I couldn’t sleep. Instead, I paced the floor of my room, trying to think of what I could say to get out of this appointment tomorrow.

Not only that, I had to convince them to let me be out late. If this place was three hours away, it might be well after midnight before we got home.

A little over a year ago, that would have been no problem on a weekend, but now…

Now, everything was different.

Someone knocked on my door, and I glanced at the clock by my bed. It was eleven-fifteen. Too late for my parents to still be up.

“Come in,” I said, and Kimi poked her head around the door.

“What in the world are you doing in here?” she asked.

I shrugged. “Nothing, why?”

“Because I can hear you stomping across the floor,” she said. “Back and forth, back and forth. Then about every three minutes, you let out a huge sigh. What’s bothering you?”

She grabbed a pillow and plopped down on my bed.

“And don’t say you can’t tell me,” she said. “That’s getting old.”

I rolled my eyes. She didn’t understand how hard this was for me, but I had to face the facts. I needed her sneaky brain right now.

I sat down on the edge of the bed, facing her.

“You have to promise not to tell Mom and Dad,” I said.

“Seriously?” she asked, sitting up. “You don’t even have to say that anymore. I’m not going to tell. Now, spill it.”

I took a deep breath. I couldn’t tell her everything, but I could give her the basic details.

“So, you know how I’m supposed to have that appointment with Dr. Millner tomorrow afternoon?”

She nodded. “The one that is so important to Mom and Dad?”

I groaned. “I need to get out of it.”

Her eyes widened. “Wow. No wonder you’ve been pacing a rut in your carpet,” she said. “Why?”

“Because Jordan wants to take me somewhere,” I said, hoping she wouldn’t ask me to elaborate.

“I knew it,” she shouted, throwing the pillow into the air. “You are dating the hot new guy.”

“Shhhh,” I warned, glancing at the door. “Don’t wake them up.”

She laid back down. “They’ll sleep through anything,” she said. “So, tell me where he’s taking you. I want all the details.”

“I don’t exactly know,” I said, which wasn’t really a lie. “He said it’s three hours from here, though, and that I have to see it on the night of the full moon. It’s a surprise, but I really want to be there.”

“Sounds very romantic,” she said, her eyes gleaming. “I just knew there was something going on between you two. The air was literally crackling.”

“It was?” My cheeks grew warm again, and I tried to hide my smile.

“Crackling,” she said. “There was never this much excitement between you and Troy.”

She stuck out her tongue and shook her head.

“Okay, so how do I convince them to let me go?” I asked.

“Have you thought about just telling them you have a date?”

“Like that’s going to work?” I asked. “Even if they agree to let me stay out late, they’ll still expect me to go to the appointment first. Jordan said we have to leave right after school if we want to get there on time.”

“Sounds very mysterious,” Kimi said. “I like him.”

“I do, too.” It felt good to admit it out loud. “But if I tell them I’m going out with a new guy in town, you know they’re going to want to know everything about him and have him come inside and say hello. I don’t want to put him through that.”

I sighed and fell onto the bed.

“This is impossible,” I said.

Kimi got quiet for a few minutes. She lay her head against the pillow, thinking. I prayed for her to come up with something, because my brain hurt from trying to figure it out. I was exhausted.

“Ooh, I’ve got it,” she said, sitting up on her knees. “Don’t you have a big physics project due on Monday?”

“Yes, but how does that help me?” I asked.

“You could tell Mom and Dad that you’ve fallen behind on the project, and you need to spend the night with Nicole to get it done on time,” she said. “Tell them that it’s going to take you hours. You could say that she’s going to help you catch up on all of your homework and projects this weekend. Pull out all the stops. Tell them you’ve just been stressed by the work and that getting caught up is more important right now than a doctor’s appointment.”

Hmm. She was onto something here. They couldn’t argue with schoolwork.

“Won’t she just say that I can go to Nicole’s after the appointment?”

Kimi shrugged. “Just tell her that you need all the daylight hours you can for the experiments you have to do.”

I chewed on my lower lip. This could work.

Of course, I would have to get Nicole on board, too. I had already promised her that I’d be there on Saturday afternoon to work on the project, but Mom was sure to call to check up on me if I was gone all night.

“Wait, if I say I’m spending the night with a friend, where will I actually spend the night?” I asked. “I can’t very well show up on Nicole’s doorstep at midnight.”

Kimi laughed. “Just stay with Jordan,” she said. “He said he’s living with his ailing grandmother. I doubt she’d even notice. You guys could have the whole night together.”

“You are a sneaky one, aren’t you?” I said. The idea of spending the night with Jordan created a flurry of butterflies in my stomach. Would he be okay with that? Would he even have room for me?

I hadn’t asked him where he lived or if the story about his grandmother was true, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was here alone.

I took a deep breath. “Okay, evil mastermind. It’s time to get some sleep,” I said.

She wiggled her eyebrows. “Yeah, it’s going to be a long night for you tomorrow,” she said.

“Let’s just hope Mom and Dad agree with it,” I said.

* * *

The next morning, I woke up with those same butterflies flying around in my stomach.

A lot depended on things falling into place before school let out today. I’d given it some thought before I fell asleep last night and decided that the best way to start was to call Dr. Millner and get her on board with the whole idea.

I fished her business card out of my nightstand and dialed her number.

She answered on the second ring. “Hello?”

“Uh, hi, Dr. Millner?” I asked. God, I was nervous.

“Marayah, is that you?”

“Yes,” I said. “I wanted to talk to you about something, if you have a second.”

“Of course,” she said. “But aren’t you scheduled to come in this afternoon?”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I have this huge project due in one of my classes on Monday and my friend wants me to come over to spend the night tonight so we can work on it,” I said. “She’s my partner on the project, and I’ve fallen way behind because, well, Mom has been really strict and won’t let me stay out after school. It’s been hard to find the time to get it done.”

“I can see how that would be an issue,” she said. “Can’t you work on it this weekend?”

“It’s a really big project and my friend’s family is going out of town Saturday evening, so we really need to get started on it right away if we’re going to do a good job on it.” I couldn’t believe how easily the lies rolled off my tongue. “Do you think you could talk to my mom about it? I really have been doing well, but the biggest stress for me right now is falling behind on my school work. I can come in next Friday to see you, instead, if you want.”

“It concerns me that you felt more comfortable coming to me directly instead of talking to your parents about this first,” she said.

I sighed. “You don’t understand what it’s been like for me,” I said. “They aren’t giving me any freedom at all. I have to come home right after school, I can’t see any of my friends. I really do want things to get back to some kind of normal, but how can I do that when I am barely allowed to leave the house, even for school projects?”

Dr. Millner was quiet on the other end. I hoped that meant she was at least considering letting me off the hook for this appointment.

“Let me call your mom and talk to her about this,” she said. “I did think it was strange that she was calling me to request an appointment so soon. She sounded very concerned about your behavior.”

“I understand that she’s just worried about me, but I really am doing fine,” I said. “Once I catch up on my homework, I’ll feel a lot better. If you could just talk to her and get her to agree to this, I’ll gladly come in and see you once this project is finished.”

“I don’t usually like to postpone appointments for patients who are newly released, but since your official appointment wasn’t scheduled for two more weeks, I think I can make an exception this one time,” she said. “Is your mother home? May I speak with her?”

“Sure,” I said, feeling a bit sick at the thought. “Hold on, let me go downstairs and see if she’s in the kitchen.”

I ran down the stairs, my heart pumping hard as I handed Mom the phone.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“Dr. Millner wants to talk to you,” I said.

Mom cleaned off her hands and took the phone, a concerned look on her face. “Hello?”

She listened, and I watched her every expression, trying to read the conversation and her reaction to it. Finally, she nodded.

“Okay, well I assure you I had no idea this project was so important.” She glanced at me and turned her body away, as if I somehow wouldn’t be able to hear her when she was still three feet away from me. “Yes, I know that we discussed giving her more freedom, but you have to see this from my perspective…. Uh-huh.... But do you really think that’s the right approach?”

I shifted my weight nervously.

“If you really think that’s for the best,” she said with a sigh. “When can we reschedule?”

I nearly jumped up and down. She was going to let me go. I couldn’t believe it.

“Thank you, Susannah,” Mom said. “Yes, we’ll see you then.”

She hung up and handed me the phone, her lips pursed and one hand on her hip.

“Well, that was incredibly embarrassing,” she said. “What were you thinking going behind my back to tell your doctor about this important project when you’ve barely mentioned it to me? I thought we had already agreed that you would go to Nicole’s tomorrow afternoon?”

“I’ve been telling you all week how important this project is,” I said. “And a couple of hours tomorrow afternoon won’t be enough time. I knew that if I asked you about it, you would just say no.”

“Which is my right,” she said. “I am your mother, and if I think it’s best for you to stay home right now, that’s the way it’s going to be.”

My dad walked into the kitchen, an eyebrow raised. “What’s going on?”

Mom explained the phone call with Dr. Millner, and my father looked from Mom to me and back again.

“I don’t see what the problem is,” he said. “Marayah’s grades this year are extremely important if she wants to get into a good school. If this project is that important, she should be allowed to go to her friend’s to work on it.”

Mom clasped her hands and lifted her chin. “I see everyone has decided to gang up on me this morning,” she said. “I don’t see why it’s necessary for her to spend the night away from home, but since I’m out-numbered in this, I guess it’s okay. But you are to go straight to Nicole’s after you drop your sister off. And I want you to call me when you get there.”

“I will,” I said, smiling and kissing her cheek. “I’ll call you when I get there, and I’ll call you in the morning, but I’m begging you please not to call over to her house to check on me like I was still eight years old. It’s humiliating.”

My father chuckled, and it was nice to see him smile. It was such a rare thing for him these days.

“I have to go get dressed for school,” I said. “Thank you again. I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.”

I practically skipped out of the kitchen and headed for my sister’s room to tell her that she was indeed an evil genius.