Chloe in India by Kate Darnton

Author:Kate Darnton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2016-01-11T16:00:00+00:00

A uniformed guard pulled open the iron gate to Anvi Saxena’s house and Vijay drove the minivan up the long, topiary-lined driveway, coming to a stop under the columned portico where two gold Porsches and a silver Rolls-Royce gleamed like family trophies to welcome us.

“Good grief,” Mom muttered.

Since Mom had been killing herself on some big story for weeks, I was surprised when she offered to take me to Anvi’s party. She even blow-dried her hair and put on some mascara for the occasion. As for me, I was wearing jeggings and my favorite sparkly tank top. I had even convinced Mom to paint my fingernails pink.

“Just for the party,” Mom warned as she blew on my wet polish. “We’ll take it off as soon as we get home.”

We walked up the wide marble steps, past two enormous lion sculptures, but before we could reach the front door, a man in a dove-gray uniform darted forward and ushered us back down the steps, toward the side of the house, where a massive tunnel of pink and silver balloons stretched into the mansion’s back lawns. Dance music pounded in the distance.

“Jeez,” Mom said, looking up. “There must be hundreds of balloons here just for this one day. What a waste. Imagine the impact on the environment if every—”

“Mom!”

“Sorry, sorry!” Mom said, clamping a hand over her mouth. She gave me a little nudge. “I’ll try to behave, okay?”

I tugged at the stretchy headband I was wearing. My hair had grown out a lot since the Magic Marker incident, but little bits sometimes stuck out at funny angles.

“You look great, sweetie,” Mom said.

“You’re my mom,” I said flatly. “You’re supposed to say that.”

Still, my heart rose when we stepped out of the balloon tunnel and the vast green lawns of the Saxena estate spread out before us.

“Jeez,” Mom said again. “Shreya said it would be big, but I wasn’t expecting a country club.”

To our left, an immense swimming pool, surrounded by tables and sun loungers, sparkled under the midday sun. Behind it was a tennis court. An enormous lawn stretched along the back of the property, a cell phone tower looming over it like an alien spaceship. Soccer goals had been set up at either end of the lawn, and even though it was boiling, some boys from my class had started a game.

As we stood there, slightly dazzled, a skinny lady in an off-the-shoulder top and tight white jeans teetered toward us. She was wearing high heels, and with each step, they sank a bit into the soft grass, making her wobble from side to side. She was trailed by a tall, uniformed man wearing mirrored sunglasses. He looked a lot like the guy I had seen dropping Anvi off at school, except this one had a thin black mustache and a tattoo across one bulging bicep—a dagger with a curved tip. I glanced around. That’s when I realized they were positioned all along the perimeter of the Saxena property: guys in identical dark gray uniforms and mirrored sunglasses.

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