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dreaming of Lindsey. Dreaming of Lindsey and me, hand in hand like some kind of dream couple.
    Lindsey’s idea of normal was finding a quiet spot near the duck pond at Sullivan’s Cove and smoking some weed. I didn’t want to, so I pretended to smoke but didn’t inhale (as the politicians say). Lindsey got kind of dreamy-eyed and laughed a lot and kept commenting on how cute the ducks were.
    I asked her about her family and growing up, but she didn’t want to talk about it. Then I asked her how she’d gotten into this scamming thing, and she grew much more animated.
    “Well, I always liked to pretend things. Just kid stuff. But when I was about twelve, I was really bored. I was walking home from school one day. I stopped this lady and asked if I could use her cell phone to call home. She said yes. I made a fake call home and pretended I only got message. Mom , I said, it’s me. I lost my wallet and my phone and don’t have any money to catch the bus home. I don’t know what to do . And then I hung up. The lady looked at me and asked how much I needed. I told her that five dollars should do it. She handed me the five, and I started to shake and look worried. She asked me what was wrong. I said I wasn’t sure I’d make my bus connection on time and that I might get stuck downtown. I said I was scared to be there on my own. She ended up giving me twenty dollars and told me to take a taxi. She tried to stop one for me, but I said I’d be okay.”
    “That was the beginning?”
    “Yep. I started coming up with inventive strategies after that.”
    “Like what?”
    “Boy, you want to know all the tricks of the trade.”
    She was giggling a bit now and leaning toward me in a flirty way. She ran her fingers through my hair, and I began to wonder if she was just acting with me as well. She could probably get any guy to believe what she wanted him to believe. I remembered Noah’s words about robbing a bank.
    “Well,” she said, “I picked up some flyers from an animal rights group, and I went to the university. I had a clipboard, and I made up a fake petition. I stopped people and showed them photos of animals used for medical testing. I got them to sign the petition and asked for a donation to the organization. I was very convincing.”
    “Let me guess. You kept the money.”
    She smiled and dipped her head. “I guess that’s bad, huh?”
    “Some people would say so.”
    “Do you think I’m awful?” she asked.
    I shook my head. “No,” I said. “I think you’re great. You’re a little warped though.”
    “Are you okay with that?”
    I smiled and decided to push my own limits. I leaned into her and gave her a kiss.

Chapter Eleven
    The more time we spent together, the more I tried to change her.
    “I’m addicted,” she admitted finally. “I’d miss the challenge and the buzz I get from the game. Let’s do another wedding.” “No way.”
    “What did you do with your money?” she asked. “The money we split from that wedding party?”
    I hadn’t done anything with it. I’d hidden it in my room. I was saving it for an emergency. I never did let her take me on that spending spree. “I don’t know,” I answered, knowing she’d bug me for saving it.
    “I don’t know what I did with my share either. Just spent it on this and that.”
    Things weren’t that bad at the group home. In fact, it was pretty quiet until one night in the middle of July. We were all sitting in the living room, watching a really bad science-fiction movie about psychic aliens who read your mind and then sucked your brain out. There was a loud explosion in the backyard. Darren led the charge as we all ran outside. Brian was lying flat out in the middle of the yard, unconscious. His face was a horrible red, and his clothes were burned and blackened. There were scraps of metal around the yard and a small fire in the grass where something had exploded.
    “Call 9-1-1!” Darren shouted, and I flipped open my old phone and