The temperature was in the low teens, and there was no wind to kick up the foot and a half of snow on the ground. The skies were leaden gray and more snow was predicted before the day was over, but Julie Jansen didn’t have time to think about the weather. She fairly flew across the quad, sprinting for the oldest and most impressive brick building on the campus. Only the corrugated rubber soles on her snow boots kept her from wiping out as she hit the patch of ice that always formed near the flagpole. Julie was breathing hard as she pulled open the heavy door to the main building and stopped at the cloakroom to make a lightning-fast switch from boots to shoes. Then the race was on again and she dashed down the hallway, breaking the school rule about running in the halls, her dark blond ponytail whipping from side to side the way it had when she’d been a cheerleader at Jordan High. There’d been no time to braid her hair and put it up in the elaborate style she wore in the classroom to make her look older.
