Tim's mother is too young to die, but she dies anyway--in a video that goes viral. Tim scrambles to hold his life together, but the person who keeps him on his feet turns out to be his half-sister, a fiesty girl who has no idea they're related, but...
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Record-breaking June heat swelters through the foyer.
Murphy Comp isn't built for it. The big picture windows trap the heat into the school like a greenhouse. They look out onto nothing but the yellowed lawn and the heat shimmers rising off the parking lot asphalt. The ceiling fan is good for nothing but droning on and on and on...
I melt into the table in the back corner, headphones skewed so they only cover one ear. Billy Williams sits across the table, staring into an open English textbook. I don't think he's turned the page once. It's too hot to think. He tries anyway, pushing his glasses back up his nose.
A sharp, chiptone song breaks the heavy white noise, too loud and too perky. I pat my pocket for my phone, but it's Billy who's ringing.
"Hello?" Billy eyes me as he answers his phone. "Yeah, of course. Tim's right here."
It's the look in his eye that makes me push my headphones down around my neck, finding pause on my iPod.
"It's your mom." He holds out his phone, shaking his head.
"My phone is dead, okay? Don't look at me like that." I take the phone from him, but it doesn't wipe the harsh, harsh judgement off his face.
"Hello?" I get up from the table, putting as much space between me and the overstuffed school foyer as possible.
"Forget your phone again?" Mom teases. I wait for a joke about putting Billy on speed dial, or getting him on a family plan, but it doesn't come.
"I have it this time, just forgot to charge it." The hall is mostly empty over lunch. Everybody is jammed into the foyer where there's at least the ceiling fan and doors propped open.
It suits me fine, leaving me to lean against a bank of lockers. I press the phone hard against my ear.
"So..." There's a reason she called.
"Something came up. I'm going to be home late. Leftovers are in the fridge," Mom says. That's her mom tagline. Other kids get didyou get all your homework done? or you're not going anywhere until this room is clean. I get an empty house and cold slices of pizza.
