Free Firecracker by David Iserson

party was probably a hilarious way for those people to prank Lucy. But pranks aren’t funny when you target the weak. That’s certainly not my style. What did Lucy ever do to anybody? Stupid people don’t understand pranks.
    â€œI’d love to hide this in her car. It’ll make all of us feel better.”
    â€œI don’t want to do anything mean,” Lucy said.
    â€œIt’s not mean. It’s what’s right.”
    â€œMaybe we should all go to the movies,” Lucy’s mother suggested.
    â€œWhat do you want to do, Lucy?” Noah asked.
    Lucy was quiet for a few moments. “Whatever Astrid wants to do for revenge sounds fun, sure. But I love my aquarium. I don’t know. I’d also maybe go to the movies. Something romantic. Or a fantasy. But also something funny. A musical?”
    Whatever fog of horrible sadness I had walked into was now—at least temporarily—lifted. In its place was a new problem—and that problem was me. I shouldn’t have shown up. And I didn’t want to spend the next two hours watching a funny romantic fantasy musical movie. I wanted to be alone. I went into my purse and left a hundred-dollar bill on the coffee table.
    â€œYou all should go to the movies together. Enjoy it.”
    â€œYou’re leaving?” Noah was incredulous.
    â€œYes, I think I am,” I said.
    Noah walked me to the corner and whispered, “You can’t just throw money at her.”
    â€œOf course I can. And I did,” I whispered back.
    â€œShe’s sad. You can see that, right?”
    â€œOf course she’s sad.”
    â€œLook at her.”
    â€œWhat?” I said.
    â€œJust look at her,” Noah said.
    And so I did. Lucy’s eyes were downcast, and she was still biting on her lower lip. She gazed up at me with her pathetic face. She said, “Why do you think no one else came?” She was kind of asking everyone, but she was looking at me. No one wants to ever know the truth. Not about bad things. And I didn’t know the true answer anyway, at least not for sure.
    â€œI don’t know,” I said. It was the least horrible answer available to me.
    She nodded anyway, as if I’d actually cleared up the matter. What I was feeling had to be what empathy was like. Dean Rein would be so happy to see me experiencing empathy. And suddenly, I couldn’t leave. “Hey. Everyone,” I said. (Only three people counted as everyone.) “Let’s take this party on the road. I have a big car and a driver.”
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    Lucy eventually chose to go to a roller-skating rink because I’d presented her with the option of going basically anywhere in the entire world, and she chose the worst option.
    I had never roller skated before. I’m not good with things on wheels. I rented skates and moved out to the floor and oh my god , I was roller skating. I couldn’t believe it. Within a second, I fell. Hard. Noah grabbed my hand to pull me up, but he’s not very coordinated either, and so he fell. The next several minutes until I gave up were a constant exercise in standing and falling. Roller skating is fucking terrible. I can’t express that enough.
    I gave up quickly and crawled to the side of the floor. I sat there as people blew past me, sometimes backward.
    Lucy whizzed by me. She could move fast. Her face was pink with a certain kind of happiness, and it was nice to see. She was happy, and I had helped with that. I’m not saying I changed the world or anything—I totally didn’t, but I started to get why Dean Rein wanted me to do things I didn’t want to do.
    â€œHappy birthday,” I called after her as she sped past me in her next lap. She waved, and when she did, her hair blew back, falling however briefly out of her mouth.

I’ d been thinking about Talia Pasteur a lot.
    The night before I got expelled from Bristol, there was a party. As