Page 13 of Jinxed

My breath catches in my throat.

There’s an email from the Board of Education. It has the same heading as the one a couple of days before.LACEY CHU: PROFECTUS APPLICATION STATUS. There’s probably a bug in their system, emailing me for a double hit of rejection. Great. Like I need that.

Even though it makes my nose twitch to see the ‘unread’ notification,I don’t open the email. Instead, I scroll through the Flashes from the people I follow. Pretty much all my St Agnes classmates are getting their new bakus in time for the new school year, and even people with the boring level 1 insects seem excited. Suddenly, it’s like my phone is an old, dead object in my palm. Looking up at Zora, who is stroking Linus’s nose as he projects updates on to her palm,or Mom creating a new recipe with Petal describing every step, I realize how silly I’m being. My phone is just a lump of metal, broken glass and plastic.

I need a baku.

‘I left my beetle downstairs. I better go and grab it,’ I say.

‘Okay, but you come straight back up here, promise me? You’ve already spent too much time down there. You need more sunshine,’ says Mom.

‘You got it,’ I reply.

‘I’ll come with you,’ says Zora, shovelling the last spoonful into her mouth. ‘If you let me borrow your new baku for a bit, I can upgrade some of your apps as a thank you for saving Linus.’

I shoot her a grateful smile. I want to fill her in on what happened last night – and get her take on the Moncha guard. I can always count on her logical brain to tell me whether I should be more worried aboutsomething than not.

Then there’s the mysterious cat baku... but I don’t know whether I’m ready to tell Zora about that discovery yet.

We walk over to the elevator as I tell her about my adventures in the ravine.

Her jaw drops. ‘I’d heard they’d stepped up security in Monchaville, but didn’t realize it wasthatbad. And I still can’t believe you found him! The probability of that happeningwas very low,’ Zora says. ‘When I work on your beetle I’ll load him up with some custom apps. I’ve got a few that I’ve coded... you’ll love it, I promise. Have you decided on a name yet?’

I shake my head. ‘Not yet, but...’ My phone buzzes in my hand and I glance down at the splintered screen.

MESSAGE FOR LACEY CHU FROM BOARD OF EDUCATION

I roll my eyes.

‘What is it?’ asks Zora.

I turn the screen to show her. She kisses her teeth. ‘What do they want?’

‘I guess it’s time to find out.’

My finger hovers over the email app on the screen. Zora reaches out and squeezes my shoulder.

LACEY CHU: PROFECTUS APPLICATION STATUS

Dear Lacey,

We are delighted to offer you a place at Profectus Academy next year. We have registered your level 3 baku on our system.

Congratulations, and we look forward to seeing you in September.

Dr Grant

PRINCIPAL OF PROFECTUS ACADEMY

‘WHAT?’ I actually scream out loud after I’ve read the email.

I close it, then scroll back to find the original – but it’s gone. Deleted. It’s not in my Trash either. It’s as if I never received it. I open the new email again and stare, wondering if the letters are going to rearrange in front of my eyes.But they don’t. I’m in, for real.

‘What is it? What’s happened?’ Zora asks.

I try to speak but can’t. Zora grabs the phone from my hand.

‘Holy baku,’ she says as she reads the email, her hand flying to her mouth. ‘But I thought—’

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