“My dad says all the foreigners are going to have to go home,” Fisherman said.

Fisherman didn’t seem like he was trying to be rude, even though he was being incredibly rude.

“This is home, sort of,” said Ben. “I’ve been here since I was four.”

Fisherman ate another cracker. It looked like a cornflake in his huge hands.

“Are you going to get deported?” I asked, and nearly choked on my cracker because I was surprised by my own words.

Ben sighed. “I don’t know. My mom went back to Canada last year. She said she doesn’t like it here. But if we leave, we probably won’t be able to ever come back. Because we overstayed.”

“Never?” I said.

“I don’t think so,” said Ben. “My dad says he needs to be able to work in the U.S. But my mom gets lots of stunt work in Canada. I think he just likes it here.”

“You must miss your mom,” I said.

“Yeah.” Ben’s face didn’t look so confident anymore.

“I went to Canada once,” said Fisherman. “We went to a rodeo in Calgary. Back when my uncle did roping.”

“Was it nice?” asked Ben. “Calgary, I mean.”

“Pretty good rodeo,” said Fisherman.

I felt bad for Ben and his family, but I was also glad I wasn’t the only one who had problems.

“So you’re going to teach us some stuff?” asked Fisherman. “Stunts and tricks like your mom and dad do?”

“My brothers too,” said Ben. He looked around, like he was trying to get ideas. “We could jump off that loft into that hay,” he said. “I’ll show you how to roll so you don’t get too hurt.”

Too hurt. My heart dropped into my stomach. Great. My back killed me for days after I’d hit it on the cliff.

“Or we could use that lumber to build a couple of bike jumps we can gap,” said Ben.

“Yeah,” I said, even though I was also afraid of crashing on a bike. At least the bike jump wasn’t going to be off the second story of a huge building, which is something trick riders like to do.

“As long as we put everything back,” said Fisherman. “We’re not really supposed to be here alone.”

“Beware the Truancy Monster,” said Ben.

“Truancy Monster?” I asked.

“Stony Butte has the biggest truancy officer you ever saw,” said Fisherman.

“What’s that?” I said.

They stared at me.

“He’s like a cop who makes you go to school,” said Ben.

“If you don’t go, he’ll take you to juvie jail,” said Fisherman.