Call Spirits in Your Past **Book Two**

Chapter 31 (Wednesday)

"You've never dreamt about snow?" Ripple asked.

"Not recently enough to sew it into a quilt," Addie scoffed.

Ripple leaned back on the hard, wooden chair, sighing loudly. Their dorm only contained the two bedrooms, plus this small "room" in the widened section of the hallway between them. The exit was past Ripple's room, and before Addie moved in Ripple had hardly walked further than that.

Addie shifted in her chair, a notebook on her lap. She erased something furiously, tongue sticking out. "What about just a mountain? I think I remember one of those from a few nights back."

Ripple pursed her lips, thinking about the ski lodge. It was kind of fuzzy, defying exact dimensions, whenever she was fronting. "Can you just make it white? Like a white slope behind the ski lodge?"

Addie bit her lip. "I don't know. I'm, um, kind of new at this."

Ripple leaned the chair back further, bumping it against the wall. "What if we just create inside the ski lodge?"

Addie raised an eyebrow and held up a paper. Ripple's scribbled drawing of the dark hallway in the ski lodge, to be exact. "This?" Addie asked.

"Yeah," Ripple said.

Addie titled her face downward, as if to say "are you serious?"

"What more do you want?" she protested. "I'm not good at drawing."

Addie tucked the paper back in her notebook. "Drawing is a skill. Anyone can learn to draw better."

Ripple snorted. "Right, just like anyone can get better with a poleaxe."

Addie didn't blush like she hoped she would.

"That was a retort," Ripple said, "about how bad you were in class."

"I know!" Addie said hotly. "I got that. I just decided it was irrelevant."

"Irrelevant? Your point was that anyone can learn to get better, and my point was that if you start off really terribly, getting better is hardly much of an improvement."

"So I should just give up trying to control my dreams?"

"Okay, that's irrelevant," Ripple said. "If we didn't control our powers, that'd be like--well, it'd be like not potty training a toddler. "

Addie stared blandly at her. "I think this entire conversation is irrelevant."

"I don't," she stood up. "I'm hungry. Want me to get something for you?"

Addie looked at the wall--which was bare--then down at her notebook, mumbling.

"What?" Ripple asked.

"Why aren't there clocks anywhere around here?" she muttered, barely audible.

Ripple shrugged. "Because this room was useless until you showed up," she turned and stomped to the door. Addie muttered something, too softly to make out. "Bye," Ripple called over her shoulder.

***

Ripple took the bowl of soup from the cafeteria worker, bland faced and white-gloved, then carried her food to the only open table in the gray dining area. This was the closest kitchen to the early grades' building, so technically she should've recognized some people crowding the round tables dotting the kitchen. She didn't.

She plopped into a plastic chair, wrinkling her nose at the pale soup. They were only serving variations of cream of "insert vegetable here" soup, and the pale variety looked infinitely better than pea green, or brown-orange--though still dismally appealing.

She scooped some of the goopy stuff, blowing on it then shoveling it into her mouth. She swallowed. Her taste buds screamed cauliflower.

Movement blurred across the gray tile and she froze. Was that a rat? Oh gross, what if it had walked all over the cauliflower? She thumped her spoon into the plastic bowl.

Unfortunately, she was hungry. And she'd had enough of trying to explain the ski lodge and the mountain to Addie. Only Ripple and the other alters knew about the ski lodge, so telling a stranger was like giving away dark secrets.

However, there was a rat. In the kitchen. If she returned to her room and came back later, they might have different soup, with vegetables the rat hadn't touched. The rat appeared again, scurrying under a table and darting toward the serving table, and Ripple grimaced. It ran under a swinging door, and she shuddered at another small creature running the other direction. How many were there?

Ripple squealed her chair back and marched to the trash, scraping out her soup and placing her dishes on the return conveyor belt. She marched outside, stomach growling, breathing air uninfested by a cream of vegetables and too many people's breaths. She nearly tripped. Was someone else near the front? She reached around in her thoughts, eyes flicking to the sides.

Mina? Ripple hesitantly guessed. Mina was pretty sensitive to smells, usually. Like...she sniffed. Cut grass and someone's perfume and it smells like fresh carrots. Ripple turned, gaze searching the sidewalk and the flower beds--her eyes fell on a pile of orange vegetables, halfway hidden between the kitchen and a leafy bush. "What?" she muttered.

A jabbing pain bloomed in her cheek and she fell. "Ow!" she slammed into the lawn.

A heavy weight sat on her chest, and she spat out grass, squinting into the sun. It looked like a...a bear. A black bear. "Addie?" she asked suspiciously.

The bear growled, and Ripple's hands groped around for something to throw at it. Ribbon slid close to the surface and Ripple tried pushing her away, only resulting in things going fuzzy and distant. "No, stop it," she grunted.

The bear tilted its head quizzically.

A quiet voice squeaked, "wow, we did not think this through."

The bear's face bubbled like wax, but went back to normal.

"Should I just...knock her out?"

Ripple gaped, and the bear nodded, and Ribbon surged to the surface. "No!" Ribbon screamed, and Ripple slid backwards, spots dancing in her vision, and when they cleared she was sitting in a movie theater. She jumped to her feet and ran up to the movie screen.

"Ribbon!" she shouted. "Let me back in!"

Ribbon, of course, didn't hear her. In the movie, she struggled on the grass, kicking at the bear and sending it toppling off. A bug-sized figure zoomed into their vision and Ribbon flinched.

The screen went dark and silent.

Ripple kicked the white fabric. "Ribbon!"

No reply.

Ripple turned away. "Good luck with that, Ribbon," she muttered. Again, no reply--from the screen or the theater's empty row of faded orange seats. She closed her eyes, trying to breathe steadily. Mina could force lots of them to front all together, and then they could take out the bear and the tiny person, just like she had...wait, Mina had done that before, right? That was Mina's power. That was Mina's power, so...

Ripple rubbed her eyes and sat on the carpet. She couldn't remember. Something about...she got to her feet. Somebody would know. If it had happened, somebody had the memory. Mina had pushed lots of them to front together before, right? When?

She shuffled to the exit. Flora said she and Lily met Skeleton. Across the canyon. Either Skeleton had just decided to climb out of the canyon--Ripple shivered--or...what if Skeleton had only just been created?

Ripple gulped. The newest alter she knew of was Lucille, and she'd just had her second birthday--she'd been here before they came to the school. But if new alters were forming now, here, then...Ripple shivered again. Was the school actually safe like they said? They said she'd be safe here.

She wrapped her arms around her torso, rocking side to side. Maybe Skeleton wasn't brand new. He'd lived down in the canyon for years, and just decided to climb out. And Ripple was just forgetful, that's all.

She reached for the door, pushing down another shiver. She'd go ask Mina about it. The powers, how Ripple was just forgetful. And Mina would know what to do.