away from me. Garrett says hello. Zane just groans.
“Great. It’s the tampon brigade,” Zane says. He leans over to whisper in my ear, “Beware, the evil twin.”
“Evil twin?” I’m sure I heard him wrong. Garrett grabs my hand and pulls me to his side.
“Nalena, this is Deeta, Robin, and hey, Zaneen, who let you in?” Garrett clonks the last girl lightly on the shoulder with a sideways fist.
The first girl, Deeta, I recognize from my history class at Simon Valley High. She’s a girl who always looks shocked, from her eyes to the tips of her hair. It explodes out from the bottom of her disheveled bob like static-zapped, scarecrow fingers.
What I remember of Deeta Houle is that she always sat on the opposite side of the room in History, in the front left corner, and spent most of our class time leaning off her desk with her hand up, desperate for the teacher to call on her. And Deeta, pretty much without fail, always had the wrong answer. But even with the whole class groaning every time the teacher called on her, Deeta never seemed discouraged. She smiles at me now, like we’re best friends, and I smile back.
The second girl is kind of familiar too, even though she was always as hard to recognize as my own shadow in a crowd. Robin Middleditch traveled in the black-clothed Goth group at Simon Valley and wasn’t in any of my classes, so all I knew of her was what Head Cheerleader Jen thought of her.
“Robbie-Might-As-Well-Be-Bobby,” Jen had pointed Robin out to me in the hallway. It was during the couple of weeks when I was still the new girl and Jen and I were actually friends. “She’s the twin’s cousin, but she doesn’t look anything like them. She looks like a guy if you ask me. And she lives with them, so she’s got to be one of the Middleditch’s shotgun babies, if you know what I mean. I say she’s 100% freak monkey.”
After, when I became one of Jen’s freak monkeys too, I tried to smile at Robin whenever I passed her in the halls. She never smiled back. Now, her one visible eye blinks at me through the ring of her smoky make up and she pans down the length of my dress to my bare feet.
“Where’s your shoes?” she asks and then she looks away before I answer.
“My fault,” Garrett chuckles. “I hid her glass slippers.”
The third girl is Zaneen. I recognize her the same way you recognize a face you’ve seen at a mall or in a yearbook, but not from my classes. The girl is a total duplicate of Zane, but with longer hair, tighter jeans, and awesome, rock star hair that is white blond on top and neon pink at the bottom.
“Nice to meet you,” I say to her. “You’re Zane’s twin, right?”
“Belladonna,” she tips her chin as she says it. Zane snorts behind us.
“Oh my god…” he groans. “Just shut up already, Neener. You’re not some cryptic little flower. The Addo only gave you the day-pass into the Ianua so you could watch Iris while we get things straightened out. Don’t get nuts with it.”
She’s not Contego, but she might as well be. She’s Zane’s sister. Zaneen hits him with a laser beam glare.
“Shut up, jock strap,” she says, but she still blushes. But, on Zaneen, blushing makes her look like she’s just been kissed, instead of totally embarrassed. There’s something about her that is delicate and something that wants to be dangerous, like the busted neck of a champagne bottle, and I get uneasy watching how her eyes rest on Garrett’s face when he smiles at me. She seems to be calculating how close Garrett’s hand swings to mine.
Her blush drains when she looks back at me and then she leans in close and whispers, “I grew up with the Reese’s. They’re like my brothers…except that I like them .” She sneers at Zane and he just snorts back at her, but then her eyes run back over me like a wire brush. “I’m very protective of my brothers.”
I’m not sure what to say to her then. Part of me feels like I’ve got to give Zaneen
“Great. It’s the tampon brigade,” Zane says. He leans over to whisper in my ear, “Beware, the evil twin.”
“Evil twin?” I’m sure I heard him wrong. Garrett grabs my hand and pulls me to his side.
“Nalena, this is Deeta, Robin, and hey, Zaneen, who let you in?” Garrett clonks the last girl lightly on the shoulder with a sideways fist.
The first girl, Deeta, I recognize from my history class at Simon Valley High. She’s a girl who always looks shocked, from her eyes to the tips of her hair. It explodes out from the bottom of her disheveled bob like static-zapped, scarecrow fingers.
What I remember of Deeta Houle is that she always sat on the opposite side of the room in History, in the front left corner, and spent most of our class time leaning off her desk with her hand up, desperate for the teacher to call on her. And Deeta, pretty much without fail, always had the wrong answer. But even with the whole class groaning every time the teacher called on her, Deeta never seemed discouraged. She smiles at me now, like we’re best friends, and I smile back.
The second girl is kind of familiar too, even though she was always as hard to recognize as my own shadow in a crowd. Robin Middleditch traveled in the black-clothed Goth group at Simon Valley and wasn’t in any of my classes, so all I knew of her was what Head Cheerleader Jen thought of her.
“Robbie-Might-As-Well-Be-Bobby,” Jen had pointed Robin out to me in the hallway. It was during the couple of weeks when I was still the new girl and Jen and I were actually friends. “She’s the twin’s cousin, but she doesn’t look anything like them. She looks like a guy if you ask me. And she lives with them, so she’s got to be one of the Middleditch’s shotgun babies, if you know what I mean. I say she’s 100% freak monkey.”
After, when I became one of Jen’s freak monkeys too, I tried to smile at Robin whenever I passed her in the halls. She never smiled back. Now, her one visible eye blinks at me through the ring of her smoky make up and she pans down the length of my dress to my bare feet.
“Where’s your shoes?” she asks and then she looks away before I answer.
“My fault,” Garrett chuckles. “I hid her glass slippers.”
The third girl is Zaneen. I recognize her the same way you recognize a face you’ve seen at a mall or in a yearbook, but not from my classes. The girl is a total duplicate of Zane, but with longer hair, tighter jeans, and awesome, rock star hair that is white blond on top and neon pink at the bottom.
“Nice to meet you,” I say to her. “You’re Zane’s twin, right?”
“Belladonna,” she tips her chin as she says it. Zane snorts behind us.
“Oh my god…” he groans. “Just shut up already, Neener. You’re not some cryptic little flower. The Addo only gave you the day-pass into the Ianua so you could watch Iris while we get things straightened out. Don’t get nuts with it.”
She’s not Contego, but she might as well be. She’s Zane’s sister. Zaneen hits him with a laser beam glare.
“Shut up, jock strap,” she says, but she still blushes. But, on Zaneen, blushing makes her look like she’s just been kissed, instead of totally embarrassed. There’s something about her that is delicate and something that wants to be dangerous, like the busted neck of a champagne bottle, and I get uneasy watching how her eyes rest on Garrett’s face when he smiles at me. She seems to be calculating how close Garrett’s hand swings to mine.
Her blush drains when she looks back at me and then she leans in close and whispers, “I grew up with the Reese’s. They’re like my brothers…except that I like them .” She sneers at Zane and he just snorts back at her, but then her eyes run back over me like a wire brush. “I’m very protective of my brothers.”
I’m not sure what to say to her then. Part of me feels like I’ve got to give Zaneen
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