“Good god,” Bitsy said. “Someone should put her out of her misery.”

“It’s better than doing nothing,” I said. “I feel lame just standing here.”

“Then go,” Bitsy said. She fanned her hand out at the different activities. “Knock yourself out.”

Our eyes met.

“Fine, I will,” I said.

“Terrif,” Bitsy said.

I strolled to the bungee cord race, which did look like fun in a ridiculous sort of way. I looked on as a chaperone told the guy at the front of the line to remove all of his piercings before getting into the harness.

“Even my nose ring?” the guy asked.

“Even your nose ring.”

“Even my tongue ring?” The guy stuck out his tongue and waggled it back and forth.

“Your tongue ring can stay. Just keep it in your mouth.”

I skimmed the rest of the line. There was Raven Holtzclaw-Fontaine in a form-fitting sleeveless dress. She shook her head, saying no to the bungee cord, but the guy she was with stepped up to get strapped in. And there was Sukie Karing, biting her cuticles. She’d slopped red punch down the front of her white top, and the girls behind her pointed and smirked. Even Pammy, who seemed to be Sukie’s date, looked as if she’d rather be elsewhere.

Move on, I told myself. No point worrying about Sukie now.

My eyes strayed to a guy in a white leisure suit. It was a suit that could have gone either way, super dorky or super cool in a retro seventies kind of style. I saw the guy’s face, and my muscles tightened. It was Phil, and I was pretty sure people weren’t looking at him and thinking super cool.

My face burned, and I knew I should leave before he saw me. But first I craned my neck to see who he was with.

Standing beside him, her arm looped through his, was Oz Spencer, wearing a hot pink dress that matched her hot pink hair. I wondered, with a surprising stab of jealousy, if she were wearing a hot pink thong.

Oz laughed and nudged Phil’s shoulder, then reached up and started removing the gazillion silver earrings that studded her ears. She was going to go for it. She was going to do the bungee race with Phil.

Phil shrugged out of his jacket. As he did, he caught sight of me. His face got still.

I lifted my hand in a tentative wave. I smiled, like, Way to go, you big stud!

He turned his back and reached to help Oz.

I strode to the bleachers, my heart twisting. Anna Maria and Debbie from my PE class lounged on the seats.

“Jane, hey!” Anna Maria called. She beckoned me over. “What’d I tell you, huh? Does this rock or what?”

I took a seat. I smelled Peach Schnapps.

“We’ve already done the Human Fly and the Box Your Brains Out. Me and Little Debs rocked. Didn’t we, Debs?” She slugged Debbie’s arm. “Bam! Knock out, baby!”

“And these two sophomores behind us?” Debbie said. “They were all, ‘Ooo, no! It’s too scary! We’d mess up our hair!’”

“Me and Little Debs were like, ‘What’d you think this was, the prom?’” Anna Maria slapped Debbie’s palm.

“What about you?” Debbie asked. “You maintaining the tangible?”

“Huh?” I said.

Anna Maria cracked up. She told Debbie, “You are such a dork.” To me, she said, “It’s her new way of saying ‘keeping it real.’ Maintaining the tangible, get it?”

“Ohhh,” I said. “Gotcha.”

Anna Maria’s laughter kept coming. “Total dorkitude maximus—that’s my Debs.” She reached inside her jean jacket and pulled out a flask. A cool flask, actually. Silver with delicate etchings, curved to fit against her body. She unscrewed the top and took a swig. “Want some?”

“No, thanks,” I said.

“Suit yourself. Here, Little Debs.” She handed over the flask. “So. After party at Bitsy’s, right? Should be a rocking good time.”

She and Debbie leaned against each other and snickered.

“Down with the skank,” Anna Maria said.

Debbie lifted the flask. “The skank must die!”

I wasn’t following. But then, they were drunk. Got the part about Bitsy’s house, though. It made my stomach curl, because no one had told me about an after party.

I grabbed the flask and downed a long gulp.

“Go, baby!” Anna Maria said. “Now we’re talking!”

Passing it back, I said, “I’m out of here. Got to maintain the tangible.”

More cackling from the peanut gallery. “You do that,” Anna Maria called. “We’ll see your ass at Bitsy’s!”

“Game’s up, Bitsy,” I said. I sounded whiny, which pissed me off. “Thanks, you know, for including me.”

“What’s that?” Bitsy said. She turned her attention from Bounce-a-Rama, where Stuart Hill was doing moon jumps off a glittering gray launch pad.

“Your after party. Anna Maria and Debbie told me.”

Mary Bryan blushed; Bitsy didn’t. Keisha dropped her eyes.

“We just …” Mary Bryan started. “I mean, it wasn’t like we didn’t want you to come, it’s just—”

“Of course we want you to come,” Bitsy said. “We didn’t think you’d want to, that’s all.”

“Why would you think that?” I said. “Seriously. You at least could have asked me.”

“You’re absolutely right, and I feel like a prize idiot for being so thoughtless. But it’s all out now, yeah?”

I couldn’t stop fooling with my ring, using my thumb to rotate it around and around my finger. “Were you just going to drop me off and go without me? Wouldn’t that make you feel pathetic?”

Bitsy’s eyes widened. “Sweetie!” she said, as if she were truly shocked and worried. “How could you ever feel pathetic? Don’t you know how much we love you?”

“We thought you were mad at us,” Mary Bryan said. She kind of petted me. “I’m so glad you’re not.”

I couldn’t let it go. I didn’t know what Bitsy was up to.

“Keisha?” I said. “Do you want me to come?”

Keisha looked at me, sadly almost. Embarrassment coursed through me for being such a baby.

“I want you to do what you want to do,” she said. “It’s up to you.”

“Well, I want to go,” I said.

“Superb,” Bitsy said. She turned back to the Bounce-a-Rama, where Stuart had gotten snarled in the harness. “We’ll leave in a jiff.”

I looked past the Bounce-a-Rama to the giant bowling ball, where I could see Phil and Oz at the front of the line. Phil said something, and Oz stuck out her tongue. A chaperone strapped her into the transparent ball, and she rolled down the puffy rubber lane, laughing like mad as her dress tangled around her legs. She careened into the bowling pins with an echoing crash.

We didn’t go straight to Bitsy’s. Instead, we stopped at a house five down from hers, a red brick Tudor with two stone eagles perched at the foot of the winding drive. Anna Maria and Debbie parked behind us on the street. A Jeep full of cheerleaders pulled up last.

“What’s going on?” I asked from Bitsy’s backseat.

“Pit stop,” Bitsy said. She killed the motor and got out of the car. Keisha and Mary Bryan climbed out, too. Reluctantly, I followed.

Debbie, Anna Maria, Elizabeth, Amy, Laurie, and Trish gathered around us. Their voices sounded too loud now that we were away from the Fall Fling. The night air chilled my skin.

“What now?” Anna Maria said. “Should we, like, just walk up and ring the doorbell?”

“We could throw rocks at her window,” Debbie said. She mimed an overhand pitch. “Ker-rash!”

“She’d think it was a gunshot,” Elizabeth said, snickering.

A thread of fear moved through my chest. I glanced up at the house, which was completely dark, and I remembered what Mary Bryan had told me.

Bitsy and Camilla were neighbors.

I turned to Mary Bryan. “Why are we here?”

She avoided my eyes. “Don’t worry. Nothing’s going to happen.”

“They’re talking about smashing her window,” I said.

“Nobody’s smashing anybody’s window,” Bitsy said. “We just felt sorry for her, right, girls? All alone on the night of Fall Fling.” She draped her arm over my shoulders. “Heartbreaking, really. She’s in desperate need of human contact.”