The sound of something dropping came from Eden’s end. “No, no, no. You have to come to school tomorrow. We have to carry on as if everything is completely normal and we know nothing about what happened to Mei.”
She was right, but I just didn’t have it in me. “Eden, I—”
“Lennox, listen to me,” she said in a tone I’d never heard her use. “We will do everything within our power to protect you, but you have to do your part. You’re going to bring your ass to school tomorrow. You’re going to look your absolute best, and you’re going to act as if life is great and you don’t have a care in the world.”
I balled my free hand into a fist.
“Do you hear me? Do I need to come and pick you up myself?”
“No,” I said through gritted teeth. “I’ll be there.”
“Good.” She sounded chipper again. “It’s going to be just fine. Do as I say unless you want to spend the rest of your life in prison.”
I couldn’t take any more, and I felt another round of dry heaves coming on. She was about to say something else, but I hung up. After a minute in the bathroom, I logged on to Revenge Seekers Anonymous. Without even thinking twice, I created a new post.
PipersAngel: I want to kill everyone who pisses me off.
13
Have You Seen Mei?
Monday morning rolled around way too fast. Waking up was no problem because I had never fallen asleep. I’d lain in bed, picturing Mei lying in a hole, wondering how things had gotten so out of control.
When my alarm sounded, I rolled out of bed and pulled two foam wedges from underneath the bedframe. They belonged to my dad, once given to him by his chiropractor. He was supposed to lie on them for twenty minutes a day, putting one below his neck and the other below his lower back. I stretched myself out on the rug and put the wedges beneath me. After a while, shooting pains raced through my back and neck. It hurt because they weren’t made for me. They were meant for my father, who was much taller. Staring at the ceiling, I welcomed the pain. I deserved every bit of it and then some. I lay there until I couldn’t take it anymore.
After I brushed my hair, I put on some lip gloss and mascara. I remembered Eden’s warning about making sure everything appeared to be normal and threw on a denim skirt with a white blouse and sneakers. It was hard to look your best after two days of not sleeping, but I did as well as I could.
I passed Owen as soon as I entered the school building. He wore headphones and seemed to be lost in his own world.
I tapped his shoulder. “Owen, what’s up?” I sped up to keep step with his long strides.
He pulled the headphones off his ears and placed them around his neck. “Hi. I have to get to the newsroom. We’re adding in an emergency announcement. Mei Tanaka hasn’t been seen since Saturday night. This is bad. Girls like Mei don’t run away. Something must have happened.”
My stomach lurched as I watched him hurry off.
The PIPs, minus Seiko, stood by Eden’s locker. Not even death could get in the way of their perfection. I’d given it my best shot, but no matter how hard I tried, I could only manage to look presentable that morning—definitely not stunning like they were.
Act natural, I reminded myself as I made my way over. “Hey.”
Kyla was angling her phone for the perfect selfie. Mei was dead because of us, and she was taking a selfie. “Hi. How are you?”
“Not great. You know—”
Eden raised her hand. “Lennox, we’re not talking about our wonderful weekend. You look really cute, by the way. Love the skirt. Ralph Lauren?”
“Yeah. How’s Seiko?”
Dani flipped through a stack of index cards she was reading. “She’s doing as well as anyone can expect.” She glanced down. “Are those brand-new sneakers? They’re so white.” Clearly, they were going to keep changing the subject.
I jumped as the warning bell for first period rang.
Eden smoothed out the collar of my blouse. “Relax. Have a great day, Lennox. Everything will be just fine.”
***
Bree cornered me between second and third periods. She had me trapped between her and a vending machine in a deserted hallway. Bree looked more like herself, while I looked the way she had that day on the football bleachers. “Lennox, what happened?”
“What do you mean?”
Her eyes widened. “You know exactly what I mean. Where’s Mei?”
If I had anything to worry about, it was definitely Bree.
I shrugged. “I have no idea, but I’m sure she’ll turn up soon.”
I tried to move past her, but she grabbed my wrist. “Don’t play with me, Lennox. The PIPs have a trial involving Mei, and now all of a sudden, she turns up missing? What happened to her?”
Bree glared at me accusingly. She wasn’t stupid, but I would never admit the truth to her.
“Nothing happened. Everything went just like you said it would. Thanks for the heads-up. Anyway, the last time I saw Mei was Saturday night, and she was fine. That’s all I can tell you. I have to get to class.”
She grabbed my wrist again. That was the last time I would let her do that. “Lennox?”
“What?”
Her eyes bored into mine like she was trying to see my secrets, but I didn’t look away. She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “You don’t seem very concerned.”
“You want me to cry? I’m sorry that she’s missing, but it’s not like I knew her. Anyway, it hasn’t even been twenty-four hours. She’ll turn up.”
I shoved past her and didn’t look back.
***
A somber-looking Principal Chambers made an appearance on the morning announcements. He hadn’t done that since the first day, when he welcomed us to a brand-new school year. “I hate to start this week off on such a sad note, but as you probably know by now, Mei Tanaka has been missing since Saturday night. We ask that if you have heard from her or have any idea where she may be, you let us know immediately. Let’s have a moment of silence as we pray for her prompt and safe return.”
Around me, heads went down, and eyes closed. I did the same, knowing that thoughts and prayers were useless. I guessed Mei was safe, depending on how you looked at it, but she would never return. After what seemed like forever, the principal spoke again. “Mei is a precious part of our Bainbridge family, as you all are, and wherever she is, we hope she knows that she is missed.”
The lump was back in my throat again. Principal Chambers turned the news back over to the usual crew, but I couldn’t force myself to pay attention. They said something about the weather and what the cafeteria was serving for lunch, I thought. Whatever it was, it didn’t seem right to be carrying on like normal when Mei was dead.
***
After school, I wanted to catch up with Seiko, even though Eden had warned me to keep my distance. I had to say something to her, even if it wouldn’t help. You couldn’t just kill someone’s family member and not say anything. I only had a slim chance of finding her away from the others, but I lucked out and spotted Seiko outside on the athletics field. She stood alone, peering through the chain-link fence, watching the cheerleaders practice.
I couldn’t think of the right words to say, so I just started talking. “Hi.”
“Hi,” she muttered, not bothering to look at me.
Following her gaze, I watched the cheerleaders hurl girls into the air and catch them effortlessly. “They’re pretty good.”
Seiko nodded. “They’re awesome. One of the best squads in the district.”
“Do you want to be a cheerleader?” I couldn’t help but notice the longing in her eyes.
She didn’t answer for a moment. “Yeah. I mean, I cheered all through middle school. I’ve thought about trying out for this squad, but it’s not going to happen.”
“Why not?”
Seiko sighed. “You know. We’re on the track team. Eden says the pretty, popular girls becoming cheerleaders is too cliché and expected, so we run track.”
&nbs
p; That was a shame. Seiko would probably have made a great cheerleader. “You could always just do it anyway. You don’t have to do everything Eden says.”
She made a face like I’d said the stupidest thing in the world. “That’s not how it works, and you know it.” She seemed to remember that she was supposed to be angry with me. “What do you want anyway?”
Touching her shoulder, I said, “I wanted you to know how sorry I am.”
I couldn’t say what I was sorry for because I couldn’t find the words, but she knew.
She closed her eyes. “Being at home is torture. All day yesterday, all my parents did was freak out about where she is. Everyone knows she would never run away. They think she might be hurt somewhere and needing help. It’s going to kill me. How am I ever supposed to look my aunt and uncle in the eye again?”
I rubbed the toe of my bright-white sneaker into a patch of dirt. “I don’t know.”
“They sent her here to have more opportunities. Since she was five, she’d wanted to go to Harvard, so they sent her here to complete high school. They trusted my family with their only child.” She wiped a tear away with the back of her hand. “I didn’t hate Mei. I just couldn’t stand her. She drove me crazy, but I loved her. She was family.”
Couldn’t. Loved. Was. Speaking of Mei in past tense made it feel so final.
Pressure built up behind my eyes, but I couldn’t cry, not there when I was trying to make Seiko feel better.
She finally looked at me. “That fight we had on the rocks was just pretend. Do you know the last real words I said to her before I left the house?”
“No.” But if she was anything like me, they weren’t great.
“Mei wanted me to study with her instead of going to Eden’s. She was only trying to look out for me. I called her an uptight bitch and told her to mind her own damn business. I told her she was jealous because she didn’t have any friends to hang out with on a Saturday night.” Seiko was full-on sobbing by then.
I rubbed her back, wanting to tell her that I knew exactly how she felt. If I’d known the last words I said to Piper would truly be my last, I would have chosen differently. Something kept me from telling her, though. That was my secret, and I didn’t know her well enough to share it, even though I owed her that much.
She stopped crying, and the two of us stood there watching the cheerleaders. As the coach blew the whistle for the team to take a water break, I thought of something. If Mei and Seiko didn’t get along, why would Mei have agreed to help with the trial? What was in it for her?
14
I’m Not Who You Think I Am
I caught a ride home with Angie, even though it was forbidden. At that point, I didn’t care. The PIPs and I were done with each other. After I spoke with Seiko, I needed to get away from that school as fast as possible.
Owen had stayed after school for something, so I was riding shotgun. Angie’s blaring music helped drown my thoughts until she turned the volume down.
“You’re quiet today.”
“Yeah. Just thinking.”
She gave me the side-eye. “Want to talk about it?”
“Nah. It’s not a big deal.” I wished she would turn the music back up, but she didn’t. She drummed her hands on her steering wheel to the beat of whatever music was playing in her head, and I was thankful when she stopped. “Crazy about Mei, huh? What do you think happened?”
Mei was the last thing I wanted to talk about, especially with Angie. She was one of the few people I actually liked, and I didn’t want to lie to her. “I didn’t know her very well, obviously. People keep saying she was such a good girl and that she would never run away, but I don’t believe that. I think people are good at putting on acts, and you never know what’s really going on with them.”
Angie looked at me a little too long. “I agree. Sometimes those good girls just break and rebel, and sometimes they’re super sneaky. For all we know, Mei could have had a secret boyfriend who came and scooped her up, and the two of them rode off into the sunset. Things like that happen a lot. She’ll be back.”
I pressed my teeth into my tongue so hard I thought it might bleed. I wanted to tell Angie that she was wrong. I wanted to tell her everything. Instead, I sank into the car seat, picturing Mei in a car with some older guy, the two of them speeding down the highway. Maybe if I pictured it enough, that would make it true.
Angie whipped around a corner a little too fast. “Anyway, the Tanakas are very prominent members of our community and great friends with Chief Blackwood, so I’m sure they will put everything into bringing her home.”
I felt carsick, and I never got carsick. Angie was right. I pictured the police coming around and asking question after question, breaking people down until they got the answers they were looking for. What if they trace Mei to the cave? What if they find the blood there? Everything had been so fast and messy. So many things could lead back to us—to me. That was why murder should be carefully planned out, every detail and scenario given great attention. Killing someone on a whim with no plan was when you get caught. When you were in a panicked hurry, there were bound to be loose ends.
“Lennox?”
“Huh?”
Angie chuckled. “You just zoned out on me. Where’d you go?”
You don’t want to know.
“I was trying to remember what Mom said she was making for dinner.”
She braked at a stop sign and put on her left turn signal. “You must really take me for an idiot.”
***
At home, I found Mom curled up on the living room sofa with her laptop. I hoped she was looking for a job, but a quick peek at her screen told me she was shoe shopping. I tossed my backpack on the floor and sat beside her, hoping my old mother would make an appearance, because I needed to talk.
She added a pair of sapphire-blue pumps to her shopping cart. “Hey, honey. Have a good day?”
I wrapped a lock of hair around my finger. “Today was pretty bad. A girl from school is missing.”
Mom set her laptop beside her. “I heard about that. It’s terrible. Hopefully, she’s not in any danger, and she’ll turn up. Did you know her?”
“I knew who she was, but I’ve never talked to her or anything.”
Then I did something I hadn’t done in a long time, at least not in front of another person. I dissolved into tears—nose running, shoulders heaving, the whole shebang.
Mom rubbed the back of my neck and pulled me toward her. “Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
Wiping my eyes, I looked her in the face. I had so many things I wanted to tell her, but I didn’t know how. I couldn’t tell her about Mei, not after I promised her that I would be good. “It’s Piper. She’s been on my mind a lot lately. I can’t stop being angry and sad. I don’t want to feel this way, but I don’t know how not to.”
Mom pulled me closer. “I know. It’s something we struggle with every day, and it may never go away. We just have to take things one day at a time.”
She always said that. One day at a time. Maybe it appeased her, but that wasn’t good enough for me. I couldn’t just settle for being miserable from one day to the next. I had to take care of the problem. When Piper had died, I was overtaken by rage. To stop myself from being so angry, I did a terrible, terrible thing.
One Friday evening, Piper was getting dressed up like she had somewhere to go. Usually, I was the one getting ready to go out with my friends, or Piper and I would stay in and have a comedy movie marathon in the TV room. When I passed by her room, she asked me to help her put on some mascara.
I told her to sit on her bed. “Pipes, where are you going?”
“To a party with Farrah and Yasmin. This boy is renting out a mansion for his eighteenth birthday. It’s going to be huge. Do you think I’m dressed right?”
She was. Piper wore a maroon dress with ruffles at the bottom, a denim jacket, and brown boots. “You look great, Piper, but are you sure this is a good idea?”
Piper had never
been to a party on her own before, only family parties with us.
I finished her mascara and screwed on the top. “Since you’re already dressed up, why don’t we go see a movie and get some pizza or something. We’ll make it a sister night.”
Piper gave herself one last glance in the mirror. “No, silly. Maybe tomorrow. Lenny, this is the first time I’ve ever been invited to a real party since I was in the fifth grade. Aren’t you happy for me?”
“I am, but you know how I feel about Farrah and Yasmin.”
She fiddled with the gold charm on her necklace. “I know, and I keep telling you that you’re all wrong about them. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have been invited to this party in the first place. Why can’t you just let the past be the past?”
“It’s just that I worry. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
Piper pinched one of my cheeks and gave me a kiss on the other. “Don’t worry, Lenny. Everything’s going to be okay. I’ll be with my friends.”
Those words would always stab me like a sword to my gut. Those girls weren’t her friends, and everything was not going to be okay.
15
How I Got This Way
Piper was supposed to be home by midnight. Yasmin and Farrah had picked her up in Farrah’s car. I tried to wait up for her to see how everything had gone, but I had fallen asleep. At around three o’clock, I was awakened by Mom screaming. I hurried downstairs to see what was happening.
Mom was in the kitchen, yelling at someone over the phone while Dad was trying to calm her down. She slammed the phone down, swearing under her breath.
“What’s wrong?” I asked from the doorway.
Dad rubbed Mom’s shoulders. “Piper hasn’t come home.”
My stomach dropped to my knees. “What? Call the police. We have to go out and look for her. What did Farrah and Yasmin say?”
Piranhas in Pink: Piranhas in Pink Book One Page 12