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“Bye,” I say, waving. “Sorry, I didn’t—”

Annie isn’t standing next to me anymore. She’s halfway down the hall in the opposite direction.

I speed up to catch her. “Hey, wait up.”

“Aren’t you going shopping?”

I shake my head. “Nope. I’m going home too.”

“But you love shopping.”

“So? I wanted to hang out with you today. We can watch a movie after we finish our homework.”

“It’s okay. We can do that anytime. Go shopping. I know you want to.”

She has no idea at this moment I want literally nothing more than to spend time with her. “I’ll only go shopping if you do. Cameryn invited you too.”

She gives me a look. “Only because you guilted her into it. She wouldn’t have invited me if I wasn’t standing right there.”

“That’s not true. Cameryn is really nice. I bet you’d like her if you spent more time with her.”

“I’m good.”

I scowl. I wish she would try a little harder to make friends. I want her to find someone other than me she can talk to and confide in. If she won’t find that person, I will.

I link my arm with hers again. “Well, I’m not going shopping. I already told her I’d go this weekend, so you’re stuck with me whether you like it or not.”

She rolls her eyes and laughs, but I can tell she’s happy I’m hanging out with her instead.

We head to her car, and I hop into the passenger seat. Annie turns on the car and it’s immediately filled with music from Broken Sage. They’re an indie pop band. Annie loves them—an unhealthy amount, one might argue—butshe lights up whenever she starts singing along to their songs.

After the first song plays through, she sighs, resting her head back. “I still can’t believe they’re playing here and I can’t go. What if they never play here again?”

“I’m sure they will,” I say as a feeble attempt to comfort her.

“They better,” she says. “Maybe I should start a petition.”

I chuckle. “I’d like to see that.”

She doesn’t know it yet, but I’m in the process of getting two tickets. Cameryn gave me an inside scoop that her cousin bought tickets as a surprise for her boyfriend because he really liked the band, but he cheated on her. Cameryn gave me her number and now I’m just trying to negotiate the price with her. They’re expensive, so I’m trying to talk her down a little by offering to trade something instead.

It doesn’t take us long to drive home. When we pull in, one of the neighbor kids waves at us. There are so many of them I lose track of who is who. Mrs. Jackman always seems to be having another kid. She has five so far, and there’s another on the way. It’s always a little loud living next to them because the kids are outside all the time, but I like the noise.

We head inside to finish our homework, and Mama rushes up to us. She takes my bags. “How was your day? How are you feeling?”

I give a look letting her know she needs to tone it down. “It was good, but we’re going to do our homework and then watch a movie.”

“Do you need anything? Cocoa? Water?”

“Nothing for me,” Annie says, walking down the hallway to our room.

“What are you doing?” I whisper to Mama. “Annie’s right there.”

She puts a hand on my forehead to check for a temperature. “So?”

“I thought you were going to act normal.”

“This is normal.” To be fair, it is, but I was hoping she’d try and be a little less suspicious.