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looks at me as if I have a cabbage for a head.
    â€œRandy, did you remember to pack your—” Mrs. Hardaway comes up behind her son and fixes me with an unreadable expression. Anger? Resentment? Fear, even? I’m taken aback. It isn’t my fault her parents need help on their farm. That’s what’s sending Randy away, not me.
    Then she stuns me even more. “Sorry, Eli, but Randy has a lot of things to do before he’s ready.”
    In other words, get lost.
    My best friend is being shipped off to Colorado, and I’m barely going to have the chance to say good-bye.
    We throw Randy a going away party at school, with a frozen yogurt cake and his favorite chips—fiery jalapeño and lime. There are only thirty kids in the whole town—nineteen of us in the upper school classroom, so it isn’t exactly a big blowout.
    â€œOne of the unique things about Serenity is that we’re all like a family,” Dad says in his capacity as principal. He chuckles. “There are some extended families larger than our entire population. But when one of our own moves on, it’s like we’re losing a brother or a nephew. It leaves an empty space that’s impossible to fill. We’ll miss you, Randy.”
    I find myself suddenly annoyed. In the past, Dadhas mentioned at least fifty times how much he wished there was another school in town so Randy could go to it. Dad’s not going to come close to missing Randy. Isn’t that almost like lying?
    Mrs. Laska speaks next, but she says some nice things you can tell she really means. At the end, she gives Randy a big hug and actually tears up a little.
    â€œSpeech!” calls Stanley Cole, and a few others join in.
    Randy’s face is bright red. “Who says I like jalapeño chips?”
    Even Dad smiles at that one.
    Tori Pritel sits down beside me. “I’ve never seen Randy so embarrassed.”
    â€œYou can’t embarrass Randy. Remember the time he ran out of bathing suits so he played water polo in boxers?” I study the floor. “Then again, what do I know?”
    She turns in surprise, her long dark hair shifting on her shoulders. “You should know more than anybody. You guys are best friends.”
    â€œYou’d think so, right?” I should probably keep my mouth shut, but there’s something about Tori that puts me at ease. With Amber, you always feel like you’re being judged; with Malik, you’re afraid he’ll make fun of you,or worse, file it away so he can use it against you later. Tori’s the opposite. “Every time I go over to Randy’s, it’s the same story: ‘I have to pack.’ How much packing can anybody do? Lewis and Clark didn’t pack this much. He’s avoiding me.”
    â€œHe’s sad, you’re sad,” she contends. “Nobody ever leaves town, so we’re extra sensitive to any change. Remember how weird it was when Mrs. Delaney got here?”
    Mrs. Delaney is our water polo coach. She’s super-nice and also a great source of information about the outside world. She came to town about six months ago when she married one of the Purple People Eaters.
    â€œMaybe,” I concede, “but that doesn’t explain everything. Like why all this is happening so fast. I’ve barely heard Randy even mention his grandparents before—have you? I’m in the clinic for two days and suddenly he’s going to live with them?”
    â€œI’m guessing the Hardaways have been considering this for a long time,” Tori reasons. “They just didn’t tell Randy because they didn’t want to worry him—you know how parents are. So when the decision gets made, it seems like it’s coming out of nowhere. But it’s really been brewing awhile.”
    Tori doesn’t get great grades in school, but she’s really smart in a common sense way. Not that it helps me feel any better. Nothing