Aces Wild by Amanda DeWitt

Author:Amanda DeWitt [DeWitt, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 2022-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

Kerry was studying me when I looked up from my phone, her hands buried in the pocket of her hoodie. She leaned against the air-hockey table. “Does Beth know your friends aren’t actually from Elkhollow?”

I considered my options. Kerry didn’t lie, but she knew what one sounded like. She wasn’t likely to believe something just because she wanted it to be true. She got that from Mom. I shrugged and slid my phone back into my pocket, the picture of the pink-haired girl making it heavy. I wanted to get back to the room and show the others. I wasn’t hungry anymore.

“What tipped you off?” I asked. “The fact that I’ve never had school friends before, so why start now?” Kind of bitchy but true.

Kerry definitely wasn’t attending my pity party. She narrowed her eyes. “One of them is, like, twelve.”

“Fourteen and a half.”

“Jack,” she said, and it wasn’t the same as when Beth tried to admonish me, but that didn’t mean I had to like it.

“Are you going to tell Beth?” It was a borderline accusation. Kerry could undo everything in an instant, and there was nothing I could do about it. I could threaten that I was going to live with Dad all I wanted, but Beth wouldn’t forgive this. She would see it as a betrayal of her trust, the exact betrayal she was waiting for since the moment she handed me the Onyx card, and she probably wouldn’t be wrong. The truth would send her spiraling into mom mode so fast she’d probably launch through the atmosphere and hand Peter Carlevaro the keys to the Golden Age along the way.

Kerry was quiet for too long. My phone buzzed in my pocket, reminding me that my friends were still waiting for us.

“No,” she said at last, digging the toe of her shoe into the scratched linoleum. “I’m not a snitch.”

I exhaled. All right, maybe I’d been a little worried, but I didn’t want Kerry to know that. It wasn’t good for older sisters to know they held power over you.

“Where did you meet them anyway?” Kerry sounded more incredulous than suspicious. I couldn’t tell if it was because of the fourteen-and-a-half-year-old thing or the Jack-doesn’t-play-well-with-others thing.

I froze. Either way, I didn’t really have a good answer. I couldn’t really mention the ace thing, even if that was what brought us together—it wasn’t my place to out them, even if I was reasonably sure Kerry wouldn’t care. For that matter, I wasn’t really interested in outing myself either. I had enough on my plate without having to break out the asexuality spectrum and what it means presentation in the middle of the PizzaDome.

“…Online,” I said, as suspiciously as possible. Why did I have to say it like that? It was true. Why couldn’t I say a normal thing like a normal person?

“Right.” Kerry gave me a sideways look.

“We should get back,” I said hastily, ready to move away from the subject as much as possible. I was already wishing we’d just ordered room service instead.

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