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"Nothing on the door," Ben said Ben and I placed the door back in place, and Radar pounded in the pins with the screwdriver’s handle

Radar and I went over to Ben’s house, which was architecturally identical tothis gaalacier You received extra points for shooting your opponents in the balls It was very sophisticated "Bro, she’s definitely in New York City," Ben said I saw the muzzle of his rifle around a corner, but before I could s "Shit," I mumbled

Radar said, "In the past, it seems like her clues have pointed to a place She tells Jase; she leaves us clues involving two people who both lived in New York City most of their lives It does make sense"

Ben said, "Dude, that’s what she wants" Just as I was creeping up on Ben, he paused the gaed to o?"

"What? It’s a city of like twelve million people"

"She could have a o"

"Lacey!" Ben said "It’s totally Lacey Yes! You gotta get on a plane and go to New York City right now And when Lacey finds out, Margo will pick you up at the airport Yes Bro, I aonna pack, and then I’onna put a plane ticket on your eo finds out what a badass you are, the kind of badass Jase Worthington only drea hotties to proht to New York City leaving shortly Fro shortly But I doubted everything else "If you call Lacey" I said

"She’s not going to confess!" Ben said "Think of all the misdirection they used--they probably only acted like they were fighting so you wouldn’t suspect she was the mole"

Radar said, "I don’t know, that doesn’t really add up" He kept talking, but I was only half listening Staring at the paused screen, I thought it over If Margo and Lacey were fake-fighting, did Lacey fake-break-up with her boyfriend? Had she faked her concern? Lacey had been fielding dozens of emails--none with real information--from the flyers her cousin had put in record stores in New York She was no mole, and Ben’s plan was idiotic Still, the mere idea of a plan appealed to me But there were only two and a half weeks left of school, and I’d miss at least two days if I went to New York--not toa plane ticket on ht about it, the dumber it was Still, if I could see her tomorrowBut no "I can’t ame

"I have a French quiz tomorrow"

"You know," Ben said, "your romanticism is a real inspiration"

I played for a few more minutes and then walked across Jefferson Park back home

My mom told me once about this crazy kid she worked with He was a completely norh obviously a lot of nine-year-olds have had a lot of dead fathers and uess this kid was an exception

So what he did was he took a pencil and one of those steel co circles onto a piece of paper All the circles exactly two inches in diameter And he would draw the circles until the entire piece of paper was coet another piece of paper and draw more circles, and he did this every day, all day, and didn’t pay attention in school and drew circles all over all of his tests and shit, and my mom said that this kid’s problem was that he had created a routine to cope with his loss, only the routine became destructive So anyway, then my mom made hi circles and presumably lived happily ever after But I think about the circles kid sometimes, because I can sort of understand him I always liked routine I suppose I never found boredo I doubted I could explain it to soh life struck me as a kind of reasonable insanity

So I should have felt fine about not going to New York--it was a duht and the next day at school, it ate away at, when she had been gone six days, I talked to ; I just did I was sitting at the kitchen counter while Dad chopped vegetables and Mosuch a short book, and I said, "Actually, it’s not for English; it seeot quiet, and then I told them about Woody Guthrie and the Whitames of incomplete infor attention," my mom said, and then toyour responsibility"

Dad scraped the carrots and onions into the skillet "Yeah, true Not that either of us could diagnose her without seeing her, but I suspect she’ll be home soon"

"We shouldn’t speculate,"Dad was about to respond but I interrupted

"What should I do?"

"Graduate," o can take of herself, for which she has shown a great talent"

"Agreed," my dad said, but after dinner, when I went back to my roo quietly back and forth I could not hear the words, but I could hear the worry

Later that night, Ben called my cell

"Hey," I said

"Bro," he said

"Yes," I answered

"I’?"

"Yeah Everything’s thirty percent off froht She wants me to help her pick out her prom shoes I mean, she had soreed that they weren’tyou know, you want the perfect shoes for pro to Burdines and we’re going to like pi--"

"Ben," I said

"Yeah?"

"Dude, I don’t want to talk about Lacey’s pro that makes me really uninterested in prom shoes It’s called a penis"

"I’ that I actually kinda really like her not just in the she’s-a-hot-prom-date way but in the she’s-actually-really-cool-and-I-like-hanging-out-with-her kinda way And, like,in the middle of the dance floor and everyone will be like, holy shit and, you know, everything they ever thought about o out the --"

"Ben," I said, "stop the dork babble and you’ll be fine" He kept talking for a while, but I finally got off the phone with him