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tempted.”
    â€œYeah, but I trust you.” And I did. It was true. I trusted Sal 100 percent. Which was funny when I thought about it. If you asked me who’s your best friend, it was a no-brainer. I’d say Vin. Vin and I went all the way back to kindergarten. Only now, the way things were turning out, I wasn’t so sure. But when I had changed locks, Vin had pestered me for the combination,
in case of emergency
, he said. And the next thing I knew, I was in class without a history book. Sal, though? Sal didn’t even ask for the combination. I looked at his back, yanked on the lock until it gave, and thought,
Maybe Sal is my best friend now. Maybe things have shifted that much
.
    â€œSo, did you bring it?” Sal said as he turned around.
    Jeez. “No, I forgot.”
    â€œBut you said you’d bring it.” Sal was looking better now. He seemed a little more back to normal, and not just because his eyes weren’t all watery and bloodshot. He seemed back to normal because he was giving me a hard time for not bringing the money to buy a ticket to the school dance.
    â€œI forgot. I’ll bring it tomorrow,” I said.
    â€œWhat if they sell out?”
    There was a limit to how many kids could attend school dances. You had to buy a ticket, and when the tickets were all gone, you were out of luck.
    â€œIt’s
Monday
,” I said. The dance wasn’t until Friday.
    â€œTickets sold out on Monday for the last dance,” Sal said. The last dance had had an actual band instead of recorded music. I figured maybe that was why it had sold out so fast.
    â€œIt’ll be fine,” I said. “I’ll bring it tomorrow for sure.”
    â€œNow,” Sal said. “You gotta get the money now.”
    â€œBut I don’t have it.” Jeez, hadn’t I just said that? For some reason that I didn’t understand, Sal was desperate to go to this dance. He was just as desperate to drag me along with him. It had to be a girl. A girl he had it bad for but hadn’t told me about yet. I tried to think of who it could be, but drew a blank.
    â€œFine,” I said. “This is such a big deal to you,
you
lend me ten bucks?”
    â€œI don’t have that much money,” he said.
    So what was I supposed to do? If I could figure out how to pluck ten dollars out of thin air whenever I needed it, well, life would be a whole lot different, right?
    â€œAsk Riel,” Sal said.
    I shook my head. Riel was funny about money—especially about me asking for money when that was the whole point of me having a job. But it wasn’t like I’d be asking him to
give
me money. It was only a loan, ten bucks. I could pay him back when I got home. And the money wasn’t for anything Riel would disapprove of. It was for a school dance. School dances contribute to school spirit. School spirit is a good thing. Riel is as big on school spirit as he is on school sports.
    â€œOkay,” I said.
    â€œAsk him
now
.”
    â€œO-kay,” I said.
    I tried the staff lounge first. I knocked on the door and asked politely when—who else?—Ms. Stephenson answered. It just had to be Ms. Stephenson. It couldn’t have been Mr. Korchak, my music teacher, who actually seemed to like me. Ms. Stephenson seemed only too happy to tell me that Riel wasn’t there.
    I tried Riel’s classroom, but he wasn’t there either, and the room was locked. I could have quit then. I’d tried, right? But Sal was going to pop an artery if I didn’t produce ten bucks and buy a dance ticket by the end of the day.
    Maybe Riel was outside. Riel was also very big on outside.
    But, no, he wasn’t there either.
    Now I was really baffled. He had to be somewhere. One thing about Riel, he was 100 percent responsible. When he was supposed to be at school, he was at school. But where at school?
    I tried the gym. Then the office. I peeked through the window in the door to