For now, the only things she kept in the bottom of the lamp were the broken shell from Kelsey Bennett and the salt-and-pepper granite stone from that awful night with Connor.

At first, looking at the stone had made her cringe with shame. But it was strong, that rock. Strong enough to survive getting tossed around by waves and buried under sand. And Annabelle wanted to be strong, too.

Even if that meant doing scary, embarrassing things, like sitting on the bad-kid bench outside of Mrs. Sloane’s office while everyone else was in foreign language class, because maybe dropping Spanish really would help her do better in eighth grade. And apologizing to Jeremy.

The day after Jeremy got home from his summer program, Annabelle got a ride to his house. She was waiting on his front steps when Mrs. Green’s car pulled into the driveway after swim practice.

“Annabelle!” Mrs. Green said. “What a nice surprise.” Then she mouthed, “Good luck,” and headed inside.

It had been a month since Annabelle had seen Jeremy, and his hair had grown enough that the front part reached his eyebrows again. He didn’t get out of the car right away, even though she knew he’d seen her.

She walked over to the car holding up the slightly melted to-go cup of ice cream she’d picked up at the Creamery and brought over in a cooler. A large, with half double chocolate chunk and half peanut butter cup. And eventually, he opened the car door.

“I brought a peace offering,” she said. “And I won’t laugh at you if you end up with chocolate lipstick, I promise.”

Jeremy didn’t smile, but he took the ice cream and followed her over to the front steps. She sat on the bottom one, and he took the top.

“I’m sorry I was awful to you,” she said. “And thank you for helping me that night when I got hurt. I was wrong to go along with everyone, and I was really wrong to get mad at you when . . .” This part still wasn’t easy to say, even though she knew it was true. “When you were right. About Connor not really caring and everything. And you were just being a good friend.”

Jeremy nodded as he pried the top off the ice cream and took his first bite. “It’s okay,” he said finally.

“It’s kind of not, though,” Annabelle said. “I’m sorry I was such an idiot.”

Jeremy’s head snapped up just like Mom’s did if she ever heard Annabelle use that word. “Don’t say that. You’re not an idiot.”

“Yeah, right,” she said, forcing out a fake little laugh.

“You’re not,” Jeremy said. His voice was louder this time.

“Well, I was stupid to get all caught up in Connor and being on the high school team and . . .” She made herself say it. “I’m not smart like you and Mia.”

Jeremy pushed his chocolate scoop to the side a bit and handed the cup to Annabelle. “Duh,” he said, and it stung, even though it was true. But then he added, “You’re smart like you.”