It made me nervous. “How much did you hear?”
Jamie, with his hands in his pockets, shrugged. “How much do younotwant me to have heard?”
The fake relationship. The deal we made. The fact that Carter said I liked Beck.
With the door open, I could hear Mom’s voice call through the house. “Kids? Where are you?”
“Out here, Mom!” Jamie called, barely turning his head. He stared me down, and I held my breath, prepared for him to rat me out. Of course he would. He wouldn’t even let me call Carter because he was too loyal to the wardens, so of course he’d say something to Mom now.
But at the last second, my twin just sighed, for once taking my side. “We were just getting some air.”
I let out a breath, whispering, “Thank you.”
Jamie let me walk past him into the house first, and he lowered his voice to a whisper of his own. “Who do you think called Carter in the first place?”
CHAPTER 19
Thursday was Senior Skip Day, which meant, as the only senior at Cardale Preparatory School going for perfect attendance from kindergarten to graduation, I was the only student in all my classes with my teachers.
And it was the day before the last day of school, so there wasn’t any homework or tests to keep me busy. I’d taken my last exam on Wednesday. Just the teachers, me, and seven hours of them trying to make small talk.
Which meant it was an acute form of torture.
By the time the final bell rang, I was grateful. I gathered my things quickly, the senior wing practically silent. I didn’t have my phone to text Jamie, but surely he’d come and pick me up, despite playing hooky. Surely he didn’t abandon me entirely.
Except when I got outside and squinted into the sun, I found that it wasn’t Jamie waiting for me in the pickup lane. It was Mom.
She was in her silver car and had the windows rolled down. I clutched my backpack straps tightly as I walked up, trying to gauge her mood. We hadn’t really had the chance to talk since she grounded me; she’d been busy preparing a case for trial. “You don’t have work?” I asked when I opened the door.
“Jamie is still driving back from Jefferson with Daisy, so I said I could pick you up.”
Jamie and Daisy went to Jefferson on Skip Day? Without me? “He’s betraying me left and right,” I muttered, buckling my seatbelt before folding my arms over my chest. “It’s bad enough they didn’t come to school, but they went on a road trip without me?Traitors.”
Mom gave me a pointed look. “Even if it hadn’t been Skip Day, you wouldn’t have been able to go. Spell grounded.”
My frown deepened. “G-R-O-U-N-D-E-D.”
She pulled away from the curb.
And she didn’t even wait a full minute before launching into her serious tone. “Eleanor.” The full name. It was never good. “I want to talk to you about what happened with your father.”
I hadn’t necessarily thought I’d gotten lucky, avoiding the accountability conversation, but I hadn’t expected her to launch into itnow. Then again, I was trapped in the passenger seat—what better place to lay out her disappointment in me, when I had no place to go?
“Explain to me your side,” she said. “I want to hear it.”
“You sound like a lawyer, not a mom.”
“Trust me, youwantme to be a lawyer right now. If Iput on the Mom hat, you’re going to be in more trouble for being disrespectful to your father.”
With a sigh, I faced her. “I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful. Dad just… You should’ve heard him. And in front of Carter the other day. He called me wanting to be a lawyermisguided.”
Mom didn’t seem too shocked by the comment, much to my surprise. She just pressed her lips together, pulling on her attorney face. “Okay.”
“He wanted Destelle to be just like you guys. Going to law school and being a great lawyer. Except she didn’t want to. And now, when Idowant to, he thinks I’m stupid for it?”
Mom’s voice was gentle. “No one called you stupid, Nellie.”
I slouched lower in my seat. “It was implied. And he said that I put myself on a pedestal. That my ego is big.”
