Secrets 01 Secrets in the Attic by V. C. Andrews Page A

Zipporah. You would like to go to the junior prom next year, wouldn't you?"
"I suppose." This was the first time we had talked about it.
"Well, after the Harry thing, let's you and I start working on it," she said. "It's time we broke out of our little cocoon and invaded the world the zeros think they own. We're just teenagers!"
To think of our lives as becoming normal after all this was not easy, but I didn't want to say anything or do anything that would upset her. Perhaps this was the way she dealt with her terrible situation.
After we cleaned up the kitchen, we went to my room to do some homework. Every once in a while, I would pause and think again how we were going along with life as if nothing was unusual, when looming behind every look, in every pause and quiet moment, was the Harry thing.
My father came home and stopped in to speak to us. "How are you, Karen?" he asked.
She gave him one of her best Karen Stoker smiles, looking as if she might just get up and do a little dance of joy.
"I'm fine, Mr. Stein. How are you?"
"I'm overworked," he complained, and then laughed. "How I wish I was a teenager again," he sang.
"Jesse called and said he'd call on Sunday," I told him.
"Oh. Great. How's he doing?"
"Starting at third base."
"Really? I guess we'll have to attend a game or two. Maybe you can come along, Karen."
"I'd like that, Mr. Stein," she said.
"Okay, I'll leave you guys to your plotting and scheming," he said.
I felt myself blush. If he only knew how true that was, I thought.
Karen didn't even blink. She smiled back at him and looked at the science text again.
"I just love your father," she said, her eyes on the textbook page. "My real dad was a good guy, too." She rarely talked about him, so I didn't breathe. "If he knew what was happening to me now . . ." She looked up at me, her eyes glassy with tears. "There is nothing better than having someone to protect you, Zipporah."
I nodded, tears coming to my eyes as well.
Then she smiled. "We're going to do it, though, aren't we? We're going to make it all right. We're going to protect ourselves."
"Yes," I said. "Bird Oath."
She reached for my hand, and we held each other's hand for a long moment. Then she sucked back her tears, took a deep breath, and said, "Mrs. Lotha is absolutely sadistic to give us this much homework. Let's start calling her Mrs. Loathing."
I laughed. Karen was really the wittiest girl I knew.
Afterward, I stood outside in the dark and watched her get on her bike to ride back to the village. When she had gone to say good-bye to my father in the living room, he had offered to drive her and put her bike in the car trunk, but she said she wanted to ride through the darkness.
"It's kind of exciting in a way, Mr. Stein," she said. "It's not pitch dark. I can see where I'm going all right, but with the stars and all, it's just nice."
My father smiled at her and nodded. "Yes, sir," he said, "I wish I was a teenager again."
The way he said it and continued to look at Karen made me think he wished he was a teenager just so he could pursue her. It put a cold and then hot surge through my heart, and I looked at her with a new sense of envy. I was even a little angry. First Jesse expressed admiration for her, and now my father looked as if he was doing the same thing. Of course, I couldn't imagine him lusting after any woman other than my mother. I didn't want to hear even a reference to any of his former girlfriends.
"You must have been quite a teenager in your day, Mr. Stein," she told him, and he beamed.
"I had my fun," he admitted.
"You'd better get going," I told Karen, "before your mother starts worrying about you."
She looked at me and nodded.
"Night, Mr. Stein. Say hello to Mrs. Stein." "Will do," Daddy called to her.
I followed her out. We stood on the stoop for a few moments. Neither of us said anything. She looked as if she had frozen. Her eyes didn't move, and her jaw was taut.
"Karen?" I said.
"I hate him," she said suddenly, with such vehemence