“Truth or dare?” Zora says, pointing to me.

I act like I don’t know what she’s talking ’bout. So I go over to the table in the corner of the basement and sit by myself. “I ain’t playing that game.”

School’s finally out for the summer. We’re at Mai’s house. She tricked me. Said it was gonna be just her, me, and Ja’nae. I show up and they got Zora here, too. Mai and Ja’nae want us to make up. “’Cause y’all not being friends is making it bad on all of us,” Ja’nae says.

I don’t like this game. I told ’em all that from the start. But everybody else wanted to play truth or dare. So I went along, too. Now I’m sorry.

“Don’t play then,” Zora says, getting mad.

Ja’nae comes over to me. Whispers in my ear, and begs me to be nice.

I tell her it’s not just me not talking to Zora. “She ain’t talking to me, neither.”

Mai is lying on the couch, eating black licorice. She waves a piece at me and says, “You did something to her, that’s why.”

I ask her why she told me to come if she gonna lie on me. Zora rolls her eyes at me and says she’s gonna go home.

“Come on, Raspberry,” Ja’nae says. “Play.”

We supposed to be at the movies, but Mai’s mom ain’t got back from the food truck to take us. “I don’t wanna play this game,” I say, getting up and going over to Mai. I dig my hands in her bag and take three licorice.

“Greedy,” she says, snatching a piece out my hand.

Ja’nae wanted to play cards, but Zora don’t know how. Mai wanted to watch TV, but ain’t nothing on. It was Zora’s idea to play this game. I think she wanna show me up with it. Ask me something that’s gonna embarrass me.

“Let’s do hair,” Ja’nae says, fingering her braids. “I need to get these redone. Y’all can take ’em out for me.”

We tell her no. Then before I know anything, we back to playing the game. They dare me to call Ming and tell him I hate his guts. Ja’nae ain’t going for it. She snatches the phone from me and starts telling Ming not to believe nothing I say. Then she asks for Sato. When he gets on the phone she says, “Raspberry likes you.”

I stick my licorice down her skirt, snatch the phone, and throw it on the couch. Zora’s laughing. Mai is too.

“Truth or dare?” Mai says, starting the game up again. “Ja’nae’s mom’s coming to live with her.”

Everybody’s eyes are on Ja’nae. She’s smiling like crazy. “True,” she says.

Zora drinks the last of her iced tea. “But she’s crazy. She lives in somebody’s basement, doesn’t she? Trying to heal people.”

Ja’nae’s mom went to the store when Ja’nae was little and never came back. She lives in California. And every now and then she and Ja’nae sneak and call one another. Ja’nae’s grandparents don’t like it, so I don’t see how they letting her mom come live with them, even though it’s their daughter.

“You sure?” I ask Ja’nae.

She doesn’t want to talk about it now. She points to Mai. “Truth or dare? Did your dad change his mind about sending you to live with your cousins in California?”

Mai’s eyes get big. She’s jumping up and down. Running ’round the room like them people on TV when they get picked to play on a game show. “You mean I’m not going? I’m staying here? All right!!”

Ja’nae tells her she better not tell Ming who told her that. “He said your mom talked your dad out of it.”

When Mai points to me and says “Truth or dare?” I don’t get mad that it’s my turn again. I figure Mai’s truth or dare wasn’t a real one nohow. So mine is gonna be easy. “Did you take money out Zora’s purse? Truth or dare?”

Zora smiles. Ja’nae won’t look at me. She’s playing with Ming’s gold baby ring. The one she wears around her neck. Mai asks the question again.

I walk over to the steps. “I ain’t no thief.”

Ja’nae comes over to me. “Just give it back. Say you sorry so we can be like we was before.”

I tell them they was wrong for doing this to me. Mai says they know how much I like money. “Too much, sometimes.”

“But you ain’t a bad person,” Ja’nae says. “Not a real thief,” she says, patting my back.

Before I think about it, I’m digging in my pocket and pulling out quarters and dollar bills. “Here,” I say, holding it out to Zora. “Take it.”

Mai does a little dance. Ja’nae hugs me tight from behind.

Zora never looks up. And her voice never changes—it’s still slow and sad. “We might be sisters one day. That’s what my dad said about me and you just before your mom got hurt.” Zora stands and heads up the steps. She tells me that she got mad at her dad when he said it. Because him and my mom are so different. “But I changed my mind, when your mom was in the hospital. Daddy cried that night. I heard him, after you went to sleep.”

I walk up the steps. “Zora . . . here . . . take it. Please,” I say, clearing my throat.

“I didn’t know the money was gone for a while,” she says, shaking her head no, when I push the money her way.

Ja’nae’s yelling for us to come back downstairs. Zora’s in the living room, telling me that in her family, stealing is like killing. “My father says that when you steal from somebody, you kill their trust in you.”

Change falls outta my hand. I stop to pick it up, and I apologize for what I did.

“You need to tell my dad what you did,” Zora says, opening the door.

My hands start to shake. “No. I’m not,” I say, afraid to look Zora in the eye.

Zora shakes her head and opens the door. “You know what, Raspberry? You’re a thief and a liar, just like your dad,” she says, walking out.

Ja’nae and Mai come upstairs when they hear the door slam shut. “What happened?” Ja’nae says.

“You took the money back, didn’t you?” Mai asks.

I ball my money up, put it in my back pocket, and open the door wide.

“Don’t go!” Ja’nae yells.

I move as fast as my legs can go, and try hard not to think about what Zora said. But her words come into my head anyhow, and before I’m at the corner, I know she’s right . . . I’m just like my dad.