Pi in the Sky by Wendy Mass [SAMPLE]

7/28/2019 Pi in the Sky by Wendy Mass [SAMPLE]

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Little, Brown and CompanyNew York Boston


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What You Need to Know

Okay, rst o, the quotes that start each chap-

ter are rom real people who know a lot o

really cool things. Youll probably recognize

some o their names. Second, you should

know that this story takes place completely in The Realms

(pronounced like relms, not reelms, which would just be

weird). What are The Realms, you ask? Where are The

Realms? Well, those are tricky questions. I have a theory,

but its a guess, at best, and I hope you wont hold me to it.

Come closer and Ill tell you.

The Realms arent so muchsomewhere as they are every

where. And to explain that, Ill need to start by explaining

the discovery o a mysterious substance called dark matter.

Hang in there now. This wont hurt a bit.

Basically, a lot o supersmart scientists who have spent a

REALLY LONG TIME in school tell us that most o the

stu in our universe (96 percent) is invisible. Even

though dark matter is all around us, we cant see it. Not


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even with the help o those enormous telescopes that see so

ar out into space that they are really seeing back in time.

And why cant we see dark matter? Well, those same

smart scientists will tell you its because dark matter doesntgive o, or refect, or absorb any light that we can see or

measure. But we know its there because it attracts regular

matter, the stu we CAN see. Dark matter allows gravity to

spin gas and dust into stars and planets and galaxies. It gives

structure to the cosmos, like the scaolding o a building.

Yes, thats what your science teacher would tell you. But

thats hardly the whole story. The real reason we cant see

dark matter is because thats where The Realms are located

and they have EXCELLENT cloaking devices. Truly, the

universe is a much stranger place than most people give it

credit or, teeming with lie and ull o secrets.

Now you might be wondering what goes on in The

Realms. And what this has to do with us, tucked away on

our comortable little planet, a sae twenty-seven thousand

light-years away rom the massive black hole asleep at the

center o our Milky Way Galaxy. Well, who better to answer

those questions than someone who has lived in The Realms

his whole lie? Someone around your age, with the same

kinds o dreams, desires, and hopes or the uture. Someone

who thinks that nothing very exciting happens in his lie.

He doesnt know it yet, but thats about to change. So sit

back, relax, and enjoy. Because in about seven pages, the

gravity that keeps your eet glued to the ground will be gone.

Dont say I didnt warn you.


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I you wish to make an apple pie rom scratch, you

must frst invent the universe.

Carl Sagan, astronomer

1

I

you think its tough being the Supreme Overlord o

the Universe, try being his son.

Or, more precisely, his seventh son. That whole

thing about the seventh son being special in some

way? Just a rumor spread by a ew disgruntled seventh sons

trying to make a name or themselves. In my experience,

being the seventh son only means that by the time I got

here, my brothers had taken all the cool gigs. They spend

their days creating new species, choreographing sunrises

and sunsets, composing the music o the spheres by keep-

ing planets in their orbits, inspiring great artists, over-

seeing the Aterlives, and testing new, state-o-the-art

video games on the planets whose inhabitants havent yet

discovered how to access most o their brain cells. Me? I

deliver pies.

Thats right. I. Deliver.Pies.


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Cherry pies. Apple pies. Strawberry-rhubarb pies. True,

my pies happen to be the glue that holds the very abric o

the universe together, but have no illusionthey are still

pies. I guess you could say theyre pretty bigpies, but sizelike timeis relative. To a creature living on one o the

millions o inhabited planets that it is our job to oversee,

the pies might be as big as a moon or as small as, well, a

pie. Hard to say or sure, since Ive never been out o

The Realms. But thats a whole other gripe.

The point is, a long time ago, the Powers That Be

(known simply as the PTB) decided it was getting messy

trying to control the orces that keep the stars and planets

and galaxies rom crashing into each other. So they decided

to combine the undamental orces o nature and somehow

shape them into a nice, sweet-smelling pie. Why a pie?

Why nota pie! Who doesnt like pie?

Its my job to pick up the pies resh rom the oven, box

them up, and deliver them to the correct department at the

Powers That Be headquarters, which currently looks like a

giant boot but can change regularly.

Anyway, when I pick up the empty pie tins at the end o

my shit, only crumbs are let. Somehow the Powers That

Be distribute the pies to the ar reaches o the universe,

wherever new star systems are orming. Since the universe

is constantly expanding, this means my job is never done.

I dont actually know the nitty-gritty o what happens to

the pies once they reach their destinations, which is


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unortunate because I have this big report due or school

next week on what my job entails, and thats the kind o

detail teachers eat right up.

Yes, even immortal sons o Supreme Overlords have togo to school, which doesnt really seem air. I mean, I might

have only begun my teen years, but years here lastforever,

so really, Ive been in school since beore the Sombrero

Galaxy took its rst siesta billions o years ago. Its enough

already.

Anyway, right now Im heading to my last pickup o the

day and then I have to go home and write the annoying

report. At least the pickup is at my best riend Kals house.

Kals parents are OnWorlders, which means they live most

o the time on dierent terrestrial planets, doing research

and writing reports. As a rule, we never interere with the

planets natural evolution. That said, Ive heard rumors.

Ater all, theres only so much one can take o watching

dinosaurs stomp around aimlessly or a ew hundred

million years beore you need to send an asteroid their way.

No matter how many times I walk this same path, I never

get bored o it. The central Realmshome to most o the

residents and buildingsare set up like a grid, with walk-

ing paths crisscrossing each other at even intervals. On

either side o the paths trees loom high and streams weave

their way between them. When I was younger, beore I

started delivering the pies, I could usually be ound in one

o the distant elds with Kal or Bren, watching the clouds


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change color. The sky here is without color, but the clouds

more than make up or it. I learned in school that on the

planets, clouds and trees and water are solid objects,

providing some sort o purpose in nature. In The Realms,they are more likesuggestions o such things, until someone

wants to use them. A lake becomes a lake when someone

wants to go shing. A fower becomes a fower when some-

one wants to water it, or admire it, or put it in a vase. Even

then its not a real fower, like the type that grows in the

soil o many o the terrestrial planets. But that doesnt make

it any less beautiul.

Aunt Raes ront lawn is ull o fowers growing

rom nowhere and rootless trees. Shes very proud o her

garden, and when shes not making pies, I usually nd her

gardening out here.

Took you long enough, Kal says, swinging the door

open. Kalwhose ater-school job is to welcome new arri-

vals to the Aterliveshas a greater sense o time than most

o us here in The Realms. Since he deals with lie-orms

whose lives actually have beginnings and endings, the whole

thing sort o rubs o on him and he gets impatient easily.

I plop down on the couch and say, Im here the same

time I always am.

He mutters something that I choose to ignore. I put up

my eet and breathe in deep. Their house smells soooo

good. Aunt Rae is one o the best pie makers in all The

Realms, but she is also the slowest. Cant rush perfection is


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her motto. I never mind waiting. Any time I get to put my

eet up and do nothing works ne or me.

Is that you, Joss? Aunt Rae calls out rom the kitchen.

She always knows when Im here, even though shes nearlycompletely dea. She sticks her head out rom the kitchen,

apple pie juice running down the ront o her apron.

Hi, Aunt Rae, I yell. How are you today?

Kals aunt is one o the Old Ones. All the pie makers are

rom the rst wave o immortals. Its not like their bodies are

breaking down or anything, but they dont sel-repair as well

as the rest o us. O course, Aunt Rae could get her hearing

xed instantly instead o wearing an adjustable ear volumizer,

but she says the silence helps her ocus on baking her pies.

Personally, I think she likes not having to hear Kals music

blaring all the time. He has terrible taste in music, even with

all the music in the universe to choose rom. Hes been

working on his own masterpiece, which is even worse.

Cant complain, Aunt Rae replies cheerily, wiping her

orehead and leaving a smear o four behind.

Wanna hear my latest and greatest? Kal asks me, pick-

ing up his drumsticks without waiting or an answer.

Aunt Rae switches her volumizer to the offposition and

ducks back into the kitchen. I cover my ears with my hands.

As usual, this is the point where I get even more jealous that

my oldest brother, Thade, gets to hear the Music o the

Spheresthat melodic tune made by the planetary bodies

as they go around their orbitswhile I get to hear Kal doing


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things to the drums that should never, ever be described as

music. Kal claims he learned this latest piece rom a drum-

mer in a band he recently escorted to the Aterlives. The

guy had come rom Earth, which is a particularly well-likedplanet around here due to its being one o the ew where the

inhabitants developed a sense o humor.

Its only when Kal pauses to fip his drumsticks dramati-

cally in the air that we hear the sirens. He drops the drum-

sticks, and one hits the cymbal with a tszing! The sirens

mean only one thingsomeone on one o the inhabited

planets is zeroing in on our location with whatever technol-

ogy theyve developed to peer into their night sky. Normally,

The Realms cant be seen rom anywhere in the universe.

But every once in a while a rip occurs in the abric o the

space-time continuum. Quantum entanglement becomes

untangled. I someone happened to be looking at exactly

the right spot, they could catch a glimpse o us. And just

the tiniest glimpse is catastrophic.

I was only a billion or two years old, a baby really, when

the sirens last blared. Intelligent lie in the rst batch o

planets had just started peering into the skies. The viewer

at the other end o the primitive piece o equipment spotted

a garden party at one o the ancier estates in The Realms.

The old guy was so shocked at what he saw that he dropped

dead o a heart attack on the spot. Dying in this way was

actually a bit o luck or everyone else on his planet, since

the penalty or laying eyes on any o the beings living in

The Realms is the immediate disintegration o the entire


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planet. Under the circumstances, in an uncharacteristically

charitable move, the Powers That Be allowed the planet to

continue existing. A dead man tells no tales, as the saying

goes. But I doubt they will be so orgiving again. No oneknows exactly why the punishment is so harsh, but since

this almost never happens, the whole issue doesnt get

much attention.

DUCK! Kal screams, throwing himsel to the foor.

Between the intermittent wails o the siren, I can still hear

Aunt Rae humming.

Aunt Rae! I yell. You have to duck!

But she doesnt hear me. Even the sirens dont get

through when her volumizer is o.

I hal-slither, hal-crawl on my elbows and knees to the

opening o the kitchen. Kal ollows close on my heels. Aunt

Rae is reaching into the oven, pulling out a perect,

steaming-hot apple pie. I reach up to grab the hem o her

apron just as she turns around.

But Im too late. The area around her vibrates and

shudders, almost imperceptibly, then settles back into

place. No doubt about it, she has been spotted. Someone

has broken (or at least bent really ar) the laws o physics

and has laid eyes on Aunt Rae and her amous apple pie. It

is the last thing he will ever see. He will not get the chance

to tell anyone on his planet o his discovery. There will no

longer be anyone to tell.

The wail o the siren now becomes one long keening cry.

No one likes to think o any o the worlds ending. Weve


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watched them grow rom grains o dust, so its quite heart-

breaking. The siren ades out. I roll over onto my back and

stare up at the ceiling.

Joss? Aunt Rae asks, leaning over me with obviousconcern. She fips her volumizer back on. What is it?

But I can only shake my head, a tear sliding down my

nose. I know new planets are being ormed constantly, new

civilizations rising and alling and rising again, but still, its

a huge loss.

I hope it wasnt Earth, Kal says, his expression grim.

I nod in agreement. Besides the act that the people o

Earth understand that fatulence can be unny, they have

the tastiest enchiladas. Actually, those two things are most

likely connected. While there are millions o planets in the

universe with some orm o lie, they are all in vastly dier-

ent stages o development and intelligence. Many never

develop technology at all, never learn how to harness the

elements and orces around them. But i they do, and i they

cant control it, they usually destroy themselves pretty soon

ater. This leaves only a narrow window when the inhabit-

ants are using their knowledge to educate themselves, to

look out at the universe and seek answers. Earth is in this

zone right now.

A voice booms through the house. Joss! Are you still

there?

I jump up rom the foor so quickly my brain spins. Kal

and I stare at each other. My ather NEVER uses the

communication network himsel. As Supreme Overlord,


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he has a whole sta or that. The act that he is calling me

now cant be a good sign.

Answer him, Kal hisses.

I clear my throat. Yes, Dad, Im here.Report immediately to PTB headquarters.

Yes, sir, I reply, halway out o the kitchen.

But he isnt nished. And bring the pie!


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Dark matter holds the key to the universe.

Paul Davies, physicist

2

I

weave my way in and out o the busy streets, the

steaming pie tin burning my hands. I hadnt even

given Aunt Rae a chance to put it in a box. As always,

when I rst picked up the pie, I elt a sort o current

go through me, like my body was getting heavier. It must be

something in the pies that causes it. The eeling is not

entirely unpleasant, and I like to linger beore it ades. But I

couldnt do that this time. As relative as time is in The

Realms, my ather does not like to be kept waiting. And

when he does not like something, you do your best to

avoid it.

The streets are usually not this crowded. With so much

space in The Realms, there is rarely a reason or people to

gather. But the blare o the sirens got everyone out and talk-

ing. I push through a group o kids I go to school with,

which is made easier by the act that they part slightly when

they see me coming. This is one o the downsides to having

a really important atherthe other kids keep their distance


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rom me. All except Kal, who I can always count on to

remind me that I may have a amous amily, but my hair

grows in lopsided and no girl has ever gone on a date with

me twice.In the olden days, we used to be able to travel instanta-

neously, winking in and out o places like the smallest o

elementary particles. Those were the days. Everything was

so easy then. Took me a tenth o the time to complete my

daily pie-delivering, leaving endless opportunities to clown

around with Kal or bowl down at Thunder Lanes. But the

Powers That Be xed it so our bodies can no longer vibrate

at a high-enough requency to achieve this state. We also

eel pain now, which is bothersome. They decided we

needed to live more like our mortal kinsmen in order to bet-

ter serve their needs. The PTB are strange that way. Their

main job is to oversee the various species who populate the

universe, but a lot o the time they seem not to care much.

Suns explode in ery supernovas, wiping out any lie-orms

unortunate enough to be within ty light-years, sending

their atoms spewing orth into the void o space, and do the

PTB do anything to stop it?

No. No, they do not.

Civilizations destroy themselves (and others) over and

over again, and the PTB watch on the planet view screens

and place bets on what the last survivors nal words will

be. (Theyre usually something like, Oh, crud.) This is

not quite as cruel as it sounds, since the bylaws o the Pow-

ers That Be strictly orbid interering or choosing sides in


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planetary squabbles. This is widely agreed to be the best

course o action. Might they turn their backs occasionally

and allow someone to steer a meteorite embedded with

amino acids toward a recently cooled planet in a new solarsystem? Sure. Prevent nuclear destruction o an advanced

civilization? No.

Im coming with you, Kal calls out, catching up to me

on the street. Kal has transormed his legs into wheels,

which was very smart o him. Even though all o us in

The Realms can quickly rearrange the cells in our bodies

to create new patterns, I usually dont think o it. It takes a

lot o mental eort, and I preer to save that eort or school

so I dont ail out. Plus, with wheels, you wind up with all

sorts o bruises, and you have to pick pieces o dirt and

random tiny objects rom your skin long ater youve

turned them back into legs.

You should go home, Kal. My dad didnt sound happy.

You dont want to be around when hes not happy. Remem-

ber that time he turned you into a cow pie because you

wouldnt stop drumming with your ork and spoon when

you came over or dinner?

Kal shudders at the smelly memory but squares his

shoulders and says, It was my ault we didnt hear the

sirens sooner. You shouldnt have to take the blame.

I wasnt going to, I reply. Im lying and we both know

it. Ive been taking the all or Kal since we were in diapers.

As a son o the Supreme Overlord, I do get special treat-

ment. The PTB oten look the other way i one o my broth-


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ers or I bend the rules every now and then. Bren (the

brother closest to my age and the one I like the best) and I

once broke into the Department o Gravity to see i we

could nd some gravitons to take us to a neighboringuniverse. Wed heard rumors o other universes that waves

o gravity could travel between. It didnt matter to us that in

billions o years no one had ever ound these universes,

supposedly ull o their own stars and planets and galaxies.

We got caught, o course, because theres no way to sneak

around here without everyone knowing your business.

Since everyones araid o our ather, all we got was a

warning. (The next person who got caught breaking in

there was turned into an ear mite. He was last seen living

inside the ear o a particularly smelly Plumpadorus in the

Cygnus Galaxy.) But what happened today will likely result

in more than a slap on the wrist and a lecture.

Kal and I come to a stop in ront o PTB headquarters.

No longer a giant boot, the building has been transormed

into a fagpole, with a black fag fying at hal-mast in honor

o the recently destroyed planet.

The shape o the building makes it so we have to enter

single le. Kal converts his wheels back to legs, and we

hurry up the elevator to the inner sanctum o the PTB.

Ater recent events, I expect to nd the place a madhouse,

with committee members running to and ro, arms ull o

reports to le. I nothing else, the department that oversees

the Aterlives must surely be gearing up or an extremely

busy aternoon. Instead, the place has a quiet hush to it.


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The ew people I do see are speaking in whispers. Kal and I

exchange a worried look.

The door to my athers oce swings open to reveal the

top members o the Powers That Be gathered around thehuge round table, grim expressions on their aces. I notice

that hal o them are wearing their ceremonial robes, and

are all men. I I had to guess, the emale leaders were not

happy with the decision to destroy the planet and stormed

out in protest. My motheran honorary member due to

marrying my atherreports this happens airly regularly.

My ather glances away rom the holographic view screen

hovering slightly above his head. An odd look crosses his

ace when he sees Kal beside me. Dads not a huge an. He

doesnt think Kal has enough drive. Kal actually has

plenty o drive. Its just usually not in the right direction.

My ather waves us in. Im glad Kals here.

Kals ace pales and I shiver involuntarily. My ather is

never glad to see Kal.

I place the pie on the table, where it sits, ignored. Dont

blame Kal, Dad. Its my ault we didnt get to warn Aunt

Rae in time.

This isnt about placing blame, Dad says. We have a

much bigger issue to deal with.

Thats a relie, Kal says, color returning to his cheeks.

Not really, one o the suited men around the table mut-

ters. I can never tell the suited guys apart. Well, thats not

really true. Ive never actually tried. This oneshort, with


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green hairhands Kal a holographic screen that hovers in

his palm. We saved this or you, he says.

For me? Kal asks. Why? What is it?

It is a log o your parents last report, the green-hairedguy replies. They sent it only two days ago rom a planet

in the Milky Way Galaxy. From Earth. We assume they

havent let the planet.

Kal gives the report a quick glance. They go to Earth

pretty regularly. Am I missing something?

Im sorry, Kal, my ather says, when no one else

replies. We had no choice. Earth is gone.


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[When I look up at the sky,] I think about all the

things Idont see up there.

Kip Thorne, physicist

3

A

deaening silence lls the room as everyone

watches Kal. As virtually immortal lie-orms,

we dont have to breathe unless we want to,

and at this moment no one is.

My hand on his shoulder, I can eel Kal trembling. His

knees are locked in place, which is probably the only thing

keeping him standing. He reuses to turn away rom the

transparent wall o my athers oce. We are high up in

The Realms here, with the whole universe spread out

around us. Usually the sight o billions o galaxies swirling

like glittering diamonds is mesmerizing. Today, though, we

cannot see its beauty. Today the distant clusters o stars only

serve to remind us how, in a universe teeming with energy

and drama, one small planet in the Orion Arm o the Milky

Way barely counts or anything (no matter how much un

it is to watch their ootball games on our view screens).


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We have been raised to believe that in the grand scheme o

things, one planet doesnt matter. Cantmatter.

Unless your best riends parents are on it when its

destroyed.But I dont understand, Kal says, his voice sadder than

Ive ever heard it. (And Ive heard him sing the bluesbadly,

but hes sung them.) My parents are immortal, like all o us.

Wouldnt they have survived the destruction o Earth?

That was our assumption, too, my ather says. But we

have not ound any trace o them.

Kal still wont turn away rom the window. Its like hes

searching the vastness o space or some sign o his parents.

Through gritted teeth, he asks, Did you know they were

there? Beore?

O course not, says my athers second-in-command,

striding into the room. His name is Gluck the Yuck, a nick-

name my brothers and I gave him because he reuses to

rearrange his acial eatures to be even the slightest bit

pleasing. Hes not a bad guy, just a little hard to look at.

Well, we didnt exactly check, admits the green-haired

suit. I really should learn their names.

There wasnt time to check, insists another. The

destruction has to be instantaneous. And what would be

the odds o your parents working on that particular planet

at the exact time someone rom there would view The

Realms? The odds are astronomical, thats what they are.

A nice try to defect blame, but we all know that the odds


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o anything existing in the universe at all is astronomical,

so the mans argument alls short.

I know! Kal exclaims, whirling around to ace the

PTB. The Aterlives will be fooded with all the newarrivals. Im sure Ill be called into work. My parents will

still show up there with all the Earth people, right? So

theyll be back ater all!

The committee members exchange uneasy glances. They

look to Gluck to reply. Gluck then looks pointedly at my

ather. For the rst time in my (very long) memory, my

ather hesitates beore answering. No one will be coming

to the Aterlives.

Kal scrunches his brows. I dont understand. There

were billions o people on that planet.

Dad looks uncomortable, which is not a good look on

the Supreme Overlord o the Universe. We didnt exactly

destroy the planet. Per se.

So my parents are still alive! Kal shouts. He grabs my

athers arm, then immediately lets go when my ather

glares down at him. In a less shouty voice Kal asks, Why

did you say theyre gone?

My ather sighs. Perhaps I should have chosen my

words more careully. I someone never existed, you couldnt

truly say they were gone, could you?

This is as good a time as any to admit that Im only the

sixth smartest o Dads seven sons. My brother Laz is gen-

erally considered the least smart, at least when it comes to

school stu. He ails Planet Building class every term. Hes


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always calculating pi wrong, so his planets keep straying

rom their orbits and crashing into everyone elses. But

even with my limited brainpower, I can tell my ather isnt

making any sense. Dad, what are you trying to say?He sits back down at the head o the table and places his

large hands on the gleaming surace. The holograph pops

back up. He pushes it toward Kal and me. All I see is a dark

blob.

The last time The Realms were spotted, my ather

says, the spotters planet was able to escape harm due to

his being thoughtul enough to die on the spot.

Yes, we all know that, I say, anxious or him to get to

the point.

And the time beore that, he continues, the planet was

ar rom its sun, leading to very harsh living conditions. Only

a ew species had evolved, and their numbers stayed small. It

was airly easy to log them into the Aterlives in an orderly

ashion. But in the case o Earth, which supported such an

abundance o lie . . . He trails o, clears his throat, and con-

tinues. Basically, the Aterlives would have been totally over-

whelmed, so the PTB came up with a better idea. He pauses

and glances at Gluck, who nods his encouragement. Dad

sighs. We ripped Earth out o the space-time continuum.

Kal repeats the words, but slower. You ripped Earth . . .

out o space-time?

Technically we couldnt just take Earth, Gluck explains,

since its gravitationally bound up with the sun and the

rest o the solar system. . . .


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So we took that, too, Green-Haired Suit continues.

You took theirsun? I ask, hoping I heard him wrong.

Green-Haired Suit nods. One o the PTB wearing a long

white robe centuries out o style adds, And the rest o theplanets. And their moons and the asteroids and comets and

such.

I clutch the back o a nearby chair to steady mysel. From

all my years o history class, I know nothing like this ever

happened beore. To interere in the universe on such a

grand scale is just unheard o. Kal, too, is rozen rom the

shock o it.

We didnt have much choice, Joss, my ather says.

None o our options were good. I we had exploded the

planet, gravity rom the sun would have kept the pieces

grouped together. A dead world, clinging to chunks o lie-

less rock. No one wants to see that.

I shudder.

Dad puts his large, steady hand on my shoulder. Or i

we simply took away the sun, Earth would have gone shoot-

ing o into space, and a rogue planet aimlessly hurtling

about is simply too dangerous. We considered halting

the planets rotation, but what a mess that would make,

since everything on the surace would keep moving.

This way its nice and neat, and we dont have that nag-

ging guilt at killing o a ve-billion-year-old planet. Now

Earth never actually existed, so no one had to die. Its a

plan weve had in place or a while, in case the occasion ever

arose.


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Kal makes a sound that alls somewhere between a

whimper and a growl. He aces my ather and says, Accord-

ing to your logic, my parents never existed, since they were

ripped right out o time, too, right?I suppose you could say that, unortunately. Yes.

Kal puts his hands on his hips. Then why am I still

here?

I turn to Dad to await his answer. We all know about

cause and eect. Its one o the basic laws o the universe.

The arrow o time goes in one direction only. First comes

cause, then effect. EvenIknow you cant have a kid without

having his parents rst.

But Dad only stares at Kal. Or should I say, stares at the

spot where Kal had been standing. For Kal, my best riend,

my childhood companion in all things, is totally, utterly

gone. Gone like back in the days when we were able to wink

in and out o places, but those days are ar in the past. Is he

hiding behind a chair? I peer under the table, but all I see

are a lot o hairy legs in sensible shoes.

Hes just . . . gone.

Hmm, Gluck says thoughtully. I was araid that

might happen.

Beore I can question them on Kals sudden and utter

disappearance, hes made MORE gone by the act that in

his place now stands a tall, skinny girl wearing a big red

parka, a white ski hat, and a sour expression.

Fascinating! exclaims my ather.

Nowthat, says Gluck, I didnt see coming.


26/26

This book is a work o fction. Names, characters, places, and

incidents are the product o the authors imagination or are used fctitiously.

Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright 2013 by Wendy Mass

Interior illustrations by Lauren Gentry/Jelly London

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act o 1976, the scanning,

uploading, and electronic sharing o any part o this book without the permission o

the publisher is unlawul piracy and thet o the authors intellectual property. I you

would like to use material rom the book (other than or review purposes), prior written

permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected].

Thank you or your support o the authors rights.

Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Visit our website at www.lbkids.com

Little, Brown and Company is a division o Hachette Book Group, Inc.

The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks o Hachette Book Group, Inc.

The publisher is not responsible or websites (or their content)that are not owned by the publisher.

First Edition: June 2013

Library o Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Mass, Wendy, 1967

Pi in the sky / Wendy Mass. First edition.

pages cm

Summary: Joss, the seventh son o the Supreme Overlord o the Universe, must team up

with a human girl to recreate Ear th, when the planet is accidentally erased rom existence.ISBN 9780316089166

[1. UniverseFiction. 2. EarthFiction. 3. Science fction.] I. Title.

II. Title: Pie in the sky.

PZ7.M42355Pi 2009

[Fic]dc23 2012030638

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

RRDC

Printed in the United States o America

Pi in the Sky by Wendy Mass [SAMPLE]

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