Amy Maxwell & the 7 Deadly Sins (The Amy Maxwell Series Book 2) by Heather Balog Page A

this normal, non-descript kid. There’s no drama in that, and if I know one thing about Allie, she thrives on drama. Which is probably why she had this kid up in her room in the first place.
    “Oh no, my friend.” I cross my arms over my chest. “Who are you? And where do you live? Do I know your mother?” This is beginning to feel vaguely familiar. I feel like I’ve had this conversation before…
    The kid turns even redder than I thought humanly possible. It looks like his pale skin is on fire.
    “What’s your name?” I bark, getting a tiny bit of a thrill out of scaring this kid. Maybe if I can get him to pee his pants, I’ll never find him in my daughter’s bedroom again. Ah, that’s something to strive for.
    “Taylor,” he manages to stutter.
    “Isn’t that a girl’s name?” a voice from behind me asks.
    I look back to see Lexie hanging in the doorway, slurping a juice box.
    “Lexie-”
    “Just sayin, Mom. Taylor Swift, that girl Taylor at the Stop and Shop, Taylor G. in my class…all girls ,” she remarks. She offers her sister a cunning smile and then takes a noisy slurp, causing the juice box to crumple in her hand.
    “Get lost, Lexie. Go get ready for Girl Scouts. Don’t you have a meeting tonight?” The last thing I need is to break up a cat fight in between the girls right now.
    “That’s on Fridays, Mom. You forgot to take me this Friday and-”
    “You heard Mom, Lexie! Get out .” I can see the veins on the side of Allie’s temple pulsing.
    “Let me do the parenting, Lexie,” I tell her as I push her out the door and slam it closed.
    “Just trying to help you out, dear Mommy!” Ugh. She’s either buttering me up for something or taking way too much delight in the prospect of Allie getting in trouble. Or both.
    I thought raising my first teenager was difficult. Correction, it is difficult. Every. Single. Day. But the added bonus with Lexie is that she’s had a front row seat to all the Allie drama that’s been going around the last three or four years. As much as I thought my second daughter was scatter brained, I’m beginning to realize that she’s actually pretty manipulative. She loves to point out Allie’s flaws and be a suck up in the hopes that I applaud her for her lack of flaws. Or what she conceives to be lack of flaws. She thinks that I’ll let her get away with what she wants to do just because it isn’t as “bad” as what Allie is doing. But I’m on to her.
    I turn my attention back to Romeo and Juliet. “So Taylor, you were saying?”
    “Um, I wasn’t…” He is visibly shaking. I can tell Allie is pissed off, but also embarrassed. She looks like a deer caught in headlights; as well she should be with a boy in her room. But for some reason, I’m thinking that there’s more to this story. I smell a rat.
    “Listen, Mom, we really were just studying…” Allie starts to say.
    Taylor nervously shifts his weight and a page of loose leaf flutters out of his book. I follow the path the paper and suddenly, it all becomes clear. At the top of the page, written in Allie’s very neat but tiny scrawl, is her name.
    Allie wasn’t totally lying. There’s homework being done, but Taylor is the only one doing it. Allie is having him do her homework for her!
    I screw up my lips and glower at my daughter while I scoop the paper off the ground. Handing it to Taylor, I remark casually, “You forgot your homework…” I glance at the paper. “ Allie .”
    Now Allie and Taylor are matching shades of crimson.
    Before you laugh at me, let me point out that I am not delusional. I realize that pretty girls get boys to do their homework for them. I have actually pulled that stunt once or twice myself. (Don’t snicker…there were some desperate nerdy boys in school that thought even plain old me was attractive). But the difference is, I never stooped as far as to lead them into my bedroom under the guise that I liked them!
    I am furious with my daughter right now. Not