“And I told you I’d have a favor to ask?”
I did remember that part as well. “I?—”
“Don’t you dare, Seth—Iwas going to ask her first!”
Suddenly Mimi was at our side, in her pajama gown still, her fists on her hips as she looked at him—and she was taller than the both of us, so she looked down athimwith ease.
“Ask me about what?” I wondered because I almost knew in the back of my head what they were saying, but…
“She wasminebefore,” Mimi told Seth, ignoring me completely as her foot tapped furiously against the floor.
“You don’t know that!” Seth said.
“I am a hundred percent,almosttwelve-hours certain that she traded rooms withmeback then,” said Mimi.
“Well, we’re not back then anymore, are we? We’re backnow.” Seth cleared his throat and turned to me. “Ora, since I already did you that favor, will you do me the honor of switching rooms with me?” He leaned closer. “Ineedto move, or I wouldn’t have asked.” And he winked.
“Oh.” I knew this, didn’t I? Lida had even said something about switching rooms with the Clubs before.
I wondered, had Reggie done it, too?
“You are such a lazy minute—argh!” Mimi shouted as she strode down the hallway, clearly angry.
“I think I’ll just giveherthe room—” I said, because whatever seemed to happen in me when I saw people crying, itlingered, and the way Mimi had sobbed in the room beyond the kitchen, it still echoed in my head.
Awfully irritating. I’d rather make it stop.
But Seth said, “No. I need the first room. Ineedit, Ora. Please. I will do anything.”
That wasnotwhat I expected. “Uh…yeah. No, sure. No problem.” What in Time’s Teeth was I supposed to do when people spoke to me likethat?
He saidplease.He saidI will do anything.
I wanted to be far away from here now.
“Hey, Mim!”
March’s voice came from right behind me.
Mimi, who was about to enter her room, still cursing, stopped, looked, shouted, “What?!”
“I’ll trade rooms with you,” March said.
And where was Mimi’s room, you ask?
Right next to Seth’s.
My cheeks flushed.
“You stay here, and you pack your things, okay? I’ll bring mine, and I’ll take yours to your new room.Stayhere,” Seth said, so excited you’d think I promised him the world, and then Mimi screamed with her fists in the air, too, this time in happiness.
“Don’t you move a single thing! I’ll do all the carrying!” she shouted, then slammed her door shut in a rush.
March stopped right next to me, arms crossed, a small smile on the corner of his lips. “What a coincidence. We’ll be right next door from now on.”
I pulled my lips inside my mouth so as to not smile—others were still in the hallway, looking—and I slipped inside my room without a word.
26
