Page 45 of Jinxed

And even though sitting in Zora’s bedroom is comfortable... normal, even, I’m itching for the weekend to be over.

Because all I know is... I can’t wait to get back to school.

AFTER DINNER, I HELP MOM WITH THE washing up, then head to my room. Jinx is curled up on my bed, right on top of the laundry-fresh clothes that I haven’t put away. He lifts his head as I walk in,his eyes blinking lazily, as if he’s just woken up from a dream. ‘Everything okay, Jinx?’ I ask. I try to gently coax him off the laundry, but he won’t come, so I push him a little more forcefully. He gives me an unappreciative tail flick, but crawls further on to the bedclothes – at least just far enough for me to grab the laundry and start putting it away. ‘Thanks,’ I say, sarcasm dripping overmy voice. But I still love him.

>>What would you do to find out more about your dad?Jinx asks.

‘Anything,’ I say, honestly. But Jinx knows better than anyone that I’ve exhausted all the avenues I can think of. He’s seen my search history. There’s nothing out there about him. He’s been erased from the digital world.

‘Why do you ask?’

>>No reason.

He moves so that his head rests against myneck. These are some of my favourite moments with Jinx. I rest my hand on his fur and he purrs softly, lulling me into a half-sleep.

>>You’ve had some messages through.

‘Anything important?’ I whisper. I’ve become used to Jinx’s filtering of my messages, even though it’s not something I’ve ever asked him to do and I haven’t heard of anyone else’s bakus doing it. But I like it. It’s as if heknows when I want to stay focused so I’m not constantly interrupted.

>>There’s a bunch here from Tobias Washington.

‘What?’ I shriek and sit up abruptly, Jinx tumbling on to the mattress beside me. ‘What, do you mean Tobias Washington has been sending me messages? And you didn’t tell me? What if it was something important? What if it was...’

Jinx yawns. >>Not important. Unless you consider ‘Hey’ and ‘S’up’ are important messages.

‘Idoconsider that important!’ I look at the timestamp on the messages. Almost two hours ago. Two whole hours have gone by, with Tobias thinking that I’m just ignoring him. I could kill Jinx.

>>There’s a couple more.

‘Jinx, you had better show me every single one of those messages right now or else you’re going to the scrapyard where no one will havea chance to fix you.’

Jinx makes a series of beeping noises that I interpret as the baku equivalent of a scoff, but he projects all the messages on to the square of duvet in front of me. I read them so fast, I feel like I’m a starving person who’s been offered up a tasty meal. I don’t even know what I’m looking for, so I force myself to stop, sit back, and read them more slowly.

‘Hey.’

‘S’up.’

‘Just wondering if you had time tonight to go over some companioneering stuff? I want to know how you merged a rodent-link camera tail to your feline baku.’

Three unread messages, all from a couple of hours ago. He’s going to think I’ve totally ignored him all evening. I don’t know how to do this. Is there the possibility of anything more here? I painstakingly compose a message back, reworkingit over in my head until I think it strikes the right tone.

Hey! Sorry, had a family dinner... no messages at the table and all that. I think there might be something wrong with my baku too, I wasn’t getting any notifications.

>>There isn’t anything wrong with me and you know it.

‘Shut it, Jinx,’ I say, still fuming that he hid these from me.

>>Well, look at that, says Jinx.

I look up.I hadn’t even finished my message – I had planned on answering his question. But I can see a stream of dots that show that Tobias is in the middle of replying already. My heart seems to stop beating inside my chest.

‘Jinx, did you send that before I even asked you to?’

>>What? I thought you were finished. Read fine to me.

‘I wasn’t finished! I hadn’t even said if I was free or not...’

Then Tobias’s reply pops up.

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