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Jess followed her into the grove, where they stood silently in the dim light.
“Who do we thank?” he whispered.
The question flickered across her face. “O God,” she began. She was more at home with magic than religion. “O Spirits of the Grove.”
“Thy right arm hast given us the victory.” He couldn’t remember where he’d heard that one, but it seemed to fit. Leslie gave him a look of approval.
She took up the words. “Now grant protection to Terabithia, to all its people, and to us its rulers.”
“Aroooo.”
Jess tried hard not to smile. “And to its puppy dog.”
“And to Prince Terrien, its guardian and jester. Amen.”
“Amen.”
They both managed somehow to keep the giggles buttoned in until they got out of the sacred place.
A few days after the encounter with the enemies of Terabithia, they had an encounter of a different sort at school. Leslie came out at recess to tell Jess that she had started into the girls’ room only to be stopped by the sound of crying from one of the stalls. She lowered her voice. “This sounds crazy,” she said. “But from the feet, I’m sure it’s Janice Avery in there.”
“You’re kidding.” The picture of Janice Avery crying on the toilet seat was too much for Jess to imagine.
“Well, she’s the only one in school that has Willard Hughes’s name crossed out on her sneakers. Besides, the smoke is so thick in there you need a gas mask.”
“Are you sure she was crying?”
“Jess Aarons, I can tell if somebody’s crying or not.”
Lord, what was the matter with him? Janice Avery had given him nothing but trouble, and now he was feeling responsible for her—like one of the Burkes’ timber wolves or beached whales. “She didn’t even cry when kids teased her ’bout Willard after the note.”
“Yeah. I know.”
He looked at her. “Well,” he said. “What should we do?”
“Do?” she asked. “What do you mean what should we do?”
How could he explain it to her? “Leslie. If she was an animal predator, we’d be obliged to try to help her.”
Leslie gave him a funny look.
“Well, you’re the one who’s always telling me I gotta care,” he said.
“But Janice Avery?”
“If she’s crying, there gotta be something really wrong.”
“Well, what are you planning to do?”
He flushed. “I can’t go into no girls’ room.”
“Oh, I get it. You’re going to send me into the shark’s jaws. No, thank you, Mr. Aarons.”
“Leslie, I swear—I’d go in there if I could.” He really thought he would, too. “You ain’t scared of her, are you, Leslie?” He didn’t mean it in a daring way, he was just dumbfounded by the idea of Leslie being scared.
She flashed her eyes at him and tossed her head back in that proud way she had. “OK, I’m going in. But I want you to know, Jess Aarons, I think it’s the dumbest idea you ever had in your life.”
He crept down the hall after her and hid behind the nearest alcove to the girls’ room door. He ought at least to be there to catch her when Janice kicked her out.
