“Miss Wiz?” I ask as I take my plate. “Is it always this quiet?”

“Oh, no, honey.” Miss Wiz surveys the empty cafeteria. “Friday nights are always slow,” she says with a chuckle. “Those kiddos go home, go out to movies, go to the beach.”

Mattie and I smile. It’s funny to hear college students called “kiddos.”

“We’re visiting our dad,” Mattie volunteers.

I snap my head to look at her. What’s the matter with her? She can’t tell this cafeteria worker the truth!

“He’s working late in the library,” she continues. “We didn’t have school today so we’ve been hanging out on campus.”

Didn’t I tell her to keep it simple? I grab her backpack straps and pull her toward the cashier.

“I thought you didn’t like lying,” I say once we are seated in a corner of the dining hall.

Mattie shrugs and takes a huge bite of her burger. “It’s not a lie. It’s a story.”

I squirt ketchup on my plate from the bottle at the table. The only reason I like fries is for the ketchup. I dunk in a fry. Delicious.

“What’s our plan?” she asks. She eats three fries without any ketchup at all. She’s so weird. “I think we should call my mom and go home. She’ll be mad, but if we explain everything…”

Mom? Go home? I shake my head. “No way. We said no moms.”

“Okay, fine. Then we’ll call for a ride. Uber or a taxi or whatever. Go to your house.”

“No phone, remember?” I hold out my hand and drop an imaginary phone into an invisible pool.

“I’m sure we can find a phone to borrow. We could—”

“But my phone has my money, my Uber account.”

“Maybe Miss Wiz has a phone we can borrow?”

I shake my head. “I say we go back to his office and snoop around.” I eat four fries with plenty of ketchup and then, with my mouth full, I say, “Maybe we can find out more about him.”

“What’s the point, Mercedes? He left for the day. And it’s Friday, so he’s probably not coming back until Monday. Besides, it’s night and the whole building is going to be locked.”

“But we have to try.”

“What are we going to do? Break in?”

“Exactly.”

Mattie looks at me like she thinks I’ve lost my mind. “How?” “We’ll figure it out,” I say with more confidence than I feel.

“And then what? How are we getting home?”

“Then we’ll call your mom and go home.”

“That’s not much of a plan,” Mattie mumbles.

I eat four more fries. They taste best in fours. “Do you have a better one?”

CHAPTER 35 Mattie