Ali hid out in the library again at lunchtime, this time as a spider. She spun a tiny web between the photocopier and the wall, going so far as to include a word, just like Charlotte had in Charlotte’s Web. Only her word was PATHETIC, because she was. The morning had been awful. Murray and Cassie gave her a wide berth. Emily, who seemed on the verge of tears throughout homeroom, ignored her too. It still hurt that Emily believed she had no opinions of her own. She had plenty of opinions, including the opinion that Cassie, Murray, and Emily were awful people.

When the five-minute warning bell rang, Ali the spider crawled to a private corner and changed back, brushing cobwebs off her jeans and hair. As she gathered her things to leave, she saw Emily huddled against a wall near the library’s entrance. Her back was to Ali as she whispered into her phone.

“Daddy, I need you to come get me. No, Daddy, I mean it. I can’t stay at school. I want to go home.”

There was a pause. Ali started backing up. She had no right to hear this conversation.

“Please, Daddy.” She didn’t need to see Emily’s face to know she was crying. “Please come get me. Please.” Then: “Okay, I’ll wait in the office for you.”

Emily hung up and turned before Ali could duck out of the way. “Were you eavesdropping?” she demanded. Her face was blotchy, her hands clenched into tight fists. “It’s bad enough that you came up with an awful idea that was nowhere near as good as Cassie and Murray’s, now you have to be nosy too?”

Ali flinched. “No. I—”

“Don’t lie. That’s all you do. I suppose you’re going to tell everybody that my dad’s left my mom and moved out?”

“I wouldn’t do that!” Ali protested. “I didn’t even know that.”

Emily crumpled and pressed a hand against the wall to steady herself. “He moved out yesterday,” she whispered. “That’s why they took me to lunch, you know. To tell me the news in a public place so I wouldn’t make a scene.”

Ali stepped forward. “I’m so sorry.”

Emily recoiled. “I don’t need your pity.” She took a shaky breath. “I went to see the seals again yesterday.”

“You did?” It made Ali sad to imagine Emily at Tin Can Beach all by herself. “How many are still there? When I went last weekend, there were only five left.”

“One.”

“Only one?”

Emily nodded. “Dr. Reynolds was there. She thinks the seals came ashore because one of them was sick, but when they realized he wouldn’t make it, they left.”

Ali pictured the seal with the patchy fur and milky gray eyes and winced. “That’s awful.”