“No!” Ali didn’t mean to shout, but Gigi stuck in a home with a bunch of sick old people made her frantic. “She’d hate it there, you know she would! The food would be awful, she wouldn’t have her things, and how could she feed her birds and squirrels?”

Her mother drew in a breath and reached for Ali’s hand. Ali jerked back and jumped to her feet. “She asked us to come live with her so she could stay at home. It sounds like you’re giving up on her. It’s not fair. You guys never try; you just move on when things get hard!”

“Ali.” There was a warning in Digger’s voice.

“Whatever,” Ali said. “I should go pack my things now. Nothing ever changes with you two.” She grabbed her knapsack and slammed the door on her way out. She didn’t care that school didn’t start for forty-five minutes or that she hadn’t eaten breakfast: she couldn’t bear to be in Gigi’s house a minute longer. Her parents were ruining everything again.

Ali avoided people all day. When Cassie pressed her about Toastmasters in homeroom, she muttered, “Probably,” even though she hadn’t checked with her parents. Not that they’d care one way or another. They didn’t care about her at all.

At lunchtime, she turned into a moth and hid in a crack in the wall behind a bookshelf in the library. She was too sad about Gigi and too mad at her parents to talk to anyone. It was only when she walked into science class that she recalled it was presentation day.

Emily cornered her straightaway. “Where were you? I looked for you at lunch. We needed to practice!”

“Sorry. I had to do something.” Emily had dressed up in a seafoam-green sweater dress and her hair was done up in elaborate French braids. Ali’s faded jeans and T-shirt were shabby in comparison.

Emily crossed her arms. “But you’re ready, right?”

Ali nodded. She’d read over her notes the night before, but now, knowing she had to speak in front of her classmates, she was a jittery mess. She took her seat, trying to swallow the lump that kept rising in her throat.

Mr. Corby clapped his hands. “Our first two presenters have done an interesting field study pertaining to the classification of organisms. Come on up, Ali and Emily.”

When the first slide popped onto the Smart Board everyone clapped. Emily had made it even better than what Ali had seen the day before. She’d changed the title to CLASSIFIED, and used a font to make it seem like their presentation was top secret. Everybody laughed. It must have taken her all evening to make it look so good. Ali had spent ten minutes reviewing her notes, then read until she fell sleep. No wonder Emily did so well in school.