The Los Angeles fires have thrown my schedule for a loop but the next chapter is in the works. In the meantime, for those of you who missed it, here's "an encore presentation" of Chapter 23.

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Jenny had used her mother’s pip crystal-powered Quantum Kaleidoscope to create Alternaverse-2, rearranging reality to keep all three Crust Cousins overseas and out of Tremorton. But in the Crust-free version of Tremorton High, Pteresa Ptaylor had become the new queen, while Jenny was still a lowly peon. 

“Prepare to be deposed, Your Highness,” said Jenny as she arrived home after school and headed for the stairs.

Jenny froze with one foot on the bottom step as she heard her mother say, “Hitting the books early again?” Swiveling around, Jenny quickly scanned Dr. Wakeman. Her mom’s posture, facial expression, and rapidly tapping foot all indicated elevated levels of suspicion. “Early to school, early to study,” said Wakeman. “Quite the reformed rrrrrrobot.”

Letting out a sigh, Jenny dropped her schoolbooks to the floor. “Actually, I was trying to sneak upstairs so I could laser blast these books.” She kicked her political science textbook. “I am so done with high school!” Jenny flew over to the couch and hid her head in the cushions as she snuffled loudly.

Dr. Wakeman consoled her daughter, while Jenny pretended to blubber. But when lubricant began leaking from the rims of Jenny’s eyes, Wakeman helped her daughter up off the couch before she could stain the throw pillows. Jenny’s mother accompanied her upstairs, encouraging her to, “Just rest until dinnertime. Maybe it will all make more sense to you after you get some fresh oil in your system.”

Closing her door behind her, Jenny sighed with relief, then hooked herself up to the Quantum Kaleidoscope. She created a new history for the Ptaylor Family that relocated them to the far side of the continent, and was about to finalize Alternaverse-3, when it occurred to Jenny that she should also relocate Jantrice, Stephanie, and any other mean girl who might potentially rise in the social order and keep Jenny at the bottom. 

At dinner, Jenny barely touched her can of oil. She was too distracted by the sight of her mother’s hands, each of which now had six fingers and a thumb. Wakeman manipulated her fork and knife with her right hand while she worked on the Tremorton Tribune crossword puzzle with her left. After dinner, Wakeman challenged Jenny to a game of Jenga and soundly beat her. This was the first time the scientist had ever bested her dexterous daughter at the game, and Jenny demanded a rematch. Wakeman won again and again and when Jenny finally gave up, it was time to power down. 

The next morning at school, Jenny looked for any mean, popular girls that she might have missed the night before. But while she surreptitiously scanned her fellow students, they appeared to be openly checking her out.  

Kitt Jeffrey cocked one bushy eyebrow at her, “Looking good, Jenny!”

Tom Dominic winked. “Is that a new paint job?”

Kari Moyle blew her a kiss. “That lipstick color is perfect for your skin tone.”

Jenny felt her surface temperature rising. “Paint’s the same. And there’s no lipstick. Technically speaking, no skin either. But thank you.”

Kitt and Tom chuckled. Kari purred, “Oh, Jenny. You’re so funny!”

Before that day, Jenny hadn’t exchanged two words with Kitt, Tom, or Kari. Today they were . . . flirting with her? At first, Jenny was wowed by the improvement in her social status, but then shop class got a little too hands-on. Don Prima paused his work rebuilding a classic internal combustion engine and snaked his greasy arm around Jenny’s shoulder. “Hey babe,” Don crooned. “How about I rebuild your engine, if you know what I mean.”

“I don’t,” replied Jenny. “But someone will need to rebuild your arm, if you don’t remove it. Now.” Don did remove his arm, but the damage was done. His greasy fingerprints had besmirched her shoulders, now dull and smeary.

Jenny told the school nurse she felt nauseated, and after the incident with Don, she wasn’t lying. She was allowed to leave early. She hurried home and created Alternaverse-4, editing Don Prima out of Tremorton. Feeling only a little mean, she also gave him a really bad case of acne.

Dinner and the after-dinner Jenga tournament went the same as the night before, with Jenny losing every game to her now seven-fingered mother. Jenny prepared to power down later than usual, but just as she was about to drift into sleep mode, her brain’s alpha waves were disrupted by a thought — Who will be the new Don Prima? Just as Pteresa had taken the place of Brit and Tiff, there might be someone who would take Don’s place as the handsiest creep in Tremorton High. 

Jenny sat up in bed. “Someone will take Don’s place, I’m sure of it!” Hustling across the room, Jenny retrieved the Quantum Kaleidoscope from its hiding place and promptly produced Alternaverse-5, where the top ten candidates for King Creep were banished. 

But mere seconds after disconnecting from the machine, Jenny plugged back in. She’d decided to do a complete search of her memory banks to identify any other potential threats to her happiness and popularity. She rewound to her first day at Tremorton High and scanned forward from there, reviewing her entire high school history and editing out her fellow students for obvious insults. No sooner had she finished than she found herself plugging back in yet again, this time eliminating other students for more obscure offenses. The process took all night, but by the next morning she had put the finishing touches on Alternaverse-7, where any teen who’d ever dared to look at her cross-eyed had been exiled. As she prepared for school, Jenny was tired but happy, 100% certain that she had finally gotten everything right. 

She was 100% wrong.