Piranhas in Pink: Piranhas in Pink Book One

by Nova Knightley

  Then I started glaring at Esme. “Aw, I’m sorry, Phoebe. That was a crappy thing for her to say. I understand why you’re angry with her.”

  “Yeah,” Phoebe said. “She has to pay for saying something like that, so I put a spell on her.”

  “What?” I asked as Ms. Beverly announced that lunch was over.

  “I found a book of spells in my mom’s stuff in the attic, and I put one on Esme.”

  At first, I wasn’t sure what to say, then I figured it had to be harmless. “What kind of spell? One to make her hair fall out or something?”

  Phoebe laughed and gathered her trash onto her Styrofoam tray. “No. It’s a death spell. It doesn’t work immediately, and you have to say it every day, but it’ll be worth it. I want that bitch dead by Christmas.”

  I watched as she bounced happily to the trash can.

  Holy shit.

  27

  Piranha Teeth

  The next few days of school passed quietly. Different theories about what happened to Mei had been circulating. I’d heard that a girl from a rival school had kidnapped Mei and was holding her hostage until after the next academic bowl. A girl in PE said that Mei had gone into the witness protection program. In the bathroom, a girl said she was one hundred percent sure that Mei had gone to another country to have inexpensive plastic surgery. None of them was as interesting as Justice’s alien conspiracy, but all of them made me feel guilty knowing the truth. With all that going on, I couldn’t help but notice that Seiko seemed to be reveling in the attention she was getting over her missing cousin.

  During lunch, she sucked on a grape Blow Pop. “Mrs. Marshall totally let me get away with not turning in my history project. I told her it was so hard for me to focus while my family was in crisis and how hard it was not knowing where Mei was. She was like a sister to me, after all. I even managed a few tears. She cried even more than I did.”

  “Well played,” Eden remarked.

  Mom would have agreed.

  Eden tilted her head to the side. “You know what I was thinking… today when we get manicures, we can get pink butterflies on our thumbs in honor of Mei. She loved butterflies, right, Seiko?”

  Seiko snorted. “Yeah. Lame ass.”

  That was just what I needed—a reminder of Mei every time I looked at my hands. What is Eden even talking about? We were responsible for her death. A decoration on our nails wasn’t going to make up for a dead girl.

  “I don’t think we should,” I blurted.

  Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at me.

  Eden raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”

  “I think it’s a disrespectful considering we… you know.”

  “We didn’t do anything,” Dani said before returning to her notebook. “You did. The rest of us are protecting your awful secret, even Seiko, when Mei was her family. I think you can get a damn butterfly.”

  “I agree,” Eden said. “We’re getting butterflies.”

  I stood and grabbed my backpack even though there was still ten minutes left of lunch.

  Eden grabbed my wrist before I could walk off. “Lennox, are you okay? If this is too much for you, we could always talk to my father about it.”

  I yanked away from her. I wasn’t worried about her going to her father. They would be in trouble, too, since they were involved. I did wonder how long we were going to get away with it. At some point, everything that happened that night was going to rise to the surface, and my life would be over. It was bound to happen. You could only get away with murder so many times.

  ***

  Keeping my eyes glued to the TV hanging on the wall, I tried not to watch as the manicurist painted butterflies on my thumbs. I tuned the girls out until their conversation changed to a girl named Claire Reed, who had yet to pay back her debt to the PIPs.

  “So what are you going to do?” I asked.

  Eden peeked over her shoulder, giving me a withering look. “You just sit there quietly and get your nails done.” She was obviously still salty about lunchtime. Eden addressed the others. “Claire’s gotten her warning and a few extra days. She’s in time-out tomorrow.”

  The others cackled like hyenas. I wanted to know what it meant to be in time-out, but I didn’t bother asking.

  As we were walking out of the nail salon, Eden turned to me. “Lennox, want to come to my place for a while?” The invitation was surprising considering she hadn’t wanted to hear me all afternoon. The other girls looked as confused as I felt.

  “I’d like to, but Ms. Melcher gave us this assignment about similes or whatever, and I haven’t even started on it.”

  Eden placed her hand on Dani’s shoulder. “Dani will do it for you. Right, Dani?”

  I pulled my cell phone from my pocket to check the time. “What?”

  Dani didn’t seem the least bit bothered. “Sure. Are the instructions on her website?”

  I nodded. Dani beamed before pulling out her car keys. “Consider it done.”

  She, Kyla, and Seiko headed off while I followed Eden to her car.

  The ride started off silent and awkward. “I’m kind of surprised you invited me over. I thought you’d still be angry about earlier.”

  “I wasn’t angry. I’d say more like annoyed. Anyway, I have something more important to deal with at the moment. I need someone there, and since you’re the only one I’ve told about, you know, my thing, it’s you.”

  Whatever she was talking about, I wasn’t in the mood for it. I just wanted to go home. After school, track practice, and manicures, it had been a long day. “What exactly do you need me for?”

  “You’ll see.” She didn’t say another word until we made it to her house.

  As Eden fished for her keys at the front door, I heard the sounds of beautiful violin music. In the living room, Eden’s little sister was practicing her instrument. Her eyes were closed, like she was in her own zone. Eden breezed through the living room as if her sister wasn’t even there.

  We found Chief Blackwood in the kitchen, making himself a sandwich.

  “Hey, gorgeous,” he greeted his daughter.

  Eden bounced over and gave him a peck on the cheek. “Hi, Daddy. You remember Lennox.”

  He looked at me and winked. “Of course I do. I never forget a name or a face. Can I make you girls a ham on rye?”

  “No, thank you,” I answered, even though I was starving. Chief Blackwood seemed very nice, but every hair on my body stood on end when I was in his presence. I felt like at any moment, he would read my mind and figure out what happened to Mei.

  Eden grabbed two bottled waters from the fridge. “I’m fine, Dad. Dr. Kahler will be here soon.”

  Chief Blackwood screwed the top back on a jar of mayo. “That’s right. Let me know if you need anything.”

  “Okay,” Eden said, grabbing my hand and pulling me upstairs.

  In her room, I dumped my stuff into a corner and opened a bottle of water. “You wanted me to be here for your doctor’s visit?”

  “Once a week, Dr. Kahler comes to give me an injection. It helps reduce the pain lupus can cause and works really well for me. I like to have someone to hold my hand and stay a little while with me afterward. It makes me nauseous.”

  “Okay.” Her dad could have easily done that, but I figured she had a reason for asking me. If I had to be there, I was going to use the opportunity to my advantage.

  Dr. Kahler arrived moments later. Eden lay on her bed while the doctor injected a clear liquid into the vein on her right arm. I sat on the other side of her. She closed her eyes and squeezed my hand. I watched every second of it, not able to take my eyes off the needle.

  The medicine made her as sick as she said it would. I held her hair back while she threw up, kept her steady as she brushed her teeth, then helped her crawl into bed when she was done.

  Closing her eyes, she pulled the covers over her. “I’m sorry. I know that was gross.”

  Not to me. Vomit was just your stomach saying it needed t
o be emptied. It never made me feel squeamish. I didn’t say so out loud because that would be weird. Normal people were grossed out by vomit.

  Pulling a chair up to the side of her bed, I watched her. “I get you not being able to ask the other PIPs, but don’t you have any other friends you can ask? I mean, a smartass you met a few weeks ago shouldn’t be your last resort.”

  She smiled weakly. “I don’t have any friends besides you guys. We’re all we have, Lennox, and we’re all we need.”

  I guessed. She closed her eyes again, but I couldn’t let her fall asleep. I needed to pick her brain. “Who’s your favorite?”

  Her eyes popped open. “What?”

  “Who’s your favorite of the girls, not including me, of course.”

  She chuckled and rolled over on her back. “I don’t have a favorite. I love them all the same.”

  Lie. That was the standard answer parents and teachers always gave, and it was always a lie. It was human nature to have preferences, even when it came to people you loved. She shook her head, clearly not willing to answer the question, so I asked a different one. “What do you like best about Dani?”

  Eden reached for the bottle of water on her nightstand. “There’s nothing hotter than a smart girl. Not only is she smart, but she works hard. Did you know that she speaks four languages?”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Yep. Spanish, French, and Mandarin. Mom says that’s going to put her ahead in the job market.”

  The violin music stopped downstairs.

  “Thank God,” Eden said. “She practices exactly an hour every evening. No one even has to tell her to. She just does it on her own.” She said it like it was a bad thing.

  “And Seiko.”

  Eden chuckled. “Seiko is a hot mess, but she’s wild and fearless, and I admire that about her. She’s also very loyal. She does anything I ask her to.”

  I thought they all did whatever she told them to. Maybe Seiko was more loyal than the others.

  “And Kyla, my modern-day Joan of Arc. I love how she stands up for what she believes in, even things people our age don’t care about but should. That girl is going to do big things.” Eden smiled with a faraway look in her eyes.

  Kyla was the one. I had to tuck that away to use at a later date.

  Chief Blackwood stopped in with a bowl of chicken broth and crackers on a tray. “You need to put something back in your tummy,” he said before kissing the top of her head.

  I missed having a dad like that.

  He pulled a pack of peanut M&M’s from his pocket and pointed them at me. “No one can say no to these, right?”

  The chief tossed them over, and I caught them.

  “Thanks.” I tore into the bag, watching Eden dip two crackers into the broth and eat them. Chief Blackwood left, closing the door behind him.

  “Has your dad said anything?”

  She didn’t look up from her bowl. “Nope. There still aren’t any leads. Seiko says they keep coming by, asking lots of questions. They want to know who Mei had been hanging out with recently.”

  I lined four M&Ms up on the palm of my hand. “Do you think we’ll get away with it?”

  Eden pushed the spoon around in her chicken broth, watching it swirl. “Of course we will. We get away with everything.”

  28

  Claire Reed Is in Time-Out for Her Sins

  Thursday morning, I woke up feeling guilty about having Dani do my simile assignment. Since Gary was taking the day off work and he and Mom were taking a day trip to Sheridan Hills, she let me use the car. Sheridan Hills was a tourist spot filled with expensive shops and restaurants.

  Before heading to school, I swung by Starbucks. Since I remembered Dani raving about them in an Instagram post, I grabbed her a pumpkin spice latte.

  My phone dinged while I waited in the drive-through line. It was a group text from Eden, telling us all to meet in her office. She’d also posted a Snapchat that read: Claire Reed is in timeout for her sins. I had no idea what that meant, but it couldn’t be good.

  Dani was by her locker, talking to a girl named Olivia from the track team. She grinned when she saw me. “I’ll catch you later, Liv.”

  Olivia looked at me over her shoulder. “Sure. See you at practice. Hi, Lennox.”

  “Hey,” I said as she walked off. I handed Dani her latte. “It’s the least I can do. I hope you like pumpkin spice.”

  She grabbed the drink and chugged it. “It’s my fave. Thanks so much.” She reached into her locker and handed me a plain file folder. “That is a definite A paper. Don’t accept anything less than that.”

  I slid the folder into my backpack. “I feel really bad about this. I know you have your own work to do. How did you even find the time?”

  She took another sip of her latte. “I manage. Who needs to sleep, right?”

  Dani certainly didn’t look like she had been up all night. I wondered how she managed that. I also wanted to know how many times Eden had ordered her to do assignments for the other girls.

  She shoved a small gym bag into her locker and slammed it shut. “We should head to Eden’s office.”

  The others were already there, and the student government room was empty except for the five of us.

  Eden seethed as we gathered around her. “Claire has been given an extra month to pay us back, and she hasn’t done it. When I confronted her about it, she had the nerve to tell me she wasn’t doing it and that I could go to hell. Go to hell, she said!”

  Seiko winced. “Wow.”

  I set my backpack on Eden’s desk. “Wait, what are you talking about?”

  Kyla was busy swiping through her phone. “We did a favor for Claire, and now she’s refusing to honor her debt. That’s completely unacceptable. Everyone knows that.”

  How are they going to enforce their ridiculous commands? I took a sip of my latte. “What was she supposed to do?”

  Seiko bit her bottom lip. “Maybe we shouldn’t—"

  Eden cut her a look. “No. She’s a PIP now. We have no secrets between us.” She focused her attention on me again. “She was supposed to key that ancient thing Angie Kaufman calls a car.”

  My heart raced. Not Angela. They didn’t get along, but Angie didn’t deserve that. She loved that car. “Why?”

  Seiko folded her arms over her chest. “Why? Kaufman is the one percent of bacteria that sanitizer doesn’t kill.”

  “She’s disrespectful,” Dani added.

  Kyla finally looked up from her phone. “She’s always talking trash about us. You hung out with her. You know.”

  Angie did have a lot to say about them, but only because I’d asked. From what I’d seen, she hadn’t told any lies either.

  “Yes,” Eden said. “Angie can’t seem to keep our names out of her mouth, so she must pay. But Claire’s bitch ass is all, ‘I can’t do it. Destruction of property to that degree is a felony.’ Her father’s on the force and good friends with my dad, but that doesn’t grant her any mercy.”

  I was happy Claire was standing up to them, and she shouldn’t have been punished for it. “So let her do something else. Maybe something not so serious.”

  The girls froze, staring at me for a few moments.

  Kyla shook her head. “That’s not how this works.”

  Eden glared at me. “Yeah, Lennox. Anyway, I waited until Claire got to school before I sent the Snap. If I’d sent it earlier, she might not have shown up.”

  My pumpkin spice latte didn’t taste so good anymore. “What does it mean? How do you put someone in time-out?”

  Seiko rubbed her hands together with a devilish gleam in her eye. “It’s a lot of fun. Basically, everyone ignores her unless they’re saying something rude to her. Bump into her. Make her drop her lunch tray. Whatever. Then at the end of the day, it’s over. Her debt is paid off. We’re actually letting her off easy.”

  Eden stood and smoothed out her pencil skirt. “That’s why I called this meeting to make sure we were all on the sa
me page. We have to lead by example. When you see Claire, treat her like shit, and the others will follow suit.”

  I was getting that terrible feeling again, the same feeling I always got when I thought of Farrah and Yasmin. “And just because you say so, everyone does this?”

  Dani tossed her coffee cup into the trash by Eden’s desk. “Not everyone, but enough people join in.”

  The bell rang, letting us know we had five minutes left until first period.

  “Delete that Snap now,” Kyla called over her shoulder as we headed for the door.

  “Right,” Eden said.

  I stepped into the busy hallway and took a deep breath. I didn’t even know who Claire was, but I guessed I was about to find out.

  ***

  I was introduced to Claire really fast. Our first encounter occurred between first and second periods, courtesy of Dani and Kyla. I was coming out of Algebra when I caught them circling a pretty girl with strawberry-blond hair. The girl stood still, cradling her backpack to her chest.

  Dani frowned. “Ky, have you seen Claire today?”

  “No,” Kyla said, “I haven’t seen her. But if she were here, I bet she would be wearing that fugly-ass green dress she always wears.”

  Claire looked down at her olive-green shift dress, which wasn’t ugly at all. Dani bumped into her, causing Claire to drop her backpack. I saw then why she had been carrying it the way she was. A huge brown stain covered her chest. If I had to guess, I would say that someone had “accidentally” spilled their coffee on her.

  As Claire knelt to retrieve her backpack, Kyla looked down on her. “She wears that dress every week. Do you think she has a bunch of them in her closet?”

  Dani knocked into Claire again as Claire stood up. “Nah. It’s the same one. I heard she never washes it.”

  There was only a minute until our next class, so they finally left her alone. Dani winked at me as they headed down the hallway. By the time I turned back around, Claire was running in the other direction. Someone barked, and two kids pushed her back and forth between them like she was a pinball. After that, Claire disappeared around the corner.