Uncle Jorge walks up to me. “She won’t tell us. She came home from school in tears, but she doesn’t want to talk about what happened.”

I remove my bag from my shoulders and leave it by the door, and then I take a few slow steps toward my sister.

I sit down at the table beside her and reach for her hand. “Sophie?” I say. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

She shakes her head.

“How about if we go over there?” I nod my head in the direction of the living room. “We can talk, just the two of us. Would that be better?”

Sophie hesitates for a second, but then she nods. I help her out of her chair and lead the way to the far corner of the living room. We sit down on the couch side by side, while Jorge and Amy pretend to be busy in the kitchen.

“Well?” I ask. “What’s wrong?”

Sophie takes a deep breath. Her chest shakes a little as she says, “Kelly O’Brien called us dirty.”

“Us?”

“You, me, Ma, and Pa.”

“Wait a second. Start from the beginning. Why did she say that?” I’ve heard Kelly’s name before. Even though I have never met her, I’ve never really liked the sound of her. She’s the girl who tried to convince Sophie and Leslie to pull the fire alarm at school last year. I don’t understand why Sophie insists on beings friends with her—or, actually, I do. Sophie just likes to be friends with everyone.

“She asked me what I’m gonna do for Memorial Day weekend, and I said I wasn’t sure, because we’re going to spend it with our uncle and his wife instead of our parents. And then she asked where Ma and Pa are.”

My stomach drops. “What did you tell her?”

Sophie’s chest starts shaking again, and a single tear comes rolling down her cheek. “That Ma and Pa were taken away by those ICE people. That they might have to go back to Mexico.”

“And what did Kelly say?” I ask, even though I already know the answer.

“She said people like Ma and Pa shouldn’t be allowed to stay in the US because they don’t belong here. She said Mexicans are dirty.”