I wander over to a big unmade bed buried in coordinated pillows. Next to it is a table piled with magazines and bottles of nail polish in an array of Mercedes-type colors. Juicy Tangerine, Spring Bloom, Beaming Sun. In another corner is a desk with a laptop, printer, and a stack of the same textbooks I have at home. On top of the printer is the pink binder. Francisco Gómez’s face looks back at me from beneath the plastic cover.

“Does your mom ever talk about him?” I ask, finally sliding into the beanbag next to her.

She shakes her head. “Does yours? My mom acts like he never even existed. It’s like she doesn’t realize I’ve had sex ed and I know that there has to be some kind of dad. I mean, I know I came from somewhere.” Mercedes is clenching and unclenching her hands into fists in her lap.

“Me too. My mom just changes the subject anytime I ask about him.”

“Mine, too. Does your mom turn off TV shows and movies about dads?”

“My mom didn’t like Beauty and the Beast because of the nice dad.”

Mercedes laughs. “My mom hated Maurice!”

“Mine didn’t like The Lion King because of the dad.” Before I met Mercedes, I hardly thought about him. But now I want—need—to find him. He’s like the gravitational pull between the Earth and moon that Ms. Garcia talked about.

“I bet Frank Gómez likes Mufasa,” Mercedes says.

We smile at each other briefly—like maybe we’re in this together.

Wait until she sees what’s in my backpack.

CHAPTER 16 Mercedes

I cannot believe what’s in Mattie’s backpack. There, at my feet, I see: a tattered bus schedule with brown stains, a faded map of Santa Cruz, a packet of wipes and a bottle of hand sanitizer, a box—an entire box!—of tissues, her school ID with her goofy smile, a baby picture, a complete change of clothes all the way down to the flowered underwear, a noisy orange plastic rain jacket, a rainbow-striped water bottle, a pocket knife, a first aid kit, and a flashlight.

“May I present,” Mattie says with a flourish of her hand, “Operation D.A.D.”

“Operation what?” I ask. This girl. “Have you gone completely bonkers?”

“No, Mercedes, I’m just a good planner. We want to find Francisco Gómez, right? We don’t want anything to go wrong. So,” she says, smiling proudly, “Operation D.A.D. Otherwise known as Operation Dare to Activate your Dreams.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

She’s not kidding. “Do you like Operation Dads Are Dynamite better?”

“More like Operation Don’t Act Dumb.”

“Operation Definitely Act Defiant?”

We’re laughing now, but Mattie tries to be serious.