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stuff?
    Gabby said, “Well I don’t.”
    Kim gave her this look she does, like the time Joe lied to us and told us there were no more brownies, and she did the look and he turned red and she said, where are the brownies and he said they’re gone and she did the look harder and then he said, just don’t eat them all and pulled them out from under the sink.
    It was her lie look.
    â€¢
    â€œWhat are you doing?” Gabby said to Kim.
    Kim kept giving her the look.
    â€œWhat is she doing?” she asked me.
    I shrugged.
    Then, like magic, Gabby said, “I have some stuffed animals.”
    Kim nodded. “See? Ninety-eight percent of the population.”
    We went back to taping and Gabby stood there. I tried not to keep looking at her. Why was she out here?
    After a few minutes she said, “Do you want to use my dad’s Little Giant ladder?”
    Kim smiled. “We need more duct tape, too,” Kim said, and Gabby ran home.
    That afternoon we covered the pole as high as the Little Giant ladder could go. Gabby brought out a bin full of Beanie Babies.
    We even got more stuffed animals from some of the other neighbor kids.
    When we were almost done, a Jeep full of boys pulled up.
    Gabby, who was holding up a hot pink rhino, immediately dropped it and walked over.
    â€œHey, guys,” Gabby said, leaning into the Jeep.
    How did she know how to be so sexy?
    The driver, a beautiful boy with dark hair, ignored Gabby and yelled to Kim, “What are you doing up there?”
    Kim looked down. “What?”
    â€œWhat are you doing up there?”
    I looked at Kim. He was talking to her. He was looking at her. She was thirteen. Almost fourteen but still, she was thirteen, and he had to be at least sixteen.
    â€œI’m eating tacos. What are you doing?” Kim said.
    He laughed.
    Gabby said, “I have no idea what they’re doing. It’s so lame.”
    The kid cut her off and said to Kim, “Will you come do that at my house?”
    Kim said to me, “Emmy. Can I have that unicorn?”
    I handed her the unicorn, my hand trembling, I don’t know why.
    â€œYou playing hard to get?” he said.
    Gabby tried to talk to them again but the kid kept not paying attention to her and I kept feeling sick to my stomach and Kim kept taping animals.
    Finally they drove away.
    Gabby stalked back to the pole and sat on the curb.
    Thirty minutes later we had no more animals.
    Kim came down from the ladder, and we all stood in the road to look at it.
    â€œWow,” Gabby said.
    Kim nodded. “It’s beautiful.”
    â€œIt’s better than beautiful,” I said.
    Then Joe came out. “What the crap are you guys doing?”
    Dad followed him out.
    â€œDad, look what Emmy and Kim did.”
    Dad stared at it.
    Joe stared at it. We were all staring at it.
    Kim said, “Joe, You know you love it.”
    And he said, “It’s stupid,” and then he said, “Hey is that my . . .”
    Then he stopped because Gabby was standing there, and Joe had had a crush on her since she told him he looked like a UFC Fighter and clearly a UFC Fighter wouldn’t own a Shamu doll.
    He stopped and we all stood there.
    It was the weirdest thing we had ever made, but it was also the best thing. Almost the best thing.
    We left the animals up there for a week. People came from all over to see it, and we even got a small article in the newspaper:
    GIRLS MAKE HUMANITARIAN STATEMENT ABOUT STUFFED ANIMALS
    There’s a picture of the pole and me, Kim, and Gabby, our arms around one another’s shoulders like we all belonged together.

• 20 •
    Two days after the stuffed animal light pole, Gabby showed up on our porch.
    Kim and I were on the swing eating Cheetos, discussing whether it would be worth it to sit on a couch for a year if you got a million dollars when it was over.
    Gabby had no shoes on and she wore a gold bikini. She said,