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"It's so weird, putting the heads of stuff you've killed on the wall," I said. "Davis's guesthouse was full of that stuff."
"Tell me about it," Daisy said. "Mychal and I were hooking up in the actual shadow of a stuffed moose head. BTW, thanks for walking in on us last night, perv."
"Sorry, I wanted to tell you that you're rich." She laughed and shook her head again in disbelief. "I ran into Noah, by the way, the little brother? He asked if I knew anything about his dad and showed me this list of his notes. Here," I said, and showed her the list on my phone. "His last note was 'the jogger's mouth.' That mean anything to you?" Daisy shook her head slowly. "I just feel bad for him," I said. "He was crying and everything."
"That kid is not your problem," Daisy said. "We're not in the helping-billionaire-orphans business; we're in the getting-rich business, and business is booming."
"Well, fifty thousand dollars isn't rich," I said. "I mean, it's less than half of what IU would cost," which was the state school a couple hours south of us in Bloomington.
Daisy went quiet for a long time, her eyes blanked by concentration.
"All right," she said at last. "Just did some mental math. Fifty thousand dollars is, like, five thousand nine hundred hours at my job. Which is, like, seven hundred eight-hour shifts, if you can even get a full shift, which usually you can't, so that's two years of working seven days a week, eight hours a day. Maybe that's not rich to you, Holmesy, but that's rich to me."
"Fair enough," I said.
"And it was all sitting in a box of Cheerios."
"Well, like half of it was in a box of shredded wheat."
"You know what makes you a solid BFF, Holmesy? That you even told me about the money. Like, I hope I am the sort of person who would go halvsies with you on a six-figure-lottery situation, but to be perfectly honest, I don't trust myself." She took a bite of her burger and mostly swallowed before saying, "This lawyer guy isn't going to try to take back the money, is he?"
"I don't think so," I said.
"We should go to a bank," she said. "Get it deposited now."
"Davis said we should wait to talk to the lawyer."
"You trust him?"
"Yeah. I really do."
"Aww, Holmesy, we've both fallen in love. Me with an artist, you with a billionaire. We're finally leading the debutante lives we've always deserved."
In the end, our meal cost less than thirty dollars, but we left Holly a twenty-dollar tip for putting up with us.
ELEVEN
I WAS WATCHING VIDEOS ON MY PHONE the next morning when the call came in. "Hello?" I said.
"Aza Holmes?"
"This is she."
"This is Simon Morris. I believe you're acquainted with Davis Pickett."
"Hold on." I slipped on some shoes, snuck past Mom, who was watching TV in the living room while grading tests, and went outside. I walked down to the edge of our yard and sat down facing the house.
"Okay, hi," I said.
"I understand that you've received a gift from Davis."
"Yeah," I said. "I split it with my friend; is that okay?"
"How you handle your financial affairs is unimportant to me. Ms. Holmes, you may find that if a teenager walks into a bank with a vast array of hundred-dollar bills, the bank will generally be suspicious, so I've spoken to one of our bankers at Second Indianapolis, and they'll accept your deposit. I've set an appointment for you at three fifteen P.M. on Monday at the branch at Eighty-Sixth Street and College Avenue. I believe your school day ends at two fifty-five, so you should have adequate time to get there."
"How do you know--"
"I'm thorough."
