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gripped my phone tighter and whipped it behind my back. “No way!”
    She rolled her eyes. “Come on, it’s not like I’ve never seen you naked before. I’m not some kind of perv or anything. I just want to see how it came out.”
    I stuffed the phone in my front pocket, imagining what could happen if I gave it to Vonnie. I could see it now, my picture getting passed around the pool, Vonnie screechingto Stephen that he could see me naked if he was still curious. “Forget it. Nobody but Kaleb is ever going to see this. I’d die first.”
    “Oh, suddenly she gets all shy,” Rachel commented, and I shot her a look. She raised her eyebrows at me. “I’m kidding! If it makes you feel any better, I definitely don’t want to see it.”
    “Fine,” Vonnie said. “But at least tell us about it.”
    I opened my mouth, but before I could speak a word, I was interrupted by my phone vibrating in my pocket. I’d gotten a text.
    From Kaleb.

DAY 6
COMMUNITY SERVICE
    On my sixth community service day, Amber was finished with her pamphlet, so Mrs. Mosely brought in some chips and cheese dip and sodas and mini doughnuts. Apparently, whenever someone finished a project in Teens Talking, it was treated like a small celebration. There was a presentation, and Mrs. Mosely asked questions, and then she broke out the food and everyone congratulated the person who was done with their time. That was the most important part to us—the proof that eventually your service would end and maybe your life would get back to normal. We were all simultaneously jealous of and motivated by Amber.
    She showed up late, wearing a shiny black jumper that was at least two sizes too small for her, and a pair of heels. Her hair was piled up on top of her head like she was going toprom, and it occurred to me that probably Amber and Kenzie, and maybe some of these other guys, didn’t even go to school anymore. Instead of planning for prom, they were here, writing pamphlets, doing their time, then going back to lives full of drugs and vandalism and pregnancy and things that never really entered my world. But no sooner did I have the thought than I realized I was probably making an unfair assessment. After all, I was there, wasn’t I? It was my world now.
    Mrs. Mosely had us all pull our desks into a semicircle so everyone could see. Kenzie sat next to another girl who I assumed was Angel, the girl who’d been missing last week. Their heads were together, tucked low, as they whispered, every so often stifling laughter behind their hands. Kenzie absently rubbed her stomach with one hand the way pregnant women do. It seemed weird that in a few weeks, her hand would be cradling a baby’s head instead; her whole life would be changed forever.
    “Yo, Mose, I’m here, man,” Darrell said, bouncing into the room at the last second. “Don’t count me absent.” Following close behind him was Mack, silent as ever, who slouched into the chair next to mine and stretched his legs in front of him, crossing them at the ankles.
    “Better late than never, I suppose,” Mrs. Mosely said, leaning back against her desk, arms folded across her chest. Darrell dropped his paper onto her desk and plopped into a chair on the other side of Angel, and we all settled down.
    “Okay,” Mrs. Mosely said, “as you all know, today is Amber’s last day. She’s completed her requirement and finishedher project, which she’s going to share with you momentarily.” She glanced at Amber. Amber’s cheeks flushed red, and she ducked her head down toward her desk, one leg bouncing nervously. “After Amber shares her project with us, we have some treats. You will take a five-minute break to get yourself a plate, and then everyone must get back to work, okay? This is not a social gathering.” She gazed at us each in turn. I wondered if Mosely ever looked soft. I wondered if she went home at night and put on pink fuzzy pajama bottoms and brushed the pomade out of her hair and washed