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Juanita for a minute, wondering if she was really serious about not being interested in Max.
    Juanita caught my eye, and a hint of a smile twitched at her lips. “You know what I was thinking?” she said. “I bet Max would love that observatory we visited. I wonder if he even knows about it yet.”
    Was she talking about inviting Max up there for Clara’s sake? Or for her own? Did she understand that Clara was interested in him? And even if she did understand, would it occur to her to treat it seriously—to back off if she did like him, like she would for another friend? I had no history to go on here.
    â€œSomeone should tell him about it,” I said slowly, looking for clues in Juanita’s expression.
    Bridget lifted her tiny eyebrows behind her giant glasses and leaned forward eagerly, as if in great suspense—which she probably actually was. “But who?”
    Juanita smiled. “Here’s what I’m thinking. We tell him we’re going up there to see it, and we invite him to go with us. You know, just a casual group thing, no big deal.”
    â€œReally?” Clara asked without looking up, and with maybe just the slightest quaver in her voice. “I thought you said you were done with boys.”
    Juanita’s laugh verged on a slight cackle. “Oh yeah, I’m done with them, but you’re not.”
    I almost cackled myself. Of course, I should have known that Juanita would be on top of this, and totally on my side. She didn’t want to invite Max to the observatory because she was interested in him herself; she wanted to invite him so Clara could get a chance to know him. In a dark, quiet, beautiful place, where my sister would be totally in her element. And where, because of the darkness, our conjoinment would become all but invisible.
    Clara stiffened for a moment, but it passed. “Nice try,” she said, her voice so close to normal that I was pretty sure I was the only one who could hear its thin, sharp edge. “But the observatory is sacred. I won’t go there with just anyone.”
    â€œWho says he’s just anyone?” Juanita asked. “Don’t you want to find out?”
    Clara shook her head. “Not particularly, no.”
    And this was such a freaking pathetic lie that I couldn’t take it anymore. “Well, I do,” I said, “so we’re going. That’s that.”
    â€œReally?” Juanita looked puzzled. She looked at me, at Clara, and back at me again. “Um, okay, then when should we go?”
    â€œFriday night,” I said.
    â€œHailey!” Clara hissed. “Cut it out! I don’t want to go.”
    â€œBut I do,” I said, “and Juanita does, and Bridget does. Right, Bridge?”
    â€œSure,” Bridget said, “it’ll be totally fun. I like the observatory. Plus, it’s the perfect place for Clara to ask Max to the Sadie Hawkins dance.”
    I cocked my head to one side. Had Bridget just pulled a random idea out of left field, or was she actually a step ahead of us all?
    â€œHa!” Clara said. “Now, that’s a good one. I’m sure one of the cheerleaders has snatched him up for that already.”
    She jerked her head in the direction of the senior A-list picnic table, where at that very moment Max was surrounded by a veritable swarm of cheerleaders and jocks.
    Bridget frowned behind her heavy glasses. “Maybe they haven’t gotten around to asking him yet. Or maybe cheerleaders aren’t his type.”
    Clara shook her head sadly at Bridget’s hopeless naïveté. “Bridge,” she said, reaching over to pat Bridget on the knee, “you know I don’t like to dance.”
    By which she meant that she— we —had never danced. Not once. Not even in the privacy of our bedroom.
    â€œMaybe you could go and not dance,” Bridget suggested. “Maybe he would understand.”
    Clara froze for just a