Shelly’d probably get in trouble if she did that. Maybe not trouble-trouble, but the school would make her sit in the office and they’d call her Grandma to come take her home.

Shelly’s mom would laugh and say, Well, she’s not wrong. Shelly hasn’t gotten in trouble at school often, but when she was in first grade Lucas cut off the end of her braid and when she hit him the principal said they were both wrong and called their parents.

Shelly’s mom said she didn’t see how her daughter hitting a kid after he cut her hair was an unreasonable response. She’d said she hoped Lucas learned his lesson. Then she took Shelly to Zhou’s.

“Hitting people shouldn’t be your first response,” she said, pointing a fry at Shelly. “But fighting back when someone tries to bully you isn’t a bad thing, Shell. I want you to know it’s okay to stand up for yourself.” She paused, pushing the plate of sweet and sour pork and french fries toward Shelly. “Let’s not tell your grandma everything, though, okay? She doesn’t need to know about the hitting or the fries.”

Shelly suddenly doesn’t want to be at school anymore, but she doesn’t want to go home either. She wants french fries and sweet and sour pork and a milkshake. And maybe, if she’s honest, Shelly wants to see if her mother is waiting there for her.

There’s a whole bunch of places her mom might anchor herself, and maybe Zhou’s is unlikely, but Shelly’s mom loved the food and it was their place. Grandma didn’t know about it.

Shelly sits through the rest of the school day and doesn’t pay attention to Isabel beside her or Ms. Flores at the front of the room. She sits and she thinks about how she’s going to get to Zhou’s. She can’t ask outright. It would mean giving up her mother’s secret and she doesn’t want that—it was theirs and it should stay theirs.

Still, when her grandma shows up to take Shelly home at the end of the day, Shelly’s plan isn’t much better. “Can we go to the thrift store on the way home?” she asks. “I don’t need to buy anything. I just—want to go.” She pauses. “Mom and I used to go there.”

Grandma hesitates and for a moment Shelly thinks she’s going to have to tell Grandma everything, but then she nods. “Maybe we can find some tapes to take to Joseph.”

“Maybe,” Shelly agrees, although she has no intention of looking.