Em was in the living room when Ed walked in.

"I had a great time today with my friends," Em said.

That wasn't entirely true. She'd missed Ed, but she obviously wasn't going to tell him that.

"They must've gotten sick of you," Em continued, "and canceled on you to hang out with the fun twin."

Ed laughed. "You have no idea what you're talking about. I canceled on them."

"What? Why would you do that?"

"Where do you think Mittens has been all day?"

"Well… doing homework. Or reading the book I gave her."

"Nope. We were out all day. With Luz."

"What?!"

Ed hadn't been the only one to notice how Amity had been acting around Luz at Grom. Em felt like kicking herself. Why hadn't she thought of bringing Luz along? How was she letting Ed continually one-up her?

"And by the way," Ed said. "We got in a little trouble at the zoo, and Mittens solved everything herself. It's no surprise. I mean, she was always way more responsible than you, even though she's younger."

"Are you seriously trying to make me jealous at the thought of Mittens being better able to take care of you than I can? Let's see how many scrapes she has to get you out of before she finally gets sick of it."

"Whatever. Mittens and I had a life-changing experience with the person she most wants to be around. But I'm sure the bookstore was fun too. Ooh, was there a sale on paperbacks?" With that, Ed left, chuckling.

Em clenched her fists. She'd never realized how annoying Ed could be when they were working at cross-purposes rather than together.

Wait, was she that annoying to other people too?

Em shook it off and went to her room.

Em was trying to pass the time on her scroll when she heard a knock at her door.

"Emira?" It was Amity.

"Come in, it's open!" Em said enthusiastically.

Amity walked in holding her copy of The Gecko Sonata at her side, and immediately Em noticed that she didn't look happy. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, anything!"

She brought up her copy of The Gecko Sonata to her chest. "Did you buy this book with money you stole from Mom's purse?"

Em felt her heart speed up. She averted her eyes. "Uh… yeah…"

"Oh."

Neither said anything for a few moments. Em hoped Amity would just be a little disappointed in her and that would be that. It was an odd feeling. Em wasn't used to worrying about upsetting Amity. Normally, she and Ed set out to do that.

Wow, now that Em thought of it, that sounded really bad, didn't it?

"One other thing, Em. Ed told me about the bet you guys have."

Em felt like she couldn't breathe. "Oh… I didn't mention that yesterday?" She laughed nervously.

"No. So, you were just spending time with me as a last resort."

"No!" Em insisted. Then she thought about that. Yeah, that had been the case, hadn't it?

"Hey, Mittens why don't we do something else tomorrow! Anything you want! And we can bring Luz!"

"No," Amity said.

"Why not? Didn't we have fun yesterday?"

"Because I don't want to be a pawn in some game between you and Ed! And I don't want Luz to be one either."

"Are you mad at Ed too?"

"That's what you care about?!"

"Um, no..."

"You know what, at least Ed was honest."

"I was honest! The bet just… never came up."

Amity just rolled her eyes.

"Come on, Mittens, what's the big deal? We had a fun time, didn't we! Can't you just focus on that instead of looking to make a problem out of everything?"

Amity didn't say anything for a few moments.

"Em, do you still have the receipt for this book?"

Em couldn't speak for a moment. "W-why?"

Amity placed the book down on Em's desk. "You should return it. I don't want it."

Em jumped up and grabbed the book from her desk, holding it out to Amity. "Come on, Mittens, keep the book. You can be mad at me, but just keep the book."

"I'm not mad. I just don't want it now."

Amity walked out.

Em stood at her doorway and yelled out, "You know what, Amity, it's no wonder you were always lonely before! If you keep pushing people away for every little thing, you're just going to always end up alone!"

Amity turned back as if to say something, then changed her mind and ran off to her room.

Em slammed her door shut. Why was she so upset? Why should she care what Amity thought? It wasn't like they were close. So what if they'd had one fun day together? And now she could return that expensive book her ungrateful little sister had given back to her and buy something fun with all that money. There was no reason she should feel bad.

But as much as Em told herself that, she couldn't quite bring herself to believe it.

After stewing for a few minutes, Em turned her frustrations on a new target: Ed. Why couldn't he just keep his big mouth shut?

Em rushed to Ed's room and threw open his door, which wasn't locked, without knocking.

Ed was on his scroll. "Ready to give up?" he asked. Then he looked up and saw how angry Em was.

"Why did you tell Mittens about the bet?"

"The bet? I don't know, it came up. Since when is it a secret?"

"Well now she's mad at me! And you told her about taking snails from Mom's purse too?"

"What? She's not going to tattle."

"That's not what I'm worried about! She's angry about that, too."

"Why?"

"Because she cares about rules, Ed! You really thought she wouldn't have a problem with that?"

"Yeah, I mean, she's really loosened up."

"Not that much! So, are you happy now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Now that you've driven a wedge between me and Mittens."

"Hey, if you hadn't tried to hide the bet from her, this wouldn't have happened. And I didn't do it on purpose."

"Oh, sure you didn't. But things just so happened to work out awfully well, for you, didn't they? Now, I'm completely isolated!"

"I never set out to isolate you, OK?" Ed looked askance. "I just... didn't want to be alone."

Em look askance herself. "Well… neither did I."

They stood in silence for a moment.

"Hey, Mittens will get over it before too long," Ed said. "And I'll cancel on my– on our friends for tomorrow so you can hang out with them."

"Really?" Em looked at Ed and gave him a small smile. "Thanks, Ed."

"It's nothing," Ed said.

Then, as Em was about to turn around and walk out, Ed continued. "Of course, if I do that, then that means I win the bet, right?"

Em's eyes widened, and she gave Ed a furious look that sent a chill down his spine. "Then forget it!" She turned around and slammed the door.