Page 36 of Jinxed

George swings from the rafters, before jumping down and grabbing the bucket of metal scraps from my arm. ‘Thanks, George,’ I say to the lemur baku.

There’s a burst of laughter fromwhere Tobias is working with his team. Paul raises an eyebrow. ‘You got people in your locker?’

‘Yeah, some people from school...’

‘Well, look at you. Making friends and everything. Never thought I’d see the day.’

I stick my tongue out at him, but then fold my arms over my chest. ‘They’re not really friends. They’re my teammates.’

‘Hmm.’

‘Anyway, I don’t have time for friends. I have tofocus on my studies and...’

‘Lacey, my dear. You shouldalwaysmake time for your friends. When was the last time you saw Zora?’

‘Um... I’m going to see her this weekend,’ I say, but all of a sudden it doesn’t feel enough. My list of excuses is a mile long but none of them are adequate. Sure, I’ve been busy – but I haven’t thought about what she might be up to. And suddenly I know whatI want to do. ‘Will you let me know when this is ready?’

Paul nods, flicking switches to start up the oven. Supermelters, just like 3D printers, used to take forever to work, but now he’s able to melt down the material for me in only a few minutes.

I instruct Jinx to call Zora. It takes her a few seconds to pick up, and I feel anxious. But eventually her face appears on Jinx’s chest. I smile,breathing a sigh of relief. ‘Zora, is that you? Guess where I am?’

‘Your storage locker?’ Zora replies, but she doesn’t make eye contact.

‘Oookay, maybe that wasn’t so hard to guess,’ I say, trying to laugh it off and pretend that everything is normal. ‘There’s a whole group of people from Profectus here...’

Now Zora’s eyes snap to mine. ‘Wait up. You mean to tell me you let a bunch of kidsfrom your school into your locker after only a month. It took me years of friendship before you would let me in?’

‘Well... it was an emergency.’

‘Yeah, okay.’ Zora purses her lips. The last thing I wanted to do was annoy her, so I think of the one thing I know will always cheer her up.

‘Anyway, I’m calling especially to ask you if you want to come around and take a look at a level 3 spanielbaku code? I bet you’d find it really interesting and you can help debug it for us before tomorrow... it will be like old times!’

‘Um, I think I’m going to pass,’ she says. ‘I want to get an early night before school tomorrow. I have abigday.’

Now, it’s my turn to frown. ‘Wait, what’s your big day?’

Zora rolls her eyes. ‘Oh, so now you’re interested? I’ve got to go...’ Her face is illuminatedon Jinx’s chest, and I can see from her eyes that she isn’t looking at me again, her gaze drifting up above the height of Linus’s camera. I know I’ve lost her for the night. I can’t blame her.

‘See you Saturday?’ I ask.

‘Bye,’ Zora says sharply, and when she hangs up I’m plunged into almost total darkness.

Paul gives his locker door a small shake. ‘Your metal is all ready to go.’

‘Thanks,Paul,’ I say with a sigh. I look up at him. ‘Is it normal for things to... not be exactly what you expected them to be?’

He chuckles. ‘Normal? Honey, that’s just life.’

‘Right.’ Disappointment settles on my shoulders.

Jinx rubs up against my legs, and I reach down to pick him up.

>>Come on,he says.You’ve got a job to do.

I nod and give myself a small shake.That’s right.

I’m part of a team now. They need me.

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