She didn’t flinch. “Amelia had a boy in her room last night.”
A boy in her room? Little Amelia? The idea was laughable. “No, she didn’t.”
Ms. Crosby crossed her arms. “Ask her.”
Everything around me started a slow spin. I looked down at my little sister, unable to put the two concepts together. “Did you?”
Amelia’s sweet face crumpled. “We were only listening to music.”
“Hang on,” Scarlett said, “you’re throwing her out of school for listening to music with a boy in her room?”
Ms. Crosby’s eyes flicked to Scarlett then back to me. “As I’m sure you can understand, this is a girls only school, and I need to promise the safety of all those girls to their parents. A boy in the dormitory is a threat to that security, so we have a zero tolerance approach. It’s a rule that Amelia was well aware of before she broke it.”
My mind was racing with the idea of Amelia with a boy, and Amelia breaking a rule in the first place, and also how to fix this so she could stay in the school she loved.
“So,” I said straightening my spine, “you’ll give her a warning and maybe a detention and she won’t do it again.”
Ms. Crosby looked at Amelia and, for a moment, she seemed genuinely regretful, before her face fell back into the blank mask. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. If I let our standards slip on this issue, I’d have half the student population withdrawn by the end of the week.”
“Surely you’re not serious,” I said, stunned. “She has an unblemished record. She’s not a rule-breaker kind of kid.”
“I’m sorry, Amelia has been a good student, but my hands are tied.” She shrugged one shoulder, then indicated some papers on her desk. “We have some paperwork to go through, then you can take Amelia home.”
Reeling, I looked from the principal to my sister, unable to form coherent thoughts, then Scarlett’s hand came around behind Amelia to sit at the small of my back. I blinked, and took a breath, willing myself to be calm. For Amelia. The warmth coming from Scarlett’s hand kept me centered as I went through the motions of ending my sister’s time at her dream school.
Scarlett
I’d offered to drive, but Finn insisted he would. It probably gave him something to do when he clearly felt things were spinning out of control. I sat in the back with Amelia, who looked devastated. She kept sneaking glances at Finn in the rearview mirror, but either he didn’t notice, or he wasn’t ready to give her the reassurance she needed now they were on their way home. So instead, I did what I’d done on the way out, and filled in the silence, talking about the scenery we drove past, the music on the radio, anything I could think of. My fellow travelers only spoke when I asked them a direct question, but that was fine.
When we reached home, Finn carried Amelia’s bags to her room then said he had to touch base with some people at uni about cancelling the class this morning. Amelia’s red, watery eyes followed him as he took out his cell at the dining table, until I couldn’t bear it.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s make some iced chocolate.”
Her gaze flicked back to Finn, then she nodded. I filled two tall glasses with milk, ice cream, and chocolate powder, then added extra ice cream. If ever a day needed an extra scoop of ice cream, it was today. Amelia stood watching me, her long arms and legs looking awkward, as if she wasn’t sure where to put them or how to stand. I grabbed the drinks and herded her into her room.
As soon as we were alone, sitting on her bed, she said, “He’s mad at me, isn’t he?”
“I think he’s upset about the situation, not necessarily mad at you.” Actually, I suspected he was feeling completely out of his depth, and as soon as I had Amelia settled, he was my next port of call.
“He hates me,” she said, her bottom lip trembling.
“Oh, honey. Finn could never hate you. He loves you and Billie more than anyone in the world.”
Her brow furrowed in the same way Finn’s did when he was thinking about something, then she crossed her legs and looked pointedly at me.
“And you,” she said.
I shook my head. “He loves me as a friend, but he loves you as a sister. There’s nothing you can do to destroy that.”
She sipped her chocolate, still obviously thinking deep thoughts. “I bet there’s nothing you could do to make him hate you, either.”
To hide my flinch at how she’d zeroed in on the consequences of my preoccupation with her brother, I gulped my drink, wishing I’d thrown some Baileys in when I had the chance. “Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t know. My point is, Finn will always love you.”
She put her glass down on a side table beside a framed photo of her parents, and threw her arms around my neck. “Thank you for coming to get me, Scarlett.”
“You’re welcome.” I pulled back a little so she could see my eyes. “I’ll always be here for you, too.”
She nodded and suddenly looked tired. She probably hadn’t had much sleep last night, either before or after being discovered.
I ran a hand down her arm. “You look worn out. Do you want to take a nap?”
She pulled her hair band out, and all that long, straight hair spilled down around her shoulders. “Actually, yeah,” she said, yawning.
While she lay down on the bed, cuddling a stuffed toy to her chest and looking far younger than she was, I pulled an old throw rug that her mother had made from the closet and tucked it around her. “I’ll tell Finn you’re sleeping.”
Amelia mumbled something, but she was already half asleep, so I sneaked out and quietly shut the door behind me.
On the way past the back windows, I glanced out at my parents’ tent. They were out for the day, but Amelia was going to be thrilled when she found out they were staying. They loved to spoil her when they passed through town.
I found Finn at the dining table where I’d left him, but he was staring at the ceiling.
“How is she?” he asked when I sat down across from him.
“Sleeping. I suspect she didn’t get any sleep last night, between her visitor and then getting found out. Poor thing’s exhausted.”
“At least that gives me a bit of time to work out what to do.” He looked down at the table, his voice weary, as if he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. In many ways, I supposed he did.
“She thinks you’re mad,” I said quietly, to soften the blow. “That you hate her.”
His head snapped up as if I’d slapped him. “What?”
I held up a hand. “Don’t worry, I told her you’d never hate her. But you’re all she has, and I think she’s worried she’s ruined that.”
He swore under his breath, then stood and paced around the room. I’d learned over the years to let him go when he was agitated, to let him get the restless energy out of his system before trying to talk to him about it. But I’d never seen him this upset before, so in many ways we were breaking new ground.
“Come for a walk?” he said finally, his voice tight.
“Sure.”
We didn’t say another word as we headed out the front door and started down the street. Maybe this time I couldn’t wait for him to start the conversation—I’d have to start it for him.
I glanced over at this profile in the afternoon light. “Are you okay?”
He was silent for a long time, and then he blew out a harsh breath. “Honestly? I feel like I’m treading water. Treading as fast as I can, so I can keep Billie and Amelia up out of it. And now the water is closing over the top of my head.”
I linked my elbow through his. “No, it isn’t. You’re doing fine.”
He shot me a half smile, showing he appreciated my effort even if he didn’t believe me. “You know, part of me was relieved when Amelia wanted to go to that school. I’d thought I’d be sharing the duties of raising her with people who knew what they were doing. But now it’s down to me. Just me. And that’s not enough.”
“Of course you’re enough.” Could he really not see what a wonderful guardian he was for her?
“She had a boy in her room.” He shook his head as he kicked a stone off the path. “Little Amelia.”