Pip spotted Ant before the others did, waving him over to their table. He crossed the cafeteria, two packaged sandwiches cradled in his arms.
“Hey, guys,” he said, sliding onto the bench beside Lauren, of course, already tearing into sandwich number one.
“How was practice?” Pip asked.
Ant looked up at her warily, his mouth open midchew. “Fine,” he replied, then swallowed. “Why are you being nice to me? What do you want?”
“Nothing,” Pip laughed. “I’m just asking how soccer was.”
“No,” Zach butted in, “that’s far too friendly for you. Something’s up.”
“Nothing’s up.” She shrugged. “Only the national debt and global sea levels.”
“Probably hormones,” Ant said.
Pip wound the invisible crank by her hand, jerkily raising her middle finger up at him.
They were on to her already. Well, at least it was a welcome break from their teasing about never seeing her anymore, even though she saw them every single day at school. “Distracted” was the word Lauren has used last week.
Pip waited a full five minutes for the group to finish their conversation about the latest episode of the zombie show they all watched, as Connor stuffed his ears and hummed loudly because he hadn’t seen it yet. Pip hadn’t either. How many had she missed? The last three?
“So, Ant,” she tried again, “you know your friend George from soccer?”
“Yes, I know my friend George from soccer,” he said, glancing to check that Lauren found him as amusing as he found himself.
“He’s in the crowd that still does calamity parties, right?”
Ant nodded. “Yeah. Actually, I think the next party is at his house. His parents are out of town for an anniversary or something.”
“This Saturday?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you…” Pip sat forward, resting her elbows on the table. “Do you think you could get us all invited?”
Every single one of her friends turned to stare at her.
“Who are you and what have you done with Pippa Fitz-Amobi?” Cara asked.
“What?” She felt herself getting defensive, words rushing out unchecked. “It’s our last year at school, and I thought it would be nice for us all to go. This is the opportune time, before application and homework deadlines creep up.”
“That still sounds Pip-ish to me.” Connor smiled.
“You want to go to a house party?” Ant said pointedly.
“Yes,” she said.
“Everyone will be smashed, people throwing up, passing out. A lot of mess on the floor,” Ant said. “It’s not really your scene, Pip.”
No of course it wasn’t—she couldn’t think of anything worse—but she stood firm. “Sounds…fun. I want to go.”
“OK, fine.” Ant clapped his hands together with a grin. “Let’s do it.”
Pip stopped by Ravi’s on her way home from school to give him the latest updates. He handed her a black coffee, making another joke about it as she took a sip. Pip choked. Why was she laughing? The joke wasn’t even that funny, objectively speaking. She coughed and her cheeks flushed.
“OK,” Ravi finally said when she was done talking, his head bouncing in a half nod as he tried to process the image of Andie Bell—cute, button-nosed blonde—as a drug dealer. “OK, so you’re thinking the man who supplied her could be a suspect?”
“Yes,” she said. “If you have the depravity to peddle drugs to kids, I definitely think you could be the kind of person inclined to murder.”
“Yeah, I see the logic,” he said, nodding. “How are we going to find this drug dealer, though?”
She set down her mug and focused her eyes on his. “I’m going undercover.”