Spacetime Study Hall

Chapter 1

"You're going to have to talk to her eventually, you know," I warned Jace, who was lying down on the booth, fiddling with his calculator and dwelling on all his problems.

"Not necessarily," he replies, sliding his head over the edge of the seat and hanging it there upside down for a moment. "I mean, unexpected deaths are pretty common. The probability that one of us dies before she tries to talk to me is probably up there somewhere in the 60% range."

I give him a doubtful look as he sits up. "That's highly unlikely."

He shrugs suggestively. "You never know, Mara. I mean, think of all the ways you could have died today. You could have been hit by a car on the way to school, or randomly murdered during lunch, or had an unfortunate run-in with a serial killer at any point in time..." Jace twirls his pencil around in the air, pointing it at me every time he came up with a new way for me to die.

"...or if Mr. Laige turned out to be insane-- imagine science class during that revelation. Or what if Mrs. Burquist is on the run from the cops, and her real name is something suspicious, like Mary Jones or something..."

I tune out when Jace's death plans turn into conspiracy theories about the teachers. I mean, seriously, dude? Just because you and Leia are having some stupid fight again doesn't mean one of our teachers is out to get us. Jace is definitely the most imaginitive guy I know, which can sometimes be a bad thing.

Ginny has been totally silent through this whole debacle. I envy her immunity to Jace's ramblings. She can block out the constant sound of his voice, babbling pointlessly to anyone around. I don't think I will ever be able to do that. Ginny is my quietest friend, but she is actually pretty witty once you get to know her.

"What did you get for number sixteen?" I asked her over the annoying voice on the other side of the booth.

"Hey!" Jace cut in, hearing a voice other than his own. "Were you even listening to me?"

The question was directed at me, since he knows he can't get Ginny to pay attention to him when he babbles. 

"Oh, of course, Jace. Do go on." I reply, rolling my eyes. It's not like he needed permission; he was going to continue, anyway.

"Three point seven," Ginny answered.

I look at my answer in confusion and pass my paper to her.

"Yeah," she said, nodding. "I got that at first too. But you have to put the integer on one side when you solve it this way."

"Ohhhh, right." I erase the 64.829 I had somehow come up with and start to rewrite my answer when I am startled by Jace's sudden change in volume. I look up, annoyed.

"Oh my gosh!" he exclaims, clearly agitated.

"Whaaat?" I reply.

"Natural disasters!" He cries, as if it was obvious. "I completely forgot about natural disasters! You could die from an earthquake, if the epicenter was nearby. Well, I guess it wouldn't have to be that close for it to have a deadly affect on you. Probably around two hundred miles, max... maybe a little more than that..."

I groan at his stupidity and return to my math homework. Why must he contemplate such unnecessary, completely unrelated ideas?

I hadn't even finished writing down the next problem when the lights turn off. I get up to turn them back on when they do it themselves.

"Oooo-kay," I say to no one in particular, and move to return to my seat when I realize Jace has stopped talking.

Before I can even react to this uncommon event, the ground beneath my feet lurches upward and detaches from the rest of the building. I watch from my currect position falling about 50 feet above where I was a second ago as my school explodes. I hear nothing at all, but I do a double take when I catch a glimpse of a few other students who seem to be falling as I am. They were... flickering. As if they were all holograms, just glitching every few seconds. I squint and blink a couple times, then look again. Still happening.