Cora starts playing again, and I finish the chorus, her notes and mine mingling in the air, and for once, it feels like we’re singing the same song.

On the day of the audition, Piper skips volleyball to wait with me outside the auditorium. She hasn’t donned her compression garments since the tattoo, and her tops get progressively smaller by the day. It’s easy now to see her scars and her phoenix wings, flapping through the hallways like she might fly away any second.

“Aren’t you worried about how they’ll look?” I point to the scars on her arm that will probably heal all puffy without the tight grip of her garments.

She shrugs. “I’m gonna be messed up no matter what.” She looks at my bandana like it’s a betrayal. “Still no wig, huh?”

“Kenzie said I looked like a Troll doll.”

Piper groans.

“She’s the troll, and since when do we care what she thinks?”

Inside the stage door, a girl does a truly horrible falsetto at the top of her register. Asad waves as he comes down the hallway.

He squats down where I’m sitting on the floor, leaning against Piper’s wheelchair, trying to get through my history homework while I wait. Out of his backpack, he produces Dorothy’s ruby-red shoes.

“A little good-luck charm for your audition?” His black eyes capture mine. “Click your heels three times and all that jazz?”

I take the shoes and run my fingers over the bedazzled surface. Stupid Asad with his dimply smile and thoughtful gestures, constantly punching holes in my foolproof no-more-boys-for-Ava plan.

When he smiles at me like that, an insidious thought creeps in—the same barely budding idea that started when Dr. Sharp lifted my eyes: maybe after this surgery, getting on the stage won’t be the only thing that comes off my list of Things I Lost in the Fire.

Piper stiffens next to me, tossing the shoes back at Asad.

“Ava doesn’t need luck.”

But when they call my name, Piper yells at me to wait. She unclasps her phoenix necklace and beckons for me to lean down. “I have my ink wings now anyway.”

“Wait. Is this a moment of genuine Piper affection?” I say.

She pretends to punch me in the shoulder. “Yeah, I’m all broken up about it.” She wipes away fake tears. “Just look, Asad, our little girl’s all grown up.”

Asad puts one hand down on Piper’s shoulder and his other across his heart. I pick up the ruby shoes from the floor and stuff them into my bag.

A little luck never hurt anyone.