28

It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends.

—J. K. ROWLING, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE

KAYLA LEAVES THE celebration right away without explanation or apology. I don’t know what to think. I’m so confused, and angry too. The celebration winds down not long afterward, with Deandra taking home the biggest container of food. Dad’s furious, but he quiets down as soon as Isko tells the story of how Danny got beaten up. I’ll never forget the way Dad looked at me when he heard it was my friends’ little brothers who did this. He wants answers. His son is injured.

“I’ll find out what’s going on,” I promise, already getting up from my chair.

“You better,” he replies. “Or I will.”

“Daddy. I’ll take care of it.”

I decide to start with Lo before I talk to Kayla. She doesn’t live that far away. Deandra offers to drive me, and when we arrive Eric is standing outside their house. When he sees me, he darts around back. I admit I want to shove his head into a wall, but I know that’s not going to fix anything.

It just hurts that it’s Lo’s brother who attacked Danny. I always thought he was as nice as she is. But, then again, kids follow other kids—they’re not even thinking about what they’re doing or where their anger is coming from. That’s probably the problem. I’ll figure it out. Lo will tell her parents. Everything will work out.

Deandra promises to wait for me and I go to the door and knock. I’m actually happy that Lo answers.

“Jas! So great to see you. That rally was so awesome! You must really be proud. Is your family happy?”

“They are,” I say. “We just had a big celebration. Mom cooked for the squad.”

“Invite me to the next one. I love your Mom’s cooking. Hey, how’s the whole immigration thing? I’ve been meaning to call. Everything okay?” Lo asks. She opens the door farther. “You know, I’m being rude. Do you want to come in?”

“Yeah, sure,” I say.

I don’t want to have this conversation with Lo. It hasn’t been that long since we’ve become closer friends again. Lo leads me to the living room, and I sit on the couch next to her. Eric starts walking past the doorway, but when he sees me he splits down the hallway. “God. He’s such a spaz,” Lo says. “He must be up to something.”

“Speaking of your brother...” I say.

“What about him?” Lo asks. She leans back on the couch, giving me a confused expression.

“Yeah. Isko says Eric and a few of his friends jumped Danny today. He came home completely beaten up and limping.”

“Jumped him? What? Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” I tell her what happened.

“Oh my God. I’m so sorry, Jasmine. I’m going to beat him myself. Eric!” she yells. “Get in here!”

She turns to me. “I’ll go get him.”

“No, it’s okay. But will you talk to your parents? Tell them what happened?”

“Yeah, of course,” she says. “I’ll talk to them as soon as they’re home. Brian was supposed to come over tonight, but I’ll tell Dad to not let Eric have him over.”

“Thanks,” I say. “That helps.”

“Wait here. He needs to apologize.”

I shake my head. “That’s okay,” I say. “It’s Danny he should apologize to, but I’d give him a day or two to heal.”

“I can’t believe my brother! God! What a little jerk! I promise he’ll learn a big lesson from this one, especially when he has to go begging Danny’s forgiveness.”

“Thanks, Lo.”

“I’m sorry this happened, Jasmine. You know we’re not like that.”

I nod. I know.

* * *

On the way home, I text Kayla. No answer. Hey, I need to talk to you, I write, adding, Why did you leave? I don’t want to just show up at her house. For some reason, I don’t feel that’s the right move here. She could have left because she wanted to deal with her brother herself. Maybe she was embarrassed or ashamed. I would be. Maybe she didn’t think she was welcome at my house anymore, which would be a dumb thing to think, because Kayla will always be my best friend.

I text Royce too. I feel like a broken record.

I write, Hey, I kind of need you right now.

Unlike Kayla, he writes back to me right away.

He didn’t even bother to ask what’s wrong. That isn’t like Royce. Why doesn’t he care?

I text Kayla again. I’m not mad at you. I just want to know what’s going on.

By the time Deandra drops me off at home, Kayla still hasn’t answered me. Inside, Danny is asleep on the couch, his head on Mom’s lap. All of the guests have left. What a celebration.

Dad looks at me. “Well?”

“Eric’s taken care of,” I say. “I’ll deal with Brian too. Don’t worry.”

Mom whispers, “Thank you, Jasmine.”

“You’re welcome. How is he?”

“He’ll be okay,” she says.

Mom continues to stroke Danny’s head. “I heard back from our lawyer. He called after you left. Mr. Alvarado got us a court date. It’s sooner than we all thought.”

* * *

Kayla doesn’t respond to my texts all weekend. It’s taken everything for me to not go to her house and pound on the door. Royce isn’t much better, even though we hang out on Saturday night and go to the mall. For a little while, it feels like everything is normal between us. He’s incensed about what happened to Danny, angry that he didn’t stay longer at the party and wasn’t able to help, and wants to go over there to beat up the little punks immediately.

I tell him I’m taking care of it. I don’t need him to fight my brother’s battles. But I do tell him one thing.

“They learned it from Mason,” I say. “To tell my brothers to go back to the island I mean. They thought it was funny.”

Royce puts his head in his hands. “Oh man,” he says. “I’m so sorry. I’m going to make him hurt.”

“Don’t,” I say. “I don’t want our families to have trouble. Just leave it.”

He drives me back to my house and gives me a brief kiss on the lips. We don’t make out like we usually do. I think he feels bad about the Mason connection and doesn’t know what to do about it. I can tell that’s not the only thing bothering him though, but when I ask him what it is, he brushes it off, says something about family pressure.

When he’s gone, I begin to worry that maybe “family pressure” means his parents want him to break up with me, an illegal alien. Could that be it? Or am I just paranoid? I wish he’d talk to me. But every time I try to reach out, he clams up.

I haven’t even told Royce that we have a court date for the deportation trial. If he can’t be bothered to tell me what’s up with him, why should I offer any information?

* * *

On Sunday afternoon, Lo’s parents have a meeting with my parents. It’s pretty civil. Eric starts tearing up when he has to apologize. Danny is hilarious, which almost makes me cry.

After Eric apologizes, Danny smugly crosses his arms and smiles. “It’s all right,” he says, leaning back in his chair. “I know your friend put you up to it. But I actually have to thank you.”

Eric wrinkles his forehead. “Thank me?”

All of us at the table stare at him—Mom and Dad, Lo’s parents, me—waiting for what Danny will say next.

“Yeah,” Danny says. “The entire National High School Cheerleading Championship team kissed me. That ain’t ever gonna happen for you! So, yeah, forget about it.”

I think Eric was in awe after that. He left pretty wide-eyed. And Danny, though his face still looks like a bruised apple, is pretty much back to normal.

Monday night I’m sitting at the kitchen table, doing a set of difficult problems for Calculus, when I finally hear a text go off on my phone. It’s the music I assigned for Kayla.

Shoving away my homework, I pick up the phone with both hands and open up her text.

I’m furious. How could she have known and not told me? How could she not say anything until now?

See me at school? What’s that supposed to mean? Kayla suddenly feels like someone I don’t know. She’s shut me out, and I don’t know what to think. Even though her parents have split, Kayla seemed to have been doing okay lately. She applied to the Art Institute in Hollywood and CalArts to study dance next year, and she’s planning on getting a place of her own after graduation.

Dad’s not happy with her response either. He seems to have a sixth sense about everything.

“It’s been taken care of?” he asks. “What’s that supposed to mean? Did she take her brother out back and beat him with a switch?”

“That’s what I would have done,” Mom says, putting dishes into the dishwasher.

The plates and glasses clank against each other loudly. Dad sighs and rubs his temples. “We’ll have to tell school officials about what happened. Make doubly sure there’s no problem. It’ll keep others from copying. We can’t have our boys beaten up every week because of what some dumb kids hear from others. What’s wrong with these people?”

“I blame the parents,” Mom says. “Parents need to know where their children are and what they’re up to. They need to keep them busy.”

I don’t tell them I found out the attack on Danny was planned. That would send Dad over the edge. If he wants to go to the school and complain, that’s fine, but I’d rather not be in the middle of it.

How could Kayla not say anything to me about it? What was up with that? She’s been acting so shady lately. I’d gotten over my irrational jealousy—I know there’s nothing going on with her and Royce. She would never do that to me, and he never would either. I trust both of them. Yet I can’t help but notice that both of them have been sort of avoiding me.

What’s the deal?