CHAPTER 47

GIOVANNA’S HANDS HOVERED over the keyboard —frozen. Maggie was your friend. Your friend. How can you do this to her? “Can’t we reword that a little? It sounds so . . .”

“So what, Giovanna?” Kat glared at her.

Cruel. CRUEL. She wanted to scream it. She shrugged instead.

“This is just a game,” Alexa said. “We’re giving her some attention. Some excitement. If she didn’t love it, why does she keep checking to see the new posts?”

Did Alexa really think Giovanna was stupid enough to swallow that? “What about this Robin Hood guy? He warned us to stop.”

Kat frowned. “We need to find out who he —or she —really is.” She stared at Giovanna.

It took a moment for that to sink in. “Are you accusing me?”

“You only pretend to like this game. Maybe you feel sorry for her.”

Alexa gave her a suspicious look too.

“Why would I want to help her? She ditched me, remember?”

Kat’s expression changed. She smiled in a condescending way. Like Giovanna was her little sister. “You’re right. Of course you’re right. Does Maggie have any old friends?”

Giovanna shook her head. “None.” Giovanna was the only friend Maggie really had. “There’s Pancake, but he doesn’t count. They never hung out after school or anything.”

“No surprise there,” Alexa said.

“Soooo,” Kat said, “her cyber-hero is someone who doesn’t dare use his —or her —real name.” She smiled like a real cat who’d cornered some crippled bird. “Robin Hood is afraid of us —and should be.”

Kat was gorgeous —on the outside, anyway. Anybody would say that. But the more Giovanna got to know her, the more she couldn’t understand why anybody thought she was pretty at all.

“He said he’ll tell our parents if we don’t stop,” Giovanna said.

“Afraid someone is going to tell your ma-ma, Giovanna?”

Her baby-talk tone made Giovanna want to crawl out of the room —or rip Kat’s tongue out.

“And how’s Robin Hood going to do that?” Kat circled her ear with one finger. “That’s insane.”

“Actually, I’d love it if he rang our doorbell,” Alexa said. “Then we’d know who we’re dealing with.”

Giovanna scrolled back over the recent posts. “He said our neighbors will tell our parents. What does that mean?”

“So he’s going to ring our neighbor’s door? How brilliant is that?” Kat waved at the air like she was shooing a pesky fly. “And who’d believe him? I wonder if Robin Hood will show up wearing green tights.”

Alexa giggled, but Giovanna didn’t see anything funny. “What about the red shoes? Did you see how many kids wore them today?”

“By Monday it will be back to only Maggie again,” Kat said. “Now let’s get back to posting.”

Posting? This was persecuting. Giovanna’s stomach churned and prickled inside. “I just think —”

“Well stop thinking and write what I tell you,” Kat said. Her whole face changed, and it wasn’t pretty. She thought for a moment and started vomiting her vile dictation. Giovanna typed. Shaky hands at first. Then they steadied as she let her mind go numb.

When Giovanna finished, Kat slid in front of the keyboard and banged out a personal note to Robin Hood herself. Alexa typed in her own stupid responses, and both of them dictated more comments for Giovanna to add under her “Maggie” identity.

Did they not pick up on the fact that Giovanna wasn’t laughing? They had to notice she wasn’t feeling good about where this was going. Had to. Which only meant they didn’t care —or they liked making her squirm.

Kat read the new posts aloud and smiled. “These messages ought to do a little damage.”

Giovanna nodded. They already had.