Shut. Up," June squealed. "You have a date with that guy?" She giggled and covered her mouth. "Shut up, shut up, shut up! Tell me everything.""I can't do both," I pointed out.

Henry narrowed his eyes at me. "You going somewhere?""Lacrosse field trip," I said. "I enjoy whacking the hell out of people with mallets.

But that was last year,” I protested as we walked through school on Tuesday, three days beforeHalloween. “I’m serious, you know how people are. They forget about things.”“Oh, really?” Roux said, then turned and smiled at a brunette passing us. “Hey, Julia, what’s up?How are things?”“Slut,” Julia responded, and kept walking.Roux just looked back at me knowingly. “You were saying?

He’s a delinquent!” I yelled out to my parents. “He was arrested for shoplifting last year!”No response.“I just want you to know that I’m going to be hanging out with someone who has a criminalrecord!” I cried.“Let’s not forget that our family can never reenter Luxembourg without being arrested!” my dadyelled back.Touché.

It was time for the mirror pep talk.“Okay, Maggie,” I said to myself after my shower, wiping the steam off the medicine cabinet.“You could eat these kids for breakfast. You won’t, though, because that would be cannibalistic andwrong.