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said.
    “Thanks. Bye,”Nora said. She tucked her head, turned, and hurried off, her shoulders hunched and one hand gripping the strap of her backpack.
    “She’s a bit of an odd duck,”Finn said.
    “I think she’s nice,”I said. “She’s just shy. Right, Charlie?”
    Charlie shrugged. “Hard to tell. She barely spoke.”
    “She’s odd,”Finn said again. “And those are the ones you have to worry about. They seem quiet and nice, and then the police end up finding fifteen corpses buried under the floorboards of their house. And everyone says, ‘She seemed so nice. Just a little shy.’”
    “You,”I said to him, “are deeply, deeply troubled.”
    I stood, shouldering my backpack.
    “Now where are you going?”Finn asked. “Why is everyone running off? Lunch is only half over.”
    “I have some things to do,”I said. After they’d ganged up on me, accusing me of being jealous of Tabitha, I didn’t want to tell them I was going to the library to get a head start on my proposal for The Ampersand . The first meeting was tomorrow afternoon, and I was going to make sure I was super prepared. Tabitha Stone wouldn’t know what hit her.
    Chapter Four

    T hat night, after dinner, Dex called me on Skype. We’d made plans to talk at seven o’clock sharp, so I was in my room, sitting cross-legged on my bed with my laptop balanced on my knees when his call beeped in. Willow, my brindle greyhound, was stretched out on a white flokati rug on the floor beside me, fast asleep. Her feet were twitching, and she was grunting happily. I wondered whether she was dreaming of being back at the racetrack, chasing a mechanical rabbit.
    “Hi!”I said, when Dex’s face appeared on my computer screen.
    Dex had pale skin, a smattering of freckles, and smiling blue eyes. His coppery red hair had grown out over the summer, and was now just the slightest bit shaggy. I could tell Dex was calling from his dorm room, which had block concrete walls painted a sickly lime green. He’d taped up a poster of a surfer riding a huge wave.
    “Hi!”Dex said.
    Neither one of us spoke for a long moment, and then we both started talking at once.
    “How was practice?”I asked.
    “How was your first day of school?”Dex asked.
    We both stopped and laughed. Willow lifted her head at the sound of Dex’s voice, and her tail thumped a few times.
    “You first,”Dex said, smiling his crooked smile.
    “How was practice today?”I asked.
    In Orange Cove, school started in August. But at Dex’s new boarding school in Maine, classes didn’t begin until September. Dex had gone to school early with the rest of his new lacrosse team for summer training camp.
    “Coach put us through our paces today,”Dex said. “We ran wind sprints until Matt Heneberry puked.”
    “Ugh. Is that even legal? It sounds like torture,”I said.
    “It’s supposed to build character,”Dex said.
    “I have all the character I need, thanks,”I said. I’m allergic to exercise in general, and running in particular.
    “At least it’s a lot cooler up here. It would have been ten times worse in the heat. We’d all have been throwing up,”Dex said.
    “Remember that this winter when you’re snowed in,”I said.
    Dex laughed. “That’s true. There won’t be any surfing in the middle of January for me, that’s for sure.”
    “Have you been able to surf there?”I asked.
    Dex was an amazingly good surfer. He even parasailed, which was surfing while strapped to a parachute.
    Dex shook his head. “No, I didn’t even bring my board. We’re nowhere near the ocean.”
    “That’s too bad,”I said sympathetically.
    “Tell me about it. I really miss it,”Dex said. He hesitated, and although he was still smiling, I thought his eyes looked sad. “And I really miss you.”
    Warm zings shot through me. Dex had always had this effect on me.
    “I miss you, too,”I said softly.
    Dex looked over his shoulder, as though checking to make sure that he was really alone. His