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“Oh, stop beating around the bush, Geary,” Mom snapped. “You’re distracted, Becca. Always out with these new friends of yours. Off doing God only knows what. You’re like a completely different person since we moved here.”
“Mom!” I gasped at the same time as Dad sighed, “Melinda.”
“No, Geary, I have stayed quiet over this, but someone needs to do something before she throws her life away all because of some…”
“Go on, Mom, say it. Some accident, right? You think what happened is some small mistake we can brush under the rug and all move on from, don’t you?” Tears burned my throat, but I swallowed them down. “Well, I’m sorry. It doesn’t work that way. Not for me. Everything changed that night.Everything. There’s no going back, Mom.”
“That’s enough.” Dad’s face had drained of color. “This hasn’t been easy on any of us, but what’s done is done. We all need to try to find a way to make it work here.”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing, Dad. I’m trying to fit in.” I was talking to Dad, but my eyes remained on Mom, trying to make her see that this wasn’t me trying to rebel or make her angry. I was just trying to survive. If she knew about the notes, about Kendall’s campaign to drive me out of Credence High, she might have felt differently, but how could I do that to them? After everything I’d already put them through.
“We know, sweetheart, we know. But we don’t want to see you throw away everything you worked so hard for.”
“I won’t, I promise. I just need some time to figure out what I want to do.”
Mom’s face was still drawn, but she managed a small nod of agreement. “We want so much more for you.”
She didn’t need to say the words.
Mom might have put on a brave face and thrown herself into trying to make Credence work. But it wasn’t Montecito. Not even a little bit. She wouldn’t get to attend the graduation luncheon at Montecito Prep and coo over my academic achievements with the other mothers. There would be no senior photograph at the country club or graduation party on the Rosens’ yacht.
You could take the mom out of Montecito, but you couldn’t take the Montecito out of Mom.
CHAPTER31
“Ugh, homecoming.”Scarlett rolled her eyes at the sight of the banner hanging across the main building.
“It’s not like we ever go,” Lilly said.
“You don’t?” I asked.
It shouldn’t have surprised me, though. They weren’t exactly all about school spirit, not that Credence High seemed to possess much in the way of that.
“Are you kidding? I’d rather gouge my eyes out with a spoon.”
Lilly snickered, but I kept silent. I’d always loved school dances. A bunch of us would get dressed up, and someone’s daddy would hire a limo for us.
“Last year, the dance got shut down because a fight broke out.” Lilly linked her arm through mine as we entered school. “It’s overrated. Besides, Kendall and her crew are all over it now that we’re seniors.”
“I heard they pat you down before entry. No, thank you. Unless I can get wasted and forget where I am, there’s no way I’m going.”
“Sounds lame,” I said flatly.
It wasn’t that I wanted to go, not if it was as bad as they were making it sound, but it was senior year. I guess a small part of me had hoped I’d get to do all of that—homecoming, winter formal… prom.
“Totally lame.” Scarlett barged through the morning crush, leading us to our lockers. “But we’ll celebrate. We always do.” She winked over her shoulder, and Lilly clapped her hands.
“Party at Rogues?”
“Or The Vault. Whatever, but it’ll beat listening to Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift all night.”
I smiled weakly. It was moments like these that my new and old life clashed right before my eyes. It had only been six weeks since I’d arrived in Credence, but my life in Montecito seemed like a dream now. The hijacked memories of someone else. Another Becca. A Becca I no longer recognized.
Snapping myself out of it, I declared, “Whatever we do, I’ll need a new outfit.”
“Me too,” Lilly added. “We can shop one night after school?”
“Sure. Scarlett?”
