Piranhas in Pink: Piranhas in Pink Book One

by Nova Knightley

  I removed the pink unicorn sitting one chair away from her and took a seat. She slammed her book shut and frowned. “Hey, my friend was sitting there. How rude.”

  “Your friend is made of cotton and fluff. He or she will get over it.”

  Not expecting that response, she blinked a few times before narrowing her sea-blue eyes at me. I figured she had to be ten or eleven. Circular patches of freckles covered her nose and cheeks. “For your information, all my friends are real. I talk to them, and they talk back.”

  I narrowed my eyes too. “No, they don’t. You don’t really believe these things are real. You’re just using them to keep other people from sitting with you.”

  She pursed her lips. “Yet here you are. Can you leave, please? I was reading to my friends, and they’re just itching to know what happens next in the story.”

  I picked up the yellow bear sitting next to me and squeezed its head until its eyes were bulging out.

  At first, her jaw dropped, then she giggled. “That bear is so stupid looking.”

  I set the bear back in its place. “Why are you sitting here all alone instead of playing with the others?”

  She opened her book again. “I just want to read in peace. Is that too much to ask? My teacher says I need to read, read, read. My dad says I need to read, read, read. But then when I try to read, you tell me I should be doing something else.”

  I took the book from her and looked over the cover. “I read The Secret Garden. What’s your favorite part so far?”

  Her eyes darted to the left. “Uhhh…”

  “Who’s your favorite character?”

  She held her head high. “The girl.”

  “The girl?”

  “Yeah, you know. The main one.” She finally cracked a smile. “Okay, so I’m pretending to read because I just want to be left alone. Is that a crime?”

  I glanced over my shoulder. Kyla was building her own tower with the boys, and the adults were still talking by the window. “No, it’s not a crime. What’s your name?”

  She groaned. “Daisy.”

  “That’s a pretty name. So answer my question. Why aren’t you playing with the other kids?”

  She folded her arms over her chest. “Why aren’t you?” She was good at being a smart-ass, but she was still a kid.

  I laughed. “I was just about to when I saw you, and I was curious.”

  “I hate people, okay?”

  I slid The Secret Garden back over to her. “Oh.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “You’re a person.”

  “I sure am. But if you have to be here and I have to be here, we might as well be here together. Want to play a game? I like checkers.”

  Daisy covered her face with her hands. “Oh my god.” She peeked at me through her fingers. “You got a name or what?”

  “Lennox.”

  Daisy readjusted her headband. “Well, Lennox, only losers play checkers.”

  Ignoring that, I rose from my seat. She really wanted to play. I could hear it in her voice. “I’ll go see if I can find a checkerboard. If not, I’ll grab something else fun.”

  I headed over to the shelf that was jammed full of board games, including several games of checkers. I grabbed the one that looked the least worn, along with Monopoly Junior. By the time I got back to the table, Daisy was glaring at me, but she wore the tiniest smirk.

  She lifted the lid of the checkers game. “You’re crazy, you know that?”

  I did, and that was exactly why I liked to keep my distance from children.

  ***

  The children’s center had a small cafeteria where they fed the kids lunch and gave them a snack at noon. Eden told us that we would help with lunch, then we would be done for the day. We passed out the lunches and went around opening juice pouches and bags of chips and making sure everyone had a spork. Ms. Beverly insisted that we eat lunch too.

  I took my tray and sat across from Daisy, who had nabbed a spot at the end of a table, once again ignoring everyone. Lunch was hot dogs, tater tots, a fruit cup, and a bag of chips. I took a bite of my hot dog. It was better than I expected. I noticed that Daisy had practically inhaled her tater tots. “Want mine?”

  She nodded, and I scooped them onto her tray.

  “You can have my fruit cup,” she offered.

  “No. You eat your fruit.”

  She looked down at her tray, which held half a hot dog and a bag of Cheetos. “Well, I have to trade you something, and Cheetos are my favorite.”

  “We don’t have to trade. It’s cool.”

  Daisy held the bag of Cheetos to her chest. “Thanks. My dad never buys Cheetos.”

  I squeezed some mustard onto my hot dog. “No? Why’s that?”

  She made a face. “He only wants me to eat fruit and vegetables.”

  “He just wants you to be healthy. All parents are that way.”

  She dug into her fruit cup. “I guess. Are you coming back next week?”

  I watched her from the corner of my eye. “Do you want me to?”

  Daisy rolled her eyes. “No. You’re, like, super annoying.”

  “Then I will be here with bells on.”

  She groaned, but it wasn’t very convincing. “Whatever.”

  After lunch, a bus came to pick some of the kids up to take them home. It was a short yellow school bus with the words Rainbow Way Transportation painted on the sides in colorful letters. The girls and I made sure the kids got on the bus safely. Just as the bus was pulling off, Daisy let down her window and poked her head out. “Lennox, I have to tell you something.”

  I shielded my eyes from the sun. “What?”

  “I—” she began, but then the bus pulled off, and I couldn’t hear her anymore over the sounds of the engine.

  Since we were done, I headed back to the free-play room to grab my bag. One of the ladies who worked there was picking up stray Legos. She grinned when she saw me. “Well, someone really took a liking to you.”

  “Oh, yeah. Daisy’s cool.”

  The woman frowned. “Daisy?”

  I grabbed my bag from where it rested on a shelf. “Yeah, the little girl I was playing with earlier. Isn’t that who you were talking about?”

  “The girl in the taco cat shirt? Her name is Phoebe, not Daisy.”

  My jaw dropped. I couldn’t believe she had lied to me and had me calling her Daisy all day.

  The woman rolled her eyes and sighed. “Don’t worry about it. That kid is a piece of work. Her first day here, she flooded the girls’ bathroom.”

  Of course. Of all the kids at the center, leave it to me to bond with the spawn of Satan. I hate kids.

  23

  Justice Jenkins Has No Respect for the PIPs

  After the children’s center, Eden drove me home. “Tonight, we’re hanging out at Piptopia. You don’t have plans with Brody, do you?”

  I didn’t. We hadn’t communicated since his Friday good-morning text. “No. He has something to do with his family,” I lied.

  Eden smiled. “Good. Someone will pick you up at eight.”

  I didn’t like spending my entire weekend with the PIPs, but I had just become one of them, and I couldn’t start flaking out already. Still, the thought of returning to the place where I had killed Mei made my skin crawl. “Have you heard anything new about Mei?”

  She slowed down to change lanes. “Not a whole lot. Of course, there’s no sign of her car, and her cell phone was at the Tanaka house all day on Saturday. She wasn’t big on social media, so there’s not much to get from that. The student council is putting together a memorial for Wednesday night. We all have to be there, of course.”

  As Eden drove, I searched her face, looking for any inkling that she felt bad about what happened. I couldn’t tell.

  She gave me a sidelong glance. “Poor Seiko, though. Her aunt and uncle are here from Japan. Obviously, they’re on the verge of losing it.”

  I could only imagine.

  ***

  At 8:13, Kyla tex
ted that she was in the driveway. All four girls were already in her Range Rover when I hurried from the house. Seiko had some wine coolers. We stopped at a convenience store, and Kyla and Eden ran inside and returned promptly with a bag full of junk food. I tried to relax as Kyla headed for the cave. It should have been a fun, easy night—five girls hanging out, stuffing our faces, and having some girl talk. Just don’t think about Mei.

  “What the hell?” Eden asked as we pulled onto the sandy road that led to the shore. She leaned forward, staring through the windshield.

  Two sets of headlights shone from up ahead. Someone was too close to their precious sanctuary.

  “Who’s that?” I asked.

  Dani groaned. “Who it always is.”

  The other girls chimed in simultaneously. “Justice Jupiter Jenkins.”

  “We can’t stand that kid,” Seiko added. “And he always introduces himself just like that when he makes his stupid speeches on the morning announcements. Justice Jupiter Jenkins. Like he’s proud of that crazy shit.”

  Kyla pulled in front of the vehicles, and we jumped out. Four boys had telescopes on tripods aimed at the sky. A tall boy with a slim build jogged over to us, illuminated in the headlights. He had dark-beige skin and a thick mop of copper curls. The butterflies from the first day of school were back, but their wings were light and airy instead of made of razor blades.

  He wore tan cargo shorts, dirty sneakers, and an Iron Man T-shirt. Smiling broadly, he nodded toward us. “Good evening, ladies. Would you like to join us for a night of astronomy? We’re looking for Corona Australis, the Southern Crown.”

  Eden folded her arms across her chest. “Absolutely not, but if you can answer this question for me, we won’t chuck those telescopes into the ocean. Exactly how many drugs was your mother on when she named you Justice Jupiter?”

  Justice’s smile faded. “My mother didn’t name me. She died giving birth to me, and my parents hadn’t settled on a name before I made my debut. My father named me himself. He named me Justice because he’s an advocate for the equal rights of all people and Jupiter because it was Mom’s favorite planet.”

  “God, Eden,” Seiko mumbled.

  Eden tucked her hair behind her ears. “Well, I didn’t know about his mom.”

  “It’s cool,” Justice said. “I wouldn’t expect anything more from you people.”

  “You people?” Dani asked. “Where have you been anyway? You haven’t shown up for one day of school. We thought you were gone. Well, hoped you were gone.”

  Justice smirked. “Sorry to disappoint you, but my dad and I were on a mission trip to Ghana. We helped build a community center. It was amazing. Just got back.”

  That explained why I hadn’t seen him around school. Justice definitely stood out, so I would have noticed him.

  “My dad made an arrangement with Principal Chambers that I could miss the first few weeks as long as I completed my assignments. Chambers was all for it, I think mostly because he can’t handle the splendor of my presence.”

  “No, Justice,” Seiko said. “Like most people, he’s annoyed by your presence. He was probably hoping you’d get lost over there.”

  Ignoring her, Justice glanced over his shoulder at his friends, who were howling at the full moon. “So, are you guys in or what? You might see a shooting star.”

  “No, we’re not in.” Eden narrowed her eyes at him. “What are you guys even doing here? Everyone knows this place is off-limits. Our names are even on it.”

  Justice held his arms out and spun around. “How can nature be off limits? It’s God’s gift to all of us. Anyway, not everyone follows your stupid rules. We have just as much of a right to be here as you do. You don’t own any of this.”

  The butterflies fluttered wildly. I loved watching someone stand up to Eden.

  She huffed and was about to say something when Justice cut her off. “Kyla, I don’t usually listen to your superficial, closed-minded vlog, but you actually made a good argument the other day about how important representation in the media is.”

  Kyla forgot that she was supposed to hate Justice and beamed proudly. “Thanks.”

  Eden shot her a look, but she didn’t seem to care or notice.

  Justice’s gaze fell on me. “Hey, you’re the new girl.”

  “Yeah. Lennox McRae,” I said, trying to sound as bored as possible. I liked his look and attitude, but since he was an obvious foe of the PIPs, I had to hide that.

  “Hey, Lennox McRae. You look smart enough to not be hanging out with these undesirables.” He leaned in to whisper in my ear, “They’re a bunch of losers.”

  The feel of his breath against my ear sent shivers down my spine. It smelled like bananas, and even though I hated bananas, I didn’t mind.

  Justice’s friends got excited about something and moved their telescopes a little farther down the shore.

  Eden moved closer to me. “Look, Justice. We don’t want any problems. We just want to have a relaxing night. Get out of here and don’t come back.”

  He thought for a moment. “No can do. This is the best spot to see constellations on a clear night. Nobody’s stopping you from going into your cave to cast spells and summon demons or whatever the hell witches do. Anyway, we were just about to jet, but we’ll be back. We’re leaving to grab some veggie burgers.” He locked eyes with each of us. “Just to be clear, we’re not leaving because you told us to. We’re leaving because we require edible sustenance.” He turned around and whistled. “Let’s go, guys.”

  The other boys hauled the telescopes back to their vehicles and hopped in.

  “Why all the hostility?” I asked.

  Seiko stared after them with a fierce look in her eyes. “Justice Jenkins has no respect for the PIPs. He never follows the rules. We don’t talk to or acknowledge him or his loser friends ever.”

  But they’d just done that.

  I watched the taillights disappear from view. Even though I’d only met him for a few minutes, I kind of liked Justice Jupiter Jenkins, weird name and all.

  ***

  Once we were finally alone, Kyla cranked up the stereo of the Range Rover as we took the camping lanterns from the back. Seiko passed out the wine coolers while the rest of us settled down on the crates.

  Dani poked a rock with the tip of her sneaker. “Lennox, tell us about your family.”

  My stomach did flip-flops, though it was a fair question. If I was a part of their group, they should know about my family. “My parents are divorced. It was official last spring, but they had been separated for about six months before. My dad still lives in Vermont. He got remarried two months ago.”

  Kyla whistled. “Men move on fast as hell, don’t they?”

  I agreed. Dad had married a woman named Ashley, whom I had never even met. All I knew was that she was a dentist with a ten-year-old son. Ashley was three years older than Dad. I supposed I should be grateful that he hadn’t done the whole cliched get-with-a-woman-who-was-twenty-years-younger thing.

  One of the lanterns flickered as a gust of wind filled the cave. I suddenly felt alone and vulnerable. The girls watched me, waiting for me to continue. Don’t be afraid. You control how much you want to share. Your secrets are yours. “Mom wanted a fresh start. She had been talking to Gary online for a while, and he invited us to move in with him. So here we are.”

  Please don’t ask about siblings.

  Eden pressed the tip of her empty wine cooler bottle into the sand. “Well, divorce sucks, but we’re glad you’re here.” Then she started talking about a party happening the following weekend.

  My shoulders relaxed after the change of topic. I wasn’t ready to share Piper with anyone yet.

  Daniella took a bottle opener to another wine cooler. “How are things going with Brody?”

  All eyes were on me again. Brody was fine. He was definitely someone I would be cool with but nothing more than that. After my pause, the girls burst into giggles.

  Eden pulled her hoodie over h
er head. “It’s okay if you don’t like him, like him. It’s just for appearances. Most of us have someone else on the side.”

  “Not me,” Dani chimed in. “I’m very loyal to my honey bunny.”

  Kyla threw a pebble at her. “Yes, Dani and Francisco are a modern-day Romeo and Juliet.”

  Realizing I hadn’t taken a sip of my wine cooler yet, I took a long swig of the lemon-lime-flavored substance. It was good, not too strong and not too sweet. I raised an eyebrow at Eden. “Tell me about your side piece.”

  The other girls smiled at her slyly, and Eden turned bright red.

  “Well, I wouldn’t call him my side piece. He’s the real thing, and Anthony is the side piece. Anyway, his name is Xavier. He goes to school with my sister.”

  Eden sighed. Her mind seemed to go to a faraway place. “Last March, the girls and I crashed a college party I’d learned about through Harlow. She was so pissed when she saw us there, but she couldn’t make us leave. That was where I met Xavier. He was shooting pool, and the second he saw me, his game was wrecked. The poor boy couldn’t even concentrate. Xavier is the love of my life.”

  “Awww,” the other girls said in unison, but I wanted to gag. He was not the love of her life. I strongly doubted that he was the person she would marry and spend the rest of her life with.

  Eden traced the cap of her bottle with a finger. “By the way, Harlow doesn’t know about it. She can’t know about it. Xavier is twenty, and if Dad ever found out, he’d lose his shit. All it would take is Harlow getting mad at me, and she’d totally bust me.”

  Seiko told me about a boy named Mike who went to Turtle Bay, and Kyla claimed she was too busy to have another boyfriend aside from Joshua.

  “He’s cute enough, and he doesn’t annoy me” was all she had to say about him.

  Eden grabbed the snacks from the car, and we tore into the cheese puffs and mini chocolate bars.

  Biting into a snack-sized Snickers like it was the most marvelous thing she had ever tasted, Seiko closed her eyes. “I have my date with Corey Brennan tomorrow. I can’t wait to get it over with.”