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“What’s for dessert?” Derek asks.
“Lucy brought cake,” she says with a smile in my direction.
“She made it,” Ryan says. “Morgan said it was dry, but I didn’t think it was too bad.”
“Hey,” Morgan said, her tone defensive. “It’s good. I only said that because I was judging it.”
“Why were you judging it?” Derek asks.
“Because Lucy is in a competition,” Morgan says. She’s sitting across the table from me, so I can’t stomp on her foot to stop this conversation. I don’t want my family knowing about the competition and—more importantly—who it’s with.
“What kind of competition?” asks Carrie.
“The short version is Lucy feels like her life is boring—”
“Hey,” I say, interrupting Ryan. I also don’t need my whole family knowing about my year of Lucy.
“And she asked Morgan to make it more interesting,” Ryan continues like he didn’t notice my protest, or care.
“Ryan, you soggy napkin,” I say, giving him a glare.
“I think that sounds fun,” my mom says.
“What kind of challenge?” my dad asks.
Oh, great. Let’s get the whole family involved now. This is just ... excellent.
“It’s not that big of a deal,” I say. “It’s just some daily tasks to mix things up a bit.”
“Like what?” my mom asks.
“Little things like try a new food, learn something new, stuff like that,” I say. I purposefully leave out the do something out of character one. I don’t need them asking what I did. Although I would 100 percent lie if they asked. And I’d give Morgan my death stare so she’d go along with it.
“Why are there two cakes?” my mom asks.
“Because I made two,” I lie.
“No you didn’t,” Ryan says. “Graham Shackwell made the other one.”
“What?” Kyle says, like he has antennae on the top of his head, set only to hear key words that set off a signal. He’s spent this entire conversation trying to get Caden to eat his dinner—how did he dial in at that exact moment?
“That’s the competition part,” Ryan says, looking at Kyle. “Between her and Graham.”
“Graham?” my mom asks, with a sad look on her face. “I haven’t seen that sweet boy in forever.”
“He’s Kyle’s age, Mom,” Derek says. “Kind of weird to be calling him a sweet boy.”
“And he’s a doctor,” Ryan adds for no reason whatsoever.
“Well, he was sweet when he was younger,” she says.
“He’s not anymore,” Kyle adds, more under his breath.
“Why is Graham Shackwell doing this challenge with you?” Derek asks.
I shrug my shoulders. “I don’t know. I guess it sounded interesting to him.”
“You shouldn’t be spending any time with him,” Kyle says, his tone stern.
