“. . . not here to debate who started it or how or when. It ends here and now,” Mom was saying.

“It’s not just me,” Vanessa burst out. “I can’t be responsible for the way other kids act.”

“If other kids are involved, we’ll deal with them, too,” Drake said, stone-faced.

“I have a question for you,” Camille said to Vanessa. “What gave you the idea that I killed my husband?”

Go, Mom, thought Julie. This was more like it.

Vanessa blanched. “What . . . why would you ask me that?”

“Because you started a rumor that my mom killed my dad,” Julie said. “Don’t deny it.”

“I don’t have to deny it, because it didn’t happen.” Vanessa’s face melted into innocent confusion. “Julie, why would you make up something like that? It’s so mean.”

“I didn’t make it up. Why would I say that about my own mother?”

“I’m wondering the same thing,” Vanessa shot back.

“Then you won’t mind if we check your phone, just to make sure,” Julie said.

Vanessa flattened her lips together, and for a moment, Julie thought she had her cornered. Then the lips curved upward into a perfect emoji smile. “Whatever. If you need to snoop on my phone, go ahead.”

Vanessa really was the master. She had covered her tracks. Fine, thought Julie, narrowing her eyes to slits and refusing to look away. She would let Vanessa win this round. She would accept responsibility for the brawl.

“Vanessa,” said Mom, “when I ran into you and Jana at the library the other day, I asked you to reassure me that there wouldn’t be any retaliation against Julie. This wouldn’t fall into that category, would it?”

“Oh my gosh, no. I don’t want you to think I started something just because Julie destroyed Jana’s purse.”

“I wouldn’t have destroyed it if you and she had kept your mouths shut about Tarek.”

“Nobody said anything about Tarek,” Vanessa fired back. “You’re making that up, too.”

“Who’s Tarek?” asked Mom.

“Whoa.” Drake held up a hand. “We’re going to quit with the I-said-you-said and move on.”

Julie was certain she was the only one who caught the smug gleam in Vanessa’s eye.

Mrs. Marshall cleared her throat. “All right. Rather than rehashing everything, let’s choose a path for moving forward. Let’s talk about this summer. Vanessa, weren’t you saying you’re going to be a volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club?”

“Yes, ma’am. I love working with kids.”

Please, God, Julie thought. Do not make me work with Vanessa this summer.

“And Julie?” Mrs. Marshall turned to her.

“I’m going away for the whole summer,” Julie said quickly, before her mom could speak up. “To France, with my mom and grandfather.” She didn’t look at her mother, but could feel the burn of the mom-glare.

“Oh, that’s just great,” Vanessa bit out. “She attacked me, and now she gets a trip to France as a reward?”

Now it was Julie’s turn to telegraph a smug look across the table.