Jasper stared at me. “Leah! You’re kidding me. How much did you pay to ride the bus?”

I cringed. Thinking of how hard we’d each worked for a few dollars just now, and how far we’d ridden to save money on peanut butter only made it harder to spit out the words. “Twenty dollars.”

“TWENTY DOLLARS!” Jasper looked furious.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry, I know, it’s so dumb. I’m dumb. I only had a twenty. It’s a rule of my dad’s that I always have a twenty for cab fare if I need it. My dad doesn’t take the bus. . . .”

“Don’t apologize,” said Jasper. “I’m not angry at you. Why do you always feel guilty when you should be mad? You got ripped off!”

“But he said he couldn’t make change.”

“Well, maybe technically, he doesn’t have to. But anyone else on that bus would have broken the twenty if they could. And I was right there myself and would have helped if you’d asked. Any decent bus driver will help you out when that happens. Haven’t you ever ridden the bus?”

I shook my head, oddly embarrassed not to have done something I’d never even thought about doing until today.

Suddenly Jasper was walking fast and I was walking behind her, and she looked mad but also kind of on fire and excited, and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next.

“Do we . . . ,” I called out from behind, “do we walk home now?” It was about three miles, I figured.

“No way,” said Jasper. “This route is a straight shot, up and back. That same guy should be driving the next bus or one after that, unless his shift ended. We’re going to find him.”

In my belly I felt a nervous tremble, but it was also a thrilling feeling. Jasper was in charge. Jasper could handle it. She could handle anything. I’d never known anyone like her in my life, kid or adult. How did she know all the things she knew? She couldn’t be that much older than me, but it was like she’d memorized some mysterious handbook that I’d never seen before.

When the bus did pull up, we were in luck. It was the very same driver, with his thick gray mustache and tinted glasses. He looked at us, and if he remembered me, it didn’t register on his face. Not at first, anyway.

Jasper climbed up, and I followed her, a little nervous, but eager to see what would happen next.

“Sir?” said Jasper, leaning forward to talk to the driver.

He looked back over his shoulder. “Yes, little lady?”

“My friend here says she gave you a twenty earlier for a single fare,” said Jasper as she slid some kind of card through the machine by the driver.