“I was an angel at school,” I lie. “Always did my homework. Never talked back in class.”
“Always stared out of the window until the teachers called on you because you obviously weren’t paying attention…”
“I paid attention.”
“You knew the answers. It’s not the same thing.”
“It is the same thing,” Sierra staunchly defends me based on solely on our half hour acquaintance. “If they’re going to pretend learning their stupid lessons is the reason we’re there, then the least they can do is swallow it when we throw it back in their faces.”
Leonard stares at the two of us with open curiosity. “And what’s the reason if not to learn the lesson?”
“Indoctrination,” Sierra and I say in unison, then laugh.
“It’s not a fault to want you to be good citizens,” Lily argues as though her recent behaviour had left her with a foot to stand on. If I were in a crabbier mood, I might remind her how Sierra landed in her custody to begin with. But I’m too entertained with them both to mention it. “That’s how society works.”
“Any society that would have me as a member isn’t worth the effort,” I deadpan back to her. “What trouble has this boy caused?” I ask Sierra, getting the conversation back on track.
“He’s pushed me more than once.”
Lily’s face darkens and I can understand. Her sister seems oblivious, asking me, “What did you do about bullies when you were at primary?”
“Found a nice strong Zach to defend me.” I pick up my phone. “What’s your number? The next time he tries anything, call me. I’m sure a bit of intimidation won’t—”
“Already went down that route,” Zach says with a shake of his head. “Somebody”—he stares directly at Sierra in case I was in any doubt—“hired a hitman to beat him up.”
“He wasn’t a hitman,” the girl retorts, which I presume means the rest of the allegation is true. “And you’re the one who threatened Steven with a knife.”
“Steven Lambertson?” I shoot a curious glance at Zach, remembering the search he had me perform on the boy.
I open my mouth to say I wouldn’t have found out the details if I knew he’d use them to threaten a kid and then close it again. Who am I kidding? Course I would. I turn my attention back to Sierra. “Am I sensing a familiarity with the dark web?”
She sends such a cute bashful smile that I can’t help but respond in kind. The foul mood I arrived with has fallen so far in the past that it’s hard to remember.
“I don’t know much,” she hedges.
“And you don’t need to learn any more,” Lily states firmly, then pokes a finger into my chest. “The school administration computers and nothing else, do you hear me?”
“Of course.” I wink at Sierra while her sister is glancing away. “You have my word.”
We move the hacking demonstration to the family den, a room I swear I’ve never seen before, though given the size of Zach’s house, that’s not entirely surprising. That his dad joins us is a strange development, but he’s there in more of an overseer role, soon getting lost in his own laptop, muttering about work.
“Do you like my sister?” Sierra murmurs to me after we’ve negotiated our way through a firewall and into a backend server that is woefully out of date. “She doesn’t treat you nicely.”
“A treatment that’s better than I deserve,” I say before thinking through the repercussions. The most immediate one of them being that Sierra stops focusing on the computer and instead narrows her laser eyes on me.
“What did you do? She’s usually so placid.”
I bite my tongue, wondering how many sides Lily has that she can show a different persona to everyone she meets. Placid isn’t part of the repertoire I’m familiar with, but her baby sister’s expression is so earnest I understand she thinks that’s the real Lilac Tanner.
“I thought she was a bad fit for Zach, so I tried to split them up.” After a second, I add, “I wasn’t in my most peopley mood on the day.”
The truth has more layers than that, but some reasons I barely understand myself. The one I know best starts with a bullet in my friend’s skull, so I’m not about to offer that. The rest is too intangible. Too airy-fairy to explain easily to a ten-year-old, no matter how smart. “Turned out they wanted to be together a bit more than I expected.”
“You think?” Sierra says in a tone best described as caustic.
“You’re not a fan?”
Her gaze flicks to Leonard before she shrugs. “I mean, he’s fine. I guess I thought she’d end up with someone more…” She waves her hand for half a minute, then gives up on the search for a more accurate term.
