Nice and Mean by Jessica Leader

Author:Jessica Leader
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2010-07-26T16:00:00+00:00

When the doorbell rang, I raced to answer it. I needed to intercept Marina before my mother could glare in her direction.

I threw open the door to an unusual sight: Marina, with fancy hair, weighted down by two large bags and a purse. Was she running away? Had there been a fire? Where was her family? And how long was she planning on staying?

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi.”

I waited. Didn’t she want to explain what was going on?

“Is everything all right?” I asked finally.

She shrugged. “I’m fine.”

I stepped back so she could fit through the doorway. “Do you want me to hang that up?” One of the bags was the kind my mother used to store her fancy saris, and Priyanka and I didn’t have room in our closet for something that big.

“No, thanks,” said Marina. “I’m going to put it on soon. I just need to stay here until, like, 6:45. Then I have this thing to go to.”

“Oh.” A thing? What kind of a thing? I couldn’t believe she wasn’t going to tell me what was going on. “Is everything all right?” I asked again. She didn’t look like she had been crying. “My father said you had an emergency.”

A flush colored her creamy complexion. “It’s not really an emergency,” she said. “I just needed someplace to go.”So you came here? I wanted to say. You don’t even like me.

“Sachi.” My mother came out of the kitchen, her apron covered with flour. “You are not going to introduce me to your friend?”

“Friend.” If the situation had not been so awful, I might have laughed. “Ma-ji,” I said, using the formal expression, “this is Marina Glass.”

Marina held out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

I cringed, knowing that just moments before, my mother had been blotting chapatis with a paper towel. I hoped she hadn’t gotten any grease on Marina. And that Marina knew the salwaar kameez under my mother’s apron was Indian clothing, and not what Pallavi had once called “funny pajamas.”

My mother’s eyes were traveling over Marina’s bags. “Sachi,” she said, “you’ll need to change the sheets on Priyanka’s bed.”

Marina started to say something, but my mother cut her off. “Priyanka,” she called, her face turned toward the kitchen. “You’ll be sleeping in Pallavi’s room tonight.”

“What?” Priyanka came through the swinging door drying a bowl and wearing an irritable expression. “You’re letting her have a sleepover just like that? Oh,” she said when she saw who it was. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Marina shifted her bag like it was straining her arms. “I’m Marina.”

Priyanka’s eyes stayed fixed on Marina as she rubbed every last drop of water from the bowl. “I know.”

“Oh.” Marina was obviously embarrassed, and I wanted to sink into the floor. I didn’t think you were supposed to admit that you knew people if they didn’t know you.

“You don’t need to worry about sheets,” Marina told my mother. “I just need—I mean, I was hoping—” I had never seen her stumble over her words before. “Sachi’s dad said that I could stay here before I go to this—thing.

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