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“That was it?” she said with obvious disappointment.

“Maybe he’s restricted to only a dozen words an hour,” I muttered.

“What was the two-word comment?” she asked.

“ ‘Neat answer.’ ”

“That was it? Weren’t you disappointed?”

“Jessica, I wasn’t devastated by his mere presence. Stop making it into a thing.”

She nodded, but I could see she wasn’t satisfied. “Maybe he’s the strong, silent type,” she said, looking for a positive explanation.

“Maybe just silent.”

“I’d like to be the one who finds out.”

“Then practice sign language,” I said, and she laughed.

“I still love the way you treated Shayne Peters.”

I smiled, remembering again how much I wanted to e-mail Kiera about it—and this new student, I guessed.

Jordan was home when we arrived. She was happy I had chosen Jessica. She was very friendly with Jessica’s mother, who was part of what Mr. March called her “clutch lunch gang.”

“How was school?” she asked us.

“Certainly not very boring today,” Jessica said.

“Oh? What happened?”

“Among other things, a famous actor’s children were admitted,” Jessica replied before I could.

“What actor?”

“Bradley Garfield. You know who he is married to?” Jessica asked Jordan.

“Beverly Ransome. Isn’t that nice?”

I wasn’t surprised that Jordan knew. She had at least two dozen magazine subscriptions, and from the way she described some of her “clutch lunch gang” lunches, celebrities were often the chief topic of discussion. The celebrities set the fashions they all followed.

“How old are the children?” she asked me.

“One is in eighth grade.”

“Her name is Summer,” Jessica said, “but I knew both their names before they came to our school.”

“And the other child?”

“Not a child,” Jessica said. “He’s in our class. Ryder. He’s soooo it,” she added.

Jordan raised her eyebrows, smiled, and looked to me. “Oh?”

“Yes,” I added, “the drooling began immediately. Our custodian, Mr. Hull, is going to have to work hard at cleaning up the mess.”

Jordan laughed. “Well, I don’t see how he couldn’t be good-looking with those two as parents. Is their daughter pretty?”

“We only saw a little of her, but she’s pretty,” I said.