“I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to call Tina’s house today, ask some questions. Can we meet later tonight?”
“I won’t be here.” On her look, I give her more. “I’m going to a party. Someone from school.”
“Good for you,” Pia says.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was almost happy for me. But I can’t trust her fully. What if she is working with Crevan to find out what my plan is? What if she finds the guards and talks them out of telling the truth? Threatens them with a story or with accusing them of aiding a Flawed? And if I tell her about Mr. Berry’s recording of the Branding Chamber, what if she destroys the video? No, I can’t trust her. She is too close to Crevan, and she has done little so far to earn my trust. I can’t tell her about Carrick or Mr. Berry’s video.
I’ll just have to get to them before she does.
FORTY-TWO
“SO WHOSE PARTY are you going to?” Juniper asks me at breakfast, after Pia is gone.
“Logan Trilby’s.”
She stops chewing her cereal, her sugary cereal that she continues to eat while I’m limited to oatmeal. “Logan is the biggest asshole going.”
“He’s been nice to me.”
She frowns. “What’s he celebrating?”
“His eighteenth.”
“I’m pretty sure Logan is nineteen. He had to repeat his final year he’s so dumb.”
“No, he’s not.” I whip out the invitation.
She studies it with a frown. “Oh.” She hands it back, and we sit in silence. “I didn’t hear anything about it.”
Despite the tension between us over the past couple of weeks, she is my sister and I do have the capacity to feel sympathy for her. I’m thankful for that. It reminds me I’m human.
“Well, I’m sure they were just being nice to me. I wouldn’t feel bad about it,” I say gently.
She starts laughing. “Do you think I’m jealous? No way. Believe me, I’m not. You can have your party. What I meant was, I never heard about a party, and I wouldn’t trust them.”
“Why? Because I’m Flawed?” I ask, my anger flaring up instantly, always there ready and waiting for me to use in my overflowing reservoir. “You think the only reason I could be invited anywhere is because it’s a trick?”
“I’m not saying it’s a trick,” Juniper says weakly.
“So where are you going tonight?” I ask, the anger thumping inside me. “Are you going to disappear tonight like you do every night?”
Juniper looks at me in surprise, a mouth full of cereal. She chews slowly, and I can tell she’s trying to think.
I know it’s unfair of me to bring it up so loudly in front of everyone, but she is up to something and what she said about Logan has really hurt me. Finally, I’m making friends and she’s taking away from the thrill I should be feeling. My heart is racing as I watch her eat her sugary cereal; it’s making me angrier and angrier.
“What are you talking about?”
“For the past two weeks I’ve gone into your room at midnight most nights, and you haven’t been there.”
She laughs as if I’m ludicrous, which annoys me. I don’t like people thinking I’m crazy. Not now. Not after seeing Angelina Tinder lose her mind. I don’t want that to happen to me. Mary May looks up from her paperwork. Mom and Dad watch us with interest.
“Fight, fight, fight,” Ewan chants, before Juniper kicks him under the table.
“Maybe I was in the bathroom.”
“You weren’t.”
“How do you know?”
“I checked.”
“Okay, stalker.”
I don’t like how she looks at me.
“Is this true, Juniper?” Dad asks, coming over to the table.
“You’re going to give me shit when you know Celestine was leaving the house most nights to meet Art?”
Mom looks at Mary May in panic. “Before the branding. Juniper, please clarify,” she says sharply.
“Before the branding,” she says as though she’s a scolded child.
“What you both used to be able to do before and what you can do now is different, Juniper. If people see you and think that you’re Celestine, she will get into trouble. Like the hair,” Dad says, looking at Mary May angrily.
“So I can’t live my life because Celestine can’t?”
“Celestine can live her life, so watch your mouth, young lady,” Dad raises his voice, which startles us all.
“Anyway, I haven’t been sneaking out,” she says, eyes down, and I know she’s lying.
“Are you calling me a liar?” I ask.
She glares at me. “I don’t need to call you anything. Stick out your tongue, Celestine.”
“You stupid, little…” I pick up my oatmeal and hurl it at her.
Mom and Dad dive on both of us, separating us. Juniper is sent upstairs to change her oatmeal-covered clothes.
“Go on, take another hour to get dressed like you always do,” I shout after her.
“Celestine, stop,” Mom admonishes me.