Abuela Sonia held his hand tightly while he spoke, and every time he slowed down or hesitated, she squeezed. It was her way of encouraging him, of reminding him that this wasn’t his fault.

His parents cried. They burned with rage. Mami said she was ready to march down to the school the next day and give them a piece of her mind. Then Papi said he wanted to do it, and soon, they had decided to go together and were strategizing who would talk about what. Immediately after that, Mami started convincing herself that if she’d followed up on her idea to find an after-school drama program, maybe none of this would have happened, but she just got so busy and—

Abuela Sonia had to shush them. “There will be time for that,” she said when they had quieted down. “But Héctor needed to solve this and to decide for himself to ask for help when it got to be too much. Let him ask you to take charge if he needs it.”

She looked to Héctor and smiled.

He didn’t know what he would do without her.

Unlike his old Alta Vista group chat, the Insiders chat stayed active all week. He simply couldn’t get enough of it. They traded jokes and memes. Sal and Héctor freaked out when Juliana sent over photos of the dance, complete with one of her locked in the arms of Sascha, the two of them slow dancing under a sparkling disco ball.

Is it weird that I ship you two? texted Sal. Because I do.

Juliana sent back like a hundred hearts.

The chat admittedly distracted him, too, and a week after the events in the auditorium, he was caught texting during lunch. Ms. Heath was no longer around, and the new head of campus security was a Black woman named Ms. Clayton. While Héctor had appreciated Ms. Heath’s consistent style, she had nothing on Ms. Clayton. She had on a white dress with small cherries all over it, and he loved how it looked against her brown skin.

Ms. Clayton tapped Héctor on the shoulder. “No phones during the school day,” she reminded him.

“Sorry,” he said, stuffing it back in his pocket.

She smiled at him.

“I’m sure whatever you’re doing is exciting,” Ms. Clayton said, “but please keep cell phone usage to after-school hours unless it is an emergency.”

He saluted her. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Oh, we don’t need to use ‘ma’am’ on me,” she said, grimacing. “Got me feeling like I’m a thousand years old. Ms. Clayton is fine.”

Héctor’s friends arrived shortly after. Aishah scooted next to him; Jackson sat across the table, like he always did, and was then joined by Taylor.

Then Carlos, freshly returned from his four-day suspension, stood at the end of the table. Héctor gave him a genuine smile, and Carlos sat.