“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Did he ever f-forgive her?”
“What she and you did isn’t the same thing.”
“She’s our m-mother, Angie.”
And then it hits me why Nev did this. She entered me in the contest as a way to get closer to Mona. Or at least I think that’s why. “After school, come over to my house.”
“O-okay. Will you t-tell T-Ten?”
“Not until you and I talk.”
“O-okay.”
Rae and Laney are wearing matching expressions of shock.
“Nevsubmitted your song?” Rae says after I hang up. “Whoa…”
“That’s really screwed up,” Laney says.
I rub my wet cheeks and puffy eyes.
“You could probably still drop out,” Rae says.
“But she won,” Laney says. “I know we’re not celebrating right now, but you do realize you’ve justwona nationwide contest? Your song was picked over thousands.”
No, I don’t realize this. “Did you call my mom, Rae?”
“Yeah. She’s probably waiting for you outside.”
I push myself off the tiles, wash my hands, and splash cold water over my face. As I leave the bathroom, Laney says, “You want us to come with you, sweetie?”
I shake my head, then dry my face on my sleeves.
“We love you,” Rae and Laney tell me in unison.
I trudge over to them and hug them. Ten might hate me, but at least my friends don’t. After swearing them to secrecy, I exit into the empty hallway.
I won.
As I walk out of school, it begins to sink in. And even though I’m still mad, I’m also something else. Something between proud and terrified.
55
A Means to an End
“Ten will forgive Nev, right?” I ask Mom, as she smooths back my hair.
I’m lying on our couch with my head in her lap.
“Of course he will, baby.”
I stare at the piano I spent hours practicing my song on. A song I now hate. The black and ivory keys bleed into one another, their joints intersecting at wrong angles.
“Are you sure that’s what worries you? That he forgives Nev?”
Is my mother a mind reader?
