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Quarter Guardians. The rocks were the size of salad plates, thick and heavy. I dropped them into Baby’s unused poop bag and prayed she wouldn’t make an unauthorized pit stop on someone’s lawn.
    “I have to try harder in Gym,” I told Baby as I swung the rock-laden bag over my shoulder. The Quarter Guardians thumped me in the back. Evidently, they agreed.
    We hiked back to the sidewalk. Friday’s storm had littered the ground with branches and wet clumps of leaves. Baby stopped under the weeping willow and sniffed a fallen limb. I tugged on her leash, but she nosed the branch and refused to budge.
    “Come on, Baby Girl. These rocks are heavy.” Who would have thought magic would be such hard work?
    Yap, yap, yap! Salem emerged from behind the tree with her wretched beast. “Interesting way to carry a poop bag.” Her lips, painted congealed-blood red, twitched.
    I lowered the bag in front of me. Salem gave it a quick glance then said, “Thanks for not giving me away at Sage Mage.”
    “No problem. Do you know Miss Ravenwood?”
    “She’s my geometry teacher. She taught my sister, too.” Salem rolled her eyes. “So what were you and Parvani up to?”
    “Nothing. Parvani was shopping for her cousin.”
    Einstein barked.
    The frost crept back into Salem’s voice. “Of course she was.” She tugged on Einstein’s leash and started to walk away.
    “I’m sorry. I’ve had a bad day. Can we start over?”
    “I’ll think about it.” Salem leaned forward to pet Baby. Her silver necklace dangled in the air between us.
    A pentacle! “I realize we hardly know each other, but do you have a spare pentacle you could loan me?” I asked. “I promise I’ll give it back.”
    Salem fingered the encircled five-pointed star and squinted. “You don’t look like the pentacle type.”
    Well, duh. “I’m not. Let’s just say there are extenuating circumstances.” Like Parvani going insane.
    Salem dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Are you and Parvani setting up a sacred circle?”
    “No.” Technically, it was true. Parvani wasn’t even here. “Of course not.”
    Salem sized me up. I shifted from one foot to the other. Then Salem’s attitude shifted and she cocked her head to one side. “Your dog wants you to take the wand.”
    My gaze flicked to the narrow tree limb. “It’s not a wand. It’s a stick.”
    Salem jammed her hands into the pockets of her crimson MIT sweatshirt. It kind of shocked me to see her wearing something other than black. “Suit yourself,” she said. “I gotta go. By now Amy will have called.”
    “Amy?”
    “My sister, Miss Perfect. Captain of the girls’ water polo team, president of everything in high school, and now, star college student.”
    “Best thing about being an only child,” I said. “No footsteps to follow.”
    “You’re so lucky.” A weird expression passed over her face. “I’m sorry. That was stupid.”
    “What do you mean?”
    Salem drew in her shoulders as if she wanted to conjure up a hole and fling herself down it. “I meant, you know, because of your dad.”
    “Oh.” For a second, I’d forgotten the whole school knew.
    “I saw his photos in Newsweek once,” Salem babbled. “He was awesome. No wonder you’re the photo editor for Yearbook.”
    My throat constricted and hot tears rushed to my eyes. I crouched and picked up the willow stick so Salem wouldn’t notice. “I better go do my biology homework.”
    “You’re taking Biology? I thought only tenth graders took bio.”
    “Parvani is taking it.” And Jordan and Zhù, so basically, everyone I know.
    “You have to be awesome in algebra to take it as a freshman. Amy took it then, but I decided to wait until next year, even though I’m pretty good at math.”
    The sick feeling I got whenever I knew a math test was coming up fast-tracked through my intestines.
    “You okay?” Salem asked. “You don’t look so well.”
    “I think there’s been a mistake.”
    “About