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“So listen,” Lucas said. “I’m not invited to Mona’s party, either. Do you want to get together on Saturday and have an anti-party? I have a negative-edge pool. It’s heated. Or, you know, if that’s not your thing, we could…I don’t know. Play poker.”
“Poker?” Hanna glanced at him askance. “Not strip.”
“What do you take me for?” Lucas put his hand to his chest. “I’m talking Texas Hold ’Em. You’d better watch it, though. I’m good.”
“All right. Sure. I’ll come over and play poker.” She leaned back in the balloon, realizing she was looking forward to it. She gave Lucas a coy smile. “Don’t change the subject, though. Now that I’ve made an ass out of myself, you’ve got to fess up about some embarrassing stuff, too. What else are you avoiding by joining all your activities?”
Lucas leaned back. “Let’s see. There’s the fact that I’m a hermaphrodite.”
His face was dead serious. Hanna widened her eyes, caught off guard. But then Lucas grinned and started laughing, so Hanna laughed, too.
23
THE ROSEBUSHES HAVE EYES
Friday at lunch, Emily sat in the Rosewood Day greenhouse, where tall, leafy plants and a few species of butterflies flourished in the humidity. Even though it was hot and smelled like dirt, a lot of people were eating lunch in here. Maybe it was to escape the drizzly weather—or maybe they just wanted to be near Rosewood Day’s new It Girl, Emily Fields.
“So are you going to Mona’s party?” Aria’s brother, Mike, gazed expectantly at Emily. He and a few other boys on the lacrosse team had plopped down on a bench across from her and were hanging on her every word.
“I don’t know,” Emily replied, finishing the last of her potato chips. It was doubtful her mom would let her go to Mona’s, and Emily wasn’t sure if she wanted to.
“You should come hang out in my hot tub afterward.” Noel Kahn scribbled his number on a piece of lined notebook paper. He tore it off and handed it to her. “That’s when the real party’s going to start.”
“Bring your girlfriend, too,” Mike suggested, a hungry look in his eye. “And feel free to make out around us. We’re very open-minded.”
“I could even get my photo booth back out for you,” Noel offered, giving Emily a wink. “Whatever turns you on.”
Emily rolled her eyes. As the boys sauntered off, she leaned over her thighs and let out a frazzled breath. It was too bad she wasn’t the exploitative type—she could probably make a lot of money off these sexed-up, girl-on-girl-loving Rosewood boys.
Suddenly, she felt someone’s small hand curl around her wrist. “You dating a lax boy?” Maya whispered in her ear. “I saw him slip you his number.”
Emily looked up. Her heart swooped. It felt like she hadn’t seen Maya in weeks, and she couldn’t stop thinking about her. Maya’s face swam before her whenever she shut her eyes. She thought about the feel of her lips during their make-out sessions on the rock by the creek.
Not that those make-out sessions could ever happen again.
Emily pulled her hand away. “Maya. We can’t.”
Maya stuck out her bottom lip. She looked around. Kids were sitting on the fountains or on the wooden benches next to the flower beds or near the butterfly sanctuary, calmly talking and eating their lunches. “It’s not like anyone’s watching.”
Emily shivered. It felt like someone was. This whole lunch, she’d had the most eerie feeling that there was someone right behind her, spying. The greenhouse plants were so tall and thick, they provided easy coverage for people to hide behind.
Maya unclipped her pink Swiss Army knife from her backpack and snipped off a rose from the lush bushes behind them. “Here,” she said, handing it to Emily.
“Maya!” Emily dropped the rose on her lap. “You can’t pick flowers in here!”
“I don’t care,” Maya insisted. “I want you to have it.”
“Maya.” Emily forcefully slapped her palms on her thighs. “You should go.”
Maya scowled at her. “You’re seriously doing the Tree Tops thing?” When Emily nodded, Maya groaned. “I thought you were stronger than that. And it seems so creepy.”
Emily crumpled up her lunch bag. Hadn’t she already gone through this? “If I don’t do Tree Tops, I have to go to Iowa. And I can’t—my aunt and uncle are crazy.”
She closed her eyes and thought of her aunt, her uncle, and her three Iowa cousins. She hadn’t seen them in years, and all she could picture were five disapproving frowns. “The last time I visited, my aunt Helene told me that I should eat Cheerios and only Cheerios for breakfast because they suppressed sexual urges. My two male cousins went on extra-long runs through the cornfields every morning to drain their sexual energy. And my cousin Abby—she’s my age—wanted to be a nun. She probably is one now. She carried around a notebook that she called Abby’s Little Book of Evil—and she wrote down everything she thought was a sin. She recorded thirty sinful things about me. She even thought going barefoot was evil!”
Maya chuckled. “If you have really ganked-up feet, it is.”
“It’s not funny!” Emily cried. “And this isn’t about me being strong or thinking Tree Tops is right or lying to myself. I can’t move there.”
Emily bit her lip, feeling the hot rush she always got before she was about to cry. In the past two days, if her family passed her in the halls or the kitchen, they wouldn’t even look in her direction. They said nothing to her at meals. She felt weird about joining them on the couch to watch TV. And Emily’s sister Carolyn seemed to have no idea how to deal with her. Since the swim meet, Carolyn had stayed away from their shared bedroom. Usually, the sisters did their homework at their desks, murmuring to each other about math problems, history essays, or random gossip they’d heard at school. Last night, Carolyn came upstairs when Emily was already in bed. She changed in the dark and climbed into her own bed without saying a word.
