Cassie turned to me and shrugged helplessly.
"What?" I snapped. "Do something!"
"Hookay," she turned away from me and reached for Ax's shoulder. "Come on, big guy. Up and at'em."
Jake reached out. Together, they supported him out of the room.
"Is he okay?" Sara looked up at me with innocent eyes.
"I think so. He's just not happy."
"If I was unhappy, would you drag me up off the couch?"
I smiled at her. "You're not on the couch."
"What if I was on the couch?"
"Maybe. It would depend."
"On what?"
"A lot of things."
"How many?"
"A lot."
"A billion?"
"I don't know."
"A googol?" Jordan excitedly yelled in such a voice that it jolted Marco's dad out of the stupor he seemed to be in.
"Hey, cut it out! I'm trying to…" Unable to decide what he was in fact trying to do, he trailed off.
"A googol's the biggest number there is. Except infinity," Jordan declared authoritatively.
"Do you mean aleph-null? Null-uh?"
My head flashed towards the hallway. Cassie nodded at me, a nod saying Yes, we pulled it off..
"I don't know…do I?" Jordan asked.
"I don't know! I don't know all your big words! Or all of the ones Tom says at me!" Sara lost it. Our mom awkwardly reached for her and tried to take her hand, but she retracted.
Marco spoke warily. "Where…is Tom?"
"Still up in his room, I guess." Jake's dad rolled his eyes.
"What kind of big words has he been saying at you?"
"I don't know! If I knew they'd make sense!" Sara stuck out her jaw.
"Oh…kay then." Marco shook his head, as if trying to shake something off.
Jordan approached Cassie's dad. "What was that song you were singing?"
"What song?"
"The one you were singing last night. I thought maybe if you sang it again it would cheer Sara up?"
"It…didn't really cheer me up," I nudged Jordan.
"Well fine. One good idea I come up with…"
"No! I…didn't mean it that way, I…"
"Just shut up. You don't understand." She went down to the basement.
"Oh-" My mom ran after her. "Jor-dan!"
"Are we going to run out of water or floors for angsty kids to brood in first?" Marco's dad said in a monotone.
"Based on the current-tuh-tuh- ratios, I think-" Do I really need to identify who that was?
>No.>
"Shut. UP!" Marco's dad turned and faced Ax.
"Are we counting angsty adults on that list?" Marco asked.
Marco's dad seemed to deliberate over who he was going to kill first, but wound up sitting back down listlessly.
"Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?"
"What do you think you're seeing?" smiled Cassie's mom. Out of all of us, she seemed the most sane. Or at least normal. Then again, many of us were automatically excluded.
"I'll be quiet and not press my luck further."
"Your luck?" I wasn't sure whether Jake's dad was kidding around actually incredulous. "You feel lucky?"
"Today-ay," No, it wasn't Ax who said that! "I consider myself the luckiest man…on the face of the Earth." Jake was beaming brighter than I'd seen him for the past few days, almost collapsing with laughter at what I thought was his own joke. I had no idea what he were talking about.
"Are you kidding me?" Marco turned to face him, mouth open. "You memorized that? Even down to his tone of voice?"
"Aw, Tom's got the whole speech down. It's insane."
"You're insane."
"Thank you, Marco." Jake touched his heart and nodded gravely. "I feel that right here."
"You're welcome," Marco said with the same mock seriousness. "Anything I can do."
"Can you devise a way to get us out of here?"
"Hmm…let me think." Marco put a hand on his chin. "We could…send the Earth towards the sun, thus melting the snow, thus letting us out."
"And…how do we get the Earth towards the sun?"
"We…um…change its orbit."
"By application-in-in-in of concentrated spin? Concentrated…orange juice…that comes in the delightful cans. Jake's mother and father, do you have any orange juice cans? Canssss…" Ax hissed.
Jake's dad had no idea how to reply to this. "I'll…um…check the kitchen." He speedwalked to its safety.
"Can-can, can he do it…" Marco withered under my glare. "Sorry. Um…orbit. Spin. Hey, Sara, any dreidels around?"