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freak out.
    Leslie must have watched a ton of horror movies, because she was totally freaking out. She was starting to freak me out. I tried to look through the peephole, but I wasn’t quite tall enough.
    LESLIE: Could it be your grandma?
    ME: No. All my grandparents are dead.
    LESLIE: That’s so tragic. Okay. Are you looking through the peephole yet?
    ME: I can’t see anything that way. I have to look out the window.
    LESLIE: Okay. Keep talking really loudly into the phone so they don’t think you’re alone.
    That was a good idea. So I yelled.
    ME: I am pretty tired from our kung fu class. What about you? Maybe we should feed the dogs and go to bed.
    LESLIE: You are great at having fake conversations. What do you see?
    As quietly as I could, I moved the curtain in the front window and tried to take a very quick peek.
    ME: It looks like a girl.
    But instead of an answer from Leslie, all I heard was silence. I kept reporting what I saw into the phone anyway. “She’s about my height. And she has a duffel bag.”
    I stared at the girl outside my house. “She looks familiar. Wait. It might be my cousin. Angelina?” I said.
    “Lane!” the voice cheered. “I thought I saw you peeking out the window. Open up! After two plane flights, I’m finally here!”
    This didn’t make sense. Why was Angelina by herself? “Where are my parents?”
    She shrugged. “They didn’t pick me up. I had to take a taxi.”
    Since Leslie was completely nonresponsive, I ended the call and slid my phone in my pocket.
    “They’re at the airport right now,” I explained.
    “Oh,” Angelina said. “I arrived two hours ago. And just waited.”
    I stared at my cousin underneath the yellow puddle of light made by our porch lamp. She didn’t look at all like I remembered her. She had long dark hair and bright pink lips, and her eyes were basically the greenest eyes I’d ever seen in my life. Greener than the eyes of Rachel’s Siamese cat, Petunia. There was no doubt about it, Angelina looked cute.
    “Can you let me in?” Angelina asked. “I’ve had a long day.”
    And since she was my cousin, I unlocked the dead bolt and opened the door. The first thing I noticed when she walked inside was her clothes. Her pants looked either stained or painted, and her shirt had a picture of a mean dog on it. Then I noticed that her mouth looked really small. Not to get all judge-y, but it was incredibly tiny. She probably had to visit a special dentist who had undersized hands.
    Angelina set her duffel bag down and gave me a huge hug. “It is so great to see you!”
    I did not return that compliment. I said, “We should probably call my parents.”
    “I already tried,” Angelina said. “Your mom didn’t answer.”
    That didn’t sound like my mom at all. She kept her phone’s volume turned up to the max, and she always picked up every call. Even telemarketers. So I pulled my phone back out and dialed her up.
    ME: Mom—
    MOM: I can’t talk right now. We can’t find Angelina. She took an earlier flight in her connecting city. They’ve lost her!
    ME: She’s here.
    MOM: What? How?
    ME: She waited for two hours and then took a taxi.
    MOM: Thank goodness! This is the best news I’ve heard all year. We’re on our way.
    I was surprised to hear my mother say that it was the best news she’d heard all year. Because I’d told her a bunch of newsworthy stuff that I thought ranked much higher.
    “Can I get you anything to eat?” I asked. “Are you hungry?”
    Angelina shook her head. “I bought a shrimp dinner at the airport.”
    That was an interesting choice. I would have bought pizza or ice cream. It wouldn’t even have occurred to me to buy a shrimp dinner.
    “I think I’m ready for bed,” Angelina said.
    “Um,” I said. “Maybe we should wait for my parents? They’ll probably want to say hi to you and stuff.”
    Angelina sat down in the wingback chair I was writing my poem about.
    “I feel eighty percent dead,” she said. “I