Free Sky Jumpers Series, Book 1 by Peggy Eddleman

Spring Festival, and people died. Even kids. Now they never let us go.
    Aaren, Brenna, and I wound through the maze of inventions until we found where Aaren’s and Brenna’s had been placed. When I woke up this morning and thought about how I was the only person over age four who didn’t have an invention displayed, I actually considered not coming to the Harvest Festival. I was good at history—I would trade being good at history for being good at inventing. I was good at reading and math—I’d trade those. Or
any
subject, really, that people cared less about than inventing. For a minute, I thought about staying in bed.
    But I couldn’t. The bathrooms at the community center still had to be cleaned. Besides, I knew feeling sorry for myself wouldn’t fix anything—it would only make me miss one of the best days of the year. I took a deep breath and forced a smile on my face just like I had earlier this morning. This was a party, and I intended to enjoy it.
    Aaren grabbed my hand and pulled me to one of the tables that held inventions by adults. Someone had mixed two metal alloys, one that was unique to the mountains surrounding our valley. I tried to listen to him go on and on because it made him so excited, but once he started talking about the properties of the new metal, I tunedout. Finally, another invention caught his eye, and we moved on.
    The smell of fresh-baked blackberry pies wafted across the invention tables, and my mouth began to water. Not only did Mrs. Davies make lunch for us at school every day, but she also, along with my mom and a dozen other people, made individual-sized pies each year and cooked them in solar ovens by the tables. Their smell alone made me wish we had the Harvest Festival every day. While Aaren explained yet another invention to me, I imagined myself holding one of the warm mini pies in my hands, biting into the flaky crust, and sinking my teeth into the sweet filling. By the time he finished talking, my stomach was growling.
    Brenna tugged on Aaren’s sleeve. “Those kids are taking toy boats down to the water. Can I go?”
    “In a minute.” Aaren leaned in closer to an invention.
    She folded her arms and huffed. “No, now.”
    “I can’t see the bank from here, Brenna, so I can’t watch you. We’ll play in a minute.”
    Brenna let out a defeated breath but didn’t take her eyes off the river. I didn’t blame her—looking at inventions was boring. I glanced over to where a few horses were penned by the wagons that had brought all the supplies to the festival and saw a flash of red hair. I knew it was Cass, a girl who had graduated from Sixteens & Seventeens last year.Now her split officially was taking care of the horses, even though she’d been doing the job unofficially for as long as I could remember. Sometimes during the summer, Aaren and I would come up here and watch her trick-ride on Arabelle. Always Arabelle. Maybe that was why she was my favorite horse—because I saw how much fun Cass had riding her. I’d much rather hang out and talk to Cass about horses than look at inventions. But just like Brenna, I walked through them with Aaren anyway because the Harvest Festival was only once a year, and we both knew what it meant to Aaren.
    I turned from one table and bumped into Amy Beckinwood. She took a step back and brushed her long brown hair off her shoulder.
    “Hey, Hope. I feel so bad they wouldn’t let you put your invention in the show.”
    Great
. I’d had a stupid wish that somehow no one outside of my class knew. But Amy’s brother Sam was in my class, and if Amy knew, everybody knew. At least she was being nice about it. Amy was nice only some of the time. “Thanks,” I muttered.
    “I mean, I’d feel
terrible
if year after year I was never able to do something worthwhile.”
    Okay, so I was wrong. She wasn’t being nice about it.
    “Amy,” Aaren growled. He stepped in front of me, like he could protect me from her words.
    “What?” she