AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Delilah shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Sure, Talia," she said, "whatever yousay."
Natalia didn't comment on Delilah's amusement. She and her twin simply nodded their heads before they turned and headed off, their dark curls bouncing in time with their steps. I watched them go before turning toDelilah.
"Do you want to take a walk with me?" I asked. Though I had ulterior motives in wanting to talk with Delilah, because it was obvious she knew the most about Ms. Enders, I also liked her quite a bit already. I had expected the girls here to be mean or cruel like they were in movies. They all dressed nicely, it was true. They had their hair and nails done. They were all made up like perfect dolls, but so far, they had been anything butmean.
"Sure," Delilah said, and we headed for thetrack.
We left the squealing girls in the water behind – there were buoys and ropes in the water that kept them from swimming the length of the lake, and before long they were pinpricks in the distance. The lake was longer than I originally thought, at least a mile around. We could still see them and if I squinted, I could probably point out Natalia andIsador.
"I've always liked coming out here," Delilah said as we stopped across the lake from the others. "It's calming. In the winter, the lake ices over and, sometimes, Julia lets us go iceskating."
I noted the way that she said Julia – calling Ms. Enders by her first name. It wasn’t only in my file, I recalled Marv's mom mentioning the woman's first name when we hadtea.
"She seemed a little harsh on you earlier," Isaid.
Delilah shook her head, "She didn't mean to be. She's always been like that. She's really proper and a lot of people take that as her being stuck up and snobby, but she'snot."
"Are you sure?" I questioned. "What if Isador had a point and she's jealous ofyou?"
Delilah shook her head vehemently. "No one gets her." She turned to me in quick jerky movements. "You just got here," she said, "don't judge heryet."
I put my hands up to placate her. "I'm not, I was just making astatement."
"Just because I don't want to come back here and I don't enjoy the etiquette lessons doesn't mean that she's a bad person." Delilah’s chest rose and fell with hermovements.
"You seem worked up," I pointed out gently. "I promise you–" It felt so wrong to lie, but I knew it was necessary. I needed to shelf my feelings and just get through with this "–I'm not here to judgeanyone."
Delilah looked at me for several more moments, as if scrutinizing my sincerity. She must have decided in my favor because after a few moments the tension in her shoulders eased and she turned back to look across the lake. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just been really hard for Julia lately. There have been some outrageous rumors spread about her and the girls who come to hercamps."
"Rumors?" I wanted to talk about this and leaned in closer. "What kind ofrumors?"
Her eyes settled on me once more. "Why are you so interested?" sheasked.
I froze for a split second before forcing myself to shrug and turn away. My nerves felt frayed and my muscles knotted. I wanted so badly to open up Delilah's head and pick out whatever I needed. This whole undercover thing, I realized, was great in small doses. But I was emotionally involved in this case and I had to temper myself to keep from bulldozing through this and messing it allup.
"I'm sorry," I said. "It's just that I'm new here and–" I paused for a split second, debating on how far I wanted to take this. I took a breath and continued. "I've heard some things," I admitted, "and I was a little nervous about coming here. I’m not really all that good with...well, the etiquettestuff.”
Delilah put a hand on my arm, her eyes crinkling with amusement. “No one ever is. Come on, let’s head back.” She took my hand and tugged me forward. For a split second, I felt like I could see my best friend’s face in hers – Erika was just like these girls, I realized. All girls had something special in them, something unique, but we were bonded, too, by what we were – just girls. We were the weaker sex in some ways, but we were incredibly strong inothers.
