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continued. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll be famous.”
    Okay…when was the backhanded compliment coming? Maeve wondered.
    â€œWe’re sitting over there,” Joline said, gesturing over to a table filled with eighth graders. “If you want, you can come sit with us.” She made it sound like she’d just offered Maeve a chance to visit Mount Olympus and become immortal.
    Maeve glanced around the table. Nobody said anything. Her friends’ expressions were impossible to read. Maeve was surprised by the attention, and she couldn’t help feeling a tiny bit flattered. She couldn’t remember the last time Anna or Joline had asked her anything.
    Maybe she’d misjudged them. Maybe they really weren’t that horrible after all.
    On the other hand, Anna and Joline hadn’t exactly included the rest of her friends in the invitation. They’d clearly been talking just to her. That made Maeve feel a little uncomfortable—her personal mantra was always “the more the merrier.” She didn’t accept invitations if they didn’t include all her friends, too.
    â€œMaybe later,” she said noncommittally. She glanced up at Anna. “Or you guys could come sit with US,” she suggested. That seemed like the perfect solution! All-inclusive, just the way Maeve liked.
    Avery nudged her under the table. Clearly she wasn’t exactly excited by the idea of having Anna and Joline join them.
    Anna looked at Joline. “Uh…thanks, but we already put our stuff over there,” she said. Translation: We are WAY TOO COOL to sit with you guys.
    â€œOkay,” Maeve said with one of her “fine with me” shrugs.
    Anna and Joline exchanged glances. Clearly they weren’t used to inviting someone to join them and being told “maybe.” But Maeve was having a good time right where she was, and she didn’t feel like moving…especially since Dillon had just come through the door. And if Maeve moved to join ANYONE, it sure wasn’t going to be Anna and Joline!
    CHAPTER 4
Double Trouble
    S OMETHING’S U P …B UT W HAT?
    â€œHey! Anyone home?” Maeve called out, stuffing her keys back into her backpack as she let herself into the narrow front hallway. The Kaplan-Taylors’ duplex apartment above the Brookline Movie House was really cool. The apartment had high ceilings and lots of charm, but not as much space as Maeve would have liked. The hallway was especially cramped. She practically tripped over Sam’s backpack, which he’d left right in the middle of the floor. Three biographies of General Patton and a shoebox full of toy soldiers spilled over onto the floor.
    Sam had absolutely no respect for Maeve’s privacy—he even read her I.M. messages when she wasn’t looking. Not to mention, he also had a pretty suspect sense of personal hygiene. Ugh—those grubby fingernails! Maeve shuddered. On top of that, his obsession with everything military, especially if it involved some obscure historical war that nobody else had heard of, was seriously annoying. Like who knew all the battles of the Peloponnesian Wars? Sam, that’swho. He had a huge laminated map covering one entire wall of his bedroom. He loved sticking little pins in it and pretending that he was a military tactician, mapping out a new battle scheme.
    Maeve had never even heard of some of the countries Sam kept pretending to invade. And she couldn’t see why on earth he’d want to read about WAR all the time. Well, sometimes he liked to read about viruses and other creepy stuff, too. Boys , she thought with exasperation. How could they start out like this and end up so totally cute? Dillon—had he ever been a grubby eight-year-old? Ms. O’Reilly was right, this history business was more complicated than it seemed.
    Of course, Sam’s teachers loved him. He got every answer right on every test without cracking a book, and he