Mei Lee watched Anna's eyebrows draw together like the sides of a zipper as she peeked over Mei Lee's shoulder.

"That's, umm . . ."

"Sad," said Mei Lee, finishing Anna's sentence.

Whoever Mei Lee's biological parents had been, they couldn't possibly have been artists. And there was also no possibility that Mei Lee's drawing would be chosen as the design for the annual holiday card produced by St. Lucy Parochial School.

For some reason, the ninth grade art glass always had a contest to make a Christmas drawing, with the winner chosen by their art teacher, Ms. Cameron. The cards were sold to helpless parents, grandparents and the rest of the parish every autumn to raise money for the school. Mei Lee's parents bought a couple of boxes every year and always talked her aunt into buying a box, too.

Mei Lee had intended to draw a group of children making a snowman in front of St. Lucy church (which was right next to the school), with a little angel flying overhead. But the result more closely resembled four melting snow people and a deformed bird with a wicked grin.

"Let me see yours," Mei Lee asked, knowing it would Anna happy and Mei Lee miserable.

Anna handed over her sketchbook and Mei Lee gasped. Anna had drawn the old bell tower of the church, decorated with garlands and a huge wreath, complete with red bow over the door. Mei Lee glanced out the window of the second-floor classroom, where she had a clear view of the tower with the deep blue September sky behind it. The church building was over 100 years old and viewed from that angle the tower looked like part of some ruined castle in Europe. It was St. Lucy's most recognizable feature — even more than the statue of St. Lucy on the front lawn. Which was a good thing, Mei Lee had always thought, because the statue showed St. Lucy holding a plate with her own eyeballs on it. She supposedly had her eyes gouged out before she was martyred. Not exactly a happy topic for a statue on the church lawn. Fortunately, there was a circle of evergreen shrubs planted around it so it was practically hidden and most people walking by never noticed the gruesome scene.

At any rate, the tower was a perfect symbol of St. Lucy, even though it wasn't a working bell tower. The bells that rang the hours and called everyone to Mass were actually electronic.

Mei Lee turned her attention back to Anna's drawing. In less than half an hour, she had sketched every single stone and crack. She'd even gotten the angle that the tower leaned (everyone said it was because of an earthquake decades ago) and, somehow, the shadow at the top that made it difficult to see the actual bell, if there even was one. And snow piled at the bottom, with more flakes of snow drifting in the air around it.

"Wow," Mei Lee whispered. "Truly impressive." Then she shuddered, because Ms. Cameron was getting up from her desk.

"Okay, everyone, period's almost over. Let's see what wonders you've created."

That was the signal that the torture portion of art class had arrived — when Ms. Cameron would walk around the room and look at everyone's artwork, giving a nod here and a "hmmm" there. Or in Mei Lee's case . . .

Ms. Cameron glanced down at Mei Lee's sketchbook and her mouth sagged.

"Ah, well. Keep trying, Mei Lee. We can't all draw, but we can all make art, right people?"

Mei Lee heard a barely stifled giggle, a couple of rows over. She knew without looking that it had to be Lenora Sparks. She fought to keep her eyes straight ahead and her expression as emotionless as possible. Even though she wanted to jump up and whip her sketchbook at Lenora, she couldn't give her the satisfaction of knowing that she'd heard the giggling.

Ms. Cameron had already forgotten about Mei Lee and moved on. "Oh, my! Anna, that's lovely. Here, may I?" She bent down, took Anna's sketchpad from her hands, and held it up, turning right and left so the entire class could see.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I want you all to take a look at this. This is exactly what we're looking for. I think this year's Christmas card could be the best-selling edition ever!"

Mei Lee saw Anna blushing so brightly she practically cast a shadow. When the bell rang and the class got up to go to lunch, Mei Lee just slipped out of the way as her classmates (most of them) congratulated Anna.

Mei Lee walked to lunch by herself but Anna caught up and got in the food line right behind her.

"Did you think my sketch was very good? I didn't really think it was one of my best efforts," Anna asked. A frowning woman in a hairnet swirled a couple of tablespoons of greasy orange-colored marinara sauce on Mei Lee's spaghetti.

Why is she pretending to be modest? Mei Lee wondered. Just enjoy your moment — without dragging me into it.

Anna had been the most talented artist in their class since kindergarten, when she could actually draw complicated images like jumping unicorns and panting dogs. Everyone had assumed that her design would be chosen for the holiday card.

Mei Lee gripped her hexagonal plastic lunch tray tightly and tried to make herself smile. She was happy for her friend. But she was ready to move on. Next topic.

"Why doesn't Ms. Cameron just ask for volunteers?" Mei Lee suggested, "Instead of making everyone enter the contest?"

When Anna didn't reply, Mei Lee answered her own question. "I'll tell you why: because she needs an excuse to embarrass freshman who stink at art."

"You act like she's so mean," said Anna, defending her favorite teacher in her favorite class.

Mei Lee felt the temperature rising in her cheeks. "Anna, she walked around the whole room and just mumbled till she got to me! Then she's all 'not everybody can draw but WE CAN ALL MAKE ART.'"

Anna seemed to finally get the message. She pressed her lips tightly together, as if fighting to prevent any more words from escaping. Mei Lee felt guilty for stealing her friend's big moment and fell silent.

The two of them barely spoke during lunch.

They had both gotten the spaghetti with fake sauce, which was nearly inedible. However, Anna had saved one of the chocolate brownies that Aaron, the new ninth grader from California, had brought in that morning because it was his birthday. He happened to be sitting at the other end of their table with another of their classmates, Kyle. Mei Lee figured they were discussing the newest release of some ultra-violent computer game. Aaron claimed that his dad, who was still in California because his parents were divorced, had worked at a company that developed just those sorts of games. But there was something about him that made Mei Lee assume he was lying most of the time, like when he talked about pop stars and actors who had supposedly come to parties at his house.

After several minutes of uncomfortable silence and guilty feelings, Mei Lee gave up on the noodles and orange sauce and took her tray up to the return window. She was more than ready to get to their next class — Social Studies. She was good in Social Studies and the teacher, Ms. Stevenhauer, was young, pretty and fun.

Anna was just finishing the last crumbs of the brownie when Mei Lee walked quickly past their table on her way to the double doors at the end of the cafeteria. But a second after she passed, she heard a crash behind her. Spinning around, she saw Anna tripping backward over a chair, causing several other chairs to slide away in various directions — mostly into other kids who were still seated at their tables.

That was when she saw Anna's face.

It was red — way more tomato-red than the fake marinara sauce Mei Lee had just thrown out. Anna's tongue dangled from her mouth and appeared to be growing in size. Mei Lee felt a chill across her back as other kids noticed what was happening and started shrieking and shouting. The chill was instantly followed by nervous sweat and a pounding heart, and the more noise the other kids made, the harder Mei Lee's heart banged against her chest. The whole cafeteria closed around them, the way they would have done if two kids were fighting, or a kindergartener had had an accident on himself.

Anna kept getting redder and redder, and started waving her hands and scratching her neck, which was as red as her face. Then Mei Lee realized she wasn't just waving her hands; she was pointing at the table, where there were some crumbs from the brownie.

Anna was allergic to peanuts. Seriously allergic.

"Aaron!" Mei Lee shouted over her shoulder. "Were there peanuts in those brownies?"

Aaron just started at her, his mouth open and his eyes wide.

"Aaron! Peanuts!"

"No." He didn't sound very definite. "I don't think so."

"Positive?"

"Maybe peanut oil," Aaron stuttered. "But my mom only uses certified organic."

Mei Lee want to look away from Anna's face so she could think. She had never actually seen Anna have one of her reactions before, because she was always careful about what she ate. But she knew Anna kept a couple of allergy pens in her backpack. She'd shown them to Mei Lee once, just in case there was ever an emergency.

Like this.

With sweaty, shaking hands, Mei Lee fumbled with the zipper on Anna's pack. She'd been in Anna's pack a million times, borrowing pens (the writing kind) and paper or pads or whatever — but right at that moment she couldn't make the zipper work. With an angry heave, she finally yanked it down and began tossing the contents on the table like a burglar looking for money or drugs or credit cards.

She had nearly decided that Anna must have forgotten to pack one of the pens until she finally found it in a half-hidden zippered pocket.

But once she'd found it, she just stared and held it in her quivering right hand. All she could think was that it looked like a fat marker.

What do I do now? Think!

She could see which end injected the medicine; that was obvious by the shape. There had to be a needle inside. How did she make the needle come out?

She looked up at Anna. By now her tongue was the size of the brats they served at the school's spring carnival.

"Can you do it?" she whispered to Anna. But Anna couldn't answer; she could barely breathe.

Meanwhile, Mei Lee could feel sixty other middle schoolers crowding in around them.

"Space! We need some space!"

If she'd been nervous before, she was absolutely terrified now. But knew it was nothing compared to how Anna must be feeling. She was going to pass out or worse while half the school watched Mei Lee try to figure out the stupid allergy pen.

"Tell somebody to get Mrs. Channing!" Mei Lee yelled. Mrs. Channing was the secretary in the school office but she had once worked as a nurse's aide, which made her the closest thing St. Lucy had to an actual school nurse.

All the while, Mei Lee had been fiddling with the allergy pen and her thumb found a lid that flicked open. Anna, who was still conscious but making frightful choking gurgles, started nodding and pointed at her leg.

At last, Mei Lee remembered. Stick the pen in her leg and press down and the needle pops out automatically.

Mei Lee grabbed Anna's right hand with her left hand, raised the pen with her right hand, and was about to take a deep breath, she suddenly had the sensation that somebody had their hands around her throat. Her heart had been pumping fast before, but now it felt like it might blast out of her chest. Her face grew hot and itchy and for a moment she thought she was going to choke on her tongue.

Then it stopped — so fast Mei Lee almost thought she had imagined it. Except that when she looked at Anna, the red was quickly fading from her face, and her tongue was back inside her mouth. The medicine was amazing. It worked in an instant.

Then Mei Lee glanced at her right hand. She was still holding the pen.

Weird.

She must have taken too long to get the pen ready. Anna's reaction was already going away. Then Anna whispered something in a hoarse voice. Mei Lee couldn't quite understand her.

"What?"

"You made it stop. When you touched my hand."

Mei Lee felt her face growing warm again. She stared at Anna; Anna stared back at her. Without thinking, Mei Lee jammed the pen into Anna's leg and felt the needle click out and saw Anna wince.

"Oww! Why'd you do that? It was already over."

Anna was still speaking in a whisper, but it was a too-loud whisper. All around them, their schoolmates started to talk.

"She's okay," Mei Lee announced loudly. "The pen worked."

It had to be a coincidence, but what Anna had just whispered made her nervous. The timing was so perfect it really did seem like Mei Lee had made the reaction stop. And if Anna thought so, other people might think so, too.

The first person to say something was the idiot game boy Aaron.

"Did you guys see that? Mei Lee grabbed Anna's hand and the whole thing went away. It was supernatural."

Mei Lee closed her eyes as the cafeteria exploded into commotion.

Luckily, Mrs. Channing had arrived and she was pushing pushed through the crowd, shushing everyone. She sat on a chair next and leaned down to look at Anna. "You okay now, sweetie?" she asked. "Looks like your medicine worked."

"It wasn't the medicine," said somebody. "It was Mei Lee."

"It was a miracle," said another voice, a voice Mei Lee knew only too well. Lenora.

Mei Lee screamed inwardly as every pore of her skin started to burn.

The commotion started all over again and she could feel eyes on her from every direction. She wanted to run out of the building, or find a nice quiet spot to hide, like maybe a storage closet. But all she could do was sit at the table, motionless, like the Tin Man waiting for somebody to come along with an oil can so she could get her arms and legs working again.

Her brain was still functioning, though. In fact, it was in overdrive. She kept replaying over and over again about what had just happened. She had held Anna's hand, and then — what? It was as if she had felt exactly what Anna was feeling.

No, that wasn't quite right. It was as if the allergic reaction left Anna and passed into Mei Lee, and then evaporated.

But that was crazy. Probably she had just been so worried about Anna that she imagined she could feel Anna's discomfort.

"Don't be foolish," said Mrs. Channing, the almost school nurse.

She wasn't talking to Mei Lee. She was scolding Lenora and whoever else was saying that Mei Lee had healed Anna without the medicine. Thank God for Mrs. Channing.

"Mei Lee?"

Now Mrs. Channing was leaning over and looking right into Mei Lee's face from about four inches away. She was a nice friendly overwninth lady with blondish-white dyed middle age hair and a mole on her neck. Nothing scary about her, except maybe the mole, but Mei Lee was so on edge that she nearly fell off her chair.

"I'm taking Anna down to the office. We'll have to call her parents. Would you like to come with us?"

Anna had gotten up and was standing beside Mrs. Channing. She looked as dazed as Mei Lee felt. Her eyes were full of questions. Mei Lee was about to say yes, she would come along, but then she realized that was exactly what she didn't want to do. Anna might start talking — and saying crazy things because Anna was the excitable type. And Mrs. Channing might ask Mei Lee for her version of events.

"I think I'll just go on to class," Mei Lee mumbled.

The tone announcing the end of the lunch period had sounded and several teachers were shouting that the show was over and everyone should get to class. But when Mei Lee stood up, she was surrounded. Nobody was making a move to leave the cafeteria.

Ninth grade was a cruel world.

If only Mei Lee had swiped Anna's brownie and eaten it. It wouldn't have been the first time one of them had helped themselves to the other's goodies.

Mrs. Channing smiled her kindly smile again. "Well, you should be proud of yourself, young lady. Helping your classmate with her medicine."

"Umm, thanks," she muttered.

Anna glanced backward over her shoulder as she left with Ms. Channing, her eyes a big, gaping question. Mei Lee clenched her teeth and shook her head ever so slightly. And said a little prayer.

Please, Anna, keep quiet.