I shut the door and turn to walk in the direction of Kimmie’s locker. I almost never get to see school like this. There are usually so many people in the hallways that it’s hard to move. There’s always the buzzing sound of hundreds of voices talking, and laughing, and yelling at the same time, but right now it feels like an entirely different place. I’m not sure I like it. As the sound of my own shoes bounces against the walls, my mind is filled with images from this weekend—Ma clutching her stomach, Pa letting out long sighs every now and then, Sophie hiding her bright pink nails under the table, until I noticed them myself and decided to ask why she’d picked that color, and all four of us sitting together at dinner, surrounded by a heavy silence that seems to have come back to stay.

The bell rings just as I lean against Kimmie’s locker. People burst out of their classrooms, swarming the hallways, and I search the crowd for a familiar face.

I see her before she sees me. She’s walking in my direction, holding books against her chest, and she’s giggling. It takes me a moment to realize that she’s not alone—that Darryl Williams isn’t walking past her, but walking beside her.

I’ve never seen Kimmie like this. There’s a spark in her eyes as she looks up at Darryl, and there’s something in his face, too. The corner of his mouth twists into a smile as he says something to Kimmie that I’m too far away to hear.

The second she sees me standing by her locker, she turns awkwardly toward Darryl to say a few last words. He nods, smiles at her, and then walks quickly down the hallway.

“So…” I say as Kimmie approaches me.

She spins the dial of her locker and opens it. “So?”

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“You were talking to Darryl.”

“Yeah,” she says, not looking at me. She takes books out of her bag and shoves them into her locker.

“And…”

“And?”

“You were acting all… giggly.”

Kimmie turns sharply toward me. “No, I wasn’t,” she says, but the smile on her face gives her away.

I press my lips together to stop myself from laughing. “Yeah, you were.”

She closes her locker and clears her throat as we begin walking. “Over the weekend, we started—”

“What happened over the weekend?” We turn around to find Adam right behind us. I have no idea when or how he appeared.

“Kimmie and Darryl became a thing,” I say.

“What?” Adam’s eyes go wide. “You and Darryl Williams?”

“Shhhh!” Kimmie hisses, looking over her shoulder. “Don’t yell out his name! And we’re not a thing.”

“Then what are you?”