“Are these your sisters?” Hailey asked, trying to sound upbeat.
“You mean the skanks?”
“…uh…”
“Yeah,” Giselle said finally. “My sisters, Marrakech and Amelina.” She jabbed her thumb at two of the supermodels.
Hailey extended her hand.
In response, they glared, and Hailey held her hand out for several uncomfortable seconds before finally dropping it.
“My mom, Lorelei.” Giselle motioned to the third supermodel.
“Why do you introduce me to this…girl?” Lorelei demanded of Giselle. Her lip curled as she looked Hailey up and down.
“She’s my roommate,” Giselle spat in response. “And myfriend.”
Aw, thought Hailey.She called me her friend.
Lorelei grabbed her daughter by the shoulders. "Banshees don’t have friends.”
“I’m not a banshee, mother,” said Giselle as she wrenched herself out of her mother’s grip. “I’m just a big fat nothing,” she said smiling. “And I have a big-fat-nothing friend.”
Hailey straightened up and smiled.
“I’m going to stay with her in Pittsburgh this summer.”
Whoa. That was news.
Giselle looked at Hailey in a way that let her know she’d better play along.
“Oh, uh…yeah. Giselle is coming to work at our family pub…in the…in the pub.”
She looked to Giselle to see if she’d gotten it right, though she had no idea how she would pull this off. Hiding a banshee in plain sight inside the most popular pub on the South Side? Madness. Though contact lenses and hair dye seemed like a logical place to start, and if she never smiled, then maybe… Or maybe she would have camo and not need it. Oh shoot, what would her uncles think? She shuddered. Pittsburgh was not ready for an un-activated, mal-tempered banshee.
But, Hailey probably wouldn’t survive the school year, so whatever. She shrugged and smiled sweetly.
Lorelei, however, radiated thermonuclear disgust.
“If you insist on fraternizing with humans, why don’t you just stay here withthemthis winter?”
“Fine!” Giselle yelled. “I didn’t want to come home anyway!”
“You’re an abomination, Giselle, and a disgrace,” said Lorelei dryly. She put her grimace next to her errant daughter’s face. “The sooner you lose your soul and die the better for everyone.”
Mama Banshee looked at Marrakech and Amelina.
“Girls,” she beckoned as she swept toward the door.
The sisters obediently followed their mother without even saying goodbye.
Giselle flipped them off. With both hands.
Hailey shivered. “Why does your mother want you to loseyour soul?”
Giselle turned to her and raised her arms like Frankenstein. Hailey put her hands up defensively, but Giselle threw her arms around her and squeezed.
Another hug.
