They share the same lunch period, but Jacy often skips it in favor of slipping out of school for a while. Of course, that's against the rules, but he doesn't seem to care.

"Sometimes, I just need to get outdoors and breathe,"he told Calla when she asked him why he's willing to risk getting caught and being a.s.signed to in- school detention . . . not that he ever has been.

Yesterday, she skipped with him after finding a note stuck in the vents at the top of her locker door: Meet me for lunch.

She didn't have to ask where.

He'd brought them a couple of peanut b.u.t.ter sandwiches. They ate them sitting on a fallen log in the overgrown thicket behind the school. Jacy fed most of his to a chipmunk that came over and actually ate out of his hand.

"You're like Snow White or something,"Calla had told him with a grin.

"Snow White?"He'd raised a dark eyebrow at her. "Snow White?"

"You know, she was always surrounded by forest creatures."

"So was Tarzan. And he was a lot more manly than Snow White,"Jacy had said, and they laughed.

Jacy has always seemed most comfortable in the great outdoors, moving through the woods as easily as most people walk through their own living room.

But when he's sitting across the aisle from Calla in math cla.s.s, he always seems restless in his seat, and sometimes she catches him staring longingly out the window.

Now, as she pays the cashier and carries her tray toward her usual table, she concludes that he's not in the cafeteria today. Why would he be?

Indian summer has definitely settled over Lily Dale.

Again this morning, Calla awoke to find the sun shining; again, she left her coat behind.

And again, her father was lounging on the Taggarts' front porch with a cup of coffee- and Ramona- when she headed off to school.

It was nice to see him there . . . sort of.

But Calla is starting to wonder if she'd rather he stayed at Odelia's, despite the close quarters. It's kind of strange to have him around . . . but not around.

This morning when she and Evangeline were walking to school together, Calla almost asked her friend again what she thought about all of this.

But Evangeline had a lot to say.

Most of it about Russell Lancione.

They'd talked on the phone for over an hour last night while she was supposed to be working on her project- which she wound up throwing together at the last minute, before her aunt got home. He'd asked her to study together again tonight, and Evangeline was starting to like him like him.

Which was great for her, and great for Russell, and great for Calla, too- not just because she wants her friend to be happy, but because it takes some of the pressure off her dating Jacy.

Still, Evangeline in love-or, okay, just in like-like-is even more talkative than the usual Evangeline. Who could be pretty talkative.

Calla has barely gotten a word in edgewise since they made up.

That's probably a good thing, because what if Calla were to mention her mother's secret past to Evangeline and Evangeline slipped and told her aunt and her aunt went and told Dad, or he even just happened to overhear?

That would not be good.

So far, the only ones who know there even was a baby are Jacy and Odelia. And Jacy's definitely not talkative under any circ.u.mstances, so it's safe with him.

Right, so it's better this way-Evangeline wrapped up in Russell, and not asking too many questions about what happened in Florida. All she knows so far is that a woman broke into the Delaneys' house there and attacked Calla.

That's more than her friends Willow York and Sarita Abernathie know .

But now, when she deposits her lunch tray on their usual table and starts to sit down, she can't help but notice that they suddenly stop talking.

Exactly the way people do when the person they're talking about suddenly appears.

Back when she first met beautiful, brainy Willow- who happens to be a recent ex-girlfriend of Blue Slayton- Calla mistook her reserved nature for standoffishness. Then Mr. Bombeck a.s.signed her as Calla's math study partner, and she found an unexpected friend in Willow- and her lovable, ailing mom, Althea.

"Hi, Calla,"Sarita says as she sits down.

Willow says nothing at all. Which is unusual.

"What's up?"Calla unwraps her fork, trying to sound casual, wondering if Willow has suddenly had a change of heart about Blue or something.

That would be fine with Calla. Whatever was going on between her and Blue came to an end the night before homecoming, when Jacy kissed her for the first time.

Or maybe it's not about Blue.

Maybe they, too, have heard about the Florida detectives who came to see Patsy Metcalf yesterday.

"Nothing's up, just . . ."Sarita flashes a mouthful of metal in a smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes. "You know . The usual stuff. Right, Willow?"

She shoots a look at Willow, who, Calla notices, seems awfully interested in removing the label from her water bottle. "Right."Her straight dark hair falls across her face like a curtain.

"Like what stuff?"

"You know . . . school stuff."Sarita gives Calla such an exaggerated shrug that the long earrings dangling beneath her sleek short haircut come to rest horizontally on her shoulders.

"What kind of school stuff?"

"For one thing, the board of education is trying to take away our right to have bake- sale fundraisers. Did you hear?"

"No."And Calla's pretty sure that that's not what Sarita and Willow were just talking about.

"Well, it's true. I'm going to start a pet.i.tion. But not today, because I have a major social studies test tomorrow afternoon and my parents will kill me if I don't get at least an A."

"At least?"

"You know my parents."

Yeah. Calla does know Sarita's parents. They head a family of overachievers, albeit "mere mortals,"who live outside Lily Dale's gates. Sarita's brother is in medical school, her sister is a soph.o.m.ore at Yale, and Sarita is h.e.l.l-bent on going Ivy, too.

"That reminds me,"Calla says. "Did either of you finish making your lists of reach schools, target schools, and safety schools for Mrs. Erskine? Because I have to meet with her tomorrow."

"I did that last week,"Sarita says, "but right now I feel like my safety schools are reach schools unless I get my act together."

"Yeah . . . same here,"Calla says.

Willow looks up at last. She's as model- gorgeous as ever, but Calla is startled to see that her dark eyes are rimmed with red, as if she's been crying. "Calla, did your dad freak about your math grade?"

"Not really. He pretty much just said I need to work harder on it."

"That's it?"Willow asks. "You thought he was going to make a big deal about it."

"I know . Luckily he didn't."She wonders whether to mention Ramona popping over in the midst of the discussion, and decides not to. "He just said he's going to help me study now that he's around."

"Is that a good thing,"Sarita asks, "or a bad thing?"

"Are you kidding? I can use all the help I can get. Between Willow and my dad, I might be able to not fail the next test."

"About that . . ."Willow trails off and looks at Sarita, who gives a slight nod.

"I'm going to go to the library and start studying,"Sarita announces, pushing her chair back. "I'll see you guys later."

Uh- oh. Something's up.

Willow gets right to the point. "I don't think I'm going to be able to help you this week, really. My, um, my mom . . . she's in the hospital."

Oh.

Oh, no.

I should have known.

From the moment Calla met Althea York, she had sensed that the woman was ill.

"What happened?"she asks, trying not to betray the tide of dread sweeping through her.

Maybe she was wrong. Maybe Althea slipped and fell and broke her arm or something.

"Cancer. She was getting chemo but the treatments stopped working last summer."

Calla feels as though someone just hit her in the stomach with a two- by-four.

"But . . . I mean, there are so many new drugs, aren't there? I thought-"

"No, it's too late for her."Willow holds her head stoically high. "She doesn't have much time left. The doctors say there's nothing else they can do."

"Oh, Willow . . ."

"You and Sarita are the only ones who know ."

"Oh, Willow . . ."Without stopping to think, Calla throws her arms around her friend. "I'm so sorry."

Willow's thin frame is shaking violently, and Calla feels her tears dampening her own shoulder.

Somehow, all around them, the usual cafeteria chaos continues. n.o.body is aware of Willow's tragedy.

But I know . I know what it's like to lose your mother.

Calla, too, is crying.

"What am I going to do?"Willow pulls back and wipes her face with a napkin Calla hands her. "How can I live without her?"

"You can."

"No."Willow sobs into the napkin. "I can't."

"You can. You will."

"No . . ."

Calla grips both of Willow's bony shoulders. "Look at me. Please."

Willow looks at her, desolate. Her face is ravaged with a pain that's all too familiar to Calla.

"You'll go on. You'll live without her. You have to. I mean, think about it. What's the alternative?"

"I'm so afraid."

"I know . It's awful. It's so awful, and hard and unfair, but . . . you'll survive. I promise. Listen, if I can, you can."She grabs her friend's hand and squeezes it. "I'll help you get through it."

"I don't want to be alone."

Her voice is so small. So frightened. So familiar.

"You aren't alone, Willow."

"I really am, without her. But I don't turn eighteen until January. What am I supposed to do until then? Go live with my father and his new wife and ruin their perfect new family?"

"He just lives down in Dunkirk, right? That's only a few miles away. You could still-"

"No. He doesn't want me."

"Sure, he does."

"No. He's not like your father. Do you know what he said when I called him last night and asked if he could meet me at the hospital because Mom had just been rushed there in an ambulance?"

"What?"

"He said that he'd see what he could do, because he and his wife had to go to open house at his daughter's school. He'd see what he could do,"she repeats, shaking her head in disgust.

"Did he show up?"