Earthquake?

This story should probably start with the note. There were signs even before that, though, if Jennifer had only recognized what they meant.

For instance, there was the crack in the garage wall with the corner of a piece of pearly paper sticking out of it. Pearly paper! That ought to have told her something right there. And there was the way her marmalade-colored cat, Atta Girl, had been acting. She'd been jumpy and restless for at least a week. She acted as if she were trying to talk to Jenny again, although of course she couldn't. Not in California, anyway.

As Jenny worked at her bedroom desk, Atta Girl slept at her feet in a patch of sunlight. Jenny was trying to get her act together on a special science assignment. All she'd written so far was her name, Jennifer Arthur, Science 1A, and the date, November 6.

Jenny's mom and dad were laughing in their bedroom about something her dad had said. They were getting ready to go to early dinner at Uncle Pete and Aunt Georgia's house. Uncle Pete wasn't really Jennifer's uncle, but he was Dad's favorite cousin, and Aunt Georgia was his wife. They were a fun couple, and Dad and Mom were always in good moods when they were headed there. Jenny's younger brother, Warren, would be going too, but Jenny had to beg off so she could get her homework done—just like the lesson in front of her.

It was all about space and dimensions ... depth, height, width, length, and time. Well, most of that stuff seemed pretty obvious, except for the part that said time isn't even real, that it's just some markers we make up to keep track of our lives.

Well, Jenny knew how strange time could be after the adventures she, Willa, and Atta Girl had shared in the White World. It was hard for her to believe now, but it had only been last spring when Jenny, her best friend, Willa Walker, and Atta were dragged from Jenny's backyard by a white hole in space. It eventually dropped them off on a planet where everything was white, even Jenny's own red hair and freckles. Then after all kinds of horrendous events, and lots of nice ones too, they found their way back home through the white hole again. And when they did get home, they found it not only wasn't any later than when they'd left; it was actually a minute or two earlier.

But Willa and her parents had moved to Southern California in August, and Jenny missed her humongously. Most of all she missed the great talks they used to have, especially when they were remembering their White World friends—Morgan, Nitty Gritty, Ildirmyrth, Lakeesha, and Behrrn—plus all their other friends on the White World. There was no one around to remember with now, and Willa's e-mails were full of news about some guy named Doug that Jenny had never even met.

Atta squirmed in her sleep and meowed irritably. When Jenny reached down to pet her, she touched the chrystal pendant that Nitty Gritty the Newfangler had hung on her collar. That was when they were in a whole other universe. In that entirely pale world, only Atta had kept her color. She was tremendously admired in the White World, where nobody had ever seen color before. But Terran Tuhlla the Terrible and his grim Ghanglers didn't admire her a bit. They wanted everything and everyone to conform to their rigid White World rules. They hated color, even though, like everyone else on that planet, they'd never seen it. They'd only felt it in the works of the marvelous Chrystellean masterworkers, and they'd proclaimed that all Ghanglers were forbidden to even touch those works.

Then Jennifer, Willa, and Atta Girl had been dropped into the White World, where even the two girls were all white, leaving behind Jenny's red hair and freckles and Willa's warm, chocolate complexion. But Atta Girl had somehow managed to arrive with the hue of her gorgeous marmalade-colored fur and her glowing yellow eyes intact, so of course the Ghanglers super-hated Atta Girl. The Ghangler whirlies despised Jenny and Willa too, since, even though they were also all white on this world, the girls were subtly different from the White Worlders, especially in what they wore.

Jennifer had quit trying to tell Mom and Dad about the White World. She did try at first, but then Mom would get that worried crease in the middle of her forehead when she looked at her, and Dad would look up from his book or newspaper when he thought Jennifer wasn't noticing and shake his head sadly. She couldn't really blame them. If it hadn't happened to her, she wouldn't have believed it either.

But at least there was Warren, her eleven-year-old brother. He loved to listen from the beginning. He'd sit in the wooden rocking chair in her room with his legs pulled up tightly beneath him. He particularly liked hearing about all the close calls they'd had with the ghoulish Ghanglers and the time Jenny was nearly killed by a storming star and Morgan the Wonderful, Wandering Wohtt had saved her life. Warren liked to sit and shiver with dread from his safe distance. But Jenny didn't think he actually believed her as much as he wanted to.

"We're on our way, Jennifer." Mom poked her head in the open door of Jenny's room to say good-bye. "Are you sure you can't go with us?"

"I'd like to, Mom. But I've got to get this science assignment done for tomorrow morning. Give them hugs for me, okay?"

Dad leaned over Mom's shoulder and winked at his daughter. "Hey, Funnyface," he said. "Hit those books."

"Okay, Dad." She grinned back. "Right away!" One of Dad's favorite jokes was ordering Jenny to do things she was already doing.

"Well ..." Mom hesitated, that little worry crease showing on her forehead again. There Jenny was, in high school and practically a grown woman, and her parents still worried about letting her stay home alone, especially since she had tried telling them about the White World.

"Well," Mom repeated, "Warren will be with us, so you won't be disturbed. Call if you need anything."

Jenny was glad she wouldn't be disturbed. The house did feel a bit hollow and echoey after they'd gone, though. She focused back on the chapter on dimensions in her science book. Knowing what weird tricks time...