When I roll over, I find Bex is gone. I snatch my phone and find out why. TAMMY CALLED. BEGGED ME 2 COME HOME. RUSSELL IS STILL IN JAIL. SAYS THINGS WILL B DIFFERENT. GOTTA LET HER TRY. SEE U AT THE RIOT. I leap out of bed, hoping my father can rush over now and bring her back, but the cops are already in our living room, waiting for me to get ready. “I’ll go by once we’ve dropped you off,” my father promises. By six fifteen we’re out on the streets, taking a completely different route from yesterday. Mrs. Novakova didn’t catch us, and neither did the street gang from yesterday, so any doubt I had that she was the one who called them is now gone. The walk is calm and uneventful until we turn the corner near the school. There stand a thousand people—men, women, children, the elderly—arm in arm, and every one of them is wearing a Niner T-shirt.
