Under Their Skin by Margaret Peterson Haddix

already played some this morning. And I expect both of you to clean up after yourselves. And don’t go outside at all. And—”
    â€œWe’re on top of it, Mom,” Eryn said, still with a saintly tone. Right now, she didn’t sound like she even knew what sarcasm was. “We’ll follow every single one of those rules.”
    â€œAll right,” Mom said reluctantly. “Call me if anything happens, anything at all . . .”
    It took another ten minutes of them reassuring Mom before she finally hung up.
    â€œBoy, she really knows how to ruin any possible fun,” Nick grumbled. He sneaked a glance at Eryn. Would she really tattle on him if he spent the next few hours playing video games?
    Eryn’s face was lit up like a lightbulb. Nick wasn’t sure he’d ever seen her look so excited.
    â€œI can’t believe she didn’t make us promise not to do the one thing I’m dying to do,” Eryn said.
    â€œWhat?” Nick said blankly, squinting at her.
    Eryn reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out something small and thin and black. It looked like one of those metal things girls put in their hair if some strands weren’t quite long enough to be pulled back in a ponytail.
    A bobby pin. That’s what it was called.
    â€œWe have a snow day and we’re all by ourselves and you want to play with your hair ?” Nick asked incredulously.
    â€œNo, stupid,” Eryn said. “I want to pick the locks on Ava’s and Jackson’s rooms.”

ELEVEN
    We’re doing this, Eryn thought, poking one end of the bobby pin into the hole in the center of Ava’s doorknob. We really are.
    She’d decided last night that their next step would have to be breaking in to Ava’s and Jackson’s rooms, but she hadn’t been sure she and Nick would actually have the nerve. And when would they ever get the chance to do it? At night, when any noise could bring Mom or Michael up to investigate?
    The snow was like a sign; Michael’s car being stuck in the snowbank and Mom being stranded at school was like a gentle shove, accompanied by some voice only Eryn could hear: You have to do this.
    â€œWhat if that pin gets stuck in the door?” Nick asked, hovering nervously behind her. “What if that makes Mom and Michael find out what you’ve done?”
    â€œWhat we’ve done,” Eryn corrected him. “It’s not going to get stuck.”
    Right now she was more concerned that the lock was fortified somehow and the pin wouldn’t work. But even without looking at Nick, she could feel him worrying behind her.
    â€œIf it does get stuck, I’ll use the wire cutters on it, so Mom and Michael won’t know what happened,” Eryn added, to calm Nick down.
    The pin hit something solid, directly behind the hole in the knob. Eryn pushed the pin harder. Something clicked.
    â€œIs that . . . Did it work?” Nick asked.
    Eryn pulled the bobby pin out of the hole and put her hand on the knob. She turned it and pushed tentatively on the door. It slid back a quarter-inch and came to rest at the very edge of the door frame. Another push would give her her first glimpse of Ava’s room.
    Eryn took a deep breath.
    â€œYes!” Nick began chanting behind her. “Yes, yes, yes. . . . Why’d you have to do the girl’s room first?”
    Eryn handed him the bobby pin.
    â€œRight,” Nick said. “We could do this almost like a ceremony. You step into Ava’s room at the same time I step into Jackson’s. We find out what we need to know at the exact same time. . . .”
    â€œLess talking, more lock picking,” Eryn said, waving him toward Jackson’s door.
    She wasn’t sure how much longer she could wait before just shoving her way into Ava’s room. What would it look like? How strange would someone have to be to have absolutely nothing in common