Odd One Out by Nic Stone

Author:Nic Stone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2018-10-08T16:00:00+00:00

The last day of the year finds me struggling to keep my tears inside while staring at the ceiling above Jupiter’s bed. I’ve been covertly crying every night that Bess has been here, though the why behind the weepiness remains an enigma.

As Bet-Bet leaves town tomorrow, she and Daddy wanted some one-on-one time, so I’ve been here at Jupiter’s helping prep for Charity-Sanchez New Year’s Eve (another party!). Most of our time was spent putting the finishing touches on what Jupiter referred to as the Año Viejo doll. It’s a scarecrow-like dummy made of paper-stuffed clothes with a papier-mâché head. As I sliced limes for Papi’s magical mojitos, he explained that when midnight hits, we’ll carry out a series of traditions that include burning the doll to “get rid of any bad juju from this year.”

All I know is the face Jupiter painted on that thing is beyond creepy.

“Hello?” Jupiter says from the end of the bed, where she’s been sitting for…actually I have no idea how long she’s been sitting there. “Earth to Rae?”

She sounds like Britain. “Huh?”

She pinches my big toe inside my sock, so I sit up and hang my legs over the edge of the bed. “Pay attention, woman! I just asked if Bess is coming tonight. If she leaves without Coop and me meeting her, we will have to disown you.” She nudges me with her shoulder.

When I don’t say anything—too focused on keeping my chin from quivering—her smile collapses. She puts her hand on my knee and stares into my eyes. There’s this depth of concern glowing in her honey-colored irises.

It makes me want to forget everything else going on and just…kiss her. Which is confusing.

“Rae?”

“Hmm?”

“Are you okay?”

With her staring at me like that on top of everything else? Pfffffft.

As the dam breaks, I put my face in my hands because I can’t look at her anymore. Her hip and thigh press against mine as her arm slips around my waist, so I turn into her and put my head in that godsend of a nook between her jaw and clavicle. Her skin smells like cake.

“Honey, what happened?” she says.

And of course because this saying-what-I-really-feel thing is still new, the moment I part my lips to take a breath, all the feelings come spewing out like water from an uncapped fire hydrant. “It’s like my sister swooped in with a little satchel of fairy dust and single-handedly healed the broken things in my dad that I’ve been trying to keep bandaged for years, but I got a waist-high pile of new and interesting things about my mother and sister that served to rip my heart open so all the stuff I keep suppressed would tumble out, and we halted the Carousel Carl investigation, but I need to know what happened to him because it’s eati—”

“Whoa, slow down.” Jupiter lets me go and reaches across me to her bedside table. When she pulls the little drawer open and removes a small package of tissues, I catch sight of a picture of Courtney taped to the bottom of the drawer.

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