Two Can Keep a Secret(13)
The girl tugs on her ponytail instead of taking the papers from me. “Thing is, they only hire kids from Echo Ridge.”
“We are,” I say, brightly. “We just moved here.”
She blinks at us. “You did? Are you— Ohhh.” I can almost see the puzzle pieces lock together in her mind as she glances between Ezra and me. “You must be the Corcoran twins.”
It’s the same reaction we’ve been getting all week—like all of a sudden, she knows everything about us. After spending our lives in the orbit of a city where everyone’s fighting for recognition, it’s weird to be so effortlessly visible. I’m not sure I like it, but I can’t argue with the results when she extends her hand toward the applications with a beckoning motion. “I’m Brooke Bennett. We’ll be in the same class next week. Let me see what I can do.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Malcolm
Sunday, September 8
“You have four kinds of sparkling water,” Mia reports from the depths of our refrigerator. “Not flavors. Brands. Perrier, San Pellegrino, LaCroix, and Polar. The last one’s a little down-market, so I’m guessing it’s a nod to your humble roots. Want one?”
“I want a Coke,” I say without much hope. The Nilssons’ housekeeper, who does all the grocery shopping, isn’t a fan of refined sugar.
It’s the Sunday before school starts, and Mia and I are the only ones here. Mom and Peter left for a drive after lunch, and Katrin and her friends are out back-to-school shopping. “I’m afraid that’s not an option,” Mia says, pulling out two bottles of lemon Polar seltzer and handing one to me. “This refrigerator contains only clear beverages.”
“At least it’s consistent.” I set my bottle down on the kitchen island next to a stack of the college brochures that have started to arrive for Katrin on a daily basis: Brown, Amherst, Georgetown, Cornell. They seem like a stretch for her GPA, but Peter likes people to aim high.
Mia unscrews the cap from her bottle and takes a long swig, making a face. “Ew. This tastes like cleaning solution.”
“We could go to your house, you know.”
Mia shakes her head so violently that her red-tipped dark hair flies in her face. “No thank you. Tensions are high in the Kwon household, my friend. The Return of Daisy has everyone shook.”
“I thought Daisy’s coming home was temporary.”
“So did we all,” Mia says in her narrator voice. “And yet, she remains.”
Mia and I are friends partly because, a long time ago, Declan and her sister, Daisy, were. Lacey Kilduff and Daisy Kwon had been best friends since kindergarten, so once Declan and Lacey started dating, I saw almost as much of Daisy as I did of Lacey. Daisy was my first crush; the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen in real life. I could never figure out what Declan saw in Lacey when Daisy was right there. Meanwhile, Mia was in love with both Lacey and Declan. We were a couple of awkward preteens trailing around after our golden siblings and their friends, lapping up whatever scraps of attention they’d throw our way.
And then it all imploded.
Lacey died. Declan left, suspected and disgraced. Daisy went to Princeton just like she was supposed to, graduated with honors, and got a great job at a consulting firm in Boston. Then, six weeks ago, she abruptly quit and moved back home with her parents.
Nobody knows why. Not even Mia.
A key jingles in the lock, and loud giggles erupt in the foyer. Katrin comes sweeping into the kitchen with her friends Brooke and Viv, all three of them weighed down by brightly colored shopping bags.
“Hey,” she says. She swings her bags onto the kitchen island, almost knocking over Mia’s bottle. “Do not go to the Bellevue Mall today. It’s a zoo. Everybody’s buying their homecoming dresses already.” She sighs heavily, like she wasn’t doing the exact same thing. We all got a “welcome back” email from the principal last night, including a link to a new school app that lets you view your schedule and sign up for stuff online. The homecoming ballot was already posted, where theoretically you can vote anyone from our class onto the court. But in reality, everybody knows four of the six spots are already taken by Katrin, Theo, Brooke, and Kyle.
“Wasn’t planning on it,” Mia says drily.
Viv smirks at her. “Well, they don’t have a Hot Topic, so.” Katrin and Brooke giggle, although Brooke looks a little guilty while she does it.
There’s a lot about my and Katrin’s lives that don’t blend well, and our friends top the list. Brooke’s all right, I guess, but Viv’s the third wheel in their friend trio, and the insecurity makes her bitchy. Or maybe that’s just how she is.
Mia leans forward and rests her middle finger on her chin, but before she can speak I grab a bouquet of cellophane-wrapped flowers from the island. “We should go before it starts raining,” I say. “Or hailing.”
Katrin waggles her brows at the flowers. “Who are those for?”
“Mr. Bowman,” I say, and her teasing grin drops. Brooke makes a strangled sound, her eyes filling with tears. Even Viv shuts up. Katrin sighs and leans against the counter.
“School’s not going to be the same without him,” she says.
Mia hops off her stool. “Sucks how people in this town keep getting away with murder, doesn’t it?”