Chapter 2

During our lunch break, Ms. Wayland was called away to a meeting for the school anniversary festivities. The moment she left, Amber slid into the seat right next to mine.

"Rachel, before Cody left for the competition, did he hand anything to you?"

I didn't look up from the math problem I was working on as I answered, "No."

Technically, he didn't "hand" me the pile of stuff. It was more like he'd dumped it on me.

Yesterday afternoon, Cody had boarded the competition team's bus with his backpack slung over his shoulder. Right before he got on, he shoved two notebooks, a basketball jersey, and a debit card into my hands.

His reason had been perfectly valid—they were too heavy.

I, however, couldn't understand the logic. If those things were heavy in his hands, did they somehow magically lose gravitational force the second they went into my backpack?

Amber clearly didn't believe me. Taking advantage of the moment I got up to hand in my homework, she unzipped my backpack. The next second, my textbooks, tissues, and a half-eaten bag of chips spilled onto the floor, along with a black basketball jersey.

Her eyes lit up.

"What's this?"

I bent down to pick up my books. "You can see what it is."

"It's Cody's jersey. Why do you have it?"

"He asked me to wash it."

The entire classroom went dead silent while Amber's expression changed several times in rapid succession. Apparently, in her world, washing Cody's jersey wasn't a two-dollar chore—it was an entrance exam to becoming his future bride.

She quickly shoved the jersey into a clear plastic bag. "You already promised you'd stop bothering him, so I'll return this to him for you."

I was filled with sudden respect for her. Cody had played basketball in that jersey for two straight hours, and at one point, he'd even fallen into a puddle of mud. When I opened my backpack yesterday, every mosquito within a 30-foot radius evacuated the area. If Amber wanted to take it off my hands, I couldn't be happier.

Then, she reached into the side pocket and pulled out a debit card.

"That's for household expenses."

"You two are sharing a household account?" she retorted, letting out a cold laugh. "Rachel, have you already started fantasizing about marrying into the Ferrer family?"

I fell silent for a few seconds. "Is it possible that I meant a household in the most basic sense?"

The whole class lost it again. Matt took the debit card and announced with exaggerated seriousness, "This is stolen property. The student council should keep it for safekeeping."

I reached for it. "My allowance money is in there too."

"Liar," Amber snapped, staring at me. "Why on earth would Cody give you his card?"

"Because he's too lazy to carry it," I answered truthfully.

Whenever Cody wanted to buy something, he'd just ask me to get it and swipe the card. He was in charge of making the demands, and I was in charge of the legwork.

Mom called it sibling teamwork. I called it high-level parasitism.

Convinced that I was making excuses, Amber fished another set of keys from my bag.

"Are these Cody's house keys too?"

"They're mine too."

She walked over to the window. "Since you can't seem to break the habit of sneaking into the Ferrers' house, I'll help you."

My heart skipped a beat. "Don't do anything stupid."

She raised her hand and tossed the keys. They sailed through the air in a beautiful arc before landing straight in the artificial lake below. And with a splash, they were gone.

I rushed to the window and watched helplessly. They'd probably already sunk into the mud at the bottom of the lake.

"Amber Belknap!"

She covered her mouth. "Sorry, my hand slipped."

"Your hand slipped more than 30 feet?"

"It's really windy today."

Not a single leaf moved outside the window. That gust of wind was strictly blowing inside her head.

I went straight to the teacher's office to look for Ms. Wayland. However, she just told me that the debit card and the jersey would be returned to Cody in person when he came back. As for the keys, she said I should just have another copy made myself.

"Amber was only trying to protect a fellow student's property. You really shouldn't assume the worst about people."

I almost laughed from sheer frustration. Amber throwing my keys away was called "protecting property", yet me wanting to get my own debit card back made me "malicious".

Apparently, the school rules automatically updated themselves depending on how much a student's parents donated.

By the time I left the office, a new post had appeared on the campus forum.

"Stalker refuses to return school heartthrob's jersey, debit card, and house keys. She's suspected of having been illegally entering the Ferrers' house for months."

The attached photo showed Amber clutching Cody's jersey. She looked so emotional that one would think she was hugging an urn.

Right then, Amber walked up to me and whispered, "I'll personally return all of this to Cody tomorrow at the school's anniversary celebration. I'll make sure he knows just how disgusting you really are."

I glanced at the plastic bag in her arms. "You'd better seal that bag tight."

"Why?"

"The jersey reeks."

Her smile froze. A second later, a three-day-old stench drifted out. Her face turned sickly green as she lunged for the nearest trash can and started throwing up.

I stood beside her and thoughtfully patted her back.

"Don't mention it. You worked so hard to snatch it from me, after all."