That was one of the really mean things he’d done.

Raylan had heard his mom crying when she thought he was sleeping after that—and before she got the job.

He’d never do anything, say anything to hurt Mr. or Mrs. Rizzo.

But the girl kid seemed a lot more interesting now.

CHAPTER THREE

Everything about the summer changed when Adrian met Maya. Her world opened up with sleepovers and playdates and secrets shared.

For the first time in her life, she had a real best friend.

She taught Maya yoga and dance steps—and almost a handspring—and Maya taught her how to twirl a baton and how to play Yahtzee.

Maya had a dog named Jimbo, who could walk on his back legs, and a cat named Miss Priss, who liked to cuddle.

She had a brother named Raylan, but all he wanted to do was play video games or read comic books or run around with his friends, so she didn’t see that much of him.

But he had green eyes, greener and darker than her mother’s and her grandmother’s. Like they got a super-charge of green.

Maya said he was mostly a doody-head, but Adrian didn’t see any real evidence of it, since he steered clear of them.

And she really liked his eyes.

Still, it made her wonder what it would have been like to have a brother or a sister. A sister would be better, obviously, but having somebody close to the same age in the house seemed like fun.

Maya’s mom was really nice. Nonna said she was a jewel, and Popi said she was a fine cook and a hard worker. Sometimes when Mrs. Wells had her shift, Maya came over and stayed all day, and if they asked in time, some of the other girls could come, too.

After the cast came off, she had to wear a removable splint for three more weeks. But she could take it off if she wanted a bubble bath or if she got invited to swim in Maya’s friend Cassie’s backyard pool.

One day deep in June she went upstairs with Maya to get everything they needed for the tea party they planned to hold outside under the big shade tree.

She stopped by Raylan’s open bedroom door. Always before, he’d kept it closed with a big KEEP OUT sign on it.

“We’re not supposed to go in without permission,” Maya told her. She had her sunny blond hair in French braids today because it was her mom’s day off and she’d had time.

Maya put a hand on her hip the way she did and rolled her eyes. “As if I’d want to. It’s messy and it’s smelly.”

Adrian didn’t smell anything from the doorway, but messy hit the mark. He hadn’t made the bed even a little. Clothes and shoes spread all over the floor along with action figures.

But the walls gripped her attention. He’d covered them with drawings.

Superheroes, battles with monsters or supervillains, spaceships, strange buildings, scary-looking forests.

“Did he draw all these?”

“Yeah, he draws all the time. He draws good, but it’s always stupid stuff. He never draws anything pretty—except he did once for Mom for Mother’s Day. He drew a bouquet of flowers and colored them and everything. She cried—but because she liked it.”

Adrian didn’t think the drawings were stupid—some were kind of scary, but not stupid. Still, she didn’t say so, since Maya was her best friend.

As she poked her head in just a little farther, Raylan ran up the stairs. He froze in place a moment, eyes narrowed. Then he bounded over and into the doorway to block it.

“You’re not allowed in my room.”

“We didn’t go in, poop-brain. Nobody wants to go in your stinky room.” Maya gave an exaggerated sniff, slapped a hand on her hip.

“The door was open,” Adrian said before Raylan could retaliate against his sister. “I didn’t go in, honest. I was just looking at the drawings. They’re really good drawings. I especially like the one of Iron Man. This one,” she added, and posed as if in flight, with one arm out, hand fisted.

Now those furious eyes tracked to hers. Instinctively she cringed back as her wrist throbbed with phantom pain.

He saw her cover her braced wrist with her hand—and remembered about her father.

Anybody would be scared if their own father broke something on them.

So he made himself shrug like he didn’t care. But maybe he was a little impressed she even knew who Iron Man was.

“It’s okay. That was just practice. I can do better.”

“The one of Spider-Man and Doc Ock’s really cool, too.”

Okay, more than a little impressed. None of Maya’s other girl dopes knew Doc Ock from the Green Goblin.

“Yeah, I guess.” Considering that enough conversation with a girl, he sneered at his sister. “Keep out.”

So saying, he went in, shut the door.

Maya smiled her sunny smile. “See? Poop-brain.” Taking Adrian’s hand, she skipped down to her room to get tea party supplies.

That night before bedtime, Adrian got some paper and a pencil to try to draw her favorite superhero, Black Widow.

Everything she drew looked like blobs connected to lines or more blobs. Sadly, she went back to her standard—a house, trees, flowers, and a big round sun.

Even that wasn’t very good, none of her drawings were—even though Nonna always put one on the refrigerator.

She wasn’t good at drawing. She wasn’t really good at cooking and baking, even though Nonna and Popi said she learned fast.

What was she good at?

To comfort herself she did yoga—even though she had to be careful not to put too much weight on her wrist.

When she finished the nightly ritual, she brushed her teeth, then put on her pajamas.

She started to go out to tell her grandfather she was ready for bed—her grandmother had the shift at Rizzo’s—when he tapped on her open door.

“Look at my girl. All clean and shiny and ready for bed. And look at this,” he continued when he saw her drawing. “This has to go in our art gallery.”

“It’s baby drawing.”

“Art’s in the eye of the beholder, and I like it.”

“Maya’s brother, Raylan, can really draw.”

“That he can. He’s very talented.” He glanced at her, and her sulky face. “But I’ve never seen him walk on his hands.”

“I’m not really supposed to do that yet.”

“But you will again.” He kissed the top of her head, then nudged her toward the bed. “Let’s get you and Barkley tucked in so we can read another chapter of Matilda. My girl reads better than most teenagers.”

Adrian snuggled in with her stuffed dog. “Active mind, active body.”

When Dom laughed and sat on the bed beside her with the book, she curled up against him.

He smelled of the grass he’d mowed before dinner.

“Do you think Mom misses me?”

“Sure she does. Doesn’t she call every week to talk to you, to see how you’re doing, what you’re doing?”

I wish she’d call more, Adrian thought, but she doesn’t ask so much what I’m doing.

“I think tomorrow I’ll teach you how to make pasta, then you can teach me something.”

“What?”

“One of those routines you make up.” He tapped her nose. “Active mind, active body.”