“Where you going?” Brody asked with a smile.

Eve stayed at the Sophie-less table. On her phone, a message from Sophie appeared:

I can’t go back there today. Sorry, it said.

And Eve could see why. A whole day later, and everyone was still talking about the soccer game.

“Did you hear, Evie?” Rose asked her, and Eve cringed a little at hearing the name that only Nessa and her family used. “Sophie’s so mad you’re number one that she’s making up stories that she turned Brody down. Pathetic!”

Hayley and Liv shook their heads along with some other girls at the table, but Amina said, “We don’t know what really happened, guys.”

Eve knew she should say something to stand up for Sophie, like Amina had. Eve knew that Sophie wasn’t making anything up.

But it was easier to stay quiet until the subject changed.

All day long, Eve replayed Rose’s comments in her mind and fretted about her own silence. Weren’t those girls Sophie’s friends? Why would they talk behind her back like that?

As school ended that day, she was so lost in her thoughts of Rose and Sophie that she hardly noticed Brody coming up behind her.

How did he always find her? She wondered if maybe he had memorized her class schedule. If so, he must really like her.

“Can you come over the day before the dance?” he asked her with a smile on his face. It always surprised her how kind his smile could be.

“I hope you’re not listening to Sophie’s stories about me,” he added, speaking lowly. “She’s crazy.”

There it was. Another chance to speak up for Sophie, to defend her.

“Well…,” Eve began, but nothing else came out.

“So can you come by?” he asked again.

Eve thought of what Sophie had said. How he would try to kiss her soon.

“I have family stuff,” she told him.

And Sophie’s not crazy, she thought to herself as Brody waved goodbye.

27

NESSA

The night of the Halloween dance arrived. Nessa turned on her favorite mix of spooky choir music. When Sophie arrived at her house, Nessa jumped out with a monster mask on.

It didn’t scare Sophie. But it was fun, anyway.

Eve was going to be late because she had to wait until after Shabbat dinner to meet them. Such a nuisance.

So there they were. She and Sophie Kane, alone. Sophie Kane, the girl who had had a million opportunities to speak to her throughout the years they’d gone to school together, but never had until she’d needed something.

Nessa’s mom and dad welcomed Sophie in. Nessa’s mom told them that they’d leave in an hour. Nessa checked Sophie’s face for a response to her mom’s Spanish, but she didn’t catch one. Her mom had lived in the States since she was three and didn’t even remember life in Santa Tecla, but some people in Glisgold treated her like she’d just arrived yesterday when they heard her speak in her native language.