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“Impossible,” I whispered.
She was dressed like Jackie O., and her stringy black hair had been cut and blow-dried in a perfectly turned-under bob. She glanced at us, and I saw that she was fully made up, her eyebrow ring gone, her lips a demure pink.
“She wasn’t at school today,” Megan said. “I guess we know what she was doing.”
Lydia flounced over to the car and leaned on the window ledge.
“Alexis! Megan! Hi!” She ducked down to glance into the backseat. “Where’s Miss Kasey?”
“Hi,” I said. “Uh…she’s already inside. How’s it going?”
“Perfectly!” Lydia beamed, peppy as a 1960s soda-pop commercial. “How are you girls?”
“Super-duper,” I said.
“No kidding?” Lydia asked. “So. When are you two going to join the Sunshine Club? I’m telling you, you won’t regret it.” She assumed the saintly expression of a beauty pageant contestant talking about world peace. “It has totally changed my life.”
“Actually…today,” Megan replied. I was looking down at Lydia’s hand. Gone were her many skulls and plastic spiders and other assorted jewelry (a lot of which, I’m sort of embarrassed to say, were purchased on shopping trips with yours truly, back in the day). The only thing on any of her fingers was a single, gleaming gold ring.
“Lovely!” she cried.
“Yes,” I said. “Lovely.”
“Do us a favor?” Megan said. “Don’t tell Kasey you saw us. We want to surprise her.”
Lydia’s face lit up. “No way! So fun. Of course.”
She mimicked zipping her lips shut.
If only that could be a permanent setting.
Lydia flashed us another smile and bounded away, up the rose-bordered sidewalk toward the house.
“What…on earth…was that?” I asked.
“That,” Megan said, “is what the Sunshine Club is all about.”
We were the last ones inside. Pepper sat in the kitchen, eating a banana and keeping a suspicious eye on the front door. When she saw Megan and me, her jaw dropped. “What are you guys doing here?”
I shrugged. “We’re going to the meeting.”
Pepper dropped her peel in the trash. “Megan? Explain?”
Megan smiled, like the whole thing was a lark.
“Whatever.” Pepper grabbed her car keys. “I’m going to Kira’s.”
Megan knocked lightly on Mimi’s bedroom door, and Adrie
“Oh my God!” she squealed. “Hi!”
Behind her, I saw my sister’s face turn white. But Megan and I pushed our way in, and there was nothing Kasey could say in front of the other girls.
The ten of us fit in Mimi’s bedroom with room to spare. It was pristine, like an ad in a decorating magazine—the perfect backdrop for the array of immaculately dressed girls, wearing blissful, self- satisfied smiles, legs crossed at the ankle, posture perfect.
The whole room fell silent when Adrie
You had to admit—it was quite a book.
Ten inches wide, sixteen inches tall. The cover was leather, densely embossed with runes and symbols—stars, moons, vines, Celtic knots.
For a moment, I considered just grabbing it and taking off, but then Adrie
“We protect your dwelling with our blood and our lives,” she said, in the vague drone of a pod person.
“We protect your dwelling with our blood and our lives,” everyone repeated.
Megan and I glanced at each other. They did not sound like they were kidding.
Even if I did manage to wrench the book out of her hands, there were five girls between me and the door. Self-defense training or no, odds were I’d never make it.
Adrie
The way Adrie
“Megan and Alexis.” Adrie
Stand? I glanced at Kasey, whose face was buried in her hands.
Suddenly I felt like maybe we should have thought this whole thing through a little more.
I got to my feet, my heart beating as if I’d climbed ten flights of stairs. Megan stood next to me.
“Please put these on your ring fingers.” She passed each of us a thin gold ring. I slipped it over my finger. Adrie
Megan blinked with alarm and obeyed. Angling my body, I lifted my left hand and set it against the underside of the open book, hoping Adrie
But she didn’t notice.
“Geallaim dílseachta…”
“Geallaim dílseachta…”
She went through a whole long spiel of words that were nothing but nonsense—to us and to her, I could tell. I repeated as well as I could.
“A tu, Aralt,” Adrie
“A tu, Aralt,” we repeated.
My nerves felt like a writhing bundle of live wires.
Adrie
“Our sisters,” she said.
Everyone clapped politely. A path cleared back to my seat on the bed, and I sank down, trying to figure out if I felt different. I felt on edge, somehow, but that was probably adrenaline. After all, I’d taken an oath in a language I didn’t understand to a supernatural being I knew nothing about.
An oath. Why hadn’t Kasey said anything about an oath?
It occurred to me that maybe she’d pla
No. She’d been shocked to see us. And she didn’t look happy. She really believed she could fix this herself.
But an oath…
I caught sight of myself in the mirror over Mimi’s vanity and was struck by how dumpy and unkempt I looked, especially in contrast to the perfection surrounding me. My forehead and nose gleamed with oil. I raised my sleeve to try to wipe my face.
Someone gave my arm a gentle pat, and I looked up to find myself staring into Lydia’s untroubled eyes. She smiled reassuringly.
“What a joy,” Adrie
Betterment?
For a moment, no one said anything, and then a hand rose. “Monika?” Adrie
The girl she’d called on, a tall brunette, stood up. “Everyone looks wonderful today,” she said, her glance traveling quickly past me. “But I noticed at lunch that some girls were eating very large portions. Small meals in public, and then eat in the bathroom if you’re still hungry. You know we want to appear our best, inside and out.” She sighed and continued with a mournful it has to be said air. “I’m talking about Emily and Paige.”
For a few long, uncomfortable seconds, everyone stared at Emily and Paige, who ducked their heads and gazed at the carpet.
It went on for another ten minutes, girls being called out for infractions of an extremely strict and meticulous behavior and dress code. Even Adrie
Megan looked at me, her eyes asking when we were going to make our move. Then I watched as her gaze traveled to the mirror, and her eyes narrowed in distaste.
I didn’t understand—she looked fine. Just as good as any of the other girls, maybe better. I was the ugly one.