“Thanks, honey,” Mom said, grabbing a notepad off the office table with a list of things she needed in town. “I have to go get some light bulbs for Maple Leaf. You’re on the phone, okay?”

“Got it,” I said.

Just as she took off, Jade ducked in.

“Hey,” she said. “Dad went on a run. He told me to tell you he’d relieve you after three miles. I’m about to go floating with some friends, so I’ll see you later.” During the summer in Moose Junction, everyone loved tying pool floats together and floating down Musky River. Jade and her crew would bring a huge cooler of soda and stay out there all day. Blair would take me sometimes, before she stopped really doing anything fun. I almost felt like calling Sophie and Lex to see about getting together later, but I hadn’t seen them hardly at all since Memorial Day. I’d bumped into Sophie at Coontail’s and we’d talked for a few minutes, but she didn’t ask me to go swimming or anything. I guess I didn’t ask her, either, but it felt like they were avoiding me. A couple of weeks ago I had asked them to come over, but Lex wasn’t feeling well and Sophie was going to see her cousins. Neither of them had texted me the next day to see if I still wanted to hang out. After Mom had mentioned seeing them at the Ice Shanty getting ice cream, I triple-checked my phone to be sure I hadn’t missed any texts.

I hadn’t.

But summer was almost over. Soon, we’d all be back on that school bus for one last year at Waukegan Middle. I’d spent most of my summer helping out in the office and reading fantasy books. While everyone else in town was on vacation, here to have Big Summer Adventures, I was answering phones and reminding Mom about the broken dishwasher in Robin’s Egg. It left me with a lot of time to think about things I didn’t want to think about, Blair and my friends topping that list.

“Excuse me?” a voice called. “Anybody here?”

Jade and I glanced up. Standing there was Simone—looking less than pleased.

“Um, hi,” I said. “Can I help you?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t there anybody a little older around here?”

“My mom’s in town,” I explained. “But do you need new pillowcases or something? I know where everything is.”

She sighed. “There’s a hole in our door now.”

“A what?” I asked.

“A hole . . . Chewed by some sort of animal or something,” she said.

“The raccoon,” I said meekly.

“The raccoon,” she confirmed. “He needs to be dealt with ASAP. The thing kept me up all night. And now there’s a gaping hole in our door, and mosquitos are coming through. Not to mention that anybody who walks by can see right in . . .”

“I’m sorry about that,” I said. “As soon as my dad gets here, I can send him over to fix the door. And handle the raccoon.”