Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 60309 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60309 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
The Winona I know is the one who’ll pretend to be a monkey at two a.m. on Christmas Eve when all of us are too wired to sleep. She’ll swing around the bunk beds and hang upside down and try to feed you gumdrops.
She did that last year.
Sad Nona is always heartbreaking. Her mood usually lifts everyone’s, so when she’s down, the whole room feels heavier in a way. God, I hate this. 2040 can go die now.
“And it’s not half the school,” Nona tells Vada.
Vada shrugs with a sympathetic look. “It’s a lot, Nona.”
It’s obvious all the guys drool over Winona, and so do some girls too. A short-lived crush is no longer a crush for that very reason. Sometimes, I do feel like an ugly goth duckling around Winona’s natural beauty, but we all know it’s brought her more problems. More comparisons to her mom. More unwanted attention from the worst of the worst at school.
“No one envies you,” Vada says. “Except Audrey.”
Audrey reasons, “I have fantasized about half the school being obsessed with my beauty, but it’s never looked quite the same as what Winona has gone through. For instance, no one kisses her hand every morning. That’s a must.”
Nona laughs into a mock gasp. “You mean, they aren’t supposed to tell you they’re going to fuck you against a locker?”
Audrey intakes a sharp breath.
I glare. “Wow.” She’s right, they’re bold and blunt trolls.
“I mean,” Audrey considers. “Was it said huskily? Because the delivery matters.”
Vada laughs hard. “Oh my God.”
I say flatly, “I’d be more worried about her if she didn’t have five brothers.”
“Cockblocker Cobalts,” Winona says with a fist in the air.
Now Audrey groans. “They ruin all potential, all possibility.”
“Of what?” Vada says.
“Date rape,” I deadpan.
Audrey gasps, feigning betrayal. “Kinney Hale.” There is a glimmer behind her eyes, and I smile back at her.
“Let’s get to work, babes,” Nona says, restless. She flings herself up, then tucks her legs under her butt. Audrey and I leave the bunk to gather around the contraband too.
I look to Audrey. “I still can’t believe you had enough to fill a whole duffel bag.” I’m impressed.
She appraises the duffel with proud eyes. “I’ve been collecting all year. I’d be a terrible collector if I just had a single tote’s worth.”
“Starting her hoarding skills early,” Vada says and playfully pinches her cheek.
“Collector,” Audrey rephrases into a smile, and she perches her hands on her hips. “I shall be the best collector in the world. Make you three terribly proud.”
Winona grins, “Depends what you collect.”
“Imagine Audrey collecting ants,” I say.
“An ant farm of epic proportions,” Vada nods. “I can see it.”
“Where she’ll breed the ants.” Winona wags her brows.
“Kings and queens and colonies and whole empires of ants,” Audrey says into a wider grin. We’re all smiling. Then Audrey’s fades. “Without my siblings at home, it doesn’t sound so bad.”
My stomach sinks.
Ben moved out and left her alone this year. Besides her parents, she’s the only one in a giant house that was once filled to the brim with her siblings. She’s called it “the world’s loudest silence.”
A lump tries to lodge in my throat, as I imagine that future for me. I’m not an idiot, okay. I know it might come. Xander’s applying to colleges, and he still doesn’t know if he’ll go, but that option exists.
Then I’ll be where Audrey is. A once full house now soundless and empty. My parents will be around, sure, but it’s not the same. It won’t be.
“Ants are the worst company,” I tell her. “They don’t even make noise.”
“Are we sure?” Vada frowns, balling her sleeves in her fists. She must be cold. She’s wearing a sweater with a cat smoking a candy cane. “Don’t ants like squeak or something?”
We all look to Winona.
Winona’s hair has frizzed from the wind outside. She tries to comb out the knots with her fingers. “I love animals. That doesn’t mean I know everything about every single one.”
“You’re a bug girl,” Vada tells her. “You made sure Kinney didn’t squash a roly-poly when we were five.”
I raise a hand. “In defense, it looked unbreakable.”
“Yes,” Audrey narrows her eyes at Winona, “decidedly suspicious if you don’t know the answer.”
Winona looks between the three of us, then her smile slowly spreads. “They chirp.”
“They chirp!” Audrey and Vada exclaim at the same time, bouncing with this new morsel of knowledge.
I focus on the duffel. “Alright, are we gonna do this or what?”
At that, we all shift and kneel around the bag. “Audrey, do the honors,” Nona tells her.
She unzips the bag.
The entire duffel is filled to the very brim with Celebrity Crush magazines. A whole year’s worth of the weekly tabloid. Audrey had been hiding them in her giant stuffed teddy bear—removing the stuffing every so often to fill more. Not that I think Uncle Connor and Aunt Rose would disapprove of her having the magazines, but they’d want to know why she was keeping so many. Then the whole surprise would have been busted.