“Anne!” Mr. Davidson popped his head out of the doorway of the chemistry lab. “Hey, Minnie! Come on in.”

Inside, Gilly and Tanner and Sarah and John were sitting at the chem table at the front of the room. Gilly was kind of folded in on herself. She looked up at me with huge eyes when we walked in. She looked. . .surprised.

“Hi,” I said. “Uhhhhh.”

Minnie looked around the room. “Awkward,” she whispered.

“No.” Tanner stood up from his stool, shaking his head. “What the fuck is she doing here?”

“Tanner!” Mr. Davidson clapped his hands together. “I will not have that language in this room.”

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Sarah added from her perch, with a level of assurance that seemed. . .weird.

Like, was the small town rumor mill that strong that everyone already knew the results from my fight with Lucy the night before? We still didn’t have curtains up. Was that it?

I scanned Sarah and Tanner’s faces, avoiding looking at Gilly.

Or did they just think it was obvious that accusing me of an actual crime would be a solid way of taking Peter Pan away from me?

“Miss Shirley is a player in our troupe.” Mr. Davidson closed the door with a decisive click and turned back to the classroom. “And as a member of this cast, she is here for—”

“She also destroyed my backyard,” Tanner cut in. “There was, uh, major damage? So maybe a destructive person like that shouldn’t be allowed to be the lead in a school play?”

I mean, a brief study of the history of actors would say otherwise, but I digress.

Suddenly I could picture Tanner and his dad looking at whatever char spot on their back lawn was left after we put out the fire. I could see Tanner’s dad typing the word damage into his email. Something about that word was like a kinetic bomb in my brain.

Da mage?

To his la wn???

I wanted to jump on Tanner’s head and scream.

How about my lawn, you jerk? How about the lawn you and your terrible friends spray- painted and I never even told anyone! Because I’m not a dick! And you are!

But before I could think of jumping or screaming, I felt Mr. Davidson’s hand on my arm.