Free Jackie's Jokes by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Marcia said.
    "Our pretend substitute teacher," Rebecca said, stealing Petal's turn to speak. But for once we didn't mind. Rebecca made a good point. So much in our world was pretend, fake—too much, really.
    "Yeah. Her." Petal and Zinnia spoke at the same time.
    "You brought her here on purpose, didn't you?" Jackie said. "You must have known she was evil and yet you wanted her here. Perhaps it all has something to do with our mother?" She paused, allowing what she'd said to sink in before continuing. "So what I want to know, what we all want to know, is: What did you know, and when did you know it?"
    Considering how often we'd surprised other people, and considering all the things that had happened to us, it was rare for someone to do something we found truly shocking. And yet that was exactly what happened.
    Frank Freud, perhaps feeling like a trapped animal, rose from his chair, stumbled around it, and backed up to the window behind his desk. Then he wrenched open the window, vaulted over the ledge, rushed across the lawn to the faculty parking lot, ran to his reserved spot, which was marked Principal, got in his car, keyed the ignition, and sped away.
    And then Jackie leaped out the window—thank God we were on the ground floor!—and raced after him.

CHAPTER TEN

    According to the clock, which we started watching when Jackie left, it had been only a half-hour since she'd disappeared, but those thirty minutes had seemed like an eternity to us. It was the first time one of us had faced off alone against one of the evil adults in our world—with the Wicket and then Crazy Serena, we'd all been there together—and we were very worried for her. If Frank Freud had a gun, would Jackie really prove to be faster than a speeding bullet? We'd sat for a lot of tests during our years of schooling, but that was one test we didn't want to see Jackie take.
    But then a yellow dot came whizzing toward the open window—"Jackie's plaid uniform!" Zinnia cried—and there was Jackie, fully in the flesh, looking exactly like herself as she climbed over the window ledge and came back into the room.
    "What happened?" seven voices shouted.
    "Here, sit," Durinda said, pulling out Frank Freud's chair and forcing Jackie into it. That was Durinda all over: insisting on mothering one of us even while the rest of us—including herself—were dying for news.
    Jackie didn't look winded in the slightest, but we must say, she did look wonderful in Frank Freud's big leather swivel chair. It made us wonder if she might be the head of a school when she grew up. It made us wonder what each of us would do when we grew up.
    " What happened? "Rebecca shouted. "I want to know what happened!"
    "It was really all very simple," Jackie said. "Frank Freud drove to his house, but when he saw me, er, pull up right behind him, he grew very scared. Apparently, the idea of us Eights having special powers is terrifying to him."
    As Jackie continued to speak, we felt like we were all right there in front of Frank Freud's house. It was almost as though we could see what happened, smell the fear in him...
" I'll ask you again," Jackie demanded as Frank Freud spun around, a look of horror on his face. "What did you know, and when did you know it? "
Frank Freud raced toward the front door of his house.
" I'll sic Durinda on you," Jackie called after him. "You know, she has special powers too. She can freeze people where they stand. Why, if I ask her to, you just might remain frozen forever. "

That froze Frank Freud in his tracks.
He turned to face Jackie, his shoulders slumping.
" Fine," he said. "I'll tell you what you want to know. I met the woman you refer to as the Wicket once, last December. She came to see me at the Whistle Stop after classes had ended but before I'd left for the day. She said she had some questions about your mother. She kept asking if I knew anything about your mother's work, kept saying something about your mother working to discover the secret of