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"Let’s have lunch with RHAPAW," he answered

RHAPAW was a fifteen-year-old Buick that had been driven with is and was, by the time it reached Ben, composed primarily out of duct tape and spackle Her full name was Rode Hard And Put Away Wet, but we called her RHAPAW for short RHAPAW ran not on gasoline, but on the inexhaustible fuel of huly hot vinyl seat and hope she would start, and then Ben would turn the key and the engine would turn over a couple ti flops And then you would hope harder, and the engine would turn over a couple more times You hoped some more, and it would finally catch

Ben started RHAPAW and turned the AC on high Three of the four s didn’t even open, but the air conditioner worked h for the first fewout of the vents andwith the hot stale air in the car I reclined the passenger seat all the way back, so that I was alo at , entering the wrong house, SeaWorld, the I-will--out-with-you

He didn’t interruptway--but when I finished, he i question in his ton, how se nificant anxiety, but have you ever seen a pencil?" I asked him, and Ben nodded "Well, have you ever seen a pencil eraser?" He nodded again "Well, have you ever seen the little shavings of rubber left on the paper after you erase so and one shaving wide," I said Ben had taken a lot of crap froured he was entitled to enjoy it a little But he didn’t even laugh He was just shaking his head slowly, awestruck

"God, she is such a badass"

"I know"

"She’s the kind of person who either dies tragically at twenty-seven, like Jirows up to win, like, the first-ever Nobel Prize for Awesome"

"Yeah," I said I rarely tired of talking about Margo Roth Spiegelainst the cracked vinyl headrest and fell ier was sitting in o to class, bro See you after band

Later, after ainst the cinder-block wall outside the band roo fro around school for the extra hour during band practice, because to leave before Ben and Radarthe lone senior on the bus

After they got out, Ben dropped Radar off at his house right by the Jefferson Park "village center," near where Lacey lived Then he took o’s car was not parked in her driveway, either So she hadn’t skipped school to sleep She’d skipped school for another adventure--ahair-re I felt a little left out as I walked into the house, but of course she kneould never have joined her anyway--I cared too much about a day of school And who even knew if it would be just a day for Margo Maybe she was off on another three-day jaunt to Mississippi, or te the circus But it wasn’t either of those, of course It was soine, because I couldn’t be Margo

I wondered what stories she would come home with this ti across froht, this is what sheout with you She knew she was heading somewhere for another of her brief respites from Orlando’s paperness But when she came back, who knew? She couldn’t spend the last weeks of school with the friends she’d always had, so maybe she would spend the for the ruht after dinner "I hear she’s not answering her phone Soht e room in Tomorrowland at Disney"

"That’s idiotic," I said

"I know I mean, Tomorrowland is by far the crappiest of the Lands Souy online"

"Ridiculous," I said

"Okay, fine, but what?"

"She’s soine," I said

Ben giggled "Are you saying that she’s playing with herself?"

I groaned "Co stories Rocking worlds"

That night, I lay onout theinto the invisible world outside I kept trying to fall asleep, but then my eyes would dart open, just to check I couldn’t help but hope that Margo Roth Spiegelh one h that there weren’t any Find Margo rallies at school or anything, but we all felt her absence High school is neither a democracy nor a dictatorship--nor, contrary to popular belief, an anarchic state High school is a divine-right e Specifically, they get worse It was during Margo’s trip to Mississippi sophomore year, for example, that Becca had unleashed the Bloody Ben story to the world And this was no different The little girl with her finger in the da, I was on tiot a ride with Ben We found everyone unusually quiet outside the band rooreat seriousness

"What?"

"Chuck Parson, Taddy Mac, and Clint Bauer took Clint’s Tahoe and ran over twelve bikes belonging to fresh my head

Our friend Ashley added, "Also, yesterday somebody posted our phone numbers in the boys’ bathrooain, and then joined the silence We couldn’t turn them in; we’d tried that plenty in middle school, and it inevitably resulted in more punisho reminded everyone what iivena counteroffensive And I was just about to say soe individual running toward us at a full sprint He wore a black ski reen water cannon As he ran past he tagged ainst the cracked concrete on my left side As he reached the door, he turned back and shouted toward et smackdown" The voice was not familiar to me

Ben and another of our friends picked me up My shoulder hurt, but I didn’t want to rub it "You okay?" asked Radar

"Yeah, I’m fine" I rubbed the shoulder now

Radar shook his head "Soet set a shed So lot, and I looked up to see two little fresh wet and limp from their narrow frames

"It was pee!" one of the; he just held his hands far away from his T-shirt, which only sort of worked I could see rivulets of liquid snaking from his sleeve down his arm

"Was it animal pee or human pee?" someone asked

"Hoould I know! What, am I an expert in the study of pee?"

I walked over to the kid I put my hand on the top of his head, the only place that seemed totally dry "We’ll fix this," I said The second bell rang, and Radar and I raced to calc As I slid into ed my arm, and the pain radiated into my shoulder Radar tapped his notebook, where he’d circled a note: Shoulder okay?

I wrote on the corner ofin a field of rainbows frolicking with puppies

Radar laughed enough for Mr Jiminez to shoot hiure out who it was