Chapter 2

And soon the town introduced me to its other residents too.

I saw Alex's brother, Carter, a few days later, when Nicholas had friends over and Mom suggested I meet them.

She came into my room, put a plate of cookies in my hands, and asked me to offer them to everyone. I think she felt just as awkward in that moment as I did (we were both still getting used to the Holt house), but she wanted the town and its young residents to accept me, so she tried. The almond cookies came out wonderful!

The meeting itself did not.

"Teal, comb your hair and bring them the treats. Nicholas has boys over. It would be wonderful if you all made friends. Mark said they're all from your new school and live nearby. It would be good for you to know them. Maybe one of the boys will end up in your class."

At those last words, I perked up, of course, immediately thinking of my friend from next door, whom I already missed. Because of the move, I had missed a week of school, and now in the evenings I studied for class and spent time with Mom, Dad, and my stepbrother. To be honest, they were not exactly the most pleasant evenings. We were learning how to be one family by going out together to stores and little restaurants and letting the curious residents of Sandfield Rock stare at the Holts.

Every time we went out like that, I dreamed it would end as soon as possible, because I could feel Nick hating me for those trips. Every time, he tried to shove me hard in the back seat of Dad's Jeep and whisper so our parents wouldn't hear:

"Go on, stupid duck! Tell Daddy on me! Start bawling, he lo-oves his princess so much! Maybe he'll feel sorry for you and take you back to your Houston. To that doghouse you lived in. I know everything!"

I didn't want to complain. I wanted Nicholas to ignore me, since we had failed to become friends. Completely. After all, it wasn't my fault that he had grown up with his father instead of with his mother, who had another family. I learned all that one morning from Mrs. Fernandez, our part-time housekeeper, and after Mom's words I immediately thought of Alex Wright.

Why was he different? Not like Nick? How wonderful would it be if Alex were my older brother instead! When we had parted, he had mentioned offhand that he was going to Greensboro with his family for the weekend, and now I desperately wanted him to come back and be here. And for Nick to act normal instead of curling his lips with contempt and making fun of me, because Alex himself had said he was my friend!

The thought embarrassed me and made me happy at the same time.

I tied my hair into a high ponytail, picked up the plate of cookies, and went into the living room with a wide smile. The boys were sitting by the TV, three of them. They were playing a console game and talking animatedly about something, but when they noticed me, they turned their heads my way.

"Who's that?" asked a reddish-haired boy in a baggy T-shirt. A baseball cap with the logo of some sports team I didn't recognize sat crookedly on his head, and he looked like a stocky, well-fed kid. "What girl?"

"This is Lena, my little sister," Nicholas began, to my surprise, quite calmly, but he finished in his own style: "Look what turned up. The little stray. She lives here now, and my new mommy wants Dad and me to wipe her ass. They buy her anything she asks for, like she's a princess!" He snorted, showing his friends exactly what he thought of me. "Follows me around like a leech! I'm sick of her!"

"She's cute. Flat as a board, though," said another boy, older, who had climbed onto the back of the sofa. "How old is she, Nick?"

"Eleven. But if any of you touches her, I'll rip your head off. Clear? Don't even look her way! I, and only I, am her personal hellspawn!"

Everyone went quiet. I froze too. Only the dark-haired boy laughed out loud, the fourth one. He was sitting on the floor with a controller in his hands, so I hadn't noticed him right away.

"Tsk-tsk, Nicky," a quiet voice said mockingly. "You're repeating yourself, buddy," he observed with cold laziness. "Those were my words, and I was talking about my sister Victoria. What the hell would we need your stray princess for? Better tell her to shut her mouth, serve the cookies, and get lost. No one's here to entertain her."

What?! I stared at the boy, wide-eyed, unable to believe what I was seeing or what I was hearing. I had one friend in this town, and this boy looked exactly like him.

Except today the blue eyes seemed darker and looked out from under the long bangs completely differently: indifferent and utterly without sympathy, as if they were seeing me for the first time. And the cheekbones stood out more sharply on the cold face.

I was stunned by such rude words.

"Alex?" I breathed, and my voice trembled. "Did you forget me? It's me, Lena! Remember the store?"

"I don't remember. Leave the cookies and get lost, Lena."

The boys exchanged glances, and then burst out laughing. Loudest of all was my brother Nicholas.

The redheaded heavyset boy answered, collapsing onto the sofa with his friends:

"Oh, Alex, did you forget me? How could you?" he mocked me in a thin voice, imitating mine. "What an idiot! No, that's not Alex, stupid! That's Carter, his twin brother. You mixed them up!"

Red with shame, I backed away, left the cookies on the table, and ran out of the room.

Providence must have taken pity on me, because at that moment, through the hallway window, I saw Alex riding his bicycle out of his yard and glancing toward our house.

Quickly pulling on my jacket and sneakers, I told Mom and hurried outside to him, leaving the smug idiots to laugh at me by themselves, still marveling at how two boys could be so different and so alike at the same time.

From then on, I tried not to notice Nicholas's mockery, not to speak to him unless I had to, and not to cross paths with his friends in our house. I didn't complain to Mom; she was having a hard time too. Dad often took her somewhere and hardly let her out of his sight. Sometimes I heard him speaking to her rather sharply, but all of it happened behind the closed doors of their bedroom, and in front of me Mom never showed that it bothered her.

When I met Alex, I didn't tell him what had happened in the Holt living room, but I admitted that I had seen his brother. He guessed the rest himself and didn't ask. That evening, to cheer me up, Alex put me on his bicycle and showed me Coral Ridge from a distance. But we got close to Mrs. Sloan's house on the next street, where about fifty cats lived. They sat everywhere: colorful ones, spotted ones, and the most ordinary ones. On the unpainted porch, on the gutters, on the low fence, on the overgrown lawn, and even on the mailbox!

It was a shame we hadn't thought to bring food with us then, but we would visit that neighboring street more than once with Alex's friends, whom he would introduce me to. With Greg Butler, Chuck Forsey, Pilar Mendez, and other kids who lived in Sandfield Rock. And that day Alex joked again, and my hurt over those stupid boys was quickly forgotten. We simply stopped caring about them.

Still, one thing unsettled me: Carter, whenever I saw him. I never did manage to get used to him.