That’s the secret. That Theo has kittens. And I want to love on all of them.
I want tostealone. Take it home so I can have a kitten too.
All I ever wanted when I was little was kittens.
“Say you heard it from me, and you know what I’ll do,” he adds.
I try to creep to the second bedroom door while all of the Sabrinas are whispering something to Theo, but a chair leaps out of nowhere and trips me.
“Not that she should be alone tonight,” I hear Theo add.
I flip him off.
I think.
Do my fingers work?
Which one is my flipping-off finger?
“That’s your pinky, Laney,” he says.
His voice in my name makes me fuzzy and warm inside.
Wait.
Is that my name in his voice?
Did I think that right?
I didn’t.
Doh.
I lift my hand and make fourteen of my five fingers sit down right, until only one is left up.
“Pointer, Laney,” Theo says.
Someone starts singing.
It sounds scary.
Scary enough to make Sabrina say things that would make my mother wash her soap out with mouth.
Who’s singing?
I’m not singing.
And if Iamsinging, I’m not singingthatsong. It sounds like a real party in here.
Why are they—ooooooh.
That’s Sabrina’sringer phone.
Ringer phone?
Phone ringer?
I blink hard at the chair that tripped me while Sabrina answers her phone. “Did I think that right too?” I ask it after I’ve flopped around arguing with it with my body for a bit.
