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classic. You’d make a great . . . what’s his name? You know, the brother character.”
    And Logan said, “We’ll see,” even though he knew he wouldn’t, just before Ms. Dirkin began boring the class with the practical details of New Chicago’s nuclear fusion plant.

    Logan’s last classes of the day were gym, government, and economics, and in each, he swam in a sea of anonymity. In fact, the only familiar face whatsoever was Veronica’s in gym, and all that meant was that Logan would never win a game.
    Yet the moment Logan entered economics, he had the feeling it was soon to become his favorite period of the day.
    Why? Because there, right there, two rows from the front and three desks in, sat the new girl, Erin, right beside an empty seat. Maybe it was time for Logan to change his back-row-only policy.
    5
    It was five minutes from the end of the day, and Erin Arbitor had yet to learn a single thing. Computer science had been a joke— judging by the syllabus, she could have taken the final exam that morning and aced it. English looked like it’d be the year of rereading, since her school in Beacon covered modern post-Unity lit in the sixth grade. Government she was already an expert on through her father, and economics she knew inside and out just by listening to her mother chat about work. None of this bothered Erin, though, since to her, all it meant was more time to contemplate her father’s secret case, Peck and the Markless threat in Spokie , which she was increasingly determined to crack.
    Erin was so distracted by last night’s revelation, in fact, that she didn’t even hear the final bell ring. It took that nervous kid bothering her again—again!—just to snap her out of it.
    “You’re new here, right?” He’d certainly wasted no time in approaching her.
    “Sorry?” Erin said.
    Logan cleared his throat. “Hi again. I’m Logan. I heard you’re from Beacon.”
    “Yeah,” Erin answered flatly. Her mind still hadn’t left her father’s box of papers.
    “I’ve always wanted to visit Beacon. My dad’s constantly talking about it,” Logan said.
    “Oh yeah?” Erin gathered her things and began making her way toward the door.
    “He’s an architect, so I guess he’s interested in it from a civil engineering perspective.”
    Erin could not have cared less about civil engineering, but she managed to say, “That’s neat,” before exiting the classroom and escaping down the hall.
    Logan followed her through the Pacific Wing, where a pod of computer-generated dolphins swam by. “Hey, I bet he’d love to pick your brain about it sometime,” he said, trailing behind Erin, who simply could not understand why this kid wouldn’t leave her alone.
    “Maybe,” she said.
    “Where do you live? I’m over on Wright.”
    “I don’t know where that is,” Erin said. She tried walking a little faster.
    “Just a few blocks from here.”
    “Well, I’m on Vital Lane. It’s a pretty far walk.” Erin was glad to have an excuse to get rid of the boy, who so obviously liked her and whose enthusiasm bordered on pathetic.
    “I’m right on the way!” Logan said. “I’ll walk with you!”
    Erin rolled her eyes, but Logan couldn’t see.
    So this is life in Spokie, America , she thought. Boring classes, long walks home, and desperate boys .
    Erin couldn’t get back to Beacon quickly enough.
    6
    “Space is at a premium here, since we’re so close to New Chicago, and we need to save space for farming ’cause so much of the land farther out’s gone bad.” Logan shrugged, trying to fill the empty air on his walk home with Erin. “I guess in Beacon they just have hydroponic farming, but we don’t have that out here yet. So to leave room for everyone after the Unity, Spokie said any private lot couldn’t take more than four hundred square feet of ground space.” Logan pointed to the examples as they walked past along the sidewalk.
    “’Course, you can buy more than one lot, but for most