“Stupid piece of string…” Sarina growled under her breath, fighting with her tangled fingers.

“Want some help?” Celeste offered.

“No!” Sarina said stubbornly. “I want to get good at it! That means I have to practice.”

The three of them were hanging out in the Murphys’ backyard, sitting on the back step. They were working on their friendship bracelets so that they could hand them out at Danny’s birthday.

Amber and Celeste already had a few bracelets done but Sarina was struggling. She was still learning, and she was impatient about it, always getting angry when she made a mistake or it didn’t turn out right. Amber and Celeste tried their best to help, but Sarina was adamant about doing it herself.

Amber chuckled. “You can get practice and still have help. You don’t need to do it alone.”

“It’s fine,” Sarina insisted, expression pinched in concentration. “I want to get good. I want to get really good so I can make a bunch of bracelets for Noa.”

Celeste glanced up and met Amber’s eye. They shared a smile. Sarina’s crush on Noa was so unbearably obvious.

And Noa was so unbearably oblivious. But he was still a kid so that wasn’t a surprise.

Sarina and Noa weren’t like Jesse and Amber who’d both had crushes on each other growing up. Celeste could remember Jesse running around picking flowers for Amber constantly in preschool, gathering up dandelions and getting so sad when they closed up before he could hand them to her.

Amber and Jesse were the mom and dad when they played house. Amber would be the princess and Jesse would be the prince. They were always a matching set.

Noa and Sarina were worlds apart, by comparison.

“You should get into video games,” Amber said.

Sarina finally glanced up from her tangled attempt at a friendship bracelet.

“My parents won’t get me any,” she said. “Mom and Dad say they’re too expensive. Travis even asked and they said no. And they get him everything because he’s older and a boy.”

“Then come over and play some of ours,” Amber said. “Noa loves games. I bet he’d like to play with you.”

It finally clicked for Sarina. She perked right up. Celeste put a hand to her mouth to cover her smile.

“You really think so?” Sarina asked.

“He plays a lot of games with Rion and Peter, doesn’t he?” Celeste said. “You should ask him to play sometime.”

Sarina looked hopeful but her expression quickly soured.

“I bet he would make me play with Rion too,” Sarina said, picking at a knot. “I don’t want to play with Rion.”

“Why not?” Amber asked.

And, really, Celeste wanted to know the answer too. Sarina seemed to be jealous of Rion, which was silly. Rion was Noa’s best friend and since Sarina liked Noa, the three of them should like spending time together. But Sarina never wanted to.

Actually, in Celeste’s opinion, it seemed like Sarina was hurting her relationship with Noa because she kept pushing Rion away.

“Rion’s annoying,” Sarina complained, setting down her unfinished bracelet. “He’s always with Noa and they do everything together. Even at school! And if Rion doesn’t want to do something, Noa doesn’t either.”

“Well, they’re best friends,” Celeste said. “You spend a lot of time with Danny and Monique, don’t you? It’s the same thing.”

“No, it’s not. It’s totally different,” Sarina said. “If Danny or Monique don’t want to do something, I just do what I want on my own. And I’ll hang out with Danny or Monique. Noa and Rion are always together. They hold hands all the time too. Eric says it’s gay.”

“What?” Celeste said, blinking.

“That’s mean,” Amber was quick to say, her expression concerned. “Never say that to someone, okay Sarina? It’s bad.”

Sarina looked up at them. She was frowning, looking confused.

“Lots of people say it,” Sarina said. “People call dumb stuff ‘gay’ all the time. Doesn’t it just mean happy or something?”

“No. No, it doesn’t,” Amber said. “Not if it’s coming from Eric Yates.”

“Listen,” Celeste said gently. “It’s mean to call someone gay, okay Sarina? You shouldn’t call people names.”

“But everyone calls everything gay,” Sarina said. “What does it mean?”

“It means…” Celeste began. She hesitated. “Maybe that’s something you should ask your parents.”

“Gay means boys who like boys or girls who like girls,” Amber said.

“Huh?” Sarina said, glancing between them. “What do you mean? Like…dating?”

“Yes. Like dating,” Amber said. “Boys who date boys and girls who–”

“Ew!” Sarina said, dropping her bracelet to cover her face with her hands. “Gross!”

Amber smiled. “It’s not gross. But you shouldn’t call someone gay. It’s not nice.”

“Noa… Noa’s not…” Sarina began, peeking through her fingers. Her whole face was red. “Eric’s such a jerk! Why would he say that?!”

“Don’t worry about it, Sarina,” Celeste said.

“Yeah,” Amber said. “Just be nice to other people and don’t call them names. Don’t be mean.”

“I’d never say something like that to Noa,” Sarina said. She was still blushing as she picked up her bracelet. “I know he’d never like boys.”

“Forget about that. You know what I think?” Amber said. “You should try to make friends with Rion.”

Sarina flashed her a look. “Why would I do that?”

“Because Rion doesn’t have any other friends,” Amber said. “I think he wants to spend time with Noa because he doesn’t have anyone else to spend time with.”

“That’s true,” Celeste said. “When he’s not with Noa, he’s usually by himself.”

“That’s because he’s weird,” Sarina said.

“Weird? How’s that?” Amber said.

“He just is,” Sarina said. “Everyone says so. Eric says he’s a spoiled jerk who’s…well…gay. And he says he doesn’t share his things. And Rion has all the cool new stuff, and he hardly ever brings it to school. And if Noa isn’t there, he just sits by himself or plays on the swings at recess.”

“Maybe he’s lonely,” Amber said.

“I’m like that too sometimes,” Celeste said. “I can get shy and I don’t know what to say to other people, even if I like them.”

“No. Rion’s different,” Sarina said decisively, shaking her head. “He gets into trouble too.”

“Trouble? Rion?” Amber said with a smile. “I know I call them Double Trouble, but Noa and Rion are both really nice. They’re just enthusiastic about stuff and have a lot of energy. Kind of like Danny. Even Peter can get full of energy and turn into a maniac – just feed him some sugar.”

“Well, Rion gets into trouble at school. He forgets his homework all the time,” Sarina said. “He’s wrecked Noa’s stuff before too.”

“If he did, it was probably an accident,” Celeste said.

“And Noa wrecks his own stuff,” Amber added. “It happens a lot. Yesterday, he ripped up one of his drawings and got really upset about it. He’s…”

She stopped and then waved a hand dismissively.

“Noa has problems with stuff sometimes,” she said.

“Because his dad tried to drown him?” Sarina said with a frown.

“You shouldn’t say it like that. Noa would get upset if he heard you,” Amber said.

“But that’s what happened. Everyone says so,” Sarina said. “His dad beat his mom to death and then tried to drown Noa in the bathtub. The police came and stopped him and saved Noa.”

That was what everyone said, but only someone Sarina’s age would be so blunt about it. Celeste didn’t like thinking about it. It made her uncomfortable. Talking so plainly… She couldn’t do it.

Celeste heard about that kind of stuff on the news, but it was different when you knew someone that it really happened to. Amber told her about how it affected Noa and how he had all kinds of problems. It was probably even why he wrecked his stuff. He might seem okay most of the time, but he was struggling.

And the worst part was that Noa couldn’t remember anything right. When people talked about his dad, he always got upset. His own memories were repressed or something and he couldn’t remember his dad trying to drown him. His thoughts were all mixed up.

“Even if other people talk about it, you should really be careful about what you say,” Amber told Sarina. “Noa gets really hurt and upset.”

“I don’t get that,” Sarina said. “Why would he? His dad is evil.”

“But Noa’s dad is still his dad,” Amber said. “Just like how your dad is your dad.”

Sarina wrinkled her nose. “But it’s totally different.”

“Not for Noa,” Amber said. “Because part of him is like his dad too, you know? And even if Noa only has the good parts, it makes him feel bad if you remind him of all the bad parts. Talking bad about his dad is like talking bad about Noa. It hurts his feelings. And you don’t want to hurt Noa, right?”

Amber was talking like her mom. Celeste heard the same kinds of things from Mrs. Murphy before. She admired them both for it.

Celeste loved her mom, and they got along great. But her mom got scared and shy like she did. Mrs. Murphy and Amber were great at putting their feelings into words. It wasn’t something Celeste was used to, but she liked it. She wanted to be like that too.

Sarina stopped and thought about it for a second. “No, I don’t want to hurt Noa… I want him to be really, really happy.”

“I know it can be hard,” Amber said. “But you need to try and be careful about what you say. Words can hurt people.”

“It’s just ‘sticks and stones’ in the saying,” Sarina said.

“That saying is dumb,” Celeste said. “I never liked it.”

“Yeah,” Amber said. “Sometimes, you can ignore what people say. But sometimes you can’t. And if it hurts, then it hurts.”

“I guess… I’ll try to be more careful,” Sarina said. “I don’t want to hurt Noa.”

The back door to the house banged open. It swung too hard and fast, smacking into Amber’s arm.

“Ow! Hey!” she started, half-turning.

Noa and Rion had stumbled out of the house in a breathless rush. Noa still had his hand outstretched from having barrelled through the door. He was frozen in place.

“Oh, Noa,” Amber said, her tone changing immediately. “What are you doing?”

“We came looking for you. Supper’s ready,” Rion said.

“Okay,” Celeste said, starting to put away their bracelet-making supplies. “We’ll be there in a minute.”

“Are you okay?” Noa asked Amber in a tiny voice.

“What? Oh, it’s fine,” Amber said, rubbing her arm. Then she grinned, getting to her feet. “I thought you were Peter for a second. You surprised me.”

But when she pulled her hand back, she glanced at it. Celeste could see spots of red and taking another look at Amber’s arm, the door hand scraped her pretty badly.

“I guess I’d better wash that,” Amber said. “The door bit me.”

“I’m sorry…” Noa said.

He sounded horrified and when Celeste looked at him, she realized that Noa looked horrified too. He was wide eyed and pale as pale could be. Rion noticed too, quickly stepping forward.

“It’s my fault,” Rion said. “We raced down the hallway, and I ran into Noa on the way out. We didn’t know you were on the steps… Sorry.”

“It’s okay. It was an accident,” Amber said. “It just stings a bit–”

Noa flung himself at her, hugging her tight around the middle.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!” he said into her shirt.

“Noa, I’m fine,” Amber said, hugging Noa back. “It’s okay. It’s nothing.”

“It was an accident,” Sarina added.

“That’s right,” Amber said. “I’d never be mad at you for something that was an accident. It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean to.”

“But I hurt you,” Noa said, still clutching at her.

Amber let out a small laugh, patting him on the back. “It’s just a scrape. Relax.”

When Noa pulled back, he was all teary eyed. Celeste felt embarrassed on his behalf. She went through her things quickly and found some folded up tissues.

“Here,” she said, holding them out to Noa. He didn’t take them, using his sleeve to scrub at his face instead.

“It’s okay,” Rion added. “Amber said so. And it was my fault anyway. I’m really, really sorry…”

“Seriously, it was an accident,” Amber said. “Accidents happen. It’s not a big deal.”

“Yeah,” Sarina added. “It’s okay, Noa.”

She went over and pulled him into a hug. Noa didn’t seem to like it, squirming out of her grip only after a few seconds.

“Y-you’re sure it’s okay?” Noa said to Amber.

“It’s fine,” she said. “Come on. Let’s go inside and get cleaned up.”