Rachel shook her head again, flummoxed. Lily was ruining her chances by doing this. Sabotaging them, and for what? “I’ll talk to her. I’ll see what’s going on. Are the assignments important? Will they affect her grades?”
“They don’t count towards her final mark, but it’s important I see that she understands the concepts. Her final lab work for her fifth paper is next week. That’s important.”
“Right.” Rachel knew Lily was doing her final research paper on soil content and the effect of sand dune erosion on its properties. Or something like that. She’d taken a bunch of samples near the beach and brought them in to school toanalyze. Rachel had talked to her about it a little bit, had tried to reclaim some of the scientific knowledge from the crowded fog of her mind. She’d even felt a tiny spark of intellectual curiosity; it had almost felt painful, when she considered how much she’d once known, how interested in everything she’d once been.
Maybe that had been why she hadn’t asked Lily more about her research project, been more involved. Because it had hurt. “I’ll talk to her about it,” she said, and then realizing she was already five minutes late for her next client, she said a hasty goodbye and hurried out of the school.
Back in the car she saw a text from Lucy confirming the pub quiz for that night, and impatiently Rachel texted back, canceling. As much as she loved her one evening out, she knew she wasn’t up for it then. Not when everything in her life felt poised to explode.
When Rachel arrived back home a little after six, Meghan was asleep on the sofa while Nathan sat on the floor picking his nose and watching Teletubbies. Lily was nowhere in sight.
Rachel popped her head around the doorway to check on her mother; she was sitting propped up in bed, looking a bit more cheerful, although her breathing was labored.
“You all right, Mum?”
“Good day today,” Janice half panted. “A little short of breath, but I got up and watched telly in the living room. Even went out in the garden to sit in the sun for a bit. The tulips are coming out.”
“Are they?” Rachel smiled distractedly as she checked the bottle of OxyContin she’d bought last night. “You’ve had your pills today?”
“All two of them.” Janice smiled up at her and reached out to put one hand over Rachel’s. “Don’t worry about me, love,” she said, and took the bottle from her.
“I’m not worried,” Rachel lied. “Just checking, that’s all.” The truth was, ten years of bed rest hadn’t done Janice Campbell any favors. She’d never been a thin woman, and now she was verging on morbidly obese. Her shortness of breath came no doubt from being overweight as well as from thirty years of smoking. “Can I get you anything?”
Janice shook her head. “I’m fine, love, fine.”
Rachel was coming out of her mother’s bedroom when the front door opened and Lily slipped inside, clearly trying not to be noticed. She gave Rachel a quick, guilty smile and then hurried up the stairs before Rachel could say a word.
“Lily...” she called, and hurried after her. The bedroom door was already closed, music pounding. Rachel stood there for a moment, trying to summon the energy to have a confrontation with Lily. But maybe it wouldn’t be an argument; maybe there was a reason why Lily hadn’t done her coursework. “Lily,” she called again, and opened the door.
Lily was just taking off her school blouse and she let out a yelp as Rachel came in. “Can’t you knock?”
“Sorry,” Rachel said even though she was pretty sure Lily had heard her call. “Can we talk?”
“Fine.” Lily yanked her blouse closed, glaring, and Rachel folded her arms. So this was going to be a confrontation.
“Miss Taylor told me you haven’t handed in some of your coursework.” She waited, but Lily didn’t say anything. “Lily. Is this true?”
“I doubt Miss Taylor would lie about it.”
Rachel forced herself to ignore her sister’s snarky tone. “But why haven’t you handed them in? You know how important it is—”
“I know. I know.” Lily let out a huffy sigh. “You tell me often enough. I was busy, okay? It won’t happen again.”
“Busy?” Rachel stared at her sister, at her fringe falling into her face, her eyes wide and dark with too much black eyeliner, her shoulders almost as bony as they’d been when she’d been little, in her too-big secondhand uniform, her little hand in Rachel’s as they’d walked up the school lane. “How can you be too busy to do coursework?” Rachel asked, striving to keep her voice level. “All you have to do is study. That’s it. And you can’t hand in your coursework?”
“I know, Rachel. You’re a saint,” Lily said, her voice tired now. “I’m sorry I’m not up there with the angels with you.”
“I don’t mean it like that. But what have you been doing with your time, if not studying?” Lily shrugged. “Lily, come on. Tell me what is going on, please.” Still nothing. “Lily.”
Rachel looked around the bedroom for clues, but all she saw was the typical detritus of an eighteen-year-old’s girl room: laddered tights kicked onto the floor, half a dozen pairs of shoes in an untidy jumble, makeup spilled across the desk meant for her books, sheets of paper flung all over the floor. Then she noticed that the papers had intricate drawings all over them. “What is this?” Rachel muttered, and picked up a sheet that was lying on the desk, covering Lily’s dusty biology textbook.
“Don’t . . .” Lily began, but she sounded halfhearted.
Rachel stared down at the drawing in confusion. It was a cartoon done in black ink, of a girl with crazy hair and big glasses, wearing a lab coat. Rachel saw the title in Harry Potter–like script at the top: Adventures of the Mad Scientist Girl. “Did you do this?” she asked.
“Yes,” Lily answered, and Rachel didn’t miss the note of shy pride in her voice. It made her angrier.
“So let me see if I have this right. Instead of actually doing your biology coursework, you’re drawing doodles about it instead?”
