“Do you want to come to the Boardwalk with us? Cristina is driving.”

Mattie hesitates for a moment. Is she going to be too worried about what her mom will say, about what my friends will do, about what might happen? Will she be too anxious about this change in plans? But then she says, “I’ll text my mom. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

When Cristina pulls up, Mattie climbs into the car behind me and Gaby and Rebecca. Like they always do, my friends ask Cristina to play their favorite songs. They don’t say much to Mattie, but I can tell they don’t mind having her tag along, either. Gaby and Rebecca totally get that I want to hang out with her sometimes. They aren’t about to be best friends with her, but that’s fine, because she’s become really good friends with Sunny Li. It turns out they both play chess.

“I don’t really like rides,” Mattie says when Gaby and Rebecca talk about the Tornado Drop, a super-scary one that hauls you up about a million feet and drops you like a stone. “Especially since my stepbrother puked on me after going on one,” she adds with an embarrassed giggle.

Rebecca looks at me and I can’t help laughing. “Gross!” she says. “We know.”

“You what?” Mattie says.

“Don’t listen to her,” I say.

Gaby laughs. “Mercedes hates rides, too.”

I stare at her. “What? Who says?”

“We can tell, Mercedes,” Rebecca says. “It’s fine.” And I wonder about what people know about you even if you don’t tell them.

When we get to the Boardwalk, Cristina drops us off by the arcade. “It gets dark by six thirty, so don’t be late,” she says before she drives away.

“Let’s go see if Joaquin is here!” Gaby shrieks. Mattie and I follow her and Rebecca to the arcade, where they crowd around Joaquin and the other boys. I play Super Dance Shuffle. Mattie tries it, too, but she’s not as good as me.

Then we play air hockey, and she beats all the boys.

“Must be my Minnesota blood,” she says and high-fives me.

“Roller coaster time!” shouts Rebecca.

“You guys go on,” I say. “Unless you want to?” I wink at Mattie.

Instead, we go in search of cotton candy. It turns out to be one of the things we have in common. The Boardwalk will close for winter soon and some of the booths are already shuttered, but we find a stand. Blue for her, pink for me.

“Let’s go on the beach,” I suggest. Gaby and Rebecca never want to leave the games and rides. Sometimes I like a little break from the noise and lights.

We shove mouthfuls of cotton candy in our mouths and trudge across the cold, damp sand to the shore. “It’s like walking through snow,” Mattie says. “Except, well, sandier.”