Radical by E.M. Kokie

Author:E.M. Kokie [Kokie, E.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780763674144
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2016-10-14T22:00:00+00:00

“What?” I ask, putting my phone down under the table. After weeks of no Mom and preoccupied Dad, I’ve gotten used to texting Lucy as much as I want.

“I said, where were you last night?” Mom asks.

“Out. With a friend.”

“One of those girls?” Mom asks.

“No, I made a new friend, not from Clearview, while you were away, in all my free time between training and work at the station and cooking Dad dinner and doing the laundry.”

She gives me that watch your mouth look, but it shuts her up. And I didn’t lie.

“What did you do, with . . . ?”

Crap. “Stacy.” Crapcrap.

“With Stacy,” Mom says.

“Went for pizza, walked around, got some ice cream, hung out . . .” I shrug as if it’s no big deal. If no big deal is Lucy and me and full-body, all-in kissing.

Lucy would have been too easy for Dad to check out, if Mom pressed him. There aren’t that many girls. And I couldn’t say Karen or Cammie without Dad maybe bringing it up with their dads and finding out they were somewhere else last night, maybe even Clearview. But Stacy only comes sometimes, and her dad isn’t in the inner circle. Hanging with Stacy wouldn’t be impressive enough for Dad to care. At least I hope not.

So far I’ve been able to just dodge Dad, making sure I get home before him once in a while, so he won’t ask where I’ve been. And he’s been so obsessed with impressing Riggs these past few weeks, it hasn’t been hard. But Mom’s not as easy to dodge, at least when she’s here.

“Bex? Get a move on!” Dad yells across the upstairs.

“I’m already downstairs,” I yell back.

“Please,” Mom says, rubbing her temples. She hasn’t brought up wanting to meet any of my “friends.” Dad hinted last night in front of Mom, and she left the hints hanging there.

She’s got to be at war with herself: happy I have friends, worried about who they are, wanting to meet them and make sure they are “the right kind of girls,” kind of afraid they’re not.

Knowing Mom, she’ll make some kind of rule like I have to bring them by before we can go out next weekend. Maybe she’ll say I have to be picked up here, so she can meet exactly who I’m going out with and ask questions. There is no way Mom can meet Lucy. Mom’s not stupid, even if she pretends to be. Lucy would be too much to ignore.

“You could come with us today,” I say, keeping my face blank. “Meet some of the girls, see me train. Some of the other parents might be around. We can wait, if you change fast.”

Do not smile. Innocent face.

She turns around to go pour Dad a cup of coffee, pretending to think about it.

Do not smile.

There is no way Mom would go out to Clearview, but now it’s on her if she doesn’t want to meet my “new friends.”

My phone buzzes in my hand. Another text from Lucy.

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