“You’re not afraid?”

“Of what?”

The boys exchanged glances.

“Doesn’t your mother warn you about strangers and all that?” Huck said.

Mama certainly did. But Raven couldn’t tell them that Mama made her land safe through her communication with the earth spirits. She said they watched over Daughter of Raven, and Raven knew it was true. She used to get scared when Mama left the real world to enter the spirit world, but the spirits had never let anything bad happen to her when Mama was away. If the boys were on Mama’s land, the spirits must have guided them there for a good reason. That was why Raven hadn’t been scared when she saw them. The only time Raven was afraid on Mama’s land was when the house alarms went off.

“She should be afraid of the werewolf,” Jackie said.

“What is that?” Raven asked.

“That dog that belonged to Hooper,” Huck said.

“Hooper?”

“The guy who lives on the property next to yours,” Reece said.

“His dog looked exactly like a wolf,” Huck said. “It used to chase us when we tried to cross Hooper’s property to come swim here. Jackie and I live on the other side of Hooper, but we don’t own any of the creek.”

“Nobody does. It owns itself,” Reece said.

Raven smiled because she understood he was teasing her.

“Why aren’t you at our school?” Jackie asked.

Raven had learned from My First Day of Kindergarten and School Is Fun that other children took lessons in a room with a teacher.

“I have my lessons at home,” she said.

“Oh, one of those,” Reece said.

“Reece . . . ,” Huck said.

“What? She can take a joke. Can’t you?”

Raven didn’t know how to answer, so she just said, “Yes.”

“Will you always do homeschool?” Huck asked.

“I don’t know,” she said.

“Don’t you want to go to our school?” Jackie asked.

“I . . . do,” she said.

The two words came out of nowhere. She didn’t know why she’d said them. Mama wouldn’t like it.

“Then you should go,” Jackie said.

She didn’t know what to say. She could never even mention school to Mama. It would make her angry the way her aunt did when she talked about it.

Huck looked in her eyes. “Your mom won’t let you?”

Raven kept quiet.

“Our mom is the fifth-grade teacher,” he said. “She could talk to your mom about it.”

“Huck will be in our mom’s class this fall,” Jackie said.

“I will, too,” Reece said, “and it’s gonna be sweeeet!”

“It’s gonna suck,” Huck said. “She’ll be harder on us than everyone else.”

“Not on me,” Reece said. “She loves me.”

“Nope. You’re like family. You’re as doomed as I am.”

“Crap,” Reece said.

Raven liked the way they talked and laughed and made faces at each other. She didn’t want them to leave. But her bird baby was restless in her nest. The jay was as eager for insects as Raven was for the boys to stay.

Huck said to Jackie, “Speaking of Mom, we’d better go. She wants us back for dinner early.”

“What’s she making?” Reece asked.

“Enchiladas.”

“Can I stay over?” Reece asked.

“Vegan enchiladas,” Huck said.

“I know,” Reece said. “Your mom’s cooking is awesome. I’ll be lucky if my mom makes a frozen pizza.”

Raven noticed the way Huck looked at Reece, as if he were sorry for him. “Yeah, stay over,” he said. “My mom will want you to.”

“Because she loves me,” Reece said.

Jackie was staring at Raven. He had pretty eyes, big with many colors mixed in. Green, yellow, brown, maybe even some orange. But better than that was the happy way he looked at her. Raven thought that must be how a person looked at a friend, and she had never had a friend before.

“We have to leave,” he said.

Raven could tell he didn’t want to go. She felt the same. “Can I see you again?” she asked.

His eyes got brighter. “Yeah,” he said.

“When?” she asked.

Jackie looked at his brother. Huck shrugged.

“You can swim anytime you want,” she said. But she wondered how Mama would react if she saw the boys on her daily walks. The creek was one of her favorite places.

“We’ll definitely come back,” Jackie said. “Or maybe you could come over sometime. To our house.”

Raven noticed Reece and Huck grinning at each other but didn’t know what it meant. She was afraid to say she could go to Jackie’s house. She had a feeling Mama wouldn’t like that. But these boys didn’t seem at all aware of her being the daughter of a raven spirit. As long as she kept it secret, why not go to their house?

Huck and Reece walked away. “Let’s go, Jackie,” Huck said.

Reece turned around and said, “Nice meeting you, Bird Girl.”

“It was,” Jackie said. “Gotta go. Bye.”