K. McInerney: ... one to take the blame anyway. She looked back at the two of them as a beam of light from a streetlamp crossed their faces, highlighting Mandy's gold-flecked brown eyes, dark brown skin, and wary expression, and Ty's pale skin and light blue eyes, jittery behind his glasses. Dinah felt a twinge of guilt for talking them into this. "You don't have to come with me, if you really hate the idea."

Mandy gave her a wry smile, and pulled a tiny can of pepper spray from her skirt pocket. "I mean, we're obviously not going to let you go in there alone."

"We're not?" Ty cracked. Dinah wouldn't have been surprised if he was only half kidding. As much as he cared about her, Ty also happened to be the furthest thing from a risk taker.

"This just better be worth it," Mandy added.

"It will be." Dinah grinned at her two oldest friends, looping in arm through each of theirs as they crossed to the darker side of the street.

The towering curtain of weeds rose up to meet them. It surrounded the park's perimeter, blocking every entrance. "What are we supposed to do now?" Ty asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Just follow me." Dinah took a deep breath and slid sideways into the weeds, feeling them part just enough to let her through before swallowing her up in stems and leaves. They scratched at her skin as she elbowed her way forward toward a half-buried entrance gate. A tangle of bare branches poked through the gate's iron bars like spindly arms pushing her away. Still, Dinah moved closer. The latch was rusted shut after so many years untouched. Dinah cringed. This wasn't going to be pretty, especially in her mandatory Gotham City Girls uniform. A starched white button-down and knee-length wool skirt weren't exactly made for fence jumping.

She tied her blonde hair into a ponytail and backed up a few steps before breaking into a run, leaping up onto the gate. Her skirt snagged on the bars and branches clawed at her bare legs. But she managed to hoist herself over to the other side, landing knee deep in brittle browned grass. And for the first time, Dinah was inside Robinson Park. It looked wild, feral in the twilight. Dead leaves and twigs littered the path ahead. Ivy snaked around every surface and even the trees drooped to the ground as if hiding their heads in shame. Still, there were hints of the happier place this used to be. A pair of swings creaked as the breeze rattled their chains. A paint-chipped carousel swayed in the same wind, sending its porcelain horses on a slow turn. They would never get to finish.

Dinah stepped up to the horse nearest her, a gray thoroughbred with a cracked white mane. Its mouth was open in an expression meant to be a smile, but time had reshaped it so that the horse now appeared to be baring its teeth. Dinah shivered, stepping back. Just then Mandy came hurdling over the gate, landing with a flying leap. She actually managed to make it look graceful, even in her constricting uniform, and Dinah couldn't help but clap as her friend's feet hit the ground.

"Think of the gymnast I could have been," Mandy joked, dropping into a playful bow. It was a running gag between her and Dinah, albeit not a very funny one, remarking on all the different things they could have done or become if they had just been born a generation or two earlier, back when girls were allowed to be athletes. Mandy's smile fell as she took in the scene around them. "Yikes, it's even more of a dump than I imagined."

A loud thump sounded behind them as Ty tumbled to the ground, glasses flying off his nose. "Why is it that I always seem to wind up bruised whenever we follow one of your plans?" he complained, fumbling through the grass for his glasses.

"Sorry, T." Dinah reached out to help pull him back up to his feet. "But I promise, if what I overheard is even half true, you'll be thanking me for dragging you here."

"If you say so." Ty shook his head at her, but then fell into step as Dinah led the way. For a while, the only sound was of their shoes crunching leaves.