“Hello, everyone!” she said, an even wider smile now spreading across her face. “I’m Sloan Peterson, reporting live from Rittenhouse Square’s annual spring festival.” She gestured around us, then at me. “With me is a first-time attendee! James, what brought you here today?”
“My sister,” I replied with no hesitation. “She’s been looking forward to this day for months….” Knowing Grace, this plan had been cooking for a while. “I decided to follow herhere.”
“Oh, your sister is with us?” Sloan asked, pretending to search for someone. I took a big bite of cotton candy. “Where is she?”
“I’m not sure at the moment,” I said, “but we’ll find each other.” I winked at the camera. “We always do.”
Sloan laughed, and from there, she threw me softball questions that I hit out of the park (not to brag). “Do you think you’ll be back next year?” she asked.
“Of course,” I told her. “This has been an extremely memorable day, one for the books.”
“That’s wonderful to hear, James,” she said, and put a hand on my shoulder.
I politely shrugged it off. “Sorry, Sloan,” I said. “I have a girlfriend.”
At least, I hoped I did.
“This has been Sloan Peterson for Channel Six news,” she said through another giggle, then nodded at the camera. “Back to you, Ferris!”
I made a quick escape from Sloan and the news team so I could get back on the trail.Okay, cold.I focused on my phone.The temperature is dropping, looks like I’ve taken a wrong turn—
Then all of a sudden, the Find My Friends map disappeared with the incoming call notification popping up in its place.Dad, the screen announced.
I didn’t panic, but my caffeine-sugar high instantly dissolved. The smart thing to do would be to let the call go to voicemail. Because based on the time, I was about to be bored out of my mind in bio. It was the last period of the day.
My parents didn’t know we weren’t allowed to use our phones in school, though. They weren’t oblivious by any means; they just gave Grace and me a nice stretch of leash. They had their jobs, and we had ours. Grace and I handledour homework, what we were going to eat for lunch, and any disagreements with teachers.
Theonlyreason they had a clue about my…humble attendance record was because Unger had called them. “I told her she was unequivocally mistaken,” Mom had said at the dinner table. “I said I know you have probably been sick more than most of your classmates, but then she…” She put down her fork and gave me a look. “What is going on here, James? She said you’ve been absent upward of nine times this spring?”
God, Unger. Could there be a bigger thorn in my side? It was too bad I didn’t have her on Find My Friends. That would’ve been extremely useful today.
I ended up answering Dad’s call, but not before winding my way through the street fair and into Rittenhouse Square’s center plaza. The green space was much quieter, any background noise much less suspicious. “Hi, Dad,” I said, dropping down on a bench near the reflecting pool.
“James, buddy, hey,” he said. “I have something to ask you.”
“Okay.” I swallowed. “It needs to be fast, though. I only have a couple minutes before bio.”
The line went silent.
“Dad?” I said after a beat. “You still there?”
“Yes…,” he said slowly, then cleared his throat. “You’re at school?”
“Uh, yeah,” I lied. “Only for the next hour, though. Biology is the big finale for the day.”
“Hmm,” he mused. “Well, all right. I just thought…”
I waited, stomach now spinning.
“I thought I saw you on TV,” he said.
“TV?” I asked.
“Yes, TV,” he answered. “The local station is covering today’s spring festival in Rittenhouse Square. We have it on mute in the office—I just walked out of a meeting and could’ve sworn you were being interviewed.”
I tried to laugh, tried to ignore the sweat beading on my back. “No way, really?”
“Yes, really. It’s been such a long day that I must be seeing things…or this kid was your doppelganger.” He chuckled. “It’s funny, actually. Your mom and I thought about going to the festival ourselves. Let you and Gracie miss school for a ‘family day.’ ” He sighed. “But that was before we got slammed with these projects and remembered that you need to keep up your attendance—or else that pit bull principal of yours is going to pay us another phone call.”
