The Secret Hour Read Online Free PDF Page B

from the stack.
    “Do you think that…” Her question faltered. Dess’s stare was so cool and unblinking. “I just wanted to ask you,” Jess started again, “uh… do you always wear sunglasses when you read?”
    “Not always. They make me take them off in class.”
    “Oh. But why—?”
    “I’m photophobic. Sunlight hurts my eyes. A lot.”
    “Ow. They should let you wear dark glasses in class, then.”
    “They don’t. There’s no rule. But they don’t.”
    “Maybe if you got a note from your doctor.”
    “What about you?” Dess asked.
    “What about me, what?”
    “Don’t your eyes hurt from the light?”
    “No,” Jessica said.
    “That’s weird.”
    Jessica blinked. She was starting to wish she had stayed at the other table. Dess had been interesting to talk to in trig class but not interesting in a fun way. The girls back at Constanza’s table must be wondering what she was doing over here, talking to this girl. Jessica certainly was.
    But she had to ask: “How is that weird?”
    Dess pulled her glasses down half an inch and peered into Jessica’s eyes, an intent expression on her face. “It’s just that some people,
certain
people, who move to Bixby find that the sunlight here is hideously bright. They suddenly need to get sunglasses and wear them all the time. But not you?”
    “Not me. Does that really happen to a lot of people?”
    “A select few.” Dess pushed her glasses back up. “It’s one of the ten weird things about Bixby.”
    Jess leaned back in the chair and muttered, “Ten thousand, you mean.”
    Dess smiled back at her, nodding agreement. Seeing the pleased expression made Jessica feel better. In a way she felt sorry for Dess. The other girls had been rude, and Dess wasn’t that bad.
    “So, Jessica, do you want to know a
really
weird thing about Bixby?”
    “Sure. Why not?”
    “Check this out.” Dess pulled a library book at random from the shelf behind her and handed it to Jessica.
    “Hmm.
Vanity Fair,
except it’s not a magazine, it’s a five-hundred-page book. Scary.”
    “No, on the spine. The Bixby seal.”
    Jessica looked at the small white sticker that marked the book Property of Bixby High School Library. Under the bar code was a logo: a radiant sun.
    “What, that little sun?”
    “It’s not a sun, it’s a star.”
    “The sun is a star, I heard somewhere.”
    “In space, same thing. In symbology, they’re different. See the little points coming out of it? Count them.”
    Jessica sighed and squinted at the sticker. “Thirteen?”
    “That’s right, Jess. It’s a thirteen-pointed star. Look familiar?”
    Jessica pursed her lips. It
did
look familiar. “Yeah, actually there’s a plaque like it on our house. An antique. The real estate agent said that in the old days it showed you had insurance. The fire department wouldn’t put out a fire at your house unless you had one.”
    “That’s what everyone always says. But there’s a plaque like it on every house in Bixby.”
    “So people didn’t want their houses to burn down. What’s weird about that?”
    Dess smiled again, narrowing her eyes. “And there’s a big star on the entrance to city hall. And one on the masthead of the
Bixby Register
and painted on the floor just inside every entrance to this school. All of those stars have thirteen points too.” She leaned forward, speaking quickly and quietly. “The city council has thirteen members, almost every flight of stairs in town has thirteen steps, and
Bixby, Oklahoma
has thirteen letters.”
    Jessica shook her head. “Meaning?”
    “Meaning that Bixby is the only city I’ve heard of where thirteen is considered a lucky number. And not just lucky, but
necessary.”
    Jessica took a deep breath. She looked up at the bookshelves behind Dess’s head. Now that Dess had pointed them out, she could see the little white stickers clearly, row upon row looming over the two of them. Hundreds of thirteen-pointed stars.
    She shrugged. “I guess