Theo slowly backed out of the driveway, lingering for Zed, who was parked in the street. Kai stared at the clock on the dash: 9:22 a.m. She regretted inviting everyone over so early. Zed’s lights flashed and Theo pulled off, breezing past the stop sign at the end of Kai’s block and racing toward the entrance to her subdivision. Kai didn’t see Zed in the side mirror, but she knew she would appear soon. They played this game often: Zed always took the same route.

Plywood dream homes sped by as they zipped around the neighborhood’s wide streets, dodging parked cars and frolicking children. No Outlet signs stood like sentinels on the corners of the subdivision’s multiple cul-de-sacs, intensifying the neighborhood’s overwhelming blandness. When they reached the final stretch, Kai checked the side mirror again. No one was there. Zed usually wasn’t this far behind. Theo must have really floored it, Kai thought.

As the neighborhood sign came into view, Kai pointed at the car parked next to it and laughed. Zed had floored it, not Theo. The car slowed to a crawl as Theo pulled past the MINI Cooper, throwing Zed and Apollo a smirk through the Civic’s sealed passenger window.

“That was different,” Theo lamented.

“Left,” Kai instructed as they approached the main thoroughfare, Bethsaida Road.

“Where are we headed?” Theo asked, always reluctant to navigate without his GPS.

“Gas station,” Kai answered coolly.

“Oh. Can we go to one that’s kind of in the cut? A bunch of teens stopping to put gas in containers probably looks a little suspicious.”

“For sure. The station I have in mind is pretty low-key,” Kai assured him.

Minutes later, they pulled into the lot of a Shell on Old National Parkway. Theo groaned, but Kai knew he only recognized the street name from a 2 Chainz verse.

“This is not low-key. This street is world famous!”

“I think you mean World Star famous. I’ve seen armed robberies, assaults, fistfights, motorcycle races, and three-dollar ribs on this street. Everything is suspicious here. So, nothing is suspicious. It’s perfect. Get the gas, fool.”

Theo sucked his teeth and exited the car, firmly closing the door. Watching him, Kai laughed as he stepped in line and gripped the brim of his hat with both arms, wobbling in place. He was so shook.

With a false coolness, he exited the store, shoulders low and head high. Popping the trunk, he removed two 2-gallon gas containers. Kai wasn’t surprised when he loudly sighed as he closed the trunk. He’d probably just realized he’d have to stay outside to fill up the car.

Kai scrolled through Twitter. Her timeline wasn’t active, but the activity of the previous night was still available. Apollo had been watching anime again, and Zed had been forced to join him. She’d tweeted a string of annoyed rhetorical questions: “Why are their eyes so big? #anime.” “Does everyone need a damn backstory? #anime.” “Japanese voice actors are loud af. #anime.”

Kai laughed. Zed must really like Apollo to be tolerating anime. She typically scoffed at all things she deemed “childish,” and her scorn for childishness had only increased since they had graduated three weeks ago. Not only had her tweets suddenly become grammatically perfect, but when Zed and Kai hit up Lenox Mall a week after graduation, Zed had sneered at all clothing that wasn’t black, gray, or burgundy. “Women’s colors,” she’d called them. Just wait till she meets Apollo’s mom, Kai had thought. Mrs. Aleyani dressed like every day was a festival. She had dresses in marigold, rose, amethyst, fuchsia, maroon, lily, saffron, and cerulean. Kai swore that simply looking at this extravagant woman could improve your color vocabulary.