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paper. “I’ve written an image on each piece of paper. You may work alone or with a partner. I want you to represent your image any way you can. A poster. A model. Be creative. You have one week.”
    Kim seemed to have forgotten she was mad. She poked Robin’s back. Robin’s stomach tightened. The poke meant Don’t forget we’re partners. Kim plunged into projects with an enthusiasm that usually ended up being a lot of work, but Robin couldn’t imagine working with anyone else. But what about April?
    There were a lot of groans as kids took turns pulling out the strips of paper.
    “Don’t tell!” said Mr. Nordoff, bouncing around like a kid at a birthday party. “We’ll all try to guess the images when the projects are finished.”
    Robin felt Kim’s eyes burning into her back. Beside her, April was digging holes in her eraser with her pencil. She looked bored.
    Robin put her hand up. “Is it okay if we work in groups of three?”
    Mr. Nordoff frowned. “That never works. One person ends up doing nothing.”
    “But—”
    Robin sank back in her chair. Sweat prickled her back. The ice-cream pail went up and down the aisles. There was a lot of chatter mixed with groans. Then the pail stopped in front of April. She swept the bits of eraser into a pile and glanced at Robin. “If you don’t mind, I’ll work by myself.”
    Relief flooded Robin. But she had to make sure. “I could ask again—”
    “I like working by myself,” said April. She pulled out a piece of paper, read it with an expressionless face and said nothing.
    Kim chose for her and Robin. Castles in the air, said the slip of paper. Robin frowned. What was that supposed to mean?
    The bell rang and Kim said happily, “We can brainstorm ideas on the bus.”
    “Sure,” said Robin.
    She slid another glance at April. Her cousin had said she liked working by herself. She didn’t look upset. So why was Robin so sure that she was lying?

Chapter Seven
    The next morning on the bus, Kim announced, “I looked up castles in the air on the Internet.”
    “What?” said Robin.
    “Castles in the air. Our project that we have one week to do. In case you’ve forgotten.”
    “I haven’t forgotten.” Robin’s eyes felt like they were stuck together. She had been awake most of the night, tossing and turning, worrying about Kim’s stupid birthday party. How was she ever going to get the nerve to tell Kim she wasn’t going?
    “It’s an expression,” said Kim. “Mom’s heard of it.”
    Robin looked at her blankly.
    “Castles in the air. Oh, forget it.” Kim slumped back in her seat.
    “Sorry.” Robin pulled her mind away from the party to easier ground. Kim always got in a flap about projects, and they always came up with something good at the end. “I’m listening now. Honestly.”
    Kim dug a piece of paper out of her pocket. “I wrote it down because I wasn’t really sure if I got it.” She frowned. “It means something that’s not realistic.”
    “ What ?” said Robin.
    “Mom said it’s like when you have dreams, but they don’t have a chance of working out because they’re not realistic. That’s called building castles in the air.”
    Both girls were silent. Robin made an effort to focus. “Poster or papier-mâché?” she said finally.
    “Everyone does that. I want to do something different,” said Kim.
    “Remember the last time we tried to do something different?” said Robin darkly. “Aardvark. Exactly six lines in the encyclopedia. We could have picked chimpanzee or leopard.”
    “I bet it’s worth a lot of marks,” moaned Kim.
    “We’ll go to the library at lunchtime,” said Robin. “Don’t worry. We’ll come up with something.”
    “I give up,” said Kim. “We need to change topics.”
    “Bryn and Kayla already tried that, but Mr. Nordoff said no,” said Robin. “He said to think of it as a challenge.”
    The girls sat at one of the library tables, surrounded by a mountain of books about castles and the