Do you work at the Dar-ee Keen together, too? And the fair?

Another flash of heat lightning tore across the sky.

It isn't like that, L.

Liv handed me the cotton candy and smiled at Lena, holding out her hand.

A blond? Lena looked at me. Seriously?

"Lena, right? I'm Liv."

Ah, the accent. That explains everything.

"Hi, Liv. " Lena pronounced her name like it was an inside joke between us. She didn't touch Liv's hand.

If Liv noticed the slight, she ignored it, letting her hand drop. "Final y! I've been trying to get Ethan to introduce us properly, since it seems he and I are chained together for the summer."

Clearly.

Lena wouldn't look at me, and Liv wouldn't stop looking at her.

"Liv, this real y isn't a good --" I couldn't stop it. They were two trains col iding in painful y slow motion.

"Don't be sil y," Lena interrupted, looking at Liv careful y, as if she was the Sybil in her family and she could read Liv's face. "So nice to meet you."

He's all yours. Take the whole town while you're at it.

It took Liv about two seconds to realize she'd walked into something, but she tried to fil the silence al the same. "Ethan and I talk about you al the time. He says you play the viola."

Lena stiffened.

Ethan and I. There was nothing mean about the way Liv said it, but the words themselves were enough. I knew what they meant to Lena. Ethan and the Mortal girl, the girl who was everything Lena couldn't be.

"I've gotta go." Lena turned around before I could catch her arm.

Lena --

Ridley was right. It was only a matter of time before another new girl came to town.

I wondered what else Ridley had been tel ing her.

What are you talking about? We're just friends, L.

We were just friends once, too.

Lena took off, pushing her way through the sweaty crowd, causing a chain reaction of chaos as she went. Her ripple effect seemed endless. I couldn't see it perfectly, but somewhere between us a clown fumbled as the bal oon character in his hands popped, a child cried as a snow cone dropped, and a woman screamed as a popcorn machine began to smoke and catch fire. Even in the slippery blur of heat and arms and noise, Lena affected everything in her wake, a pul as powerful as the moon to the tides, or the planets to the sun. I was caught in her orbit, even as she pul ed away from mine.

I took a step, and Liv put her hand on my arm. Her eyes narrowed as if she was analyzing the situation, or registering it for the first time. "I'm sorry, Ethan. I didn't mean to interrupt. I mean, if I was interrupting, you know. Something." I knew she wanted me to tel her what happened without having to ask. I didn't say anything, which I guess was my answer.

The thing is, I didn't take another step. I let Lena go.

Link walked toward us, fighting his way through the crowd, carrying three Cokes and his own cotton candy. "Man, the line at the drink booth is brutal." Link handed Liv a Coke. "What'd I miss? Was that Lena?"

"She left," Liv said quickly, as if things were that simple.

I wished they were.

"Whatever. Forget the Ferris Wheel. We'd better get over to the main tent. They're gonna announce the winners a the pie-bakin' contest any minute, and Amma wil tan your hide if you aren't there to watch her moment a glory."

"Apple pie?" Liv brightened.

"Yep. And you eat it wearin' Levi's, with a napkin tucked into your shirt up here. Drinkin' a Coke and drivin' a Chevy, while singing 'American Pie.' " I listened to Link ramble and Liv's easy laugh as they walked ahead of me. They didn't have nightmares. They weren't haunted. They weren't even worried.

Link was right. We couldn't miss Amma's moment of glory. I sure wasn't winning any ribbons today. The truth was, I didn't need to bring the mal et down on the old, rigged carnival scale to know what it would say. Link might be CHICKEN

LITTLE, but I felt lower than A REAL WUSS. I could pound away al I wanted, but the answer would always be the same. No matter what I did lately, I was caught somewhere between LOSER and ZERO, and it was starting to feel like Lena was holding the hammer. I final y understood why Link wrote al those songs about getting dumped.

6.15

Tunnel of Love

If it gets any hotter in here, people are goin' to start droppin' like flies. Flies are gonna start droppin' like flies." Link wiped his sweaty forehead with his sweaty hand, which sprayed liquid Link on those of us lucky to be standing next to him.

"Thanks for that." Liv wiped her face with one hand and pul ed her damp shirt away from her body with the other. She looked miserable. The Southern Crusty tent was packed, and the finalists were already standing on the makeshift wooden stage. I tried to see over the row of enormous women in front of us, but it was like standing in the Jackson cafeteria line on cookie day.

"I can barely see the stage." Liv stood on her toes. "Is something supposed to be happening? Did we miss it?"

"Hold on." Link tried to edge between the smal er of the two enormous women in front of us. "Yeah, we can't get any closer. I give up."

"There's Amma." I pointed. "She's won first place almost every year."

"Amma Treadeau," Liv said.

"That's right. How did you know?"

"Professor Ashcroft must have mentioned her."

Carlton Eaton's voice blared over the loudspeaker as he fussed with the portable mic. He always announced the winners because the only thing he loved more than opening everyone's mail was the spotlight. "If y'al wil bear with me, folks, we got some technical difficulties ... hold on now ... can someone cal Red? How am I supposed to know how to fix a darn microphone? Shoot, it's hotter than Hades in here." He mopped his forehead with his handkerchief. Carlton Eaton never managed to remember when the microphone was on.