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“I thought everyone knew,” said Ulla. “He announced it at lunch.”

“New York. Wow . . . ” Patsy fanned herself. “Do you think he’ll meet anyone famous there?”

“Why is he moving to New York?” Ulla asked Linnea’s dreaded question for her.

“Because he’s rich,” said Sunny.

The lights went out, and there was a collective, “Ooooohhh!” with screeching giggles.

Wiley shined a flashlight on his face and waggled his tongue. “Who wants to play?”

Someone shoved the coffee table over to block the stairs, and Ulla gripped Linnea’s sweaty hand. “We don’t have to,” she whispered, sensing Linnea’s sickening mix of panic and excitement at the prospect of kissing Everett.

The light beamed directly onto Ulla’s face. “Oo-la-la wants to play!”

Ulla exhaled her loathing. Determined to prove Linnea’s earlier sentiment wrong that her classmates found her stuck-up, she flipped her long ponytail over her shoulder and said, “Fine. Lin and I will play.”

A resounding, “Me too,” came from the boys, and Ulla gaped at the female cohort in a silent demand for them to join. Patsy and Sunny popped up, and soon more girls with snickers and squeals made a circle. The boys made up one arc while the girls formed the other.

“What if a boy lands on a boy?” Tanya shouted from the couch where she held hands with JJ.

Wiley placed the flashlight back on his horse teeth. “No fag or lezzy kissing.” He set the flashlight in the middle of the circle and turned it off.

Queen played on, but someone had turned the volume down. Linnea spoke into Ulla’s ear. “I can’t do this.”

“I’ll go first,” said Ulla loudly.

The boys clapped and wolf-whistled. Ulla shuffled on her knees over the shag carpet and spun the flashlight, but it didn’t really spin, so she flipped the switch on.

Three boys boxed one another out to aim themselves square on the spotlight. A boy named Justin hustled forward. He was the shortest boy in their class, still had baby pudge on his face, and braces.

He shoved his tongue in Ulla’s mouth amidst whoops and hollers, and after completing a few slimy thrusts, Ulla sat back next to Linnea, wanting to gag. She wiped off Justin’s saliva. “All the boys want to kiss you,” Linnea whispered in her ear.

Ulla whispered back, “That’s because I’m easy.”

“No,” said Linnea, scooting a centimeter away—it may as well have been the length of an ocean. It was dark, so Ulla couldn’t see Linnea’s expression, when she finished off, “It’s because you’re so pretty.”

Linnea had never told Ulla she was pretty. But Ulla spent many a night pondering the changeling nature of Linnea’s eyes under that thick brim of lashes, how they could blend into a perfect shade of light green depending on the angle of the sun. Still, most days they traveled along the entire spectrum of blue. She’d memorized Linnea’s face, what it took for the dimple in her left cheek to appear.

Of all the ways Ulla dreamed of telling Linnea just how pretty she was, it never would’ve sounded like that. Like spitting out a bad taste.

“Who’s next!” shouted Wiley as Justin gave the boys a round of high fives and tens.

“I’ll go again,” said Ulla, with heat pulsating her eyes. “But I’m spinning for Linney.” Ulla tapped the flashlight and made sure it landed on Everett Barnes. She sat next to Linnea and hissed in her ear, “There. Are you happy?”

But Linnea had gone completely stagnate. A statue.

Everett looked equally as shocked. It dawned on Ulla. Everett Barnes had never kissed a girl?

Everyone clapped and whistled. Kevin shoved Everett across the circle.

Shockingly, Han Solo took Princess Leia’s cheeks into his hands and guided her mouth to his.

Ulla couldn't watch this. “I don’t feel good,” she said to no one and got to her feet. She tripped over someone’s cape and stumbled to the stairs, stepping over the coffee table blocking them.

Once outside, the wind assaulted her.

She plopped onto the front stoop, next to the dark jack-o’-lanterns whose candles had been whooshed-out. If only the vow to punish Ronja was not stronger than the wish to be rescued from unrequited love. Her mother would hold her and kiss her on the forehead and tell her that someday it wouldn’t hurt so much to love someone that would never love you back. Even more desperate was Ulla for her mother to say that of course nothing was wrong with her, nothing wrong at all with Ulla aching to pick Linney over any guy.