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“Nick, seriously,” Gibby said, sounding alarmed. “Let’s figure out something else, okay? Or, hey! Maybe we should go find a TV somewhere to see if Pyro Storm and Shadow Star are still fighting or whatever. Wouldn’t that be cool? Maybe they’ve hit each other so hard, their costumes are torn and you can see skin!”

Thatwas almost enough to derail him. “Foul temptress,” he hissed at her. “I know what you’re trying to do, but it won’t work! I’ve thought this through.”

“See, that’s the thing. I don’t know if you have. This is dumb, Nick. Youknowit is.”

The funny thing was, hedidknow that. Everything about this was stupid. But he couldn’t find a way to tell them how desperate he was, that he was out of ideas and that he had nothing left. He couldn’t tell them about his father’s words ringing in his ears over and over again:Why do you have to be the way you are?Pity. That was what he’d get from them. Pity. He didn’t want it. He wanted to be different.

“Nick,” Jazz said. “If you jump in that water, you won’t be allowed to stand next to me for at least a week. That’s how long it’ll take for the smell to go away.”

“Small price to pay for what I’ll get in return,” Nick said, and he turned away from them.

Gibby tried one last time. “Nicky, no.”

“Nicky,yes,” he crowed, and took off toward the edge of the pier. The wood creaked underneath his feet, and the rancid air whipped by his face. He clutched his hands into fists, feeling the ring that had cost thirty-seven dollars plus shipping sent to him by a drag queen from Milwaukee named Veronica B. Dazzled. And as he reached the end of the pier and jumped as far as he could into the Westfield River, Nicholas Bell justknewit was going to work.