Page 93 of Carson

“Did he get hurt trying?”

She looks at me sharply. Bingo. I hit the nail on the head.

“Well, enough about me. Why are you hiding from Carson? He doesn’t bite either, you know?”

“He absolutely does, and I have the scar to prove it.” I tip my head to the side to show her the mark on my cheek my brother left behind when we were three.

She leans forward. “Yikes.”

“Yeah, yikes.”

“Well, what did you do to him?”

“What did I do?” I ask, pulling my head back. “He bit me.”

“You must have done something.”

“Oh, just like the other night when he punched me first?”

“Well …”

I shake my head.

“Maybe if you weren’t being such a jerk,” she finally says, admitting her true feelings about me.

“Takes one to know one.”

She narrows her eyes at me. “I’m not a jerk.”

“Oh really? Hiding from your brother and sister, who’s a child, I might add, isn’t jerkish?”

Neither of us backs down.

Someone barges into our hiding spot. It’s Charlotte.

She ignores me and drops beside Luna. “I need you to teach me how to sign the word jerk.”

Luna laughs.

“Charlotte,” I warn.

“What? Daddy said I couldn’t call the new kid a jerk. So, I’m going to sign it instead.”

Luna hilariously uses me to show her how to do it.

“You are a jerk,” she says while signing and making an angry face toward me.

Charlotte gives it a try.

“There you go, you got it,” Luna praises.

“Thanks, Luna,” Charlotte says as she darts back outside.

“I can’t believe you taught her that.”

She crosses her arms over her chest, ignoring me.

“Where did you learn how to sign,” I finally ask.