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Geneva was young for her age. She looked like a teenager, starting to get the breasts that might try to kill her someday, and she was going to be tall, so she had that gangly, long-limbed look tall girls got around this age. But her real self, the stuff inside, was slower to develop. She’d always been a strange and endearing combination of very friendly and totally introverted, willing to talk to almost anyone, but only about certain things—the way little kids often were. Geneva hadn’t yet lost that.
She had a few friends, but they were boys, the kind of boys who played Dungeons & Dragons on the weekends. And that was fine—though, okay, Siena had had to work through somepreconceptionsshe’d had about D&D boys. That hadn’t been her clique when she was in high school.
Siena had been a varsity cheerleader, the student council social director, on the homecoming court, all that. That would not be her sister’s scene. Geneva didn’t seem to connect well with other girls, or to understand other kinds of boys.
So far, the transition to high school had been pretty much a nightmare. Her little sister was still way too innocent to understand the Roman colosseum that was high school social structures and gender dynamics. At all. And, of course, the high school lions knew exactly which Christians were the easiest prey. Mostly because their parents had taught them how to hunt.
Siena knew this very well because she’d run with the lions in high school. For the most part, she’d been an observer; her best friend, Mallory—head cheerleader, prom and homecoming queen, student body vice president—had been the primary instigator. Mallory had been Regina George; Siena had been one of the Plastics. But just like the Plastics ofMean Girls, Siena had done her share of joining in, because it was expected, and she’d been afraid of the backlash if she didn’t comply. None of that had occurred to her so obviously at the time, of course. Back then, she’d just been trying as hard as she could to be ‘popular’ and keep Mallory’s ‘friendship,’ feeling the fear and stress without understanding it. But she’d also felt guilty for the kids who got swamped in their wake.
She’d ended her connection with Mallory after she’d grown up enough to understand just how very selfish and shitty a person Mallory was. Around the time Mom had been diagnosed with the same cancer that had killed everybody else in their family.
Seeing that shittiness from the inside, and, unfortunately, participating it, had not made her more tolerant of that behavior in her sister’s classmates. Knowing full well exactly what kind of crap was going through those kids’ heads when they were mean to Geneva or anybody else turned her instead into one of the Furies. She had a running list of ninth- and tenth-graders she’d happily trip going down the stairs—and a similar list of their parents she’d happily punch. She was just waiting for the right chance to make a big ol’ scene at a PTA meeting.
As she stomped toward the house next door, she added her new neighbor to that list. What the fuck was that inked-up reprobate doing dragging her naïve little sister into hishouse? What was he doing to her in there? Geneva wouldn’t recognize danger until it was too late, and it was already too late! What if something terrible was happening right now?
Wishing she’d gotten her gun but unwilling to take the time to go back for it, she ran. One of her as-if Birkenstocks flew off, and she didn’t stop to collect it. She just kept running over the accursed sharp gravel with one bare foot.
The front door was open; Siena flew through it—
and found Geneva and Cooper standing at opposite ends of a dining room table. Geneva was grinning; Cooper laughing. They both held plastic tumblers of clear liquid. Hopefully water.
Siena drew up short and stood there panting, her heart doing the drums from ‘Hot for Teacher.’ They both turned to her, their expressions morphing to surprise. Cooper looked guilty, too, and Siena really wished she had her gun.
“You’re up!” Geneva said and came over. “This is Cooper. He helped me figure out my bike chain, and I’m paying him back by helping him move in. Why don’t you have two sandals?”
Siena grabbed her sister’s hand and pulled her behind her. “What thefuckare you doing with my sister?”
“I justtoldyou,” Geneva said, yanking her hand loose of Siena’s grip and stepping forward again. “I’m helping him move in. Don’t worry, he won’t let me carry anything but little stuff.”
Cooper hadn’t yet spoken up for himself. Siena kept her focus on him, wishing she could kill him with her brain. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
Slow and steady, like a shift in the earth, Cooper’s expression changed from shock to anger. In that anger, even in the deliberate way it took over his face, Siena saw that he was a dangerous man.
When he spoke, his voice—deep and smooth—was steady. The anger in his face didn’t emerge in his voice as harsh emphasis or raised volume. But it was clear in every single syllable.
“I got no need to defend myself. I came out, the kid was out there, she starting talking, I didn’t tell her to fuck off. She asked for help with her bike, I showed her how to do a chain right. Since then she’s been a little pest, following me around. I guess my big crime here is not being a dick to an annoying kid. Seeing how you left her unsupervised, I don’t know where you get off charging intomy houselike you’re entitled. Before you make a very stupid move and accuse me of something gross, you can both go ahead and fuck off.Karen.”
The stupid ‘Karen’ dig bounced off her, but despite still being focused on Cooper, Siena sensed Geneva’s hurt at the way he’d directed his contempt at them both. Now she wanted to hurt him for that.
“I thought you werenice,” Geneva said, because she wasn’t one to hold back her thoughts and feelings.
Still staring at him, Siena saw her sister’s words draw a little bit of blood before his expression became bland. “Guess you were wrong.”
“She won’t make that mistake again,” Siena said. “Neither of us will. We’ve got things to do today, so move your shit from in front of my driveway. Now.” She grabbed her sister’s hand and pulled her out of the house.
As she collected her sandal from the gravel, the front door slammed behind them.
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~oOo~
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“What about these?”Siena held up a five-pack of Mead single-subject spiral notebooks.
Geneva gave them a halfhearted look. She was still sullen after the upsetting scene with the new neighbor, whom Siena had decided did not deserve the courtesy of being called by name. Geneva was mad at them both now—the neighbor for brushing her off and not caring, Siena for ‘acting crazy’ and for the lecture about being safe around strangers she’d delivered when they got back to the safety of their own living room.
“Wide ruled,” she sighed. “I want college ruled. And I don’t want notebooks those colors or with pictures like that.”
