SID HARDLY GLANCED at us as we left. He looked completely at ease, as if the frosty face-off between him and Kasey hadn’t happened. As a rule, I’ve noticed that hipsters don’t “do” anger. It was only the almost-impossible-to-see quivering taking place at the tips of Sid’s waxed mustache that told me he was ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS.

I hoped Kasey hadn’t totally messed things up between me and Sid. I mean, I knew he was a bit of a Terry Try-hard sometimes, but I liked working at Gudonya.

“What was all that about?” I said, once we were safely away from the cafe. I was carrying Kasey’s bag and it weighed about as much as a minivan. “And what have you got in here? A walrus?”

“Yeah,” Kasey said, rolling her eyes again. “You got me. That’s what’s in there. A walrus.”

I wasn’t carrying Kasey’s bag because of some being-a-gentleman type deal. I was carrying it because she flat out told me to carry it. Kasey is like that sometimes: bossy. I was starting to question whether having her stay with me in Hills Village was a good idea, after all. (Although, as things turned out, it was A Very Good Idea, but we’ll get to that later.)

“Don’t change the subject.” I hoisted the walrus bag into an easier carrying position and pointed a finger at Kasey. “Why did you go all Ice Queen on Sid back there?”

“Oh, puh-lease,” Kasey said. “Sidney Harberbridge? Who has a name like that?”

“Maybe he just likes the name? Or maybe he’s telling the truth?”

Kasey stopped walking and looked me straight in the eye. In both of them, really. She looked me straight in the eyes. “Mom?”

Had Kasey lost her marbles? “Uh, I’m not your mom, Kase,” I said in that fake calm voice you’d use if you were trapped in an elevator with a rabid wolf armed with a flamethrower. “You’re in Hills Village, remember? Now, let’s get you home. You can take a nice long lie down in a dark room and—”

I saw Kasey’s shin-kicking foot twitch, and took a step back.

“No, you idiot,” she huffed, “I’m talking about how Sid said ‘mom’ instead of ‘mum’. Aussies don’t say ‘mom’.”

“What are you getting at?”

Kasey leaned in close and jabbed a finger in my chest. “The diff is this, Einstein: Sidney Harberbridge is about as Australian as you.”