Okay, I just got back from a cruise through the Caribbean with my marching band, and I wrote on the nice long eleven hour drive to and from Jacksonville, Florida where we boarded and disembarked our wonderful, amazing cruise ship. So here ya go.

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The other five girls returned from their holes a little bit later. They were especially exhausted, and just a little bitter.

"It was for the greater good of us all." Ayla reasoned.

"Let's just find out if this hell hole is cursed or not." Molly said briskly, picking up the book. It was heavy and dusty, as though it hadn't been used in a very long time.

The girls silently read each page to themselves. It was a long and tedious task, as they all read at different paces and had to pause to let others catch up. They finally finished the chapter, and the book was discarded into Erin's lap.

"So it stopped raining after they killed Kissin' Kate Barlow's black lover?" Stephanie demanded. "That sounds like a curse if I ever heard one."

"It would make sense that the curse preventing it to rain here is interfering with our powers." Emily pointed out.

"So if Kate cast the curse on the town, then how can we get her to change it?" Kali wondered aloud.

"She's been dead for forever!" Bethany exclaimed. "The only way we'd ever get to even talk to her is to make a time machine and travel back in time."

"I doubt that we could manage that, even with our powers." Molly answered dryly.

"Maybe a séance would be better." Ayla suggested.

"There're several flaws in that plan." Emily pointed out, leaning back on her hands. "One: to have the séance, we'd have to know exactly where Kate was buried. And the book told us that she could have died anywhere in this desert, but nobody knows. We'd never find her body. And two: even if we did find her, how would we ever persuade her to lift the curse?"

"If we had a time machine," Bethany pointed out. "We could go back in time and keep her lover from being killed."

"I don't think it's a good idea to alter history like that," Erin shook her head, her sweaty blonde hair sticking to her forehead and neck.

"Well there's no way we could build a time machine anyway, so it's not a problem." Stephanie snapped irritably.

"The séance is probably out best bet." Molly pointed out logically.

"Any ideas on how to persuade Kate to lift the curse?" Emily asked archly.

They were all, unfortunately, stumped.

The seven of them pondered their unnatural predicament for the rest of the day and for the rest of the week.

During the middle of the night one evening several days later, Kali sat straight up on her rickety cot. "Hey you guys!" She shouted. The girls reluctantly rubbed their eyes and tried to wake up.

"What is it?" Erin demanded in annoyance. She did NOT appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night by shouting.

"What if, when we raise Kate Barlow's spirit, we give her a peace offering and tell her it's from the Warden, since her family is the on to blame?" Kali asked eagerly.

There was a long pause as everybody mulled it over.

"Kali, you're an absolute genius!" Ayla declared.

Kali beamed.

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During the next couple of days, the seven girls filched as much food from the mess hall as they dared. Bethany, the tiniest out of all of them, managed to sneak into the Warden's cabin and stole a bouquet of fresh roses to use as their peace offering when they finally managed to raise Kate's spirit.

As the third day reached midnight, the seven girls, loaded down with cans of food and dull water canteens, crept out of Camp Greenlake.

"We've got to make good time tonight." Emily warned them all for about the hundredth time. "They'll be out looking for us first thing in the morning when they notice that we're gone."

Ayla cast a longing glance back at the camp, then they all headed off into the desert.

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Okay, there you go. Short, but rather important. Not much else to say now. Want a funny quote? Here's one from Stephanie.

Stephanie: When I was little, I put poo in my pockets.