The Chaos Curse (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #3) - Sayantani DasGupta Page 0,28

said, turning back around. I heard a little snicker from my right. When I looked, I realized it was Zuzu, looking at me with a snide, superior expression. Exactly the kind of expression I would have expected to see on Jovi’s face.

I slunk down in my seat, trying not to let my upset show as Dr. Dixon went on with his lesson. Ever since I’d come back to New Jersey through that wormhole, everything had been upside down. First, I’d lost my traveling companions. Then there was that weird boy in the tree and my self-hating parents. I’d made zero progress on finding Lal, had no idea what Sesha was up to, and had no one to talk to about it all. And now my best friend and enemy had somehow traded personalities. Enough already! I just needed to catch a break!

That’s when Zuzu unexpectedly solved at least one of my problems. She looked down at my partially open backpack with a sneer. “Is it bring-your-ugly-pet-to-school day or something?” she half whispered.

I looked down to see Tiktiki One winking up at me from my backpack.

“Where have you been, you dumb lizard?” I hissed. “And where are the others?”

I don’t know why I tried. It’s not like the gecko was a huge conversationalist. Sure enough, instead of answering me, the lizard flicked out its tongue, hitting itself in the eye on the recoil.

With Zuzu looking straight at me, I couldn’t exactly take the lizard out of my bag, whisper a message, and pull off its tail. Calling Mati would have to wait. Instead, I tugged the zipper on my backpack most of the way closed, muttering, “Stay in there!”

“You might want to leave it a little open—so your gecko can breathe,” someone murmured from behind me. I thought for a second it might be Naya, who’d been sitting in that seat last time I was in this classroom. But it wasn’t. Instead, it was that perfect-faced boy from the tree—Ned Hogar!

“What’re you doing here?” I blurted, feeling a little weirded out by the force of his cuteness. I mean, Lal was handsome, and Neel had some serious swagger, but Ned was so good-looking it was almost creepy.

“Ungrateful much? I did save your life—or at least save you from breaking a bone in that tree, darlin’.” The blond sculpture boy raised his perfect eyebrows over his perfect eyes. Then he reached out toward me, as if he was going to tuck a stray piece of my hair behind my ear. Instead, he pulled his hand back, revealing a shiny coin he’d apparently just “pulled” from my ear. “You and me, sitting in a tree,” he started up again.

I felt my face heat up and snuck a look at Jovi. She was kind of batting her eyelashes at Ned and giving a super-fake gooby smile. Well, I guess there went the theory that they were related. But then, what the heck had Ned been doing in Jovi’s tree?

And there was another problem. If that rip in the time-space continuum I’d traveled through had somehow gotten me back to the same day I’d left New Jersey, then Naya should be here in the classroom with me. Where was she?

“Where’s Naya?” I wanted to ask Zuzu but forced myself to whisper to Jovi instead.

“Who?” Jovi seemed totally confused.

I looked desperately around. Oh, jeez. No sign of that multi-ponytailed rakkhoshi selfie addict anywhere. What in the time warp was happening here?

“Cool it with the talking, class!” said Dr. Dixon. “Unless you’re gossiping about how oxygen and magnesium got together? I mean, OMG!”

A few kids gave little sympathy chuckles at our teacher’s dumb chemistry joke (which was supposed to be funny because O was the symbol for oxygen on the periodic table of elements, and Mg the symbol for magnesium). I was relieved that Dr. Dixon was at least acting like his normal enthusiastic-about-science-jokes self. Weirdly, though, he wasn’t wearing the same vest as he had the last time I’d seen him. The last time I’d experienced this day, he’d had on his vest with the farting T. rexes on it. It was one of my favorite nerdy vests of his (the farts were these green clouds coming out from under the dinosaurs’ tails and it always made me laugh when I saw it). Today he was wearing one I’d never seen before, covered with, oddly enough, multicolor butterflies. But Dr. D. seemed otherwise the same. I had to assume he didn’t remember the last time I