“No danger of that,” I said, glancing at my microscopic breasts. “I don’t have much to look at.”

“It doesn’t matter. Seeing you naked isn’t what people get off on,” she said. “It’s how they can use it against you that makes them hot.” The corner of her mouth curled up, and I cringed.

“Finished,” Kylie said, holding my wrist up so I could see. “Here’s what we want you to do.”

When I saw the image, I yanked my arm away, covering the screen with my palm like it had scalded my eyes.

“What is that?” I sputtered.

“It’s a dick pic,” Lil said.

“I saw. Whose dick is it?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said.

“See that girl over there?” She pointed across the Boulevard to a cute girl with pixie-like features. “That’s Samantha Valenti. She’s a total Maker. Her parents own some children’s clothing company, and they’re hoping by going to school here she can launch them to Influencer status. She debuted at Ä4 a share or something pathetic like that. Anyway, she’ll eat this up, so to speak. She needs the hype to get noticed, so she’ll totally share it when you message her this picture from Peter’s Network.”

My jaw dropped. “But that could ruin his life. And hers.”

“Exactly,” Lil said. “Listen. We know your secret.”

My heart thudded to a stop. A cool breeze licked over my skin, and I folded my arms across my chest, assuming they were talking about my inflated IPO. “You do?”

“Yes,” Kylie said. “We know you’re really no different than Samantha over there, trying to be someone she’s not.”

“But at least Samantha’s mom actually gave birth to her,” Lil said.

I choked on my salad, my eyes bulging like she’d slapped me, having never imagined they knew that secret. “Oh.” Knowing where they got this information, I glared at Deena. She was the only person I’d ever confided in with the truth about my birth.

Her eyes were on her juice cleanse.

“It’s no big deal—at least not to us—we all have secrets,” Lil said, her voice sounding faraway. “If you prove we’re friends, we’ll protect you.”

Slowly, the potential consequences of Deena’s loose lips creeped in. My parents’ authenticity is their biggest asset. If their followers found out everything they’ve believed for the last sixteen years is a lie—if they stopped trusting them—their investors would sell… They’d be Unrankable. My stomach churned as the tornado swirled in my brain, dizzying me.

“But I don’t know any of your secrets,” I whispered.

“If you text that picture to Samantha, we’ll each tell you a secret,” Kylie said. “You guard our secrets, and we’ll guard yours. That’s it. Otherwise, maybe you’re better off sitting with Samantha.”

I’m trapped.

“It’s not like Peter was nice to you today,” Deena said. “Teach him a lesson.”

“I guess…” Glancing at my wrist, I swiped away the dick pic and scrolled through Peter’s Network feed, hoping for evidence that he deserved to go to jail for soliciting a minor. All I found was a picture of him tenderly cradling a tiny infant with tubes coming out of its nose. The caption said, “Volunteering at the hospital today. This gives me hope that innocence still exists, that there are still people who need to be held, who benefit from human connection.”