Never Enough by Denise Jaden

it was due by the fifteenth.”
    Claire nodded into her magazine. “Yeah, it is. For this year,” she added after a second.
    Dad started to say something, but stopped with half of an unintelligible word out of his mouth. Mom came back from the kitchen and seemed to catch on faster than the rest of us.
    “For this year? What are you talking about, Claire?” Her tone was that patronizing, all-business one she usually used on me. “You’re going to college this year.”
    “Wait. What?” Dad looked between Claire and Mom. My invisibility cloak seemed to be working. “You’re thinking of deferring? Now?”
    “No way.” Mom said. “Not a chance.”
    “It’s not that I don’t want to go,” Claire said, now looking up at them. “I do. And I will,” she pleaded. She watched Dad until he met her eyes. “It’s just that the University of Wisconsin is so generic, and I don’t even know what I would major in yet. Mrs. Avery thinks I might be able to get into a performing arts school with my grades and experience, and if I work really hard at ballet this year—”
    “Mrs. Avery is suggesting that you skip college?” Mom sounded like she was ready to send Claire’s poor ballet teacherto prison. For life. On another night, I might have come to Claire’s rescue. But not after the whole Deirdre/Marcus conversation. It didn’t matter, Dad took my place.
    “I’m sure that’s not what Mrs. Avery meant, Beth,” Dad said. It came so naturally for him to take an opposing side against Mom that I wondered if he’d even thought about what he was agreeing to.
    “It’s not,” Claire confirmed, and I could suddenly see it as though the words were painted on a scoreboard above them: Team A = Dad and Claire; Team B = Mom, all on her own.
    As expected, Mom put up a fight, but Claire fought her right to the end. Dad cited all sorts of excuses about how another year would give them something to pay on the Visa.
    It was settled. Claire would take the year off college to practice her pliés . And Mom couldn’t do a thing about it.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
     
    On my way to my room that night, I knocked on Claire’s door. She’d been pretty argumentative with Mom at the table, and I knew from experience that could drain a good chunk of emotional energy. I thought Claire might want to come to my room to talk.
    She didn’t answer at first, so I knocked again. Seconds later, our toilet flushed, and I heard the door open from the bathroom into her room.
    I knocked again.
    “What?” She sounded exasperated, like she’d heard the first two knocks and ignored them.
    “It’s just me,” I said.
    I waited, but she didn’t tell me to come in or anything. After a few long seconds, she said. “I’m not in the mood, Loann.”
    I stood there, stunned. At first I felt hurt—why would she talk to me that way? I hadn’t even been part of the whole postponing-college conversation. But then I grew angry. She was getting her way, not to mention, if I was lucky enough to get early acceptance into college, I sure wouldn’t throw it away like it was nothing. Besides that, I was trying to be nice, and Claire thought I was a nuisance?
    I stomped to my room and shut my door behind me. We usually leave both bathroom doors open a crack so we each know when it’s not occupied, but Claire had obviously forgotten to crack mine.
    The simple mistake made me even angrier.
    I marched over and yanked it open, but a weird stench made me push it shut again. Okay, so maybe her stomach was intolerant to this vegetarian thing. Maybe she wasn’t feeling well and her bad attitude had nothing to do with me. I guess she was entitled to have a bad night.
    *   *   *
     
    The next day, Marcus returned to school. I couldn’t help grinning like a Cheshire cat when I saw him at our lockers. He smiled weakly back. I picked at my fingernail, immediately feeling insecure. He wasn’t as happy to see me as I was to see him. Not even close.
    “I’ve got to get to