When I saw and heard the three bike riders squealing to a stop, I was off my own bike in a second, letting it crash to the ground as I stormed up to the three of them. I repeated something I’d heard Luca say often, after he’d had a day working the speed camera: “You’re a menace on the road!” And then I heard Sam, Jed, and Aidan let their bikes go, too, to come stand behind me.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry!” one of the bike menaces said, planting feet on either side of his bike to keep balance. Except when he spoke he was all out of breath and it came out more like “sorry!”—huff—“sorry!”—huff—“sorry!”

I didn’t recognize the two boys or girl, who all looked older than us—more like teenagers, and definitely out-of-towners. They were riding fancy mountain bikes, the kind with gearshift dials on the handlebars, and wearing these slick silver helmets that made their heads look like they were in constant whooshing motion, even when they were still.

“What’s the hurry anyway?” Aidan asked.

“There’s this kid,” said one of the boys. “He’s stuck on some rock.”

“And he’s about to drown!” the girl chimed in excitedly.

The first menace had regained his breath and put one foot back on a pedal. “We were just coming out of the movies and this woman in a car pulls up next to us, asks if we know where the ambulance station is—”

“—because there’s this kid stuck on a rock, and the tide is coming in!” the girl interrupted again.

“What? Did you tell them where the station is? What about the police?” I hurried over to my bike and picked it up, ignoring the little pebbles pressing painfully into my feet and ready to pedal like mad into town.

“No need—someone walking by told her the directions,” the girl said, “and the police probably already know, since they were looking for him.”

“What do you mean?” Jed said.

The girl huffed. “It’s one of those haven kids who’ve been stealing things—this guy from the café found him and chased him away, but he got on his bike just as the police pulled up.”

I saw Aidan’s hands tighten on his handlebars as they said that.

“And apparently he thought he could hide out at the beach,” the first bike menace added.

Sam and I looked at each other. I could feel the flush draining out of my cheeks just as I watched Sam’s face turn white too.

Jed piped up. “So you’re going off to do what? See if some kid will die?”

The second boy tried to sneer, but it didn’t look so tough since he had so much sweat collected on his upper lip. “Whatever kills time in this town.”

Even his two friends looked a little sick at that.