Memories from a Different Future: Jump When Ready, Book 2 Read Online Free Page B

the
oven. Apparently, he felt the same way about Naomi’s baking.
    “Nothing much, really. Just sort of popped up on a few
computers for the fun of it.” Simon shrugged and turned to Naomi. “How many
more minutes on those?”
    Henry wandered over to the oven too, where he stood hovering.
“Okay, sure. Nothing you haven’t done before.”
    “Right, exactly,” Simon said.
    Nikki knew Simon well enough to suspect something more
must have happened. “How many computers?”
    Simon didn’t meet her gaze. “Hard to say, exactly.”
    “Simon, just tell them,” Naomi said. “Jeez, don’t be so
evaded. No, that’s not it. What’s that word—”
    “Evasive,” Nikki said. She returned her attention to
Simon. “Why is it hard to say, exactly?”
    “Look, I’m not particularly familiar with that YouTube
thing but I guess the numbers keep changing as more people look at it.”
    “You got on freaking YouTube ?” Henry looked both
horrified and gleeful.
    Simon turned to face the guys. Of course, Nikki thought,
since they found nothing more amusing than their own immaturity. “Yep. Not on
purpose, of course. I’m not a grand-standing kind of bloke, after all.”
    “Of course not,” Nikki said. “Total wallflower.”
    Simon pretended not to hear her and grinned at the guys.
“See, the thing is I may have overdid it a little to see how people would react.
Who knew people could film their computer screens and show them on the
internet?”
    “Pretty much everyone,” Henry said.
    “I didn’t,” Naomi said, finally opening the oven door.
    “See, there you go. Thank you, Naomi,” Simon said. “By
the way, those biscuits look super!”
    “Cookies,” Henry said.
    “Biscuits. Cookies. Same thing,” Simon said.
    “Well, ‘biscuits’ also means those salty, little…” Henry
sighed. “Never mind.”
    “Can’t imagine why Martha might object,” Nikki said.
    “How’s that any different from Naomi manifesting a bunch
of sparrows?” Simon followed Naomi over to the counter where she set the hot
tray down on a towel.
    “You can manifest birds now?” Jamie said.
    Naomi shrugged and slipped off her baking mitts. “Just
little birds so far. I can’t quite get the hang of anything bigger.”
    “Hey, that’s really cool, Naomi.” Henry said. “Martha
didn’t mind?”
    Naomi picked up a spatula and started placing cookies
onto cooling racks. “Not really. She just suggested that maybe I don’t overdo
it.”
    “How’s that any different from YouTube?” Simon reached
for a cookie and Naomi batted his hand away.
    Nikki and Jamie both said, “Shut up, Simon,” at the same
time.
    Henry laughed. Nikki suspected one of these days he’d
have the same knee-jerk response to Simon’s continued idiocy. Which she well
knew was a total act—Simon just liked to play stupid to get your goat.
    Simon waited for Nikki to say something since she was
almost always the one to lay things out for him—something of a tradition by
now. Nikki supposed he enjoyed the attention. “Well, it’s kind of like this,
Simon. Someone sees some sparrows flying by and they think, ‘How pretty. Nice
little birdies.’ On the other hand, someone sees a freaky, greased-back English
teenager staring back at them through their computer monitor and they think,
‘What the hell is that!’ Provided they don’t have a heart attack, of course.”
    Finally, Naomi started setting the cookies onto a plate.
Jamie had already retrieved milk from the refrigerator (Nikki prayed he hadn’t
been drinking directly from the bottle recently).
    “Nobody had a heart attack,” Simon said. “Jeez, give me
some credit. Most people just said they thought it was some sort of attack
thingy. What do they call that again?”
    “Hacking?” Henry suggested.
    “Yes, precisely!” Simon said.
    “How do you know what people were saying?” Henry said.
    Simon shrugged again. “It kind of made the news. Like on
TV and stuff.”
    Nikki, Henry and Jamie