Candidly Cline by Kathryn Ormsbee

Author:Kathryn Ormsbee [Ormsbee, Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2021-11-09T06:00:00+00:00

18

MY EYES ARE so scratchy when I wake, you’d think I’d been dozing on a hay bale. Morning light spills through the windows of fellowship hall, and girls are chattering all around me. At first, my heart feels light.

The lock-in, I remember. You’re at New Hope.

Then the memories from late last night charge in:

Hollie in the music room.

“Penny for Your Love.”

That’s not normal.

And I want to go back to sleep for a week.

“All right, girls! The bathrooms are down the hall. Everyone needs to be dressed and ready for morning service by eight!”

I realize it was Chloe who woke me up. She’s standing over our sleeping bags, looking cheerful in a plaid dress and boots, giving instructions to girls who run up to her with questions.

I rub sand from my eyes, looking cautiously to my left. Emma and Livy are there, giggling over something on Emma’s phone.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Emma tells me. “For someone who falls asleep so soon at parties, you’d think you’d be an early riser.”

Emma’s just having fun, but I’m in no mood for teasing. I feel worse than day-old roadkill.

“Where’s Hollie?”

As I ask the question, I’m struck with a terrible thought: What if Hollie told the others about my song and what I said about liking girls?

If she did, though, Emma and Livy don’t act like anything’s different.

Livy says, “Bathroom,” her eyes glued to the phone screen.

“Yeah,” Emma adds. “She takes more time now that she’s got a beauty routine.”

Chloe comes over to tell Emma and Livy to put away the phone and get ready. By the time the three of us reach the bathrooms, Hollie isn’t there. Emma and Livy speculate that she headed down early to the youth center for what they’re calling a prayer service.

I don’t want to look ignorant, but eventually I break down and ask Emma what a prayer service is, exactly.

“It’s nice,” she tells me. “We eat breakfast, and then whoever has something to share—like a prayer request or praise for something good—gets up onstage and tells everyone.”

When we get to the youth center, Hollie’s there, sure enough. She’s sitting in the front row, eating a bagel and talking to Scott.

Emma rolls her eyes. “So that’s why she ditched us. She is so obsessed with him.”

Livy’s mouth twists at that, and it’s clear to me that Hollie isn’t the only one with a crush on Scott. For all I know, Emma has one, too. The only odd one out, it seems, is me.

We’re shooed toward a table crammed with breakfast food, but I don’t have an appetite. I spoon a few pieces of cantaloupe onto a plate and follow Emma and Livy into the row behind Hollie, since hers has already filled up.

Emma leans forward, between Hollie and Scott, and hisses, “Thanks for saving us seats, losers.”

“You snooze, you lose,” Scott says, grinning.

Hollie doesn’t even turn around.

I stop mid-chew, the cantaloupe souring on my tongue. I can’t believe that I thought Hollie would always have my back. Or that I’ve

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