Maybe he should have told her the truth. But when? Certainly not in front of Mike, when Mrs. Caroline had asked if they knew each other. Oh, they more than knew each other. Practically best friends!

Héctor wanted back in the Room. It seemed to be the only place in the whole world where he had no problems at all.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The events of that day followed Héctor home. He was thinking about them when his mami picked him up, and he was sure she noticed that he wasn’t really listening to her, that all his answers were one-word responses. He was thinking about them while he struggled with his math and history homework at the dinner table, all while Abuela Sonia and Mami chopped vegetables and cilantro, throwing them in a steaming pot that smelled better and better each minute. And they were still swirling around in his head when Papi joined them at the table and they began dinner.

Everyone was so chipper and eager to talk that night, and Héctor just pushed his spoon around in his caldo de res, listening to his family gossip about their relatives in Mexico. His thoughts pulled him from one direction to another.

Did someone make the Room? Or has it always existed?

Is it possible that someone is watching us? That one creeped Héctor out a lot, so he tossed it aside.

Why now? And why is all of this happening to me?

He had no idea. Was there some lesson he was supposed to learn from all of this? If so, he’d prefer it if someone just told him the lesson.

Why is everything so complicated? It was never this bad back in San Francisco.

He sat with that thought for a while. He didn’t think he was being overdramatic. His life in San Francisco hadn’t been perfect, but he had close friends. He loved school, loved being in theater, loved singing random songs in the hallways.

He thought he’d found his people here in Aishah, Jackson, and Taylor, but they weren’t best friends. Juliana and Sal, on the other hand . . . well, Héctor could see that happening. But how? Juliana and Sal lived thousands of miles away from him. How did you become best friends with someone you could only see through a magical room?

And . . . what would happen if he lost it?

“Nieto, are you even hungry?” said Abuela.

“Lo siento,” he said, and he spooned some of the soup into his mouth. It was perfect as usual.

“Él estaba en el otro mundo,” said Mami. “Always in that head of his.”

“Not always!” he said, and now, he was devouring his food. “It’s just been a long day.”

“You don’t have to tell me,” said Mami. “We had to suspend a kid today.”