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them to call her at home.
But how did he get my phone
number?
She could see the surprise on her family’s faces as she got up and walked to the hallway. The sadness even faded from Grandma Mei’s eyes, and she looked pleased. “A boy? Good for you, Sue!”
    Sue’s hands were shaking by the time she picked up the phone. For privacy, she retreated into the kitchen and pulled the door shut. “Hello?” she croaked. Then she cleared her throat and said more clearly, “Hello? This is Sue.”
    “Hi, this is Andy. Is this a good time to call?”
    Sue’s heart gave another thump. She was thrilled to hear Andy’s voice, but she wasn’t sure it was such a great idea for him to call her at home—especially on a Grandma Mei night. “Um . . . actually . . . ,” she began. “How did you get my phone number, anyway?”
    “Uh-oh, caught you at a bad time, huh?” Andy asked. “Well, I know which bus you take. So I looked up all the people called Hua in the phone book who lived in the right neighborhood. Hua isn’t that common a name around here.”
    Sue couldn’t believe he’d gone through all that trouble to find her phone number. She heard the murmur of voices in the dining room, and she became nervous.
Can
they hear me?
    “Anyway, I called because there’s this great jazz concert coming up at Key Arena,” said Andy, “and I thought I might try to get tickets for us.”
    Sue’s heart leaped, but she quickly came back down to earth. “I thought we were going to wait a while to go out.”
    “Yeah, I know,” said Andy. “But the concert isn’t for a couple of weeks. The tickets are going fast, so I want to get them now.”
    Suddenly, the kitchen door opened. “Why are you hiding like this?” Rochelle’s voice piped up behind Sue.
    Sue jumped so hard she nearly dropped the phone. “I’m just talking to a
friend,
do you mind? I thought it would be quieter in the kitchen.”
    Rochelle was carrying a tray of teacups, and she started loading them into the dishwasher. “Don’t let me interrupt you. Go ahead and talk.”
    “It’s too noisy in here,” Sue said into the phone. “Let’s talk tomorrow. There’s something I have to tell you.”
    “Okay, I get the idea,” said Andy. “We’ll talk at lunch, all right?”
    “All right,” breathed Sue. She hung up, turned around, and found Rochelle staring at her.
    “Kind of jumpy, aren’t you?” Rochelle asked. “What is it that you don’t want us to hear?”
    Sue tried to control her temper. “
You
may enjoy talking to everyone about your boyfriends, but I don’t.”
    Rochelle grinned. “Then the guy on the other end of the line
is
your boyfriend! Why do you have to keep him secret?”
    When Sue hesitated, Rochelle’s face became serious. “Sue, is something wrong? You’ve been kind of weird lately. Are you in some kind of trouble?”
    Rochelle’s face looked so solemn, Sue had to suppress the urge to laugh. Before she could say anything, Rochelle came over and put her arms around her. “Sue, you’re not, like, into drugs or anything? I won’t tell Dad or Mom if you don’t want me to, but you can come to me with anything, you know.”
    This time, Sue had to concentrate on not cracking up. She knew Rochelle meant well, but she was so far off the mark it was ridiculous. She knew kids at school who smoked pot or took ecstasy, but using drugs wasn’t something that had ever interested her. She never felt like doing something just because others did it.
    “Or is it something to do with the boyfriend himself?” asked Rochelle gently. She paused, and then whispered, “Is he . . . you know . . . putting pressure on you to . . . you know . . .”
    This time, Sue couldn’t hold back her giggles. She put her hand over her mouth to smother her laughter.
    Rochelle dropped her arms and stood back. “Well, excuse me for asking! I didn’t know it’s all a big joke!”
    Sue saw the hurt on Rochelle’s face and felt bad. She realized how far apart she