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ask.
    â€œAbout an hour. We’re in Wisconsin now.” Josh laughs.
    â€œWe made it across the border,” I joke. “Did I miss the Mars’ Cheese Castle?”
    â€œNope. We’re just about there.” The Mars’ Cheese Castle is a landmark just over the Illinois-Wisconsin border. It’s actually a major letdown if a castle is what you crave, although cheese fans will not be disappointed. When I was little, I used to believe it was an actual castle built entirely of cheese and inhabited by a glorious cheese-making princess. Josh and I finally stopped there after a day at the Britsol Renaissance Faire last summer, and my cheese fantasy was broken. At least their cheese curds are tasty.
    â€œShall we stop for some curds?” I ask.
    â€œI gotta whiz,” Josh proclaims.
    â€œThen that’s a yes?”
    We pull into the parking lot, which is packed with cheese enthusiasts. Josh heads to the bathroom while I step inside and browse the freezers of cow-shaped cheddar. I purchase a pack of cheese curds, which is kind of like wet cheese nuggets in a bag. I know it doesn’t sound it, but they’re really good. Like concentrated cheese.
    If I hadn’t been here already, I might feel the need to peruse the tchotchkes and cheese tidbits, but once you’ve seen the inside of this so-called castle, the cheese curds are all you need. I wait for Josh back at the car. I hop in and see my cell phone on the seat where I must have left it. There’s a message.
    I hit the listen button and pray for a message from old man Hoyt. Instead, I get, “Ms. Erlich, this is Sergeant Sundstrom of the Deer Grove police. I’m calling about Penny Nelson….”
    Crap.

    Waiting outside for Gavin to get out of detention. I need to get home to watch Annabelle, but I don’t want to leave without seeing Gavin. It’s our end-of-the-day ritual. Even if he has detention, I promised to wait at school to say goodbye, one last kiss before we go our separate ways. He won’t come home with me when I babysit, and I won’t go home with him. So I’ll wait.
    Lillian and Josh are in the parking lot. I feel like I know them more now. I see them all the time. Even if we don’t actually talk. Now I’m not sure if they’re going out. Maybe they’re just friends. ’Cause I saw him with Zoe Butterman. But maybe that was on the side. Maybe Lil doesn’t know. Maybe I should tell her, and then we’d be friends. Or maybe she’d hate me. So I won’t.
    Josh’s hood is open. Smoke coming out. But he doesn’t look mad like that one time that Gavin and I were late for a movie and his car broke down. Ended up busting a window, too, when all was done. Not Josh and Lillian. They’re laughing. Laughing at the smoke and the broken car. So instead, they walk. Holding hands. Maybe they are dating. They look so good together.
    I watch them until I can’t see their perfect, tall, beautiful bodies anymore. I watch the spot where they used to be until Gavin grabs my shoulder and spits his gum into the parking lot.

CHAPTER SIX
    After I listen to the message, I’m in stun mode. Penny really did it. Did she do it? She must have done it.
    â€œYour face looks weird,” Josh says to me, and I’m too shocked by the message to reply in any sort of annoyed way. “Hello?” he asks, poking my shoulder with his finger.
    â€œWe completely underestimated this freak.”
    â€œWhich freak? That guy waiting in line for the bathroom with all those packages of cheese curds? I’m glad I was ahead of him. Who knows what he planned to do with those things.”
    â€œNo,” I interrupt Josh with a bite. “Don’t speak for a minute. I need to process.” Josh opens his mouth to say something, then reads the seriousness on my face and shuts himself up. “That was a message from the police. Apparently, Penny’s purse was found in