Sisters of Misery (9 page)

Ever.

In order to remain in good standing with the Sisters, each of the members had to have a picture taken of them committing a crime, no matter how small or—in some cases—horrific it might be. Only a select few knew the locations of those pictures, and Kate Endicott was one of them.

“It’s kind of like insurance,” Kate joked with them once.

“Or blackmail,” Hannah muttered, knowing that some of her actions were the most horrendous. Kate took great delight in having Hannah hurt neighborhood pets because she knew how much of an animal lover Hannah was.

“Depends on how you look at it,” Kate said lightly. “I like to think of it as something that will keep us bonded together as friends—friends forever.”

No one would ever say it out loud, but Maddie knew that they all felt the same way about Kate and the Sisters of Misery. It was like making a deal with the devil. A debutante devil, but a devil nonetheless.

“Hope you can swim, California girl,” Kate said.

Cordelia looked down into the churning black water below. “How cold do you think it is?” she asked Maddie.

“Let us know when you get down there,” Kate said, shoving Cordelia toward the edge of the cliff.

Don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it,
Maddie inwardly chanted, hoping that Cordelia could somehow hear her pleading.

Cordelia turned and smiled at the girls, “See you in a few.” She pulled her sweatshirt over her head, kicked off her shoes, and tied her hair back into a loose bun. The girls all held their breath as she was getting ready to make her dive, not believing that Cordelia wasn’t going to shrink down from the challenge.

Then out of nowhere, a siren sounded,
Whoop, whoop, whoop.

Headlights beamed brightly on the girls, who shielded their eyes from the blinding light. A voice came over the speaker, “Girls, step away from the rocks. I repeat, step away from the edge of the rocks.”

“Great,” Kate muttered under her breath. “Just when the fun was starting.”

A police officer got out of his car and gave them a verbal warning, saying that if he caught them up there again, he’d have to take them all in.

“Guess it’s your lucky night,” Kate hissed under her breath to Cordelia. “To be continued, girls.” Kate stomped past the cop, with the others quickly falling into line behind her. Maddie was silently thanking the gods, the guardian angels, the power of positive thinking, anything and everything that had gotten them out of that potentially lethal situation.

As Cordelia and Maddie made their way back home, Maddie was overcome with relief. “I can’t believe how lucky we were. You were so close to jumping! You could have killed yourself. Kate will definitely back off you now that she knows how strong you really are.” Maddie rambled on and on all the way back to the house.

Finally, Cordelia turned to her and said, “Maddie, luck had nothing to do with it. I had a friend watching out for us. I told him if things looked shady, to call the cops. And he came through for me. That’s all.”

Madeline was confused. “Your friend? What friend? Who was following us?”

Cordelia smiled like the Cheshire cat, “You have your secrets, Miss Mysterious Sister of Misery, and I have mine.” She gave Maddie a quick hug and ran up the stairs to her bedroom.

WAR

OCTOBER

O
ne brisk afternoon a few days later, Kate excitedly discussed plans for the upcoming weekend as they changed into their gym uniforms in the locker room.

“Trevor told me that his parents are going away on vacation, and he’s planning one of his famous parties! It’s going to be amazing!”

Kate chattered on as the Sisters of Misery formed a semi-circle around her. Further down the bench, Maddie and Cordelia pulled their clothes from their lockers. Cordelia paid no attention to the Sisters of Misery, humming a Carly Simon song as she changed into her gym clothes.

Cordelia’s act of bravery on the cliffs had done nothing to change Kate’s opinion of her. If anything, her hostility seemed to have increased. Kate pushed her way out of the circle and ambled over to Maddie, completely ignoring Cordelia.

“Madeline Crane, I would love it if you came with us,” pleaded Kate. “You haven’t been to one of our parties in so long. I feel like you’re blowing us off.”

Her presence at the parties never seemed to matter one way or the other. Maddie used to go all the time, but lately, the activities of her friends had become wilder and more destructive. After growing tired of the recreational drugs and alcohol that formerly were staples of their parties, her friends were now experimenting with harsher drugs with names that even
sounded
frightening. “Maybe she has better things to do with her time,” Cordelia offered in a bored tone.

“Really, like what? Hanging out with a freak like you?” Kate snapped.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Maybe she
should
hang out with rich bitches who enjoy being playthings for oversexed and underworked future frat boys.”

“That really hurts coming from a slut like you.” Kate’s eyes narrowed, and everyone in the locker room grew silent. Cordelia continued changing her clothes without even a glance at Kate and the others. She almost seemed to be enjoying the growing tension.

Here we go
, Maddie thought.

“Oh, I’m the slut, huh? Well, that’s not what Trevor told me last night,” Cordelia said.

What are you doing? Maddie thought, shooting a glance at her cousin. Maddie knew for a fact that Cordelia hadn’t spent any time with Trevor, but she must have known that it would put doubt in Kate’s mind, and that’s all that was needed to get under her skin.

“What did you say?” Kate sputtered.

Cordelia laughed and turned away from Kate. She nonchalantly tied her cleat and murmured, “
Bitch
,” under her breath, despite the prickly atmosphere in the locker room.

Kate reached down and grabbed the other cleat from the wooden plank bench and whacked it against Cordelia’s bare back, dragging the spikes of the cleat across her skin. Kate then whipped the shoe into the rusted locker, filling the dank room with a loud clang. Then she lunged at Cordelia, clawing at her face and arms and ripping the necklace from around her neck.

Maddie yelled out, “Kate, no!” as Kate ended the attack by spitting at Cordelia.

Cordelia winced slightly, but kept a forced, tight smile on her face despite the assault. Yet Maddie could see the tears forming in Cordelia’s eyes as the beads of the necklace scattered across the cool cement floor, skipping and bouncing along the run of lockers.

Shock stained all the girls’ faces. Bloody welts quickly rose to the surface of the pale skin on Cordelia’s back.

Kate seemed taken aback for a moment by her own actions, but even more surprised by its lack of effect on Cordelia.

Cordelia said evenly, “Now that wasn’t a very sisterly thing to do, Kate.”

Maddie couldn’t take it any longer, suddenly exploding and shoving Kate hard against the lockers.

“I’m so sick of this shit, Kate! What the hell? Cordelia has done nothing to you. Nothing! I’m not going to let you walk all over my cousin the way you walk all over everyone else. If you keep this up, you’re…you’re going to be sorry.”

A smile tugged at the corners of Kate’s mouth. She seemed to be enjoying Maddie’s outburst a little too much. “Well, Maddie. I’m sorry you feel that way.”

“Honestly, who the hell do you think you are?” Maddie screamed into Kate’s freckled face.

“I’m Kate Endicott,” she said, smiling calmly. “No one speaks to an Endicott like that. Especially not a piece of hippie trailer trash!”

The others, in a daze, obediently followed Kate out the door.

Hannah indignantly marched by Cordelia, who was now focusing all of her attention on tying her cleat.

“Witch,” Hannah hissed under her breath.

“Right now, you’d better hope to hell I’m not.”

Maddie waited until the heavy door swung shut before tending to the scars on Cordelia’s back.

“Let me get some cold water,” Maddie said, rushing over to the sinks.

“I’m fine,” Cordelia muttered.

“It’s a power thing with Kate,” Maddie whispered, trying to explain the girl’s actions, though she didn’t really understand them herself. She wadded up some paper towels and ran them under freezing water. She gently pressed the towels onto the swollen scars, and Cordelia winced slightly. “Easy, easy. It will stop the swelling and bleeding.”

“I’m fine!” Cordelia snapped.

Maddie recoiled and stepped away quickly. Cordelia pulled on her gym shirt, cringing as it slid along her back.

“Please, just help me pick up my necklace,” Cordelia’s voice finally cracked, her eyes glossed over with tears. The physical pain didn’t seem to bother her. She was more concerned with collecting the remnants of her sea glass and semiprecious stone necklace, a gift from her father right before he died.

“Sure,” Maddie whispered and fell silently beside Cordelia on her hands and knees. They worked in silence until every last piece was retrieved.

On the way out to the field, Maddie walked a few steps behind Cordelia, trying to think of something to say that would soften what had just happened. Cordelia marched onto the field, head held high as she swept her hair up into a tight ponytail. Finally, Maddie forced a short, hard laugh, trying to break the tension and at the same time, quell the growing fear in the pit of her stomach, “I’ve never seen anything like that before. I really can’t believe Kate did that.”

Cordelia stopped, looked her straight in the eye, and said, “If you honestly think that’s all Kate is capable of, Maddie, then you’re just as crazy as she is.” Then she walked toward the field where the Sisters of Misery were yelling and laughing in the amber glow of the late afternoon sun.

Maddie’s smile froze on her face. She wondered just how far Kate’s wrath would extend, and deep down, she knew who would inevitably be on the receiving end.

Maddie desperately wanted Cordelia to come with her to the party, but Cordelia had other plans for that evening—ones that definitely did not include hanging out with Hawthorne Academy kids, especially the Sisters of Misery.

“I don’t even think you should go,” Cordelia warned as she applied a sheer coat of lip gloss on her mouth. Maddie sat on Cordelia’s bed, watching her cousin get ready, wondering what it would be like to look into the mirror and have such a perfect image as her reflection. Cordelia was very secretive about where she was going and made Maddie swear that she would tell Rebecca that the two of them were attending the party together.

Maddie was skeptical of her cousin’s plan. “You know how she gets,” Cordelia pleaded. “She wants me to fit in here, for some reason. And the last thing I want to do is hang out with those rich bitches you call friends. Or, I’m sorry,
Sisters
.”

Maddie spotted Tess standing in the doorway. She wasn’t sure how much of the conversation she’d heard. Slowly, Tess walked up behind Cordelia and knowingly placed a hand on Cordelia’s back. She didn’t seem surprised when Cordelia winced slightly in pain. Tess gently pulled up the shirt, revealing Cordelia’s bruised and scarred back. Tess looked back and forth between them, shaking her head sadly.

“What is happening, girls?”

“Er…ah…nothing, Tess,” Cordelia fumbled. Maddie knew that the last person she wanted to involve in this brawl with the Sisters of Misery was Tess. Poor, frail Tess.

Maddie jumped in. “She got hurt in gym class today. Fell into a pricker bush.”

“Must have been one angry pricker bush,” Tess said calmly. She peered closely at the angry welts on Cordelia’s back, then turned and quickly strode from the room. Maddie and Cordelia looked at each other quizzically.
How did she know?
The thought passed silently between them.

Tess returned with a green plant. She broke one of the leaves and squeezed out a thick white paste. “Aloe,” she said evenly. “For the ‘pricker bush’ wounds.”

Tess lifted Cordelia’s flowing blouse and gently rubbed the aloe onto her back, careful not to make her wince or cry out in pain. When she was done, she looked at her granddaughters.

“You need to take care of each other. The people in this town…the things I’ve seen…” She shook her head. “Be careful. You two need to stick together. It’s the only way.”

She grasped both girls’ hands tightly, squeezing them together. She looked at both of them with pleading eyes before she finally left the room. Maddie and Cordelia eyed each other. If Cordelia wasn’t going to mention Kate Endicott’s attack, Maddie wouldn’t either. She just prayed it was something that they could handle on their own.

The party was just like any other Hawthorne Academy party. This time, it was Maddie who was different. She felt distant—set apart from the rest of the drunken Hawthorne kids. Trevor’s barn was the usual party spot when his parents were vacationing. He had set up an ice luge at the door, and everyone who entered had to take a chilled shot at the base of the block of ice. Maddie pressed her mouth up to the freezing luge, and Trevor slid a shot of Raspberry Stoli down to meet her waiting mouth. The icy chill of the vodka burned the back of her throat.

“Ugh,” she said, laughing and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “Thanks, Trevor.”

“Anything to get my girls in the mood tonight,” Trevor said.

“Pig,” Maddie said under her breath. She continued into the barn, wishing that she had Cordelia by her side. With Cordelia, Maddie felt impervious to everything. It was as if she was the moon and Cordelia was the sun—Maddie simply borrowed the rays from Cordelia in order to shine.

So there Maddie was, hanging out with the Hawthorne Academy kids, still trying to decipher her grandmother’s cryptic warning and at the same time, wondering why Cordelia was so adamant about not telling her where she was going. At least she’d be safe from Kate and the Sisters. Maddie’s only glimmer of hope at having a good time that night was if Mr. Campbell showed up. Trevor warned everyone that his older brother might make an appearance as the quote unquote chaperone and that they shouldn’t freak if they saw one of their teachers while they were totally wasted.

“He’s cool,” Trevor insisted and then added, “He’s cool about anything that has to do with drinking. Just don’t get in his way when he heads for the luge.”

Kate had obviously put more effort into her appearance on the off chance that their hot teacher would show up, despite the fact that she was dating his younger brother. Her staple Ann Taylor blouse and jeans were replaced by a tight-fitting V-neck shirt and low-slung jeans that showed off her slim hips. Her hair, typically pulled neatly back by a headband, had a mussed-up, just-rolled-out-of-bed look. With eyes rimmed with smudged kohl eyeliner, Kate definitely seemed like she was on the prowl, but Maddie wasn’t sure who was going to be the target that night.

Maddie took another icy shot of vodka to take the edge off and then joined her friends, who were huddled together, giggling about something.

“What’s going on?” Maddie asked, wiping her mouth with her sleeve.

“Here, take one,” Kate handed Maddie a sticker. It was a tiny, glittery star. Kate licked one and stuck it on her cheek. Maddie noticed that all the other girls had one as well.

Kate’s giddy mood seemed to indicate that she’d gotten over the locker room incident and was ready to forgive and forget. Maddie wanted to resist, but without Cordelia by her side, she didn’t feel she could stand up to Kate. So she decided to play along rather than have a repeat of the ugly incident in the locker room. “Okay.” She licked it and then stuck it to her cheek.

Trevor appraised their stickers and yelled, “Whooeee, these girls are ready to party tonight!”

He grabbed Kate, and they started making out with growing intensity in front of everyone.

Hannah yelled, “Get a room!” but then proceeded to make her way over to a group of the boys on the soccer team, grinding up against them as the music floated up into the rafters of the barn.

“What’s going on?” Maddie asked Darcy.

“You’ll see,” she giggled, then ran off with Bridget to get a drink.

Suddenly, the music pulsed through Maddie’s body as if it were a tangible entity. Maddie started dancing in spite of herself, like the music was moving her body on its own.

In the distance, she saw a beautiful face. Mr. Campbell had made his way into the party and was watching the kids solemnly. He was playing the role of chaperone, but he obviously wasn’t going to get in the way of his younger brother’s good time. Nor did he look like he was happy about watching his students getting drunker by the minute. Maddie suddenly had the urge to go over and sit next to him, to touch him, to feel his face under her fingertips. On her way over to him, Kate grabbed Maddie by the arm.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she snapped.

“Do what?” Maddie giggled, feeling giddier by the moment. The vodka seemed to be taking over her body. It felt like liquid sunshine.

“You’ll regret it, and we’ll all get busted,” she said seriously.

“But Trevor said that his brother was cool with us drinking,” Maddie said, confused. Bridget, Hannah, and Darcy came out of nowhere and surrounded her.