It All Begins with Jelly Beans by Nova Weetman

Author:Nova Weetman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published: 2021-06-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12 RILEY

“HAIR, RILEY!” JENNA YELLS FROM the bathroom I share with her on the second floor.

It’s Saturday and I’ve been dressed for Lina’s party for a few hours now. Things have been a bit strange with my friends this week and I want to look perfect. I check myself in the bedroom mirror another couple of times and smile at my reflection. It’s okay. My faithful black overalls hide my pump and work over the new striped T-shirt Mum let me buy online. I probably won’t look as glamorous as the others, but I’m sort of used to that.

“Up in a messy bun?” Jenna says, playing with the brush.

The bathroom looks like a hairdresser’s. Hair clips, ties, ribbons, and a curling iron are all laid out on the bench like she’s about to operate on me.

“I don’t know.”

“Sit down,” says Jenna.

I perch on the stool from our room and watch Jenna’s reflection in the mirror. She’s analyzing my head.

“You don’t have lice, do you?”

“As if!” I raise an eyebrow, and she laughs at my reflection.

“You excited?”

I take a second to answer, because as much as I want to go to Lina’s party, things don’t feel the same as they used to with my friends. I’m not sure what’s changed, exactly, but I know something has. “I still can’t believe Mum’s letting me go. I sort of wish I could stay all night.”

She brushes my hair, pulling hard through a patch of knots. “Yeah, it’s weird you’re getting picked up early.”

Jenna sweeps my hair onto the top of my head so my neck can be seen.

“Better than nothing,” I say, trying to concentrate on the fact that I’m actually going to a party in a hotel.

“And your hair will look amazing,” says Jenna. She ties my hair up in a high ponytail and then plucks strands out so they hang down, framing my face.

“Thanks for helping.”

“Dad paid me,” she says.

“I knew it!” Outraged, I try to stand. She grips my shoulders and pushes me back down.

“I’m kidding!”

Jenna and I don’t really do hanging out together on a Saturday afternoon. In fact, this may be the longest time we’ve willingly spent together since she grew boobs, so I’m naturally suspicious.

“What happened to your weekend math group?”

She grins and starts fluffing out my ponytail with a comb. “It got moved to tomorrow. Aren’t you lucky?”

“Do you actually learn anything?”

She shrugs. “Yeah, but it’s not math related.”

“Is anything you tell Mum real?”

I watch as Jenna winds my ponytail into a bun and picks up a row of pins from the bench. She smells sweet, like grape bubblegum and roses.

“She didn’t always give me freedom, Riley. I know it’s worse for you, but I had to lie to get out of here too,” she says, then wedges the row of pins into her mouth so she can start pushing them into my hair.

She stands in front of me now so I can’t watch what she’s doing. I can see a line of her stomach, flat and muscled, peeping from her checked shirt that she’s knotted in the front.

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