Which is how Lulu ends up sitting at her family’s dining room table with her stepmom and her little sister and her ex . . . whatever, who no one even knows she used to date. Her dad comes home halfway through the meal, which nixes any chance of the quick escape Lulu was hoping for. “Sorry,” she whispers to Cass when she can.

“It’s fine,” Cass says. “It’s actually kind of hilarious, to see Lulu Shapiro acting like an obedient daughter.”

“I’m not obedient.”

“I’ve never seen you this tame.”

Lulu raises one eyebrow. Cass has the grace to blush.

“So Cass, if you go to Lowell, how did you meet Laila?” her dad asks.

“Laila?”

“God, Dad!”

“It’s your name,” he says, and then, to Cass: “I’ve always thought Lulu was silly, but she insists on it.”

“We made friends at a party,” Cass says.

“Cass rescued me.”

“Hmmm,” Cass says, not quite affirmative.

“It was a boring party.”

“All parties are boring.”

“I know that now.”

Finally, finally, the meal ends. Lulu and Cass help clear the dishes. The two of them are alone in the kitchen. It’s the first time they’ve been alone in a room in a while, Lulu thinks.

“We should escape,” she says. “Now, before Deirdre puts on music and turns this into family kitchen cleanup time. She hasn’t had all four of us around a table in years, I think. She’s going to milk it for all it’s worth.”

“I’m down,” Cass says. “Lead the way.”

Lulu looks around the kitchen and realizes they’re trapped. The only way to get up to her room—to any other room in the house, from here—is to go back through the dining room, which will give Deirdre another opportunity to waylay them. The studying for a test excuse hasn’t worked so far. The only thing they can do is go out the side door into the yard, which isn’t perfect, but seems like a better option than the rumble of enforced fun she can hear coming from the dining room.

She motions for Cass to follow her, and Cass does. Outside, the night is sharply cold and black, the sky lit by the city’s muggy glow and a bare sliver of moon. Lulu wishes she knew if it was waxing or waning—it feels like it would mean something either way. But if the sky has signs for her, she doesn’t know how to read them.

Instead she turns to Cass. “Want to see my favorite place on the property?” she says.

“The property,” Cass says. Before Lulu can defend herself, she says, “Of course.”