Two Truths and a Lie

10 GONNA GETCHA

The following day, the bell rang and Emma grabbed her English textbook and joined the stream of students in the hall. As soon as she rounded the corner for the art wing, she heard the whispers and felt the stares.

“Her and Thayer …”

“Did you know she sent him away?”

“His hearing is a month from now. Do you think he’s going to rot in jail that whole time?”

A female basketball player with streaky highlights and a snub nose shot Emma a curious look, then leaned in to a boy with dreadlocks. Both of them started snickering. Emma winced and kept her head held high. She’d had plenty of experience with weird looks from kids at the many schools she’d attended. In fact, she’d even composed a list of nasty comebacks she could shoot at passersby if they commented about her thrift-store clothes and the fact that she was a foster kid. She’d written down the list on a pocket-size Moleskine notebook and kept it with her at all times, just like foreign tourists who carry around English translation handbooks. She’d never been brave enough to use any of the comebacks, though. Sutton probably would have been.

Suddenly, something at the far end of the lobby caught Emma’s eye. A long table had been set up at the doors, and a line of students were standing in front of it, signing something. As the crowd parted, Emma saw Laurel and Madeline sitting on chairs, both wearing black T-shirts with words printed in white across the boobs. Emma squinted, not believing her eyes. The shirts said FREE THAYER.

Emma walked up to the table, curiosity getting the best of her. “Oh, hey, Sutton!” Madeline said in a saccharine voice. “We’ll be ready for lunch in a sec.”

“What’s that?” Emma asked, pointing at a clipboard all the kids were signing.

“Nothing.” Laurel pulled it away from a guy in a baseball jersey who’d just signed the paper and covered it with her hand. “You wouldn’t be interested.”

“She should be interested,” Madeline said under her breath. “She’s the reason he’s in this mess.”

Madeline pushed the clipboard toward Emma. PETITION TO FREE THAYER VEGA, it said at the top. Tons of student signatures were scrawled on lines down the page. There was also a jar marked BAIL FUND filled with ones, fives, tens, and even a twenty-dollar bill or two.

“Want to contribute, Sutton?” Madeline lilted, an edge to her voice. “Fifteen thousand is a lot of money, and we could use every dollar. There’s no way Thayer can last in jail until next month. We need to get him out sooner.”

Emma ran her tongue over her teeth. The only thing keeping her sane right now was the fact that Thayer was in jail until his hearing. But she couldn’t exactly tell Mads and Laurel that. She wondered what would happen if she showed up tomorrow in a THAYER MAY HAVE KILLED MY LONG-LOST TWIN SISTER shirt.

She glanced up to catch Laurel glaring at her. She thought about what Mrs. Mercer had said—that Sutton was a hard sister for Laurel to have. Emma wished she knew exactly why Thayer’s return had made Laurel so angry. Was it because Thayer went to Sutton’s room and not Laurel’s? Was Laurel jealous because of that, or did she know that Thayer had been in love with Sutton? Or maybe she thought that Sutton had stolen him away.

But maybe Laurel was upset about something else entirely—something Emma and I couldn’t even begin to imagine.

Luckily, Emma was saved from making an excuse to not sign the petition by Charlotte, who looped her arm around Emma’s shoulder. “C’mon, girls. Even activists need to eat,” she boomed loudly, beckoning for Madeline and Laurel. “I’ve scored our favorite lunch table.”

Shrugging, Madeline and Laurel slipped the petitions and banners back into their purses and stood. Charlotte wordlessly led them to a wooden table in the big courtyard outside the cafeteria. Desert flowers bloomed all around them. Hummingbirds flitted to the little daisy-shaped feeders that hung around the perimeter. At the table next to them, a bunch of girls in band uniforms were giggling at a picture on an iPad. Freshman meathead guys blew straw wrappers at each other at another table. A bunch of überskinny girls sat on the stucco wall, eating minuscule bites of Greek yogurt.

A squeal of laughter rang through the tension and Emma turned to see the Twitter Twins approaching. Gabby wore capri pants piped in grosgrain ribbon with a matching headband. A tiny piece of peach coral on a delicate chain peeked out between the pearlized buttons of the lime green collared shirt she had on. Lili, on the other hand, looked like she’d raided Courtney Love’s closet, wearing an übershort plaid skirt held together by a zillion safety pins, ripped black tights, and an off-the-shoulder black top that showed more than a bit of cleavage.

“Hello, ladies,” Gabby said, twirling a long strand of blonde hair around her index finger.

“Hey,” Madeline said unceremoniously.

“Don’t look so excited to see us,” Lili scolded.

Laurel rolled her eyes and drenched a piece of sushi in soy sauce.

The Twitter Twins plopped down and opened their lunch bags. Both had brought organic strawberry yogurt and a banana. “So, girls,” Lili said as she peeled the fruit. “Now that we’re card-carrying members of the”—she looked around and lowered her voice—“Lying Game, who are we going to prank next?” Her blue eyes sparkled with excitement.

Madeline shrugged a shoulder. She ran the back of her hand across the shimmery peach blush that dotted her porcelain skin. “I don’t care,” she said, casting a disinterested stare over Emma’s head.

But then Laurel’s face lit up. “Actually, I have an idea.” She glanced around conspiratorially, then lowered her voice. “What about him?” She pointed at someone directly behind Emma. Everyone swiveled to follow her gaze. When Emma saw who it was, her heart sank. Ethan was facing away from them, his feet propped up against the brick wall, a book in his hand.

“Ethan Landry?” Gabby said, a surprised note in her voice.

“Why not?” Laurel asked. She looked up and met Emma’s eyes, and Emma felt heat rise to her cheeks. She’d admitted that she liked Ethan when they’d bought Homecoming outfits together last week. And Laurel had seen them snuggling up at the tennis courts. This was an obvious screw-you, perhaps as revenge for Thayer showing up in Sutton’s bedroom.

Charlotte twisted her mouth, looking unconvinced. “Ethan? Wouldn’t that be a repeat?”

“Yeah, we said no repeats, Laur,” Madeline reminded her.

Emma nearly choked on the dry turkey sandwich she’d pulled out of Sutton’s lunch bag. What did that mean? Had they pranked Ethan before? She thought about the Lying Game videos she’d seen on Laurel’s computer. Not a single one involved Ethan. When had this happened? Why hadn’t Ethan told her about it?

“It’s technically a repeat, I guess,” Laurel acceded, tapping her lips thoughtfully. “But we never did get him back for ruining our prank on you, Sutton.” She was referring to the night Ethan stumbled upon Charlotte, Madeline, and Laurel blindfolding Sutton and staging a fake strangulation snuff film, the same film that landed on the Internet and led Emma to search for Sutton in the first place. Ethan had thought something terrible was happening to Sutton and intervened to stop it. But he’d told Emma that Sutton had laughed it off and pretended like it was nothing. “And we’ll make sure the prank itself is different.”

Madeline popped a grape into her mouth. “You know, Ethan is a pretty good target. He’s so sensitive and emo. He’ll probably, like, cry or something.”

“Boo hoo,” Lili lilted. She tapped something into Twitter, her fingers flying.

“I think a planning session’s in order,” Madeline said. “My house, tomorrow?”

Emma swallowed hard. It felt like everything was racing forward too fast, out of her control. “Shouldn’t we leave Ethan alone?” she blurted, her voice cracking.

Everyone turned and stared at her. “Why, Sutton?” Laurel asked, clearly enjoying herself. “Is someone keeping a secret we don’t know about?”

Emma gazed around the table at Sutton’s friends, feeling resentful that Laurel had forced her into this position. Laurel was the only person she’d confided in about Ethan—she wasn’t sure if the other girls would understand. Dating Ethan had to be an extremely un-Sutton thing to do, a strange choice after popular Garrett. And what would she tell them? She wasn’t exactly sure what was going on between her and Ethan. It wasn’t like they were boyfriend and girlfriend … yet.

Emma snapped the top from her Diet Coke and felt a tiny spray of soda bubbles against her fingertips. “I’m not keeping secrets,” she said smoothly, summoning up her best snooty Sutton voice. “Especially not about Ethan.” It hurt her heart just to say the words.

“Well, then, you’ll have no problem pranking Ethan with us,” Laurel said, clapping her hands together in a loud smack. She pointed across the courtyard at Ethan’s straight back. “I do believe, girls, that Mr. Emo Boy is next.”