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emergency in the third infantry division, requesting immediate backup. We’re stuck in our apartment.” I recognized Tory’s gruff voice. She sounded frantic. “Get us out!”
    “We’ve got a code red downstairs,” I told Kali. “Move.”
    Lizzie rolled her eyes, but she followed us out anyway. Kali tripped over a forgotten plate of old mashed potatoes left on our porch, which was where all of the guys’ rotten food usually ended up. She gasped, but this time in pure hatred. “Ooh, gross,” she squealed, kicking the potatoes off her Sketchers. “I just bought these!”
    Too late, I understood the note. What did we have in common with mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving? Indeed. It was gooey and moldy and had to be months old, but nothing could deter us from this rescue operation. We ran downstairs to force open Tory’s front door—except she didn’t have a door anymore. We stepped back in shock when we saw the wall of cinder blocks covering it.
    “Clear it out!” Tory shouted behind the wall.
    I grimaced when I saw the flash from behind. Kali was our little blonde paparazza. She snapped another picture. I’m sure I looked great with my ratty hair. Besides the loss of her Sketchers, Kali never took anything seriously. “I look like Medusa,” I warned. “Take another picture and I’ll break your camera with my face.”
    She giggled and another flash burst from her camera.
    “Hurry up!” Tory shouted out from the other side of the cinder block wall. No doubt she was eager to get revenge on whoever did this. At least she still had some fighting spirit left. It was more than I had. After the obligatory pictures, we went to work, hauling away the cinder blocks.
    Correction, some of us got to work. Lizzie just leaned against the blocks, giving me one of those fed-up looks again. She tied all of her braids into one long side braid. “When is this going to stop?” she asked.
    I heaved a cinder block to the ground and tirelessly tugged at another. “Why don’t you ask the guys?”
    “You’re going to leave it up to them?” she asked. I worked even faster, hoping to avoid the now familiar conversation. “You know you could be the bigger person and end this first,” she suggested.
    “And let them win? Please.”
    “Are you even getting any homework done?”
    I froze her with a look. Well, I tried to freeze her with a look. She just lifted a brow at me. “I don’t sleep very much,” I admitted, “and I don’t need that much sleep, so…”
    “They’re winning.”
    I grimaced, desperate to free Tory from her apartment so that I could get someone with some fighting spirit on my side. Already I could see Tory’s agitated red hair bobbing over the cinder block wall; it was in a looped bun on top of her head like ’Cindy Lu Who’ from the Grinch . After taking down another cinder block, I saw her narrowed hazel eyes through the cracks. It startled me and I fell back. Kali slammed a cinder block on her own fingers and screeched out in agony.
    “Hurry up!” Tory ordered behind the wall. “Just wait until I get my hands on them. Ooh!”
    Kali sucked on her fingers. Lizzie let out another sigh. “They’re long gone now,” Lizzie said. “You’ll never catch them.”
    “Then why don’t you help us? You’re the only one, who...” With my eyes on Kali, I lowered my voice. “Lizzie, you’re more capable than any of my…ur…” Lizzie’s steady eyes were on me, so I modified my speech from soldier talk to girl talk. “I can’t do this alone. If you want this to be over then help me. I mean, really really help me.”
    She tugged on her thick hair, and I knew that meant she was thinking. “Only if you promise to end this, and I mean really really end this.”
    “What do you think I’m trying to do?” She smiled sarcastically back at me, and I stopped hauling cinder blocks much to Tory’s dismay. “You actually think I enjoy this?”
    “Well, you know you’re flirting, right?”
    My mouth