“Maybe,” said Kent. “You want to ride the go-kart?”

“Yes,” I said. “That would be awesome.”

Kent and Rob looked at each other, then back at me. Kent Knoll smiled a little bit.

“Sure, you can ride the go-kart,” he said. “But I got to finish my chores first. You want to help me finish my chores?”

No, I didn’t want to help Kent finish his chores. Why didn’t Rob Louis help Kent finish his chores? Besides, all they were doing was sitting around slurping Capri Suns and being lazy. But wasn’t helping people with their chores the kind of thing a friend would do? I thought probably. And I really wanted to ride that go-kart.

“Okay,” I said. “What do I need to do?”

Kent and Rob stood up together and walked down the porch steps and into the yard. I realized how much bigger both of them were than me, taller, and their arms had actual muscles, like they had been lifting weights or something. I didn’t know that kids even could lift weights.

“Follow me,” said Kent.

He and Rob led me around the house to the back lot. It was about an acre of brown mud with little tufts of grass popping up here and there. It also had the biggest anthills I’d ever seen in my life all over it. They rose up like tiny volcanoes every five feet or so. Some came all the way up to my knees. I’d never seen anything like it.

“Holy crap,” I said.

I remembered my vision from the night before. This wasn’t good. In fact, this was really, really bad.

“Yeah,” said Kent. “It’s an infestation.”

I knew that I had to turn tail and run, and I had to do it now. The vision had warned me about this place, about this exact moment. But then again, hadn’t my visions been wrong before? I had sure as shit been wrong about Murphy’s birthday party, which I had totally ruined. Maybe this vision was wrong too. After all, Kent and Rob were both being pretty nice to me, weren’t they?

I wasn’t going to leave. I was going to make friends. I was going to ride that damn go-kart.

“It’s pretty wild,” I said. “I never seen so many ants in one place.”

Rob Louis stood there with his arms crossed, smirking at me. No one said a word.

“Yeah, so,” I said, my voice cracking a little. “What do you guys need me to do?”

They moved together as one, as if they had been planning this for ages, as if it were all practiced and perfectly choreographed. Rob Louis tackled me, pinning down my arms and legs with his body. I fought and struggled, but what was the point? He was bigger than me and stronger than me and meaner than me.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “Why are you doing this to me?”

Kent Knoll stood over me, a tiny smile on his face.