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Show Inside Out, 213 "She's here somewhere," said Simon. "When you find her, tell her I'm looking for her, too, would you?" I turned in relief towards the stairs. "Wait!" said Simon. "I'll just come with you." I nodded and tried to smile again, then led the way to the stairs. My knees were shaky with relief that no one had seemed to mind that I was there. What had I expected, that they would throw me out? They seemed to be just normal kids. But I couldn't forget Joseph's panic about this party. What was wrong? I thought of my dad outside somewhere listening to talk radio in his car. At the top of the stairs we came around the corner and into the kitchen. There were lots of people there, a few of whom looked familiar to me. "Anyone seen Terra?" asked Simon. "She's in the bedroom talking to Martina," someone said. Simon led me down a hallway to the last door. It was closed. Simon grinned at me. "Well, should we knock?" he asked. His breath stank. I nodded. "Nan," he answered himself and threw the door open. Terra was sitting on the end of the bed. Martina was lounged across it on her back with her head dangling, face upside-down, off the edge of it so that she was facing us when we walked in. She grinned a loopy grin and said, "Hey, Simon." Terra jumped up and I could see she had been crying. Seeing Martina sprawled like that, I couldn't imagine that she had been listening very seriously. I watched the |