Part 1My Five-Dollar Guardian Angel

I’m Lily. The unloved, "real" daughter, shipped off to an elite prep school, Crestwood Academy, where someone was always trying to make my life hell.

Until the day I got cornered in an alley by a girl with a rainbow-dyed undercut. She was shaking me down for protection money.

"I don't take your money for free," she’d growled. "You're in trouble, you call me."

So, the next time the school's queen bee, Madison, had me cornered, I shakily dialed that number.

"Hey, Janky? It's Lily. Help..."

Who knew? For the price of a lemonade, she actually meant it.

* * *

The first time I met Janky, I was riding a beat-up Lime scooter to the subway station. I hadn't even gone a block before a group of kids dragged me, scooter and all, into an alley.

Seriously. They had to help me off the damn scooter.

The leader was the rainbow-haired girl. She had seven friends with her, all with bad bleach-blond jobs. It was the first time I'd seen so many colors on one person's head. I just stared.

She snarled, trying to look tough. "Protection money. You gonna pay up, or we gotta search you?"

"..."

Her crew tried to do an evil laugh. "Heh... heh... heh..."

I blinked. "Guys, hold up. First, nobody carries cash. Second, if I Venmo you, the cops will trace it in five minutes."

A bleach-blond guy raised a fist so big it looked like a cartoon ham. I yelped and clutched my backpack. "Wait! I've got an idea! You can take me to a store, and I'll buy you stuff!"

The rainbow girl shoved him aside and grabbed my collar. "Don't try any tricks, nerd."

"Okay."