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trying to stay out of trouble. You could tell he wasn’t trying that hard, though. Leo’s mom lived in a crack-house in Niagara Falls and his dad lived in St. Catherines with his second wife and their two kids. Leo hated the two kids, the second wife, and his dad. I’m not sure why. Anyone who’s lucky enough to have a dad should at least try not to hate him. One of the reasons I knew that Leo was the most powerful of all the kids in the house was because whenever he would walk into a room, everyone would shut up. And it wasn’t because they were talking about him. It was because they knew that whatever they were saying wasn’timportant enough for Leo to have to hear. Another reason I could tell that Leo was the leader was because kids were always trying to suck up to him. Like they would automatically give him cigarettes whenever he asked instead of saying they only had one left or they didn’t have any, which is what they said to everyone else who asked. And when we ate together in the dining room around the big oak table, everyone would wait for Leo to start eating before digging in. Even the staff members sucked up to Leo, and no one ever gave him trouble for wearing his combat boots in the house or not getting in before curfew or not doing his chore on the chore wheel. Sometimes the other kids would do Leo’s chore for him so he wouldn’t have to do it, that’s how big of a deal this guy was.
    The kid who I figured was the lowest on the totem pole before I got there was a guy named Daryl. Everyone called him Dirtbag Daryl. Daryl was fifteen but looked younger. He smelled like wet socks and never combed his hair. He had so many freckles it looked like someone had splashed a bucket of mud all over him. He talked a lot and kicked chair legs and table legs and knocked over cups of water. He said rude things to everyone, especially the girls. He was constantly looking for something he’d lost—his key, his lighter, his pack of beef jerky—and he’d shoot into a room like a Roman candle.
    I could tell from the way he laughed, with his head tipped back and his mouth wide open, that Daryl wasn’t actually a mean person, it was just all he had going for him. Being mean, loud, and annoying, that was his shtick. Gina says everyone has to have a shtick. If Daryl didn’t have that, he’d be nothing. Just a foot-tapping, finger-drumming, red-headed mess of freckles that nobody cared about. Even if they were only telling him to shut the hell up, at least people talked to him. Once, I asked Dirtbag Daryl why his knees always bounced around like crazy when he was sitting in a chair, and he said, “You’ll find out when you’re older.” People usually say stuff like that whenit has something to do with sex, but I know you don’t use your knees to do sex so I’m not really sure what he meant. I guess I’ll have to wait and see.
    Basically, I just tried to keep out of everybody’s way. I read some of the books that were on the bookshelf: Catch-22 , To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes . I watched TV when everyone else did but I never got to pick the channel. Sometimes someone would switch it to Cheers , and I would be glad for it.
    There was a girl who lived at Bright Light with long black hair who looked familiar, but I couldn’t figure out why. Her name was Meredith, and she was sixteen. She wore dark makeup around her eyes and baggy black hoodies and didn’t say too much to anyone. She had a nose ring, which was kind of gross, but kind of cool too. I knew she liked Cheers because she would laugh when it was on. I knew that she liked to read because I saw her staring at the bookshelf one day. She looked as if choosing her next book was the most important decision she would ever make. I wanted to wait and see which one she would pick, but it got awkward just standing behind her in the hallway while she stared