Bewitching (9 page)

“So you don’t like her because she’s polite?”

“She’s trying to get something.”

“Oh my God. That’s just crazy.”

“No it’s not. No it’s not. She wants information out of you, something she can use against you with your father,
her
father. Did you tell her anything, anything private?”

I remembered how I’d said I didn’t like sailing, but I said, “Of course not. This is deranged.”

“I assume you like living in this house, Emma? Having nice things?”

“Can I just do my homework now?”

“She’s his flesh and blood, Emma.”

“Daddy loves me.”

She sighed. “Just watch out, Emma.” She stood and walked toward the closet. “And change your outfit. That one looks all sweaty. And do your project.”

I did work on my project, at least until I heard the shower start up in her bedroom. Then, I gathered the pile of clothes and also some books I thought Lisette might like, not nerdy classics, but the kind even the popular girls read, books about faeries. Maybe Lisette would be like a faerie visitor who would change my life in mysterious ways.

Okay, that sounded dumb, even to me.

I snuck downstairs and knocked on Lisette’s door. “You forgot these,” I said when she answered the door, red-eyed.

She gestured that I should come in. “Your mom hates me.”

“She’s just…” Just what? Selfish? What could I say that wouldn’t make her sound awful? Nothing. “She doesn’t like change.”

“I was trying to be so perfect, but she didn’t even give me a chance.”

I remembered Mother’s comment about Lisette saying “ma’am.” Trying to be perfect would explain that.

“Maybe don’t try so hard. She’ll like you better once she gets to know the real you.” I knew she wouldn’t.

“I hope so.” Lisette’s eyes darted to the garbage bag still on the floor. “God, I miss my mom.”

I held out the armload of clothing and books. “I brought you some outfits. And some books too. I thought maybe if we read the same things, we could discuss them, and that would help you in English.”

“Cool!” She took them from me. “The books look awesome! You’re so generous.”

“No big deal. I already read them.”

“Still.” She threw her arms around me. “Oh, Emma, I’m so glad you’re here at least.”

I hugged her back, listening for the shower to go off upstairs. I could not believe this cool girl was going to be my sister.

4

It was five-thirty when I heard the garage door open and, through the window, saw Daddy’s car pull in. I ran downstairs to greet him. I wanted to be there when he met Lisette.

But, when I got there, she was already wrapped in his arms.

“Oh, baby,” he said, “it’s been so long. Too long.”

Lisette was crying. Again. “I always wanted—”

“I know. I’m sorry. I’m sorry it had to be like this, but at least we’re together now.”

I started to back away. It had been dumb of me, thinking I could horn in on their moment, their reunion. As I stepped back, I stumbled into the sunken living room and plunged headfirst into the sofa, my knee hitting the edge of the glass coffee table. I squeezed my teeth together to keep from shrieking. Lisette saw it all. She looked down.

Finally, my father let go of her. “Let me take a look at you. Man, you’ve grown.”

That was when I saw what she was wearing. My jeans, the ones I’d given her, and one of my shirts. The jeans fit all wrong, huge in the waist and hips but way too short, and the Hollister shirt had a big yellow stain on it. Now I remembered spilling Coke on it. The expensive clothes looked like they’d come from the Salvation Army.

“But we need to get you some new clothes,” Dad said.

“Oh.” Lisette gestured down at her outfit. “Emma gave me these. Wasn’t that sweet of her, to let me have her old clothes she doesn’t want anymore?” She whirled around, modeling the mess of an outfit. As she did, the pants dropped down, and she had to pull them up. She must have been a size zero. “They’re fine. I just need a belt, maybe. I have one though. You don’t have to buy me anything.”

“Nah, I’ll take you shopping. Those things don’t even fit.”

That was when he spotted me. “Hey, Em. Can you tell your mom to wait dinner? I’m going to take Lisette shopping.”

“You don’t have to do that,” she protested again.

“I’ve missed ten years of Christmases and birthdays. Now’s my chance to make them up.” He hugged her again. I limped out of the room.

During dinner, Mother glowered at me. Daddy had called to tell us to go ahead and eat without them. He and Lisette were going to Swenson’s.

After dinner, I went to my room and waited. Had Mother been right about Lisette, that she was trying to steal Daddy from me? It almost seemed that way. I hadn’t noticed the spot on the shirt, but now I wondered if Lisette had purposely chosen the worst thing I’d given her, just to make herself look more pathetic. Couldn’t she have worn her own pants if mine hadn’t fit? Did she just want to make me look bad?

I didn’t go downstairs when Lisette came home, but a few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Lisette was there, holding a shoebox. She held it out.

“I noticed you didn’t have any cute sandals to show off your pedicure. I got Dad to buy you some.”

I opened the box. It even smelled expensive. Inside were the cutest strappy sandals exactly the color of the blue polish we’d used.

“You’re about a size eight, right?” Lisette said.

I nodded. “Yes.” I was three or four inches shorter but had much bigger feet.

“I thought so. I got the same ones, see?” She held up her foot. “We can wear them to school Monday if you want.”

I did want. “That’s so sweet of you to think of me.”

“Of course I did. You’ve been so nice. How’s your knee, by the way? It looked like you really banged it.”

“It’s fine.”

“Good. Dad said, if you wanted, he could drop us at the mall tomorrow night, to see a movie or something.”

My doubts about Lisette dissipated. She definitely wanted to be friends. I guess I couldn’t blame her for going out with Daddy. She couldn’t go to school in stuff that didn’t fit. And the other thing, wearing the shirt with the spot on it, must have been an accident, just like my giving her the shirt had been.

“So you can go?” Lisette said.

I could just picture the girls at school, especially Courtney, seeing me at the Falls with my cool new sister.

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

“Try them on.” She wiggled her blue toes.

So I did. The shoes fit perfectly, and from the ankles down, we could have been twins.

5

Monday, Daddy went late to work so he could drive us to school and register Lisette.

“I’m so excited!” Lisette squeezed my hand.

I squeezed back. I was too. The more I got to know Lisette, the more I knew my—and my mother’s—fears were unfounded.

I hadn’t been sure at first. When I’d awakened Saturday, Lisette and my dad had already left the house.

“They were gone when I woke up,” Mother said with a nod. “Left a note saying they went sailing.”

I spent the day reading. Lisette and Daddy returned that afternoon, sunburned and laughing. I met them downstairs.

“Hey,” Lisette said. I noticed she was holding Daddy’s hand.

“Did you have fun?” I tried to keep the hurt from my voice.

“Hi, darling.” Daddy kissed my forehead. “You were sawing wood when we left.”

“I wish you’d woken me.”

“I know you’re not much into sailing,” Daddy said. “Lisette said so.”

Something she could use against me
.

“Yeah,” Lisette agreed. “Now you don’t have to go anymore.”

“I was thinking I’d like to try again.” Which wasn’t true. A week ago, I’d have been thrilled at the chance never to go sailing. “Maybe now that I’m older, I’ll like it better.”

“I’m sorry, Pumpkin,” Daddy said. “I didn’t know.”

He really had looked sorry, so I said, “It’s okay. I just wanted to do something together, all of us.” My voice sounded whiny, even to my own ears. “Maybe tomorrow we can do the butterfly garden.”

Daddy rubbed his arms. “I don’t know. Your old dad’s not as young as he used to be. Maybe next weekend.”

“Sure.” I wanted to stomp my feet and whine that he wasn’t doing anything with me, just Lisette, but I knew that would be a bad idea. Lisette’s mother had just died. I’d look like a brat.

“Are we still on for tonight?” Lisette’s newly pink cheeks accented her bright blue eyes and the highlights in her hair.

“Sure. I thought you’d forgotten.”

“Never. We’re sisters now, right?”

I nodded. “Sisters.”

That night, walking around the Falls with Lisette in her new clothes, I felt like I was with a movie star, like I
was
a movie star. Everyone stared at us, and I was special by association. I kept searching the crowds, looking for Warner Glassman. It was stupid. He wasn’t there, of course. He was probably sitting at home, reading a book, which is what I’d have been doing but for Lisette. I did see Midori, though, Courtney’s best friend. I hoped she saw me.

Now, as we got out of Daddy’s car, I said, “Can I go to the office when you sign up Lisette?”

“It may be a long process,” Daddy said. “You shouldn’t miss class.”

Daddy touched Lisette’s waist to lead her into the building, but Lisette pointed at a poinciana tree. “Let’s meet there after school, so we can compare notes.”

“Great.” I’d been looking forward to walking through the hall with Lisette. At least she’d wait for me after school.

When I got to language arts, everyone was looking at Kendra Hilferty. Kendra was new this year, and ever since she’d moved here, there’d been rumors, crazy ones, about her. People speculated she was a spy, hired by the school board to expose weak teaching practices. That she had grown up in a commune. Or a convent. Or a circus, where she was principal contortionist. That her mother had been a famous dancer, and Kendra herself was the illegitimate daughter of the president of France. That she’d had to leave her previous school because she’d threatened another girl, and then the girl disappeared. Of course, no one bothered to ask Kendra if the rumors were true. It was more fun to gossip. Besides, people were afraid of her.

Today, she wore her usual black, a lace dress that looked like it was from a thrift shop. I noticed it only came to her knees. That was another rumor, one I happened to know was true—that the school had asked that she stop wearing floor-length skirts that could conceal a weapon. I knew that because, the day it happened, I was in the office calling Mother about a stomachache when Kendra exited the guidance counselor’s office. “You’ve just made dress code history,” she had said. “You’ve got a hundred girls in microminis, and you’re asking me to wear a
shorter
skirt.”

Kendra spent a lot of time in the guidance counselor’s office, another rumor that was true. Whenever Kendra was in class, stuff happened, stuff like the fire sprinklers going off or the earthworms we were dissecting in science class heading en masse for the parking lot. Or once, the tennis balls the teacher put on chair legs to make them quieter all got loose at the same time and started bouncing around the room. No one could ever pin this stuff on Kendra. It just happened when she was there.

I didn’t have anything against her, but I had her in three of my classes, and she sat next to me in all of them. That meant when people stared at her, they stared at me too.

Right now, she was balancing a pencil by its point on her fingertip, staring with great concentration. I couldn’t figure out how she did it, but I guessed she’d been at it awhile.

I realized Kendra probably sat next to me not because we were such great buds but because I was the one who always had an empty seat beside me. Maybe now that Lisette was here, that would change. I hoped to have her in at least one class.

“Hi,” I said to Kendra, because it was the polite thing to do.

“Hi, Emma.” The pencil clattered to the floor. Ms. Dillon told us to be quiet because the Pledge was starting.

During the moment of silence, there was a knock on the door. Everyone looked up from their talking and texting to see who was there. Then, they stared.