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If I could just talk to Joey and make sure he was okay, maybe my mind would stop thinking about him when it wasn't supposed to. Plus, we were friends now and I was worried about him. I wanted him to sit with us for lunch, hang out with my friends, not be alone. I wasn't sure he'd get along with my friends, but it was worth a try. I couldn't find him anywhere at school, though. It was like he had this superpower to vanish off the face of the earth whenever he wanted to.

At lunch, I scanned the cafeteria as I sat with my friends. Not that I'd ever seen Joey there before, but it was worth a look. He wasn't exactly predictable.

Noah was making a party-planning list. "What are other foods that remind you of the undead?" he asked.

Luna held up a carrot stick. "These are sort of undead-like. Fingers or something."

"I meant good food," Noah said.

Avi snatched Luna's carrot stick and took a bite. "I heard some girl in my English class talking about this party. How many people did you invite?"

"How many people didn't I invite is the question."

The idea of being surrounded by mostly strangers with loud music in a crowded house made my insides tense. "Noah. I don't want a party."

"Well, that's all well and good, but that's past decided. I need your input on food now."

"This sounds like a lot of effort," Zach said. "Can't we just bring whatever and call it good?"

Noah pointed at him. "Yes, I like this plan better."

Luna rolled her eyes. "Are your parents cool with this?"

"Yes, I told them I was doing it to celebrate Addison's return, and they were fine."

"Don't use me as an excuse to throw a party," I said.

He laughed. "I will use any excuse I can think of."

"When is this thing, anyway?"

"Saturday. So you better be there or my parents will think I lied."

"Ugh." I shoved his arm.

Avi laughed. "I have that emotion ten times a day in regard to Noah."

The bell rang. I scooped my lunch trash into my brown paper bag and headed for the trash can. "You're dead to me," I said to him as I went.

"You're undead to me, baby."

Luna jumped up to join me and we headed toward Government together.

"Has he been to the hospital?" I asked.

"Noah?"

"Yes."

"I think so."

"Is he in denial about Jacob or overly optimistic?"

"I think this is just the way he's dealing with it."

I stepped over a lunch tray that was left on the floor by the exit. "Yeah, probably."

"But is there a reason you're not optimistic about Jacob's recovery?"

Because Mrs. Matson said he was in a medically induced coma. That meant the doctors were worried, didn't it? But how would it help my friends to know that? "No. He'll be fine. I just don't feel like throwing a party right now."

"We have to celebrate the little things, right?"

I smiled. "My return from the dead is now a little thing?"

She laughed. "So small. I mean, come on, you were only locked in the library."

I smiled and hip-checked her. I could suck up my reservations and let my friends throw a party. Maybe it was just what they all needed. Some hope.

The laundry was stacked in piles on the coffee table when I came through the front door after school. I grabbed the two piles that were mine and headed for my room to drop them off.

"Addison," my dad said, cutting me off in the hall, holding another basket of laundry.

"Oh, hi. I wanted to ask if I could go to the hospital again today."

"Weren't you just there yesterday?"

"Yes, but . . ." I paused when I saw that he was holding Joey's sweatshirt.

He must've seen my gaze because he said, "Is this yours?"

I went with the lie I'd already started on Luna. "I found it in the lost and found at the library. It was cold in there. I'll just take it." I grabbed it from him but he didn't relinquish it right away.

"Maybe we should return it."

"I can do that," I said, finally tugging it free. I draped it over my arm and continued walking with the two stacks I already had.

"I thought maybe it was that boy's," he said.

I came to an abrupt stop and turned around quickly, the sweatshirt slipping off my arm and falling in a heap at my feet. "What boy?"

"The one the doctor said was with you when the paramedics arrived."

I was stunned silent.

"Maybe he heard the alarm too," my dad said. "Was able to get into the library somehow to help you. I didn't get all the details. But I think the police got his info."

"Police?"

He chuckled a little. "You really were out of it, weren't you?" He ran a hand along my cheek. "I'm glad you're okay now. I'd like to thank that boy and get more details. Maybe I'll call and find out how."

Maybe I'd call and find out how too. Joey could avoid me at school, but he wouldn't be able to avoid me if I showed up on his doorstep.

It had taken a couple of phone calls but I'd finally been able to talk a police officer into telling me the address Joey had given them. I now stood on the porch at his house wiping my palms, which were starting to sweat, on my jeans.

The door opened with a squeak, and a woman not much older than thirty answered. Her hair was multicolored and she wore an oversize T-shirt and jeans. "Can I help you?"

"Hi. Is Joey here?"

sorry i took so long to update oops