Twin Dangers by Megan Atwood Page A

go ahead. I’ll be down in a minute. I need to talk to Madame.”
    â€œAbout what?”
    â€œAbout something ,” Emma said, frustration written over her face.
    â€œYeah, I gathered that much. But what are you going to talk about?”
    â€œI don’t have to tell you everything, you know!” Emma yanked her bag up from the floor and stormed out, passing Madame Puant as she went.
    Sophie was flabbergasted. What had just happened? She noticed that Trey was leaving in a hurry too.
    Before she could think about it, though, Madeleine, Kayley, and Ophelia came over.
    â€œSo … that was weird,” Ophelia said.
    Kayley, chomping on some gum, added, “Yeah, what was that all about? Usually you guys can’t even breathe without each other.”
    Sophie sighed. Kayley always made cracks like that. Sophie suspected she was jealous that the twins had each other—Kayley only had four brothers.
    Sophie shrugged and tried to look nonchalant. “I have no idea,” she said, truthfully. “But I’m starving. Let’s go to breakfast.”
    The four of them walked out of the room, Sophie chewing on her bottom lip the whole time. What had gotten into Emma? And why would she need to talk to Madame? Worse, why hadn’t she told Sophie about it?
    The girls reached the second floor and walked down the hallway’s long, bloodred, velvety carpet, which made the space imposing at any time of day. The candle-shaped electric lights on the walls didn’t help—all they did was throw weird shadows all around. Sophie got a chill passing through.
    As they reached the top of the huge staircase that led down to the lobby and dining room, Sophie stopped.
    â€œI’m going to go see if Emma’s all right.”
    Ophelia shrugged and Kayley nodded. Madeleine put her hand on Sophie’s shoulder. “I hope she is.”
    Sophie squeezed Madeleine’s hand, suddenly even more worried about Emma. It wasn’t like her sister to go running off. Something had to be really wrong.
    She walked back down the hall, toward Emma’s room near the staircase. As she prepared to turn the handle on Emma’s door, something made her change her mind. She thought she felt a breeze from the staircase up to the third floor, and without thinking, she headed up the stairs.
    Past the ballet studio, Sophie heard murmuring coming from one of the classrooms. The studio was dark now, and as Sophie passed it, she could still hear the ghosts of pointe shoes banging on the floor. The murmurs got louder: two separate voices, a boy and a girl. Sophie walked toward the noise.
    As she got closer, she heard sobbing. And between the sobs, she heard her name. The words starting taking shape, and then she heard it.
    Emma’s voice.
    â€œBut I still don’t know what to do about Sophie. What should I tell her?”
    Sophie tiptoed closer to the classroom doorway.
    And the worst thing she could imagine happened. She heard Trey’s voice. “Tell her we’re dating. She’s your sister. She’ll have to understand.”
    Emma’s voice turned to sobs again. “That’s just it. I’m her sister. How could I do this to her?”
    Sophie’s face grew hot, and she turned the corner to see Emma in Trey’s arms. He was stroking her hair. Sophie’s eyes blurred with tears as Trey and Emma jumped.
    Emma backed away. “Sophie … ,” she said.
    Sophie burst into tears. “You asked a good question, Emma,” she said. “How could you do this to me?”
    She ran as fast as she could toward her room.

Chapter 2
    Rounding the stairs, cheeks burning, eyes blinded by tears, Sophie barreled into someone. They both fell on their butts, and Sophie’s head narrowly missed the last stair of the staircase. She wiped her eyes to get a better look at whom she knocked over, trying to catch her breath at the same time.
    The girl, maybe fourteen or fifteen,