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selling stuff on their front lawn. I’d seen Mom do that before, had heard her say why afterward.
    Julia had stepped away from me to look at magazines piled in a cardboard box. I started to follow her so she’d talk to me some more, but she was already striding over to the tangle of bikes against the tree. She noisily separated them. Behind three others and right against the tree was a purple bike I hadn’t noticed.
    â€œThis looks OK,” I heard her say, and she wheeled it away from the tangle. She lifted and spun the wheels, tested the brakes, tried sitting on it.
    I followed her. “That’s a boy’s bike,” I remarked.
    â€œI don’t care.” She laughed. “I’ve always wanted a bike.” She looked at me, and a challenge of some sort crossed her face, stayed set in her eyes. “And now I’ve got a bike. My mom is going to be
really
mad.” Her face brightened then. She paused and read the price tag that was stuck to the frame. “But it’s worth every cent.” Julia rummaged in her pocket and pulled out some crumpled bills. “Now I can go wherever I want,” she murmured.
    â€œWhat do you mean?” I asked, but was ignored. I tried something else. “Do you like our school?”
    It was a short reply. “The kids are OK.”
    â€œNicer than the kids at your old school?”
    â€œI don’t know,” she answered quietly. “I never actually went to school there.” Her pale-blue eyes met mine. “Now you’re asking too many questions.” She stood close enough for me to catch a soft fragrance of soap or shampoo, close enough for me to see the patterns on her earrings. “You hang around with those boys who think they’re too cool for school. What are their names? Mason and Lucas.”
    I raised my shoulders in a slow shrug. “Yeah . . . I guess.”
    â€œHow come you don’t hang around with Bon?” she asked. “He’s your cousin, after all.”
    I shrugged uncomfortably, glancing across to where Mom was searching through boxes of odds and ends.
    I was disappointed that the conversation had turned to Bon.
Because he’s weird. Because he steals things
, I wanted to say.
    â€œI thought you guys would be friends,” Julia told me. She raised one eyebrow a little and waited for me to reply.
    â€œYou’re already his friend,” I said.
    â€œBut I’m not his cousin. And you live here. You’ll always be here, even if I’m not.”
    â€œKieran!” Mom called from nearby. “We’ve finished looking. How about you?”
    â€œI’d better go,” I said, a little relieved I’d been called.
    â€œBon told me about his cousin Kieran, so I knew about you before I’d even met you,” Julia said.
    â€œHow?” I asked.
    Julia ignored the question. “Bon needs someone who cares about him,” she told me. “And that’s
you
.”
    I opened my mouth to ask what Julia meant, but she looked at me as though I should already know. Mom and Gina were waiting at the roadside for me. “I have to go,” I told her, sighing. “See you at school.”
    Suddenly, Julia’s hand was gently grasping my arm. Her other hand held the seat of her new bike, and in a whisper she added, “You should buy something, too. Before you leave. I think these people really need the money.”
    She let go and watched as I rummaged in my pocket for coins. It was as though one of my parents had told me to do something, rather than a girl about my age. I chose a plastic robot that transformed into a truck and then back again, and gave Troy Pearson more of my precious spending money than I really wanted. By the time I’d paid, Julia was walking toward the gate with her purple bike. I realized then that it was actually an OK bike, and with a cleaning up it could even look pretty cool. But Julia already knew that, because she