The circle getting a little more used to her presence, none of them had any real complaints about Millie joining Jace and the others at the big table. Robby also happened to be there, his eyes glued to a book about California’s state parks.

           “Hey, Jace,” Wessy greeted him. “And… Millie, again. Rain’s crazy, huh?”

           “It’s annoying. I really wanted to see what Zach would do with The Dump today,” Jared said, peeking over Jace’s shoulder and back to the computer lab window.

           Wessy and Jace also glanced over, seeing Zach at one of the computers and looking pretty intense about something. But his demeanor changed instantly and he became calm once Mr. Huggins walked by to check what he had on his screen.

           “Maybe he’s having a serious Dump planning session in there,” Wessy suggested.

           “Oh, real nice combination of words there, Wes,” Jared replied with a snort.

           Millie interjected, “He’s not. I checked. He’s playing a racing game and hiding the window every time Huggins comes by. I get the feeling he’s been doing that for years.”

           “Right, just like you’ve been spying on everyone for years,” Sadie remarked.

           “C’mon, Sadie. How am I supposed to ‘get better’ if you keep bringing that up?”

           “Why’d Zach’s class get the computer lab?” Arthur bemoaned. “Kinda not fair.”

           Wessy took a lazy posture in his chair and breathed in. “I dunno, I kind of like it in here. The… booky smell is nice. Maybe I should’ve spent more time in the library.”

           “Not too late to start,” Colin replied, as Tammy walked by with three books under her arm. He flipped a page of a science magazine, adding, “Place is a sanctuary from the fast and loud world of recess and the school halls.”

           “You’re an even bigger nerd than me, Colin,” Ash said jokingly.

           He nudged his glasses and replied with a sigh, “Nothing wrong with slowing down sometimes. The library actually has a lot of pretty cool stuff to read.”

           Before he could cite any examples, Willa came over to the table. She had gone back to her usual overly-needy self, the shadow version Jace had last seen having been banished. She was smiling, but now that he knew who she had the potential to become, Jace felt a little bad for her and wondered if he’d get a chance to give her some advice.

           But she didn’t need it today, as was made clear when she spoke to the table. “Hey guys! I’m doing a little personality experiment with my classmates. Wanna participate?”

           “Nope,” Wessy, Jared, and Arthur all said at the same time.

           “It’s real easy.” She opened and held up a composition book like she had taken a page out of Millie’s routine. “For now, I’m just getting down everyone’s fav Nick show.”

           “Nickelodeon shows?” Wessy perked up ever so slightly. “Um, that might not be so bad. Just don’t sell our answers to Millie or something, okay?”

           Millie crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “I’m right here…”

           “Clarissa Explains it All,” Sadie was the first to answer, and did so right away.

           Willa nodded, said a couple “uh-huh”s, and waited for the next response.

           Jared scoffed at the whole idea, but still replied with, “Ren & Stimpy.”

           “Um, Rocko’s Modern Life,” Colin said. “Filbert is kinda my turtle spirit animal.”

           “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” was Arthur’s answer. “Nothing beats it on a late Saturday night. Ash likes her scary stories, too. Don’t let her tell you otherwise.”

           Ash shrugged and replied, “Sure, but I can never get enough of Double Dare’s obstacle course. But, if game shows don’t count, I like the weirdness of Pete and Pete.”

           “Secret World of Alex Mack,” Millie said after taking a moment to think about it.

           “Um, Rugrats,” Wessy answered. “It just has so many memorable episodes.”

           “I think I’m with Wes,” Jace followed up.

           Feeling Willa’s stare on him, Robby looked up from his book and fulfilled her wish, saying, “Space Cases has promise, but Doug was always my go-to Nick show.”

           Willa wrote that down, but his was the only response that earned curious looks from all the others. Robby seemed suddenly put on the spot and looked right back.

           “What?” he exclaimed. “What’s wrong with Doug?”

           Jared replied, “I mean, it’s okay, but I didn’t know it could be someone’s favorite.”

           “What’re you talking about? He works out all his problems with his imagination.”

           Wessy then proceeded to mildly eviscerate the kid’s favorite show. “He imagines things as much worse than they actually are, some of the characters look pretty strange, and I could never tell if he was supposed to be in elementary or middle school.”

           Robby sunk down into his chair and breathed out, “But… he’s a good guy.”

           Sadie then spoke up, “Hey, Doug isn’t bad. It’s like a warm blanket of a show. Even if his obsession with Patty is a little weird, and Judy is too much of a super-typical always-annoyed teenage sister… And it has blue, orange, green, and… purple people.”

           Robby turned red in the face as Willa smiled, jotted it down, and said, “Thanks!”

           “Doug is a good show…” Robby could be heard muttering.

           Just as Willa left, another girl came up to the table, who had been going around chatting with the kids from Ms. Porter’s class. Jace recognized her from recess—she had thin-rimmed glasses, braided hair kept together with two blue bows, and an eternally optimistic aura—but he didn’t know her name; it wasn’t like he paid much attention to the kids outside his class while at school. He was pretty sure she was in Zach’s, though.

           “Hello,” she said and cleared her throat like she was about to make a sales pitch. “I was just wondering if any of you will be going to Camp Morning Dew this year. Sign-ups are already open, and the camp is running for everyone between eight and eleven years old, during the middle two weeks of June. Can I count on some of you coming?”

           “What are you trying to push on us, Marianne?” Jared said with a grunt.

           “Oh, not much. It’s just, there’s a friendly little rivalry between Sherman Miller and Desert Tree Elementary there, and we didn’t quite win last year, so I’m trying to gather up the best our school has to offer. Zachary speaks highly of you all, so I was hoping…”

           “I know Felicity goes there,” Sadie replied. “And me and Colin have been going the last two years, and I think we both plan to again.” She then looked around at the other faces at the table, a few looking uninterested. “Dunno about them, though.”

           “Why should we waste our summer at Camp Mountain Dew?” Jared laughed.

           Marianne frowned and nudged her glasses. “It is not called that, and, frankly, that is a very old and tired joke. I promise, it is a very fulfilling and enriching camp program.”

           “I already signed up,” Robby said quietly, his eyes still on his book.

           “Oh, good! Can I count on anyone else? Anyone…? Hm, well, I would love it if you changed your minds. The more fifth-graders we have, the better. Thank you!”

           Jace had kept quiet, simply out of a desire to not have to speak to the young lady.

           “Little Miss Perfect just wants to win a bunch of dumb games,” Jared said. “Like I’d be caught dead tugging a rope in the sun, or swimming in an infested waterhole.”

           “I’m with Jared on this one,” Wessy added. “Two weeks of no television or video games? Sleeping in some big cabin with a bunch of snore-filled bunk beds? Nope!”

           “Actually, I saw some kids playing Game Boys last year…” Colin replied.

           Arthur spoke up, “I didn’t want to say anything, but our Dad already signed us up, too. From what I’ve read, it’s a pretty good summer camp. I dunno. Might be fun.”

           “Not my idea of it,” Millie said. “Even if summers in The Flamingo are very boring… I couldn’t imagine doing nature walks, or… Blech… Bonding with camp kids.”

           “You three don’t even want to give it a shot?” Sadie grumbled and looked rather disappointed. “C’mon, it might be our last chance to hang out together before middle school—and we’d get to be the oldest kids at camp, too. Jason, you’d try it, right?”

           “I, uh…” Jace sighed, having no real want to attend, either, but still trusting in Warren’s advice. “Y-yeah, I’m planning on going, too… It sounds really… neat.”

           Millie gave him a rather surprised look as a reaction, and then seemed to be a bit contemplative herself. Jace actually already knew Wessy would end up going—his uncle had told him as much last night—but he wondered if it might be worth it to try and convince him a little sooner. Then he suddenly recollected an old book that he had read when he was a fourth-grader. Right now, it would be a much newer title.

           “Be right back,” Jace said and got up. “I’m going to go look for something.”

           The table discussion moved to past summer camp experiences, while Jace tried to remember the book’s name and searched the stacks. He found himself going further and further back, towards the library’s rear corner where students’ voices faded away. The only sound and movement that deep in came from the librarian he passed, putting books back. He thought he was getting close to his title, when he heard… sniffling.

           Deciding to investigate, he went towards whomever was upset and peeked around the corner of a stack. He saw her sitting in the corner, scrunched on the floor. It was the last person he’d expect to see crying and staring at a plush penguin in her hands.

           In his surprise of seeing big, tough club bouncer Delilah, he lingered a moment too long, and her eyes darted upward. He ducked back into cover, but it was too late.

           “You might as well come out,” she said, feigning aggression. “Run away, and I’ll just have to tackle you and smash books on your head until you forget what you saw.”

           Jace nervously exhaled and stepped into the light, giving her an unstable grin.

           “Oh, it’s just you,” Delilah said, and went back to sitting on the library’s gray carpet. “Eh… You’re okay, Jason. You don’t gossip. Would still be nice if you never brought this up, ever. The… crying… And the fact that I collect Beanie Babies.”

           “I, um, didn’t know you liked them.” He came closer, checking the corridors for any other kids that might’ve been spying. “Do you bring them to school a lot?”

           “One a day. But they usually don’t leave my backpack. This one is called Waddle. She’s my favorite. They give me my confidence, or, just, you know… a reliable friend.”

           “It’s all good. I don’t have any—Beanies, I mean—but I like to check ‘em out in stores. You okay, though? You can tell me. By now, I’m kinda known for…”

           “Helping your classmates, yeah. It’s so nice that it’s almost annoying. But I don’t think there’s much you can do for me. How do you fix having two older brothers?”

           “Is that what’s eating at you? You don’t get along with them? How old?”

           “Fourteen and fifteen. They’re like a pair of big, dumb twins. The teasing happens every day. And every other day? Some new form of torment. I just don’t get what their problem is. Our parents won’t do anything about it because they otherwise don’t actually get in trouble that much, or get caught in the act. But they’re total jerks.”

           “Yeah, so, home-life stuff is a little tougher… But I’ve had bullies before. You just gotta assert yourself, even if it means fighting back.”

           “Jason, I’ve seen that episode of every show. I do ‘assert’ and I do fight back.”

           “W-well, then try… telling them honestly how you feel, and that you aren’t going to take it anymore, and if they keep at it, you’ll find a way to make their lives harder.”

           “I mean, I guess if I was the one that started that kind of talk, it might make a difference? It would take them off guard, right? If I invaded their comfort zone instead of waiting to be the victim, when they’re already fired up and stuff?”

           Jace shrugged. “Uh, sure. It’s worth a try.”

           “Is that how you got your bullies off your back?”

           They weren’t actually bullies—just a few kids that were making fun of his freak-outs towards the end of fifth grade more often than others did. Even so…

           “Um, I didn’t actually work up the guts to do it,” Jace said with a nervous laugh and rubbed his shoulder. “But I bet you could. You can be tough and scary, D’.”

           “Yeah. You’re right. I’ve even managed to kick Hutch out of The Dump before, when he was annoying everyone, and he can be intimidating. Thanks, Jace. Just don’t let this get out, or he’ll definitely try to take my place. And I have a reputation to uphold.”

           Jace gave her a smile, and hoped he had scored another win just by saying the right combination of words. As he headed back to others, he saw the book he was looking for at the end of the shelf, sticking out like a sore thumb.