Crossing Over by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel Page A

ghosts and I didn’t want you
to… I mean, Ben and I needed to… I needed to see if he—”
    “No, forget it,” Jac said, glowering. She leaned close to me and whispered. “I’m the one who’s been trying to get the two
of you together. I’m the one who made you talk to him in the first place. And now you’re just trying to get rid of me so the
two of you can go ghost hunting alone.”
    “That’s not true at all, Jac,” I said. Where was this coming from?
    “It is true,” Jac said. “You’d rather hang out with him than me now. I should have known this would happen. Things never staywhere you want them to. People never stay where you want them to.”
    “What are you talking about?” I asked.
    Jac said nothing.
    “Jac, what—”
    Brooklyn swept throughthe lobby door and shot me a triumphant smile. I knew exactly what was going inside her lima bean of
a brain. She had the one thing that might both get back at me and win her readmittance to the inner sanctum of Satellite Girls—a
bit of juicy gossip.
    I turned back to where Jac had been standing, only to find her gone. She had taken herself over near where Sid was standing,
and was rooting around in her bag. She pulled out a pack of gum, glanced up and saw me watching her, and turned in the other
direction. I didn’t know what to think. Was all this just because Ben and I had gone to the bus without her?
    The lobby door opened again, and my mother and Mrs. Gray walked in. My mother caught my eye and gave me a little nod. I couldn’t
get used to the sight of them together, like they were… friends or something.
    And I was starting to feel self-conscious standing all by myself. Ben was still over by the water fountain, fiddling with
his phone. Jac was reading the back of her pack of gum, apparently enthralled with the information. How long was she going
to stay mad at me? And why didn’t Ben come over? Maybe he had never liked me in the first place, not
like
-liked. Or if he had, our brush with amateur law enforcement had scared him off.
    My phone beeped, and I pulled it out. The screen informed me that I had a text message.
    The sun exploded back into my world. Jac must have given Ben my number! I’d have tothank her—when she was speaking to me
again.
    Avoiding J’s mom. See u back at hotel? By soda machines
?
    OK, c u then
, I texted back, trying not to grin at Ben like SpongeBob.
    Ben snapped his phone shut and smiled at me for a moment, before walking over to the Story of Biodome display.
    It is difficult to momentarily find yourself the happiest person on the planet at the same time that your best friend is mad
at you. I couldn’t stand it. I made a beeline for Jac.
    “Please don’t still be mad at me,” I said to her.
    She looked like she was trying to ignore me, but she gave up quickly.
    “Give me one good reason,” she said, pressing her lips together.
    I gave it some thought. I could go for serious or glib. I decided on glib.
    “Your feet are cuter than mine,” I said.
    Jac was very vain about her feet. They
were
cuter than mine, and she liked to be reminded of it.
    “True,” she said, “though I’m not sure it’s a good reason not to be mad at you.”
    “You won’t take pity on a poor girl with ugly feet?” I asked.
    “They’re not ugly,” Jac said. “Just a little bony.”
    “My pinky toes are crooked.”
    Jac gave me a sympathetic look.
    “Only a little,” she said. “Not so much that anyone else would notice.”
    “Thank you,” I said.
    “Anytime. What’s new?”
    “Brooklyn saw me with Ben and gave me the Super Death Ray look. And Ben textedme to meet him by the soda machines when we
get back.”
    Maybe I shouldn’t have added the part about Ben. But Jac looked pleased. Whatever had caused her mood swing, she was over
it.
    “Serves Brooklyn right,” she said. “Bad karma. What are you going to wear to the soda machines?”
    “I don’t know. What do people normally wear to the soda machines?”
    “Let