“And what’s wrong with praying to the sun god?” I place my hands on my hips as I ask.

He snickers beneath his hand. “Nothing. Send a prayer up for me too.” He looks from my hair all the way down to my shoes before speaking again. “You look nice.”

My hair is freshly done so that I can understand, but looking down at my denim shorts, old T-shirt, and shells, I’m not sure how I look different from any other day. The shirt is tight and doesn’t completely cover my stomach because I’ve had it since I was seven, but since I’m still waiting for the day when I’ll need more than a sports bra to support me, there’s not much to look at.

“It’s about time you noticed.” His megawatt smile smacks me in the face, and I swear I hear him mumble, “I always notice,” which makes the butterflies in my stomach flutter. But then the flutter turns to panic when he steps in closer and reaches his hand out to touch my hair. I step out of the way of his hand just in time. “Are you crazy, Kai? I didn’t spend hours with Ms. Patrice and her hot comb yesterday just so you could mess my hair up before we even get to the carnival.” Ms. Patrice is Kai’s aunt, and she always offers to do my hair for me since my dad has no idea what he’s doing and doesn’t care to learn. She’s been teaching me how to do different styles for myself too. I told her next time I want to do a roller set.

“Yeah, my bad. Say your last prayer and let’s go already.”

I roll my eyes and he grabs my hand to pull me across the street to his parents’ SUV where Kylie and her best friend, Tylah, sit giggling about something in the second row. A chorus of “hi Livvy” hits my ears, and I manage to take my eyes off the spot where Kai’s hand touched mine to say hi back and climb into the third row.

Mr. Morris, who was standing by the open front door of their house when I walked over, walks down the driveway and jumps in the driver’s seat. “Hi, Liv. How’s it going?”

“Good, Mr. Morris. Thanks for letting me join you today.”

“Oh no problem, sweetie. I’m just glad your dad said yes.”

You and me both.

Mrs. Morris runs out to the car moments later and then we’re off.

The carnival is packed when we get there. Once we have our wristbands, Mr. and Mrs. Morris give Kai and me permission to run off on our own so long as we meet them in front of the carousel in four hours. We take off, ignoring the cries of Kylie and Tylah, who were told to stay close to Kai’s parents.

The first thing we do is the rides. Kai demands to get on the roller coaster first while I demand to hit the Tilt-A-Whirl first since I have no food on my stomach. We rock, paper, scissors to decide who wins, and of course I come out on top so we head toward the Tilt-A-Whirl.