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“Puke princess!” one of them shouted through an open window. I shuddered. That kind of alliteration would be hard to live down. Lacey flipped off the bus with both hands as it drove away.

“What’re you doing here?”Didn’t she know better?I hugged her tight.

She hugged me back and pulled away. “I had to show them I wasn’t scared.”

“Why? They’re idiots, you know that; ignore them.”

She looked at me out of the corner of her eye. “You’re still grounded, aren’t you?”

“Yeah—”

“I’ll show you. In private.” She turned to walk toward my trailer.

“Good luck getting that at my house,” I said under my breath.

I followed her with a half-open mouth. Something had changed for me, too, and I wanted to tell her—after killing Sarah’s phone, Lacey was the only person that I could tell about it. But compared to what’d happened to her, it just seemed so weird I couldn’t bring myself to bring it up.

“Lacey! Are you okay?” Allie sprang off the couch and ran for Lacey’s open arms.

“I am, thanks.”

“Did it hurt?”

Lacey looked at me.

“I don’t ever want my appendix out.” She went on in a rush.

Lacey gave her a half-smile. “Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“Is Mom asleep?” I asked.

“She went to take a nap about an hour ago.”

I glanced into the kitchen where three beer cans were lined up waiting for there to be more room in the recycling. We probably had another safe hour without her.

“Lacey and I have to do homework,” I said. I took Lacey’s arm, ditched my backpack, and started hauling her toward the back door.

“Outside?” Allie said with a squint.

“Yep. Just for a little bit. It’s a…biology thing. Weather patterns.” Clearly my sister wasn’t buying it. “But after that, we’ll come in here and help you out with yours.”

“Together?” Allie’s face lit up. My sister thought that all my friends hung the moon.

“Together.”

“For a little bit. My mom gets home at five,” Lacey said.

Allie nodded, understanding the nature of avoiding moms. “Okay. Hurry. I’ll save you good coloring.”

“Thanks,” Lacey said, ruffling Allie’s hair once before letting me drag her outdoors.

“Sorry about that. We gotta go somewhere she can’t hear.”

“I understand.”

We walked to the end of our property, angling away from Razor, who’d started barking the second I’d opened the door. Our trailers were spaced far enough apart that only people who had dogs had fences—and Razor needed his. I’d had nightmares about him getting out and eating Allie for years.

My trailer was on a slight hill and the land behind it had a hump and then a ditch where water ran off after snow melt and got trapped in shallow puddles that bred mosquitos every summer. We walked over the hump to sit behind it and once Razor couldn’t see us he stopped snarling, out of sight, out of mind.