“I thought you’d say that. Meet us there at eight. And, Anya?” she added just before we parted, “Don’t wear your school uniform!”

Around seven thirty, I changed per Scarlet’s instructions, then took a bus downtown. “Hey, kid,” Fats greeted me. “Your friends are in the back room.”

Fats had lost quite a bit of weight since I’d last seen him. “You’re skinny,” I said. “Gave up sugar,” he informed me.

“Cacao, too?”

“No, never cacao, Annie.”

“Maybe we should stop calling you Fats.” “Nah, it’s got a nice bit of irony now.”

I went into the back room.

“Surprise!”

The place was packed, and it took me a second to realize I knew everyone there. Scarlet, Gable, Natty, Imogen, Mickey and Sophia Balanchine, Mr. Kipling and his wife, Simon Green, Chai Pinter, and several other of my classmates. Even Alison Wheeler was there, though she had come solo.

As you already know, I was a fan neither of surprise parties nor of parties in particular. Still, I could not help but appreciate that so many people had come out for me. Scarlet came up and kissed me on the cheek. “What kind of best friend would I be if I let you come back to Trinity without a party?”

I made the rounds, talking to everyone, thanking them for having shown up. “Win really wanted to come,” Alison Wheeler whispered in my ear.

In the back of the room, a bit separate from everyone else, stood Mickey and Sophia Balanchine. They were talking to a third person. How could I not have noticed him before?

“Yuji Ono!” I exclaimed, throwing my arms around him in a manner I’m not entirely sure was dignified or appropriate. But, well, he had saved my brother’s life.

He smiled at me in his shy way. “What are you doing here?” “Business, of course,” he said.

“Had you returned any of my calls, you would have known this,” Mickey Balanchine remonstrated me.

Yuji Ono gave me a look. I could tell he was disappointed in me.

“It took me longer to resolve my high school situation than I would have liked,” I explained. Even as I was saying this, I knew how pathetic it sounded.

I turned to Yuji Ono. I wanted to ask about my brother but not in front of Mickey and Sophia. “Will you come see me at the apartment tomorrow?”

“I don’t know if I will have the time,” he said. “I am only in town for three days and my schedule is inflexible.”

“I could come see you, then. Where are you staying?”

“I will try to come to you,” Yuji said coolly. It annoyed me that he didn’t trust me enough to tell me where he was staying when I had trusted him with my whole life.

“Give the child a break, Yuji,” Sophia teased him.

I didn’t like being referred to as a child. “Come or don’t come,” I said. I turned to Mickey. “How is your father?”

“Any day now,” Mickey said glumly. Sophia took his small hand in her large one

I thanked the three of them for coming and then I went to talk to Simon Green, who had not managed to integrate himself into the rest of the party.

“You look utterly miserable,” I said to him.

Simon Green laughed. “Parties aren’t really my thing.” “Mine neither,” I said. “What’s your reason?”

Simon Green took off his glasses and wiped them on his sleeve. “I’m afraid I had a very lonely childhood. Never got used to being with people.”

“The opposite for me. Everything was too crowded. Middle-child syndrome I think they call it.” Simon Green nodded toward the corner of the room. “Is that Yuji Ono?”

“Yes.” I didn’t want to talk about him.

“And who’s that?” He was pointing at Alison Wheeler, who was dancing with a girl from my history class.

“Ah, that would be my ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend. We’re friends. It’s all very grown-up and civilized.”

“Her?” Simon Green’s tone was one of utter incredulity. “We’re talking about the redheaded girl with the pixie cut?”

“Yes, her.” I paused. “Why not her?”

“Just not what I expected.” I tried to convince him to elaborate, but Simon Green would go no further.

I continued my rounds. Before I knew it, it was 11:20, and the only ones left were Scarlet and Gable. Scarlet told me to go home, but I stayed. I knew Gable wouldn’t be much help cleaning up.

“It wasn’t awful, was it?” Scarlet asked me. “You weren’t hating me the whole night?”

“Of course not, you silly duck.” I kissed Scarlet on the cheek. “No one has ever been a better and more loyal friend to me than you have.”

“How completely touching,” Gable said sarcastically. “Can we please go home now?”

I asked Scarlet if she wanted to ride the bus back with me. She informed me that she was planning to spend the night at Gable’s.

“Scarlet!” The Catholic schoolgirl in me was scandalized.

“No, it’s fine,” she insisted. “Gable doesn’t like me traveling uptown at night and his parents don’t mind if I use the spare room.”

As it was late—ten minutes until city curfew—my cousin Fats insisted that he see me back to the Upper East Side.

We were waiting for the bus when a black car pulled up to the stop. The door opened. For a second, I wondered if I was about to be shot, if this was how it was all going to end. (But we are only on page seventy-one of the second volume of my life, so surely this could not be the end.)

Fats reached into his pocket. Just in case he had to shoot, I suppose.

Yuji Ono leaned out of the car. “A ride, Anya?” I nodded to Fats to let him know I was fine and then I got in the car.

I had had several cups of coffee that night to aid in the illusion that I was in possession of a sparkly party personality. As soon as I sat down, I started feeling the effects of the caffeine in my body. My heart beat like a hummingbird’s. I was flushed, too bold, too sharp. More like Scarlet than myself. “I thought you were mad at me,” I said to him.

“I am,” he said. “Outraged.” I couldn’t tell if he was serious. “How is my brother?” I asked.

“Very well,” Yuji promised me. “I have a present for you, but only after you tell me why you’ve been neglecting Mickey Balanchine.”

Daddy used to say that the only people who made excuses were failures. “It was harder coming back from Liberty than I thought it was going to be.”

“You mean finding a secondary school?” Yuji Ono made a face. “Why do you even need a high school diploma?”

“You would rather me be uneducated? A fool?”

“That is not what I am saying. But the things you need to learn, you cannot learn in school.” “Every time I see you, you lecture me,” I complained.

“That is because I am counting on you, Anya. I think you will agree that I have gone to great lengths for you.”

“Of course, Yuji.”

“You are my investment.”

“I don’t belong to you though.”

The car was just passing the southeastern edge of the park. Yuji reached into his pocket. He took my hand and pried it open. On my palm, he placed a small wooden lion.

“Did Leo make this?” I asked quietly. “Yes, he has taken up carving.”

I looked at the lion, my miniature miracle. Leo had touched this. Leo was safe. I smiled at Yuji and tried not to cry. “He’s good at this.”

I turned to thank him. I was about to kiss him on the cheek when the car passed over a pothole and I ended up kissing him on the mouth. It was not romantic in the least. His teeth knocked against mine. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I was aiming for your cheek. Potholes, you know. This city!”

Yuji blushed. “I know, Anya.” He turned his dark eyes on me. “You would never try to kiss an old man like me on the lips.”

“Yuji, you’re not old,” I protested.

“Compared to you, I am.” He turned to look out the window. “Besides, I have heard that you are secretly with your old boyfriend. The politician’s son.”

I twisted in the seat. “What? That absolutely isn’t true! Who said that?” “Mickey and Sophia suspect it.”

“They barely know me! They should keep their mouths shut.” “You are back at your old school, are you not?” Yuji asked me.