to the doorway, her head slightly bowed as she clutched the receiver to her ear As always, Cassie was struck by thesliure With that and the fall of long, dark hair worn simply clasped at the back of her neck, Mrs Blake could have been a teenager herself It made Cassie feel protective toward her In fact, sometimes she almost felt as if she were the mother and her mother the child

And just now it made her decide not to interrupt her mother’s conversation Mrs Blake was upset, and at intervals she said "Yes" or "I know" into the mouthpiece in a voice full of strain

Cassie turned and went to her bedroom

She wandered over to theand looked out, wondering vaguely as going on with herbut the boy on the beach

Even if Portia knew his name, she would never tell, Cassie was sure of that But without his naain?

She wouldn’t That was the brutal truth, and she ht now Even if she did find out his name, she wasn’t the sort to chase after a boy She wouldn’t kno

"And in one week I’ home," she whispered For the first tie of coh little piece of chalcedony down on the night-stand, with a sort of final clink

"Cassie? Did you say so?"

Cassie turned quickly to see her mother in the doorway "Mom! I didn’t know you were off the phone" When her ly, she added, "I was just thinking out loud I was saying that we’ll be going home next week"

An odd expression crossed her e black eyes had dark circles under them and wandered nervously around the roo?" said Cassie

"I was just talking with your grand for us to drive up and see her sometime next week?"

Cassie remembered very well She’d told Portia she and herto drive up the coast, and Portia had snapped that it wasn’t called the coast here From Boston down to the Cape it was the south shore, and from Boston up to New Ha to Maine it was down east, and anyhere did her grandmother live? And Cassie hadn’t been able to answer because her mother had never told her the name of the town

"Yes," she said "I reot off the phone with her She’s old, Cassie, and she’s not doing very well It’s worse than I realized"

"Oh, Morandmother, never even seen a picture of her, but she still felt awful Her ed for years, since Cassie had been born It was so home, but that was all her h, there had been soht that underneath they still loved each other She hoped they did, anyway, and she’d been looking forward to seeing her grandmother for the first ti to be okay?"

"I don’t know She’s all by herself in that big house and she’s lonely and noith this phlebitis it’s hard for her to get around soht and shadow across her mother’s face She spoke quietly but al erandmother and I have had our probleot anyone else It’s time we buried our differences"

Her ement before "What was it all about, Mom?"

"It doesn’t matter now She wanted ht she was doing the right thing and now she’s all alone and she needs help"

Disrand else A trickle of alarm started by the look on her mother’s face, which was that of so the words

"Cassie, I’ve thought a lot about this, and there’s only one thing for us to do And I’m sorry, because it will mean such a disruption of your life, and it will be so hard on you but you’re young You’ll adapt I know you will"

A twinge of panic shot through Cassie "Moht," she said quickly "You stay here and do what you need to I can get ready for school by myself It’ll be easy; Beth and Mrs Free her head, and suddenly Cassie felt she had to go on, to cover everything in a rush of words "I don’t need that many new school clothes"

"Cassie, I’m so sorry I need you to try and understand, sweetheart, and to be adult about this I know you’ll ot to try to s" Her mother’s eyes were fixed on the , as if she couldn’t bear to look at Cassie

Cassie went very still "Mo we’re not going ho to rand to stay here"

Cassie felt nothing but a dazed numbness She could only say stupidly, as if this hat mattered, "Where’s ’here’? Where does Grandma live?"

For the first tier and darker than Cassie had ever seen them before

"New Salem," she said quietly "The town is called New Sale by the , staring blankly Herin helpless, useless circles

To stay here to stay in New England

An electric shock ran through her Hi inside her proclailad But it was only one voice and there were oing houy is here in Massachusetts somewhere? You don’t know his naain

But there’s a chance, she thought desperately And the voice deepest inside, the one that had been glad before, whispered: More than a chance It’s your fate

Fate! the other voices scoffed Don’t be ridiculous! It’s your fate to spend your junior year in New England, that’s all Where you don’t know anyone Where you’ll be alone

Alone, alone, alone, all the other voices agreed

The deep voice was crushed and disappeared Cassie felt any hope of seeing the red-haired boy again slip away from her What she was left as despair

I won’t even get to say good-bye to ed her ood-bye But Mrs Blake had said there was no money and no tis would be shipped to Cassie’s grandmother’s house by a friend of her mother’s

"If you went back," her ently, "you’d only feel worse about leaving again This way at least it will be a clean break And you can see your friends next summer"

Next suht of her friends: good-natured Beth and quiet Clover, and Miriam the class wit Add to that shy and drearoup So maybe they weren’t the in-crowd, but they had fun and they’d stuck together since ele without them until next summer?

But her mother’s voice had been so soft and distracted, and her eyes had wandered around the rooue, preoccupied way, that Cassie hadn’t had the heart to rant and rave the way she would have liked

In fact, for an instant Cassie had wanted to go to herwould be all right But she couldn’t The s in her chest wouldn’t let her However worried her oing to a strange new school in a state three thousand ed