It was pretty late that night when I sat at the kitchen table, my math worksheets spread in front of me.

Lexi sat at the table, too, doing homework. She had as tall a pile of sheets as I did. I hadn’t seen her a lot the last few days, since she was always making signs or buying art stuff.

She looked up and saw me staring at her. “A lot of homework?” she asked, pointing to my stack.

“Maybe,” I replied, waiting for her sneer. “You?”

“Too much,” she said with a sigh.

“Yeah, right,” I scoffed. There was no such thing as too much homework for Little Miss Perfect. The more the better.

“I’ve been working so hard that I’m way behind in school.”

I waved at her stack. “Please. You can probably get through that in like ten minutes.”

“I wish. It’s going to take days to catch up. I just hope Mom doesn’t see my grades before tomorrow.”

“Get a few As instead of A pluses?”

“No,” she groaned. “I’ve been making signs. Tutoring. Doing everything but studying. I don’t get good grades by blinking, you know.”

“You don’t?” Blinking was one of my theories about why she did so well.

“No. I work really hard because I have to, not because I want to. If you spent as much time on your homework as I did, you’d get straight As, too. I just know that school’s important.”

I stared at her, my mouth open. Sure, I saw Lexi study. But I thought that was because she liked it. I never really thought Lexi actually studied because she needed to.

“It’s called being responsible. Not that you would know anything about that,” she grunted.

“I know more than you think,” I mumbled. “Especially now. So, when are you getting Fluffernutter?”

“What makes you think we’re getting a cat?”

“Because I lost. I don’t have enough money. We’ll have a cat and every day you can gloat.”

“I don’t have enough money, either,” she admitted.

“B-but I see your signs everywhere,” I stammered. “You tutored like everyone in school.” I didn’t mention the stack of bills I spied in her jewelry box the other day. Or the twenty dollars I had taken.

“I gave a lot of those signs away for free. I figured it was good advertising. People would see my signs and want one. But when I sold them, I didn’t get paid enough, and art supplies cost a fortune. Do you know how expensive glitter is? But everyone kept wanting more and more glitter and I couldn’t say no. I didn’t make that much from tutoring, either. Kids just don’t have a lot of money. And half my friends aren’t even talking to me because they said I was mean. I don’t know. I just got frustrated when they didn’t know the answers. I guess I’d make a poor teacher.”

“Well, you make a poor sister, so I suppose that’s fitting,” I said, smiling.

“I make a better sister than you do a brother.”

I nodded my head. “You’re probably right.” I sighed. “I thought you never had problems.”

“I wish! I can convince Mom to do stuff. But try to present charts to your friends and they just think you’re weird.” She threw me a half very-non-smirky smile. “I haven’t been too nice to you lately. Sorry. I guess I just got carried away with our war.”

I nodded. “Tell me about it.”

“I can’t even count money right. I somehow lost twenty dollars,” she groaned. “How do you lose twenty dollars?”

I squirmed in my seat a little. “Yeah, that’s strange.” I looked down at the table. “Then I guess we’re not getting a pet.”

“I guess not. A shame, huh? After all that work, too.”

She was right. We were both doing poorly in school. We had both sacrificed a lot. Not having any pet seemed unfair. I mean, I knew cats were stupid and I hated them. But maybe a cat was better than nothing. What’s the point of having a war if both sides lose?

But I guess in some wars that’s how it works. There aren’t winners in wars, not really. Just one side that does less awful than the other one.

“How much did you earn?” I asked.

“More than four hundred dollars. I was really close. You?”

“Less than that. Hold on.”

I went up to my room and removed my shoe box from behind my smelly shoes, only gagging once. I took out the money. I could have done a lot with that cash. I could have bought that two-hundred-dollar pair of sneakers I really wanted. Or that ultraviolent but ultracool video game I read about. I knew I was handing victory to the enemy. But somehow it felt okay. It felt right.

Maybe Mom was right. There are more important things to spend money on than sneakers and games.

Besides, twenty dollars of it was Lexi’s. I had stolen it. There wasn’t any other way to put it.

But first, I counted out the money I owed Mom for her bowls, and her toner, and her pencils, and the other odds and ends I had used, taken, or broken. But there was still a lot of money left for Lexi and her cat. Our cat.

“Here,” I said, handing her my money after I came back downstairs. “It seems silly for us both to lose.”

“Really?” Her eyes grew wider and wider as she looked at the money. “But this is way too much.”

I shrugged. “Well, not all of it is mine. Remember that twenty dollars you lost? I took it. I don’t know why I did. I just got carried away, too. I wanted to see how close you were and it just sort of happened. I wanted to win so badly.”

Lexi nodded. “I looked for your money once. I wanted to know how close you were, too. But I couldn’t find your loot. And I didn’t want to look in your closet. Your sneakers really smell.”

“That was the idea.”

Lexi picked up my stack of bills. “I guess this makes up for your stealing.”

“I hope so.” The way Lexi looked at me, all grateful and stuff, it almost reminded me of Barker and his wide-open thankful and trusting eyes. I almost had the urge to hug Lexi, but I’m glad that feeling faded away quickly.

“Maybe you’re not the world’s worst brother,” she said.

“Thanks. I guess you’re not the world’s worst sister. Maybe just second-worst. There must be someone who keeps her brother locked in a cage and force-feeds him peas. That sister would be worse. Maybe.”

Lexi smiled and grabbed my homework. “Let’s see if I can help you a little here. I bet we’ll get through this in no time. After all, I’m an expert tutor.”

“But what about your homework?” I asked.

“I’ll get to it. Come over here. A big sister is supposed to help her baby brother, right?”

“I’m not a baby.”

“I know, I know.”