On the bus to the hospital, Mark plops into the seat behind me and Ash.

“So,” he says, like he’s got something on his mind. “I guess we need to talk about what happened this morning.”

“I guess so,” says Ash. “Because I never asked to sit at the cool table.”

“I don’t like it, either,” I agree. “Let’s not do it anymore.”

Mark goes quiet for a second, thinking. “Okay, look. Why don’t you start by telling me what you don’t like about it?”

“Did you see how horrible they were to Alva?” Ash demands.

Mark nods, calm as a grown-up. “That’s why she doesn’t like it. Why don’t you like it?”

The way he says it makes me kinda want to puke, but instead of losing my oatmeal I spew out my complaints. “We can’t make jokes. We can’t be ourselves. We can’t hang out around all those guys.”

“Okay,” says Mark. “Is that all?”

I shrug.

“Then I’ll take care of it. I’ll make sure Devon knows that Ian and Ash are priority number one.”

“You’ll talk to Devon?” says Ash with surprise.

Mark nods. “Let the horrible jokes begin.”

“What’s the catch?”

“No catch,” says Mark. “But I still need to talk to you about the favor I came to ask …”

“And what is this totally unrelated favor?” says Ash.

“I need you two to stop hanging out with Alva.”

Ash and I wait for Mark to make a joke or something—but he just lifts his eyebrows. “Guys, I’m serious,” he says.

“Well, the answer is absolutely not,” says Ash.

“Yeah!” I say. “I mean: Yeah we won’t, not yeah we will.”

“You don’t understand,” says Mark. “This isn’t a debate. You guys have to stop hanging out with Alva, and you’ve got to do it right now.”

“Is this because of Miranda?” I ask.

“No,” says Mark.

“Because Alva was our friend first,” I remind them.

“We met everyone at the same time,” says Mark. “Just because it took longer to get to know Miranda—”

“Devon is out of control,” Ash breaks in. “This is turning into the Max situation all over again.” He stands up, but Mark drags him back into the seat.

“We’re not done talking about this,” says Mark.

“Let go of me. I’m gonna go tell him that he needs to quit all this elementary school stuff.”

I love Ash. I love Ash so much.

But Mark just shakes his head with a weird little laugh. “Oh, Devon’s done with the elementary school stuff,” he says. “He and Miranda are like … feeding off each other or something. This morning, when you guys left? They spent the whole rest of breakfast scheming up ways to get Alva sent to the Village.”

Tires screech in my brain. “What?” I say.

“Yeah,” says Mark.

“No way. They would never …”

Mark looks at me. “You sure about that?”

“Well, Devon wouldn’t,” I say.

He still just looks at me.

“Would he?” I ask.

In the silence that follows, the blood rushes to my ears with a sound like a wolverine gargling, and I glimpse this swirling vision of the future: of Alva being thrown into a jail cell. Of the door going slam! and Devon and Miranda looking on with nightmarish cruelty as they sneak a behind-the-back low five.

I feel the desire for a tiny, locked bathroom stall, but keep it to myself.

“Guys,” says Mark. “I’m fixing it, okay? I just need you to stop hanging out with Alva so I can tell Devon you stopped hanging out with her. Then I can convince him she’s not a threat. Please, just trust me—it’ll all go back to normal soon.”

Ash sighs and I can tell he’s thinking about knuckling under. “This sucks, Mark.”

“I know—you have to do it though. Nobody wants a repeat of what happened to Max, do we?”

“But there’s gotta be another way to get Devon to stop,” I say.

“Sure, okay,” says Mark. “You want to tell the teachers and get him sent to the Village, or should I? Because that’s our other option, Ian.”

“Look,” says Ash, “you don’t have to be—”

“No, you look,” says Mark, as he gets up and climbs down the stairs to the curb. “I’m done arguing with you about this. If you two hadn’t left the table today and sat with her over us, maybe none of this would be happening right now.”

“You’re saying that this is our fault?” says Ash, leaping up to follow Mark.

“Who cares whose fault it is?” says Mark. “We just have to deal with it.”

We push through the employee entrance of the hospital and down a long hall where we have to whisper because everything echoes.

“Devon’s pissed, guys. He’s pissed at Alva and he’s pissed at you for not being pissed at her, and I think he’s even kinda pissed at me for some reason, which isn’t really fair …”

“Yeah,” says Ash. “You’re the real victim here. Life’s so unfair to poor Mark Wheeler.”

“Guys, come on,” Mark says. “I’m trying to help her. I’m trying to help everyone.”

Ash just shakes his head. “I have to go deliver the mail now,” he says.

“Wait,” I say. “We gotta figure out a plan …”

Ash doesn’t even turn around. He just calls back as he walks away. “Yeah, let’s definitely keep talking about this!”

Mark and I watch him round the corner. “You need to talk some sense into that guy,” he warns me.

“Can’t you come up with a better way to fix this?” I ask.

“I don’t have any other ideas,” he says as he starts walking away too.

“But it’s what you do … ,” I call after him.

He stops for a second and turns back to me with his arms spread wide. “Do the right thing, Ian! Alva doesn’t need you. We do.”