“You don’t know that.”

Oh, but Diesel knows. He told me as much. “We don’t have any money, Morgan. We’re moving in with my aunt at the end of the month.”

“You have your babysitting money.”

“And I have money in the bank, too. But I don’t think she’ll let me spend it on saving Diesel.” I shake my head. “And I can’t take the chance.”

“I can call my mom,” Morgan suggests.

“Won’t she just tell my mother?” I ask.

“You have a point.” Morgan frowns, then taps her nose. “There’s something else we can try, someone else who should take responsibility. But we’ll have to stall the vet for time. Probably till tomorrow at the least. Do you think you can do that?”

22

Tuesday, June 29:

Consequences

“We don’t know if Dr. Fielding can even help Diesel yet.” I stare down at the speckled tile, so flat and boring and yet somehow able to retain the cat smell. I want to gnaw at my nails, but once again the flower decals stop me. “She’s taking a long time.”

“That’s a good sign. With King she came out right away and said we needed to put him down.”

“I don’t know.” I look up from my hands to the wall. A sad-looking puppy stares out from a poster there. Only you can save your pet from heartworm.

“Why did you take off like that anyway? Without Diesel’s leash, even.”

“The cops came.” That makes me sound like such a suck. “It’s not like I really belonged anyway.” I stare at the heartworm poster and the message seems to change: Only you can save your dog from getting hit by a car. Those brown puppy eyes accuse me, just as Morgan’s questions do. If I had waited around with her through the police interrogation, I would have had Diesel’s leash. Maybe we would have missed the rabbit entirely or, if he had still been there and if Diesel had yanked the leash out of my hand, maybe that Smart Car might have been long gone already. I regret so hard, but it doesn’t change anything.

“You belonged more than anyone else. You’re the only one who’s my real friend,” Morgan says.

“Oh, come on. It wasn’t your house. We were having a party at someone else’s pool.”

“Officer Forsyth understood. I explained about Uncle Lurch letting us have people over. All we had to do was turn the music down.”

“You asked your uncle for permission?” I turn to look at Morgan.

“Well, sure. Do you think I want to get in trouble with him?”

I picture the large, hairy biker dude and shake my head.

“Then after Officer Forsyth left, we saw you were missing. I was worried. So I sent everyone home and went looking for you.”

“I felt like such a geek. The little genius kid who tutored you.”

“You are a geek! Must be nice to be so smart.”

“Everyone ignored me.”

“I was making my big play for Tom. Thanks for ruining that,” Morgan says. “You were supposed to be chatting up Simon! Remember our plan to have boyfriends in high school?”