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“We all wanted to help him,” Sarah went on, “but he cut everybody out of his life.” She twisted her pencil through the ends of her hair. “He used to start for the football team, and he didn’t even go out for it this year. He didn’t run for student body either, and he was class president freshman and sophomore years. He would have been a sure thing, but it’s like he doesn’t care about the people at school anymore.” The girls didn’t say more because the bell rang and the teacher told them to go to their desks. But I kept thinking about what they said, and I saw Hudson in a new light.

All during the rest of school, girls came up and asked me about the medieval bandits. Everyone wanted to know the details of the robbery. It was strange to have this surge of popularity.

Before long, Bo heard about the kiss. He texted me his opinion about it, but I didn’t care. At least he knew I wasn’t at home pining for him on Saturday night.

• • •

After school, I did homework in my room. I kept staring out my new pristine window. It was so clean it looked like nothing was there, like I could lean out into freedom. I couldn’t, though. I pulled the curtains shut.

Before long, I heard voices in the kitchen—Nick’s and someone else’s. I wandered out of my room to get something to eat and to see who was over.

Hudson sat at the table with Nick, their math books spread out in front of them. The sight made me do a double take. Hudson looked so out of place there—Mr. Model Material next to the clutter, dirty dishes, and ordinariness of our kitchen. I stared in surprise and sputtered,

“What are you doing here?”

He smiled lazily. “Nice to see you too, Tansy.” 94/356

It wasn’t an unjustified question. Granted, Hudson had told me he was friends with Nick, and suddenly I realized which of Nick’s friends had access to a police scanner, but they weren’t hang-out-at-each-other’s-house friends. Nick’s real friends belonged to the computer club. He wasn’t on knuckle-bumping terms with the football players.

“We’re doing homework,” Nick said.

I walked to the fridge, took out an apple, and let my gaze return to Hudson. I knew things about him now—that his mother had died a year ago, that his grief had changed him. But here in my kitchen, I couldn’t see anything about him that was vulnerable. He seemed more than confident—at least confident in my guilt. I raised an eyebrow at him. “You came here to spy on me.”

Hudson wrote an equation on his paper. “If you’re not hiding anything, you have nothing to worry about. I mean, it’s not like that band of thugs has ever, say, shown up in your bedroom.” I sent Nick an evil glare.

He shrugged. “You’re my sister. I worry about you, especially when the guys you hang out with threaten to cut out your tongue with their swords.”

Which meant Hudson had told Nick everything that had happened during the robbery.

“I am not hanging out with them,” I said. “I just …” But I couldn’t explain that I felt responsible for them. That I was responsible for them. After all, I had told both Nick and Hudson that it was Robin Hood and the Merry Men and neither believed me. “I’ll let you guys finish your homework.”

I went back to my room, finished my math assignment, and wrote a long text message to my sister. Kendall thought she was doing drama? Ha.

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After an hour and a half, I walked back to the kitchen to throw away my apple core. I hadn’t expected Hudson to still be there, and I especially hadn’t expected to see him sitting alone at the table doing his homework.

“Where’s Nick?” I asked.

“He needed to run to the store to pick out some stuff for his science fair project.”

That was odd. I tilted my head at him. “And he left you here by yourself?”

Hudson sent me a look like I should know better than to ask.

“Your parents want Nick to make sure you don’t go anywhere before they get home from work.” He leaned back casually in his chair. “Although that didn’t work on Saturday night, did it?”

“Unbelievable,” I said. “You’re here babysitting me?”

“Nah.” He flashed a smile. “I’m here spying on you.” I threw my apple core away and opened the fridge for more food. I needed to eat now because when dinnertime came, I was telling my dad I wasn’t hungry and spending the evening in my room. I pulled out last night’s enchiladas and took a plate from the cupboard.

Hudson strolled over and leaned against the counter. “So why were those guys in your bedroom Friday night?” I dished some enchiladas on my plate and didn’t answer.

“You’re the only lead in the case,” he said. “If I tell my dad they were over here, the police will bring you in for questioning. Why don’t you make it easier on everybody and tell me what you know.” I put the enchiladas in the microwave and punched in a minute.

“Is there some reason you feel the need to be supercop and crack this case?”

“You mean besides the fact that I was robbed at sword-point?” 96/356

“You’re not even on the police payroll, and I bet you’re working harder than the rest of them.”

He shook his head. “It’s only a matter of time before one of those thugs kills someone. Trust me—everybody down at the station is working overtime.”

I watched my plate slowly rotating in the microwave. “I’m doing what I can.” I had already called for Chrissy several times today.

“Didn’t you learn anything from dating Bo?” Hudson asked. “He pounded your locker today and he would have pounded you too if I hadn’t showed up. And I don’t care how handsome that Robin guy is.

He hurts people. How can you protect him?” He held up a hand in frustration. “How can you be involved with someone like that?”

“I’m not involved with him.” I meant I wasn’t romantically involved. Which was the truth. One kiss while he was holding me up didn’t make us a couple. But apparently the denial counted as a lie. Before I could say another sentence, I caught sight of tiny lights fountain-ing around my head like a garland of sparklers.

Hudson’s mouth dropped open as he stared at me. “How did you do that?”

I put my hand to my head, then jerked it away with an “Ouch!” The sparklers were not only bright but also hot. This was bad. Nothing was burning my head yet, but that could happen next. Was I supposed to stop, drop, and roll, like I was on fire?

Then again, there is only one thing more freakish than having your head unexpectedly ignite with magic sparklers, and that is dropping to your kitchen floor and trying to roll them off your head. I couldn’t do that in front of Hudson, and besides, smothering the flames probably wouldn’t work to extinguish magic fire.

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But how did I get rid of them? I hurried to the bathroom in a walk that was somewhere between a panicked scurry and a don’t-fan-the-flames glide.

In the mirror, I saw a wreath of fireworks surrounding my head.

Worse yet, a message lit up like wording on a scoreboard: She’s lying!

The disclaimer tromped brightly across my forehead. She’s a blasted liar! She’s lying! She’s lying!

“Well, this is wonderful,” I said.

Hudson came up behind me. I saw him in the mirror’s reflection studying the lights. “Where did that come from?” I tried to bat the thing off and only succeeded in burning my fingers. What had Chrissy said about the lights? Were they permanent? I couldn’t go to school like this.

“You’re a ‘blasted liar’?” Hudson asked, reading the words.

My fingers stung from touching the sparkler hat, so I turned on the sink and ran them under the cold water. I should have used oven mitts.

Hudson was still staring at me.

“Okay,” I said, “maybe I am involved with Robin, but not romantically.”

As soon as I finished the sentence, the lights vanished. So the way to get rid of fireworks was to tell the truth. I let out a breath of relief and ran one hand through my hair, checking to see if the fireworks had scorched it. Thankfully, unlike my fingers, my hair was undamaged.