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unconscious, and then died at the hands of an unknown rescuer. They were grateful the Scales had thought to rescue Skip as well. Why rock the boat?
    He didn’t seem to want to talk about it either. But that might have had to do more with Gerry, who by scheduling coincidence was in at least three of Jennifer and Susan’s classes, to their mutual delight, while Skip was only in Jennifer’s history class.
    So the week went on in fairly boring fashion. Skip was incredibly attentive and spoke of nothing but going to the Halloween dance, Susan was continually plotting how to run into Gerry, Eddie was barely a ghost they saw in the hallways from time to time, and Bob Jarkmand still glared at Jennifer from across hallway crowds like a distant, horrifying lighthouse.
    Jennifer was ducking away from the enormous boy’s gaze one afternoon when she almost walked straight into Gerry.
    “Whoa!” She almost dropped her backpack. “Um, hey, Gerry.”
    The boy stared back at her, but said nothing.
    “Sorry I almost ran into you.” An idea struck her—this was an opportunity to help her friend! “Hey, er, you haven’t seen Susan around lately, have you? She was talking about you earlier.”
    Despite her meaningful wink, she got no reaction at all. Gerry Stowe appeared frozen in midair.
    She waved her hand in front of his face. “Hello?”
    That made him blink, but he didn’t smile. Instead, he looked her up and down, wiped the sweat off of his forehead, and bolted in the other direction.
    Hmm. She watched him run. Should I be flattered or insulted?
    “Jennifer!” It was Eddie’s voice behind her.
    Or warned.
    She walked as quickly as she could away from the voice, in the same direction Gerry had taken. Eddie called after her a couple more times, but the voice got more distant and she soon could breathe a sigh of relief.
    “Hey, gorgeous! Whatcha up to?” Skip’s voice made her jump.
    “Oh! Hey, Skip.” She looked around, distracted. “Yeah, I was just looking for Gerry. Did he come this way?”
    His easygoing expression shifted into anxious irritation. “I wouldn’t know. I don’t pay much attention to him.”
    Sensing his jealousy, she offered a soft smile. “Oh, Skip. Really. I just wanted to talk to him and find out if maybe he’d be interested in asking Susan to the dance.”
    “Susan, eh?” He surveyed the hallway as if expecting the brunette to leap out of a locker. “She could probably do better.”
    Jennifer decided to change the subject. “Are you going to take me somewhere for my birthday?”
    This worked beautifully and he stammered defensively. “Your b-birthday! Oh yeah, that’s, er, coming up, isn’t it?”
    She pretended to be irritated that he couldn’t place the date. “September eighteenth, Skip. Next Thursday. You remember, don’t you?”
    “Of course! Um, well, I thought we might go to the mall…”
    “Winoka Mall?” She wrinkled her nose. “We go there two or three times a week already.”
    “No, no! Um, the Mall of America!” This was at least an effort, Jennifer had to admit. The Mall of America was a commercial landmark in Minnesota, complete with four massive anchor stores, hundreds of stores in between them, and a full-scale amusement park in the middle of it all.
    But she wasn’t ready to let him off the hook yet. “How will we get there?”
    “My aunt can drive.”
    The expression on her face must have been vivid, because he hurried to add, “She’ll drop us off! It’ll just be the two—”
    “Jennifer!”
    “Ugh.” She flinched at the interruption. Eddie had apparently not given up as easily as she had hoped. He was jogging down the hallway toward them, gracefully sliding between other students’ bodies and backpacks.
    “Jennifer, I’ve got to talk to—”
    Skip’s hand stopped Eddie short. “She doesn’t want to talk to you.”
    The other boy’s sparrowlike features tried to maneuver around the hand to get a glimpse of Jennifer. “Skip, back off! This