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Do not talk to him, Kendall! He’s a total jerk.”
    â€œHello!” I say to him. “You’re Mitch, right?”
    â€œYeah.” He looks at me. “How did you know that?”
    â€œMy sister goes here,” I say. “And she has a crush on you.” I lower my eyes to the ground, like it’s some big secret I shouldn’t be talking about.
    â€œWho’s your sister?”
    â€œI’ll tell you,” I say. “But first I need some help.”
    He looks back over his shoulder to the basketball practice in progress, but the thought of my older sister likinghim must be too much to resist, because he turns back to me. “What do you need help with?”
    I feel almost bad that my sister is fake. “Well,” I say, “I’m supposed to give a message to this girl named Jen. From, uh, my sister. But I forgot Jen’s last name, and the only thing I know about her is that she’s on the gymnastics team.”
    At least I’m hoping she is.
    â€œYou mean Jen Higgins,” he says. “She should be across the hall in the other gym. They practice at the same time we do.”
    â€œThanks!” I say. He’s nice. Daniella’s totally wrong about him.
    â€œHe’s only being nice to you because he thinks your fake sister likes him,” Daniella mumbles. “He’s totally girl crazy.”
    â€œHey,” Mitch calls after me when I’m almost out of the gym. “Who’s your sister?”
    â€œUmm . . .” I rack my brains. “Ellie Wilimena!” Ellie’s the closest thing I have to a sister, so it’s not exactly a lie, right?”
    â€œEllie Wilimena,” Mitch says thoughtfully. “I think she’s in my math class.”
    â€œGod, what a jerk!” Daniella gets all up in Mitch’s face. “You were a jerk when I was alive, and you’re still a jerk now. Jerk, jerk, jerk, jerk, jerk!” Wow. Talk about being judgmental and over the top.
    â€œLater!” I call to Mitch. Daniella follows me out of the gym, but she’s still muttering under her breath.
    â€œWhat’s so bad about him?” I ask. “He seemed nice to me.”
    â€œNice?” she says. “You think he was nice? He’s totally self-absorbed. He always wears tight shirts to show off his muscles.”
    â€œMaybe he’s just proud of his body,” I say, shrugging.
    â€œUgh,” she says, looking me up and down. “I weep for the future.”
    â€œYou know what?” I say. “I’m getting kind of bored of this. I think I’m going to go home now. I have a lot of math homework anyway, so . . .”
    â€œNo, no, no. I’m sorry.” She bites her lip. “I know I’m being a brat. This is all just . . .” She looks around. “A little overwhelming.”
    â€œWhatever,” I say. I’m at the other gym now, and I peek in. There are about ten or twelve girls, all in their gymnastics uniforms, flipping around. Wow. They are really flexible. Now I just have to figure out which one Jen is.
    â€œGood job, Jen!” an older woman with curly hair, who I’m assuming is their coach, yells as a pretty girl with long blond hair goes tumbling down the mats.
    â€œOh my God,” Daniella says. “It’s Jen.” She starts to say something else. But before she can, she disappears.
    Whatever. I mean, I’m kind of used to that. Ghosts disappearing when they get all overwhelmed. It’s like their brains can’t handle it or something, and so instead offainting like a normal person would do, they just kind of . . . fade away. It’s actually better for her. That she’s gone. And better for me, too, since now it’ll be a lot quieter.
    I have to hang around until practice gets out, which almost gives me a heart attack, because I need to get back to school so that I can take the late bus