We were standing on the Braggs’ front lawn. As it turned out, Mom had given me and Callie a ride, and Nia had hopped out of her parents’ car less than a minute after my family’s Subaru pulled away. In spite of my happiness at being reunited with Callie and Nia, standing there, the brightly lit windows of the house’s enormous interior casting shadows on the perfectly cropped grass, I couldn’t help being more than a little overwhelmed by our task. “The only question is how we’re going to get past Heidi in the first place. Once that’s accomplished, we’re golden.” Nia’s voice was so confident I couldn’t believe we had the same agenda. It was like I was planning on breaking into Fort Knox and she was hoping to get herself a Limonata, which I happened to remember was her favorite drink. No common soda for Nia. “Oh, don’t worry about that; Heidi’s going to be late,” Callie said casually. I was totally confused by that. “How can she be late? The party’s at her house.”
