Free Lost in the Sun by Lisa Graff

nights. But I figured there was no fixing it now. I waited until Marjorie was busy at the fryer, and Iturned left instead of right, the way I would normally go to get back to the store. And I hopped back on my bike and headed to the park.
    It wasn’t the worst, eating delicious tacos on a bench in the park. Even if I was all by myself. And it was a little chilly, too, especially since I was just in my sweatshirt and jeans.
    Friday I’d have to remember to wear a jacket or something.
    I guess I did a real good job with the wandering, because Aaron and Doug were already there by the time I got home. Aaron slugged me in the arm and called me an idiot, and said that he was done—“absolutely
done
”—covering for me with Mom and Dad, and if I was going to miss dinner one more time, I was going to have to explain it myself.
    He didn’t say anything about Dad being super sad to miss me or anything, so I could figure out how that went.
    Mom had to work late, so it was just me and Aaron watching the game—Padres again. Although you could hardly call what Aaron was doing “watching,” because he had his head half buried in his trigonometry book the whole time. Normally Aaron was nearly as fanatical about baseball as Mom, but I didn’t bother asking why he didn’t feel like watching, because knowing Aaron, he’d only use the opportunity to lecture me about responsibility or something. Doug didn’t care so much about baseball. You could tell he didn’t care because he spent most of the first inning poking me in the back, saying he needed to talk to me “in private.” He was working on another prank, obviously.
    â€œDoug, quit it,” I told him. “I’m trying to watch the game.”
    Doug finally stalked off until Aaron’s cell phone rang and Dougsnatched it off the table before Aaron could get it and immediately started gushing like a baby.
“Aaaaaarooooon,”
he said, like our brother’s name was a million syllables long. “It’s a
giiiiiiiiiiiirl
calling you. Who’s
Clariiiiiiiise
?”
    Aaron hopped off the back of the couch, his trigonometry book tumbling to the floor, and grabbed the phone away from Doug. “Give me that.” He went to his room to take the call, and Doug plopped into Aaron’s seat beside me.
    â€œYou think Aaron has a girlfriend?” Doug asked me.
    I shrugged.
    â€œYou gotta hear my prank,” Doug said. And I couldn’t really argue, because it was a commercial anyway.
    â€œFine,” I said. “Shoot.”
    â€œOkay.” Doug was bouncing already, even sitting down. “Rebecca has a hamster, right? So what if I borrowed it, and me and her and Annie let it loose in Aaron’s room, and then while he was sleeping, it would, like, nibble at his toes? It would totally freak him out.” I guess he saw me rolling my eyes, because he said, “What? You don’t think that’s good?”
    â€œThat’s a horrible prank, Doug. No way will Rebecca let you borrow her hamster. And anyway, it would just get lost or end up in the toilet or something, and then Rebecca would hate you.”
    Doug stuck his lip out, pouting. But I guess he couldn’t really argue with me. “You got any better ideas?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
    I did. I had plenty of good prank ideas. Hiding all of Aaron’s underwear. Tying his doorknob to the bathroom across the hall, sohe couldn’t get out of his room. Reprogramming his voice mail to something embarrassing. I was full of ideas. And I hadn’t done a good prank in a long time.
    But if I told Doug any of those things, he’d just want to do them with
his
friends. With
Annie.
    â€œThe game’s back on,” I told Doug. And he stuck his lip out again like a little baby, but really, what did I care?

SIX
    Friday morning when Mr. Gorman asked me, “Am I going to like the kid I meet