Gramps paused the report. “This is the phony you want to spend a week with, Angeline?”
Her mom recrossed her legs. “I tend to agree. Despite some solid advice in her book, is this really the person you want to be mentored by?”
Angeline nodded.
“Not without a thorough background check,” Gramps said. “I’ve got a buddy on the force who owes me a favor.”
“Gramps, it’s fine,” Angeline said, but he was already sending a text. Her heart swelled.
Back on the news, Angeline read: “‘And now everyone else knows she’s innocent too! Social media is blowing up—a thousand sticks o’ dynamite in support of this one! You want to know what’s next for our Angel, well, I’ll tell youuuu!’” Angeline had pointed to the phone. “Lots of u’s here.” She continued, “‘I hereby announce Angeline will be my special guest at my very first inaugural Evelyn’s Epic Everyday Boot Camp.’”
“‘Inaugural’ means ‘first,’” Cat and Gramps quipped at the same time.
Excitement—and a touch of unfamiliar fear—had preceded Angeline’s next move. She lowered the phone and spoke directly to the camera. “Since Evelyn’s telling secrets, I may as well share one of mine. Hope it’s okay, Evelyn!” She flashed a mischievous smile. “While I didn’t win this election, I received an even greater reward. Getting to see how people responded to the #MoreThanOurParts hashtag. Something that, thanks to Evelyn’s boot camp, I’ll be taking wider under Ask an Angel. I’m going to enlist my followers to not just use the hashtag but embody it by donating, volunteering, and mentoring young women. I’m confident, knowing Evelyn, that she’ll do the same. Bring. It. And flutter your wings, my angels!”
Angeline and Cat high-fived, and Gramps said, “Nicely done, granddaughter!”
Because Angeline had perfectly manipulated Evelyn into supporting Ask an Angel’s new initiative. Her mom tried not to look pleased but failed entirely.
The rest of the segment played out, with the principal promising to ramp up investigations into security, parental influence, and, of course, the Frankengirls. Footage rolled of Cat addressing the student body, and again, Angeline felt a surge of pride for what Cat had accomplished.
Gramps shut off the TV and moved to his favorite armchair beside the couch.
Her mom slid from the sofa onto the coffee table, leaving Cat and Angeline side by side. “Let me see if I have this right. You not only didn’t win, you basically did away with the office of student council president? I underestimated your ability to finagle your way out of a deal.”
“Wait, what? No, Mom . . .”
She smirked, then let it evolve into a genuine smile. “I’m so proud of you, Angeline.” She looked at Cat. “And you. But I’m especially proud that you did this together.” The silence grew along with the glistening in her mom’s eyes. “I was starting to think I’d made a mistake.”
“But you’re the one who forced me to run,” Angeline said.
“Suggested,” she teased. Her mom’s eyes swept over Angeline and Cat, holding them both equally. “I meant a mistake in letting you figure this out on your own.”
Something tingled beneath Angeline’s skin, and Cat nervously laughed. “What? How to almost get an entire school expelled?”
“Not exactly.” Her mom reached for Angeline’s hand. “That you’re stronger together than you are apart.” She then took Cat’s hand and joined them as one. “I never wanted to push.”
“I did,” Gramps said.
“Almost wore me down too.” Her mom smiled gently. “But I didn’t think more interference was what you needed. Time was. To find each other again, to start to undo the damage done by your dad.”
Angeline felt Cat stiffen and watched as she slipped her hand free and secured it under her thigh.
“Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I’d been the one to see that this life wasn’t for him. If I could have prevented the wedge he drove between you.”
“Dad?” Angeline said, extracting her own hand. “But he didn’t do anything—”
“Exactly.” Her mom sighed heavily. “Which meant you both spent so much time competing for attention he couldn’t give. You stopped being a team. My two girls, so strong on your own, but so perfect together. Supporting each other, helping each other, accomplishing great things togeth—”
“Stop,” Cat said softly. “Just stop . . .”
Her mom eyed Cat quizzically and set a hand on her knee, but Cat brushed it off and sprang to her feet, scaring Tartan into their grandfather’s lap. “I didn’t do that, any of it. It’s the opposite. This, all this . . . it’s my fault.”
“Cat, hey, it’s okay,” Angeline said uneasily. “I understand why you wrote the story about Leo.”
Cat wove around the coffee table and paced in front of the TV, her cheeks shining red.
Angeline raised an eyebrow at her mom and shrugged before adding, “Cat, listen, I get it. It’s actually kind of, I don’t know, nice? You thought you were helping me.”
“Helping?” Cat came to a halt, kneading her hands in front of her stomach. She then blurted out, “Emmie. The Shrieking Violet didn’t only learn things from Sammy.”
“The shrieking . . . what?” Angeline’s mouth felt dry, like it was stuffed with cotton.
Cat kept on kneading. “I was watching you, everyone reacting to you, and I was, I don’t know, upset, maybe jealous? And she was there. She listened.” Cat swallowed. “She was using me, I see that now, but then, I was . . . lonely, I guess. I wanted us to be friends. I wanted her to like me and—”
“Like you?” A match flamed inside Angeline’s chest as she realized what her sister meant. Cat’s the one who told Emmie? Told her everything? “You did all this . . . to me . . . because you needed someone to like you?” Angeline gave a harsh laugh. She ignored the “Calm down” from her mother and the “Now, just wait” from Gramps and tore past Cat, heading for their room and the door she could slam and the phone she could snatch up to tell Maxine all about this. All about what her dear sister had done to her.
The sharp pain that ricocheted through Angeline’s chest stopped her.
Maxine. She had to talk to Maxine.
About Cat.
Her instinct. A habit ingrained.
Angeline spun around and faced her sister—the sister she’d been complaining about to her own friends for years. Now she was on the other side.