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somewhere? Or hang out in the music section until they leave?”
    â€œNo way. I don’t want to take any chances. I’m staying right here— behind a locked door. Man, my head’s buzzing from the caffeine.”
    â€œQuit complaining. Don’t you understand the deep pile of crap we’re in? Ha, get it? Deep crap we’re in? Man, what are you doing over there? It’s smells like elephant farts.”
    â€œThey’re not as bad as my grandpa’s. They’re sick.”
    â€œNever heard of anyone inheriting farts.”
    â€œHey, what if one of them crawls underneath the door?”
    â€œWhy would anyone do that? Like, ‘Hey, I think I’ll crawl under the door to see who’s in there. Might be fun to see some dude squatting on porcelain.’ Get real, man.”
    Then a toilet flushed. “Paul,” I whispered. “I hope that was you.”
    â€œDon’t worry, I was just testing the equipment. There’s nothing else to do in here.”
    Paul kept sneaking out to see if my sister and her friends had left yet, but it seemed they weren’t in a hurry to go anywhere. My sister wanted revenge in a big way, and she was willing to wait for it.
    â€œWhat if she stays here until they close,” Paul said. “We can’t stay in here forever.”
    â€œThere’s no way we can let my sister see us together. She’ll know we did it. Then my life is as good as over. If she finds out, I’ll have to run away.”
    â€œShe can’t stay that much longer. What time do you have to be home?” Paul asked.
    â€œMom expects us home for dinner at 6:30.”
    â€œWhat time is it now?”
    â€œTen after four.”
    â€œThat’s just great. We only have two more hours in here.”
    We were glad it wasn’t that crowded—we didn’t have to give upour stalls for anybody. Danny Miller came in once, and we watched him check out his muscles through the thin opening in the door. It actually was pretty funny, and Paul and I had a good laugh about it later. Every fifteen minutes Paul would sneak out of the bathroom to see if my sister and her friends were still there. They didn’t leave until twenty after six. We waited a few more minutes to make sure they were gone.
    By the time I got home, it was dark and Mom was fuming. “I’ve been worried sick and so has Mrs. Grove. Where were you?”
    â€œYeah, where were you?” my sister asked, her head tilted a bit like she was already suspicious. I had to be real cool or I would end up banned from my own family.
    â€œWe rode our bikes to the mall and went to GameStop. Guess we lost track of time. Sorry, Mom.”
    â€œSorry? Is that all you have to say for yourself? Sorry? Didn’t you know what time it was?”
    â€œI saw a couple of bikes at Starbucks,” my sister said.
    â€œAnd your point?” I said. “So, you saw a couple of bikes at Starbucks. What does that have to do with anything?” I was barely floating. And talking too much.
    â€œWell, one looked just like yours.” She was looking at me but I didn’t look back.
    â€œDo you know how many bikes out there look like mine?”
    â€œI think you know something, you weasel.”
    â€œOkay, you two, that’s enough,” Dad said. “Jimmy, you can forget going anywhere for two weeks. Now let’s eat, we’ve been waiting on you long enough.”
    All through dinner my sister asked me one stupid question after another. Like what kind of bike does Paul have, and how could both of us lose track of time, and why did I pick this particular day to go to the mall. She was annoying everybody at the table and Dad finally told her to leave me alone. Mom, though, kept looking back and forth between me and Jessica, like she was figuring something out. It was really eerie. Like she was using some sixth sense so she’d know exactly what was going on.
    That