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* * *
Stepping over the threshold of Billings was like walking into my old middle school after I'd
graduated. I should have felt at home there, but the sites felt weirdly unfamiliar. Like the place
had moved on. Like the very walls knew I should no longer be there. I felt a skitter of apprehension
as Ivy grabbed the banister and mounted the stairs. The first step creaked in the silence.
"Reed!" she hissed. "Let's go!"
She was dressed in head-to-toe black like a cat burglar from a cartoon. I was wearing my gold
minidress and my long wool coat, fully planning on still making the party bus to Kiran's party when
we were done here.
"I'm coming," I replied through my teeth.
Together we raced up the stairs to the top floor, where my old room was located. I pointed out
the door to Ivy. My heart pounded like I'd
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just sucked down eight cups of espresso. This was way too weird. Way too weird.
But when Ivy opened the door, it just got weirder.
My side of the room had been completely taken over by the Care Bear brigade. Everything was
done in pastels. Pink bedspread, fluffy light blue and yellow pillows, an eyelet bed skirt. Amberly
had even had a ribbon tent suspended from the ceiling over her bed, draping down over the
mattress like she was some kind of Disney princess. On the walls were framed photos of her and a
girl who could only be her little sister, grinning in front of various wonders of the world. The Taj
Mahal. The Great Wall of China. The Pyramids. I would have been impressed if the photos weren't
so oddly stiff. Like she had Photo-Shopped the two of them into magazine cutouts or something.
"This girl needs professional help," Ivy said, indicating a collection of porcelain dolls set up along
the top shelf above my old desk. Their eyes stared out at us blankly from beneath perfectly placed
ringlets.
"Let's just get this over with," I said.
"I'm down," Ivy replied.
She turned on Amberly's desk lamp so that we could see without the help of the light from the
hallway, and I closed the door quietly behind us. I immediately attacked the desk drawers while Ivy