Gretchen was very skilled at dieting. She did it a little too often, in my opinion, but when she was really into it she didn’t even seem to be tempted by the stuff she couldn’t have. She just stayed away. Period. It was funny because she couldn’t do that with anything else in her life, like shoes, or new types of makeup.

Gretchen’s breath sort of fogged up the glass as she knocked on the window. “Let’s go,” she mouthed.

“Five minutes,” I mouthed back, pointing to my watch. If I let her start bossing me around too much on Day One, I’d be doomed.

“God, your sister hasn’t changed a bit,” Jones commented.

“What? I think she’s nice,” Emma said.

“She is nice. Very nice,” I said in her defense. “When she wants to be.” I did feel sorry for her. Her leg was probably freezing back into the wrong angles. It might never heal, in this climate.

“It’s just that she’s starting a diet, and she’s pretty grumpy right now,” I explained. “Or extra grumpy, anyway.”

“Why would she go on a diet? She looks fine. Anyway, that’s dumb. She should just exercise more,” Crystal said.

“Hello? Broken leg?” Jones reminded her. “What’s she going to do, jog around the lake on one leg?”

“Oh.” Crystal snapped her fingers. “Right.”

“And whatever you do, don’t get into it with her, don’t give her any advice,” I told everyone. “She’ll bite your head off.”

“That hungry, huh?”

“Yeah. Besides, she’s always been kind of a perfectionist,” I explained. “So the fact everything now completely sort of sucks…I guess it’s getting to her. She had to make a New Year’s resolution, and, being a perfectionist, she had to start before New Year’s.”

“You know what? I really hate New Year’s resolutions,” Jones said.

“Why?” Crystal asked.

“Because, people make them, they get really intense about them, they’re so boring because that’s all they talk about, on and on about how they’re going to really do it this time, and then they’re unhappy when they can’t stick to them two weeks later.”

“Um…what about good intentions?” Emma asked. “Any credit for those?”

Jones shook her head.

“I don’t know, I think resolutions can be kind of cool,” I said. “Stepping back and looking at your life and deciding what you want to do, or change.” I’d always admired people who could do that—decide to run a marathon, or volunteer more, or quit smoking or some other equally bad and addictive habit.

Of course, when I was a kid and I tried to give up gummy bears for a month, I’d failed miserably. When I tried to train to run a marathon in Duluth with my dad last year, I ended up running a 5K instead. And my last volunteer assignment? Well, I think coming here to take care of Brett was the only thing even close to qualifying.

“Hello. Rink police at twelve o’clock,” Jones said under her breath.

The guys I’d plowed into—two of them with the same official-looking team jacket—came into the shelter. They pushed and shoved each other on their way over to get hot chocolate, still wearing their skates but with skate guards on. They nearly flattened a small child against the wall, and they had the nerve to complain about me?

As we eyed them over our hot cocoa, we all immediately, without discussing it, started talking a bit more loudly about where we were going for lunch. Yeah, we can be kind of immature when we want to be.

I thought I saw Sean look over at me a few times, but by the time I’d glance over, he was always looking away. We were finally about to make genuine eye contact when Jones said, “Let’s make an exit.”

“Right,” I said quickly. No point getting carried away. After all, hadn’t I had enough contact with the guy already today?

Emma, Jones and Crystal got into Emma’s Explorer to follow us, while I walked to the minivan to drop off Gretchen and Brett before the girls and I headed out for our farewell New Year’s lunch and celebration. I walked beside the lake and noticed the group of guys had come back onto the ice and were buzzing around, racing each other.

“Hey! Wait up!”

I turned around and saw one of the guys from the crash incident. He was the one I’d sort of landed on top of when I fell, the one who had asked if I was okay.

When he stopped, he sprayed me with ice shavings. He had to have been practicing that stop since birth to be that good at it. Like, you could have taken the shavings and sprinkled them on a gourmet dessert, that’s how good and fine and delicate they were.

“You lost your hat,” he said.

“I did?” I laughed, embarrassed, as I reached up to my head to confirm that, yes, I had completely lost my hat at some point. And also to confirm that, yes, despite the fact I’d lost my hat a while ago, I still had really bad hat hair. I think some of my hair was floating straight up in the air from static. “Yes. I guess I did,” I said.

I reached for the hat, but before I could grab it from him he pulled it over my head, down to my ears, like a sock. I felt like a two-year-old being dressed by my mom.

“You lost it out on the ice, when you fell,” he said.

I felt my face turning bright red. “Thanks for bringing it to me. I would have really missed it tomorrow.”

“Better luck next time,” he said.

“Huh?”

“With Crack the Whip. The first thing you learn when you’re playing Crack the Whip is to make sure you’re not on the end. But if you are, hang on, no matter what.”

“Gee. Thanks. I’ll try to remember that,” I said.

His smile vanished. “Just trying to help.”

Why, Kirsten? I asked myself as I adjusted my hat and watched him skate away from me. Why did you just act like that?

Chapter 2

My friends and I went over to Noodles & Co. in Highland Park for our goodbye lunch. It’s a chain restaurant, but it’s still one of our favorite places in St. Paul because no matter what time we go, there always seems to be a big crowd of people our age, so it’s cool to hang out there.

After lunch, Crystal, Emma and Jones were driving home, so they could be there for New Year’s Eve. They had big plans. I did not.

“So, I am going to see you guys soon, right?” I asked after our dishes were delivered to the table and we started to eat. “You’re coming for Winter Carnival at the end of the month. Promise me.” I savored a bit of the spicy Thai noodles I’d ordered.

“And we’ll show up other times, too,” Emma said. “When you least expect it.”

“Good, because I think I’m going to be really lonely,” I said.

“Lonely? No way. We won’t strand you here,” Jones said. “I mean, what are you going to do? What are we going to do at home without you?”

“Go to school every day,” I reminded her.

Jones sighed. “I hate you for being smart,” she said. “I do. Except that when you become a rich and successful lawyer or television producer or screenwriter or whatever, you’ll invite me over to swim in your full-length pool.” She tapped my bowl with her fork. “You will invite me. Right?”

“Definitely,” I said.

“If I were you, Kirsten? I’d go back to that skating rink at the lake every day,” Emma said. “Did you see how many cute guys were there?”

“Kirsten, I know! You could take skating lessons there!” Crystal cried. “Then you’d meet tons of—”