The rest of the group greeted me and I pulled the door shut. Mason Ramirez was driving. I was in the same car as Mason Ramirez, the most popular guy at our school. The car was actually full of Tustin High royalty—Daniel Lake, Beth Lucas, Heidi Gray. I felt completely out of place.
Mason backed out of his spot and approached the exit. This was the part I was curious about. There were teachers stationed at every exit. I had no idea how they made it past them every day.
“Hey, Mrs. Lin,” Mason said after rolling down his window.
“Hey, Mason,” she said. “Another group doctor’s appointment?” Mrs. Lin said it like she was making up an excuse for him. Like she was providing the lie.
“Yep,” Mason said.
“Don’t be late to sixth.”
“Never.”
And as easy as that, we drove off of our closed campus.
“That was educational,” I said. “How did you get Mrs. Lin to do your bidding?”
“We’re on student council. She’s our mentor teacher,” Trina said. “This is one of the perks.”
“Who knew that becoming a politician started as early as high school student government?” I said out loud. Everyone in the car laughed, even though I knew what I’d said wasn’t that funny.
As we stood in the long line at Café Rio, Daniel said, “You should buy your own Café Rio restaurant and only let us come to it, Maddie. Then we’d never have to stand in line again.”
I snorted. I could write a book about all the crazy ways people had advised me to spend my money. “I’ll think about it,” I told Daniel.
“So,” Trina said, when we sat down with our trays. “Have you come up with an answer to my question?”
“What question?” Mason asked.
“I asked Maddie if she couldn’t save a penny of her money, how she would spend it.”
“Ooh, good question,” Daniel said. “And?” He looked at me expectantly. Maybe he thought I was serious about his Café Rio plan.
“I don’t know.” I was trying to figure out what I wanted in a lot of different areas right now.
Trina raised her cup in the air. “To figuring out what we want in life.”
If only it were that easy. We all tapped our soda cups together.
I had been studying for two hours straight. Catching up was a lot harder than just maintaining. Also, how had I ever studied for this long? I yawned.
Mountain Dew and Reese’s Pieces. I needed my study boost. I pushed away from my desk and went to my car.
At the Mini-mart, I got the largest-sized soda possible and a bag of Reese’s Pieces. Maxine was there reading a magazine and sipping on her own soda. She looked up when I approached.
“Well, there she is in all her multimillion-dollar glory. How do you like your odds now?”
“I definitely defied the odds,” I said.
“And you didn’t even have to get struck by lightning first.”
“True.” I put my soda on the counter and pulled out my money.
“You’ve learned that dreaming big works.”
“Yes. Dream big.”
“You haven’t come in since you won.”
“I’ve been busy, I guess.”
“Busy spending money.” She took in my outfit, my hair, and her eyebrows rose. Then she shifted in her seat and pulled something out of her pocket, a small card of sorts. “I’ve been waiting for you since the day I saw you on the news.” She handed it to me.
“What is this?”
“My address.”
“Okay … ” An address written in perfect block letters filled the card.
“I just feel like you wouldn’t have bought that ticket if not for me.”
My mouth dropped open and I quickly shut it.
“So if you felt the need to thank me in any way, that’s for you.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure what to say. She was right, I wouldn’t have bought the ticket if not for her. Should I have felt obligated or indebted to her in some way?
“Think about it,” she said, and rang up my purchases. I handed her a five and she gave me back my change.
I walked out of the store numb. What should I do? Maxine was obviously not the owner of the store. The owner of the store had received a nice payout from my lottery win. But the clerk who talked me in to buying the ticket had received nothing. But what was I supposed to give her?
An hour later, as I tried to study, my mind wouldn’t leave the questions alone. I had no idea what to do. I thought about asking my mom for advice, but I was worried it would make her angry. But maybe there was someone else I could talk it through with.
I stood and made my way to Beau’s door. I knocked lightly. There was no answer.
“Mom!” I shouted. “Is Beau home?”
From the living room she called back, “I think so.”
I pursed my lips and opened his door. His room was nearly packed. Stacks of boxes lined his bed, but he wasn’t anywhere. I sent him a text: Where are you?
A buzz sounded in the darkness and I glanced over to his nightstand where I saw his lit phone. I sighed, then walked over to it and picked it up. The screen was locked. I set it back down and opened his nightstand, looking for a piece of paper or something I could leave him a note on.
I took out the first scrap I saw and a small piece of paper fluttered to the ground. I picked it up. It was a parking receipt for Morongo Casino dated last Sunday at 3:05 a.m. Beau had been at a casino at three o’clock in the morning?
I dropped the receipt back into his drawer. He didn’t get to trade sleeping all day for gambling. Anger coursed through my chest. I did not give him money for this.
I scribbled a note on the paper: We need to talk. Find me when you get home.
Back in my room, I lay on my bed steaming. I tried to calm myself with thoughts. Like, maybe this was his one and only time at the casino.
Or maybe that’s where he’d been all this week. I hadn’t seen him much. I sat up with a frustrated growl.
The penny Seth had found at the zoo and gifted to me sat on my desk. I picked it up and turned it over in my hand. Then before I thought too hard about it, I retrieved my phone from my pocket and sent off a text.
Tell me something happy.
Seth’s reply came quickly. The square root of 144 is 12.
How is that happy?
Facts make you happy. And numbers. You like numbers.
I smiled. You’re right. My mood was already brighter.
What’s wrong?
Ah. If I demanded someone cheer me up, they were going to want to know why.
Kind of crappy day.
Tell me.
My brother is … I stopped writing. How did I explain this all in a text?
My phone rang and I practically jumped out of my skin. But then I saw the name. Seth was calling me. We didn’t call each other. But I was very willing for this to change. I answered.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Madeleine, pronounced the French way. Did you know you could actually talk to people on cell phones?”
“Weird.”
“Right? How come we’ve never done this before?”
“I don’t know. The same reason we never see each other outside the zoo maybe?”
“That’s true. Am I interrupting your studying?”
I glanced over at my books on the desk, my watery soda next to them, condensation clinging to the cup. “No, actually.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Maybe nothing.” My brother was allowed to have a fun night out. But how many fun nights out had he had? “Maybe everything.”
Seth laughed, his warm, deep laugh that allowed me to conjure up the perfect image of his face—dark eyes, full lips, high cheekbones. “Those are two very different options.”
“I know. I guess I just mean that maybe I’m overreacting.”
“I’m listening.”
Those words made my insides warm. He was listening and I needed it. “I think my brother was depressed for a while.” That was obvious from how he’d reacted when he had to postpone school because he couldn’t afford the tuition. He’d drawn inward, shut down, became a hollow version of himself.