“So we’re clear, I’m not ever going down there,” Teeny informed us. She said it to lessen the tension. I loved her all the more for it. If I was an investigator, and Nick a watchman, maybe Teeny was actually a defuser, in charge of deciding which bombs exploded and which got to be disabled.

“No one’s going down there,” Emery challenged.

Everyone looked at her like, Who are you to decide? Even though I was making a glorious mess, that solidarity surged through me. Against outsiders, we Albany kids still had one another’s back.

“I’m calling public services for help,” Emery said. “Ruby and your friend are down there, and they might be as hurt as Olivia is. We can’t leave them and expect it all to work out. We need a maintenance man or something to go down there.”

Teeny grabbed the phone out of Emery’s hand. “Look, I don’t know you that well. I’ve seen you around at school, and Ruby seems to like you a lot, which means you’re good people. But you have to understand, this is between us.” She used her index finger to draw lines of energy between the Albany kids. “We know it’s bad. But we’ve got a reputation in this town, and I’m not about to prove everyone right. You might not understand this, but I’m telling you that if something was really wrong with either of them, I think we’d be able to feel it.” She handed the cell phone back as a truce of sorts. “We know it isn’t wise doing to do this without help. I promise you that. But know that even Ruby would agree with me. Involving other people will only make all of this worse.”

Emery pursed her lips, still skeptical.

“How about this?” Bigs asked. “If you don’t hear from Ruby in the next half hour, come find us, and we’ll go from there. Yeah?”

Emery agreed to that. We left her behind as we marched along, single file down into the bowl, carrying items both physical and mental, ready to be unpacked.

Once out of Emery’s earshot, Aidy unleashed. “I can’t believe you! Not a single mention of my missing boyfriend. Is he hurt too?”

“He might be,” I muttered.

“Dammit, Olivia.” Aidy cursed again. Then she yelled out “Let me think for a second!” even though no one else was talking. “Ugh, let’s show them. That’s what we’re supposed to do anyway. Share what we find,” she said to someone. “Maybe it’ll help.”

I followed the path of her eyes over to Nick. He removed his backpack from his shoulders and unzipped the top. Ragged, rolled-up blueprint paper sprung up, decompressed. He pulled it taut to reveal a map.