“Fish spa?” Mom asked.

“Little fish eat the dead skin off your feet.”

“Fish? Can’t you just use a loofah?” she asked.

“It’s an experience.”

“Won’t you catch some sort of infection?” Mom held up her foot and wiggled her bare toes.

“I don’t think so.”

Grandpa stood. “I’ll go.”

“Mom?” She was typing into the computer in a way that made me worried she was looking up the safety of fish spas.

“No, thank you. I’m writing an email to your father.”

“Tell him I said hi and tell him about the fish.”

She nodded without looking up. “I will.”

Grandpa and I sat on the tile edge of the long, trough-like pool of shallow water. The place didn’t smell like fish. It smelled like incense, and chlorine from the hot tub we had passed on our way to this room. In the water, Grandpa’s feet were surrounded by fish. “You must have more dead skin because you’re old,” I said. My feet were unadorned.

“I am the perfect age,” he said.

“The perfect age for fish.”

He ruffled my hair.

The water was a little colder than room temperature, and the coolness felt like it was traveling up my legs.

“What’s it feel like?” I asked.

“It tickles.”

“Come here, little fish,” I said, inching my left foot closer to Grandpa’s right. A single fish, appearing warped from the movement of the water, worked its way over to me. My shoulders tensed as it got closer. And just as it was about to nibble, I let out a yelp and yanked my feet out of the water.

Grandpa laughed. “What’s this? Scared?”

“No, it just surprised me.”

“It surprised you? You watched it the entire time.”

“Okay, fine, I saw it coming, but it scared me when it finally got close.”

He nodded toward my still-raised legs. “Try again. You can do it.”

They were just fish. Little ones, at that. I took a deep breath and slowly put my feet back in. The single fish that had braved the trip to my feet before had left, so now I had to wait once again. It was the waiting that was the most nerve-racking. The waiting and watching the impending approach. This time I kept my feet in. This time I felt the slight tickle of the fish as it made contact over and over again.

“That doesn’t hurt at all,” I said.

“I told you it wouldn’t.”

“I thought you were bending the truth.”

This is when I thought Grandpa would be offended, or at least fake offense, that I had suggested he would lie to me. But he just shook his head a little and smiled.

I stared at the fish for a long time before saying, “I asked Mom to come to my art show last night . . . I mean, if I end up getting in the show.”

“You did?” he asked.

“She didn’t tell you?” That worried me. They talked about everything.

“Maybe it slipped her mind.”

I wiggled my toes a little, but the fish stayed put. “Do you think she’ll come?”

“I’ll come.” He smiled over at me.

“You don’t think she’ll come?”

“I think she’ll try very hard.”

More fish surrounded my feet now. “She promised. And when she promises, she always follows through.”

“You’re right. She does.”

Grandpa and I had hit traffic on the way home from the spa and I barely made Cooper’s race for the second time. I found his family and was surprised to see an addition to the little group—Iris. At least, it looked like the girl I remembered seeing once, briefly. She was cuter than I remembered. Her brown hair was pulled up into a high ponytail and she was holding a sign with Cooper’s name on it. I lowered my sign to my side and finished my walk a little slower.

“Hey,” I said when I reached them.

Amelia hopped up and down, then gave me a hug. “I haven’t seen you in forever.”

“I know. I haven’t been to your house lately. Sorry.”

“Have you met Iris?” Mrs. Wells asked.

“No,” Iris said at the same time I said, “Yes.”

“We have?” she asked.

“I was at the movie night on the beach a few weeks ago.”

“Was that you?” She stuck out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too.” I shook her extended hand. “I’m Abby.”

“Are you friends with Cooper?” she asked.

She didn’t know I was friends with Cooper? He’d never mentioned me? I tilted my head, studying her expression. She looked completely serious. They really hadn’t hung out that much. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. “Yes, I am.”

She nodded with a smile.

“Looks like they’re starting,” Mr. Wells said.

“Oh!” Iris turned her attention back to the course. “This is so exciting.”

“Have you never watched a race on the dunes before?”

“No. This is my first time.”

“Did you grow up here?”

“No, we moved here two years ago from Ohio.”

“Wait, do you go to Pacific High?” I’d never seen her around school before, but I didn’t know everyone. I was middle-of-the-road popularity-wise.

“No, I go to Dalton Academy,” she said. Dalton was the private school right on the beach. It had marine biology classes, and surfing could replace normal PE.

“Oh, cool. Do you like it?”

“It’s amazing.”

The man holding the red flag lowered it, and the drivers were off.

“Which one is Cooper?” Iris asked.

I pointed. “The bright-green helmet.”

She stood up on her tiptoes and let out a squeal. Cooper took a jump and landed front-tires first, his back tires airborne for a few seconds longer. Iris gasped from beside me.

“Don’t worry,” I said, sensing the anxiety that I knew so well. “He was born on the dunes.”

She laughed. “That’s what he said.”

“Right . . .” Of course he would tell her that too.

This wasn’t the first time a girl had shown up to watch Cooper. But seeing her there, so comfortable with his family, so excited about his race, this was the first time I felt like I was the outsider, the one who didn’t belong here.

Cooper finished in first, like he always did, and Iris went wild, causing Mr. and Mrs. Wells to smile.

I glanced at my phone. I needed to shower and get a little more professional for the museum tour, plus I still had the drawings the preschool teacher had brought in to hang, but I had over an hour, so I could stay and at least say hi to Cooper. Maybe his presence would make things feel normal again. We all walked to the trailer where he would meet us.

“That was fun. He’s good,” Iris said, falling in step beside me as we walked.

“Yes, he is. Fearless.”

Cooper was already at the trailer, helmet off, when we got there. The first thing he did was give Iris a hug. “I like your sign.”

She let out a happy yelp.

“Did you meet Abby?” he asked.

“Yes, we met,” Iris said. I waited for her to say something like, why have you never told me about Abby before? But she didn’t. I waited for him to say something like, she’s my best friend in the world. But he didn’t.