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of wearing the same old dress over and over whenever I wanted to look nice.
    Summer had gobs of clothes. Gobs and gobs. And she hardly worked. Ever. She would just ask Beth for money, and Beth would hand it over. I knew she would do that for me too, but I couldn’t ask her. I just couldn’t. We weren’t rich. Not by a long shot. Compared to Addison, we were desperately poor.
    We needed new furniture and our dishwasher didn’t actually clean the dishes anymore, but we just kept using it. And Beth never bought anything for herself, ever. So, I couldn’t ask her for clothes, no way. I’d feel too guilty.
    After all, she let me live at her house, and eat her food. And she treated me like I was her daughter. But I wasn’t. I had totally messed up her nice little life. It amazed me she didn’t throw me out on the street when my dad died. Pack me a sandwich and say, “Good riddance.”
    But Beth wouldn’t do that. Not to anyone. She’s too nice. She kept me and loved me, and never treated me like a stray, not ever. She treated me as her own daughter. And I wished I was. With all of my heart, I wished I was.
    I stared down at the dress with tears in my eyes.
    “What kind of ties come with this?” I wondered aloud.
    But I didn’t really think about keeping it. Not really and truly. I knew I had to give it back.
    When I finally left the bathroom, I kind of looked around for Logan. I hadn’t talked to him since that night at the library. We didn’t have any classes together. I’d just notice him in the school halls now and then. Or I’d look up in the cafeteria and find him watching me. Stuff like that. But now—well, I just wanted to see him. Not talk to him or anything. Just see him.
    But Pikes is a busy place. And it’s easy to miss a person—especially when they want to be missed. And I didn’t see Logan.
    When I got back to the booth, Gage wasn’t there. He was playing pool with Conner, one of my close friends, though we hardly ever spoke anymore. Not since he got coupled with his girlfriend, Raven. She kept him chained to her pretty tight. I was surprised to see she wasn’t around.
    Maybe he broke the lock?
    I didn’t want to mess up their game, but I was running late. I stood back for a moment, watching them play. They’re both really good.
    They were drawing a crowd. Kids from school were placing bets—quietly. ‘Cause they weren’t supposed to. They’d get kicked out if they got caught.
    I blew the bangs out of my eyes, impatient. The game was only half over—if that. It didn’t look as though I was going to get any studying done. Thanks a lot, Gage .
    I went back to the booth and boxed up the dress. Maybe I’d shove it in Logan’s car window or something. I wasn’t quite sure.
    I thought about simply leaving, pronto. Would Gage even notice? But I decided I’d better not. Too rude. I figured I’d just say a quick, “’Bye.”
    But as soon as I got near Gage, he swore under his breath.
    “Don’t crowd me,” he growled.
    I tilted my head. He never talked to me like that, ever. And the way he said it, it didn’t sound like he was just talking about the game—like he was under stress and needed me to “not crowd” him because he was making a shot. It wasn’t like that. It was more like he was talking about his life—his and mine. He wanted me to back off, not “crowd” him.
    Just like Addison was always saying, exactly as Addison was always saying. I could hear her in my brain, annoyed and snippy, “Give him space .”
    Everyone was looking at us—Izzie and Conner, and practically everyone from school. It was embarrassing and hurt so bad, as though I had been punched in the stomach.
    “Yeah, okay.” Tears forming in my eyes, I backed away.
    Gage reached for me. “Michaela, wait—”
    I ran out of Pikes and I got into my car, throwing the dress in the back seat. For once my old clunker started right up. And that was good, ‘cause I would have used my powers if I had to. No way