The Fourth Child by Jessica Winter (best classic novels TXT) 📕

and Evan were goading Danielle into saying something mean about Shannon, who was absent that week with the flu. Shannon ate only iceberg lettuce leaves at lunch and could make one stick of gum last the school day: she chewed half of the stick in the morning, the other half in the afternoon.

“C’mon, admit it, Danielle,” Jeff said. His googly eyes followed all her movements. “Shannon is not hot. She’s just a secretfat chick who diets.”

“It’s like she tricks people into thinking she’s hot,” Evan said. “Just say it, Danielle.”

“Why won’t you just say it,” Jeff said.

These boys hadn’t really talked to Danielle before, not like this. They were paying her lots of attention and tempting herwith more attention if she would just bad-mouth her friend. They wanted to make a trade, a deal.

“Shannon’s ass is so loose,” Jeff said, “that when she farts there’s no sound, there’s no friction—”

“Because SO MUCH PIZZA!” Evan and Jeff finished together, and they fell all over each other in hysterics. Their science class had just done a unit on friction and how it is influenced by the three forces of SMP: surface, motion, and pressure. The mnemonic device that Mr. Philbin used to remember this trio was So Much Pizza.

Evan was wiping his eyes, trying to recover. “Oh God, so much fucking pizza,” he said.

They were losing interest in Danielle. Evan rewound the N.W.A song to the beginning and shouted along with every word. Itwas like they were playing a video game that seemed just dangerous enough to be exciting—what if their parents heard? Jeff shouted all the n-words in these songs, and Evan sort of gulped them down.

“I love this song!” Danielle said over the music. She wanted them to believe her. There was nowhere she could possibly haveheard this song before. She bounced up and down on her knees like a much younger kid.

“Isn’t it so great when Shannon isn’t around?” Jeff asked Danielle. The same tone Mom used to ask about Lauren’s day.

“Yeah,” Danielle said, grinding her hips against the back of the seat. “And her butt does look kinda big in those blue pantsshe wears all the time.”

They got you, Lauren thought, and turned to face forward again, as Jeff and Evan brayed. Everyone was getting what they wanted tonight.As the bus pulled into the school parking lot, Danielle was sitting on the edge of the seat across from Evan and Jeff, herknee pressed into Jeff’s groin. Danielle didn’t say goodbye to Lauren as she filed off the bus with Jeff, walking too closeto him.

The next afternoon, Dad was cleaning out the garage, and Mom was at what PJ and Sean called Dead Babies Club. Lauren and herbrothers were in the den trying to re-create the University of Texas at Austin’s routine from the National Collegiate CheerleadingChampionships, which Sean had mistakenly recorded on the VCR instead of pro wrestling. PJ and Sean were surprisingly goodat high kicks and scissor kicks, and they made a decent two-man stack. A half hour into rehearsal, everyone’s muscles flagging,Lauren took a knee to the eye socket.

“Oh, crap, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Sean gasped as PJ high-kicked and applauded.

Lauren sat on the carpet, heel of one hand to her eye. “Please don’t tell Mom and Dad,” Sean begged. Lauren nodded—Sean hadn’tmeant to harm her. She hid in her room during suppertime, saying she had a stomachache, passing the time with a pile of Time magazines and an ice pack. Before he went to bed, Sean sneaked her a Nestlé Crunch and a bag of frozen peas. When her mothercame in to check on her, Lauren pretended to be asleep. The next morning, the swelling had subsided, leaving behind a purplish-blackcrescent.

“Lauren, honey, what happened to your eye?” Mom asked at breakfast.

Lauren, still sleepy, tapped beneath her eye dreamily. “Oh, this—”

Dad looked up from the crossword. “Is that from whatever pandemonium was going on in the den yesterday afternoon?” he asked,and Sean spilled his milk all over the table. PJ ducked his head and giggled.

Mom stared at PJ, then stood up. “Sean, sweetie, that’s okay,” she said, grabbing some paper towels off the counter. “Justtry to be more careful. Lauren, what happened?”

“Answer your mother, Lauren,” Dad said. “How’d you get that shiner?”

Lauren was surprised with herself that she had prepared nothing for this question she’d known was coming, and she was equallysurprised at how easily the lie came to her.

“Danielle Sheridan was dancing around on ski bus like a crazy person on Saturday night,” Lauren said. “She bumped into me.Knocked her head right into me.”

Sean was staring at his milk dripping off the rounded edge of the table. “Dum-dum, wipe it up!” PJ said.

“Sean, my love, can you help?” Mom asked, handing him a dishrag. “Lauren, why would Danielle do such a thing?”

The lie came so easily to Lauren because it could have so easily happened the way she said it did. Go back in time. Move Danielle one inch to the right. Tilt Lauren’s head an inch to the left. Play the song a little louder. Why not? Who was looking? Who was keeping track?

“She didn’t mean to do it,” Lauren said, staring at Sean. “She was just being a total idiot.”

“Danielle Sheridan is a total idiot,” PJ said, pulling a face at Sean as Sean mopped his place mat. “She’ll knee you in the face as soon as she’dlook at you. Right, Sean?”

“Danielle kneed you in the face?” Mom asked Lauren, incredulous.

“No!” Lauren said. “Don’t listen to PJ. He wasn’t there. She was just, you know, messing around.”

“Should Mom call this girl Danielle’s mother?” Dad asked.

“No, no, I’m fine, it was an accident,” Lauren said as Mom came close to peer at the bruise. “Don’t do anything, please don’t call anyone. Promise, Mom.”

“I promise. It almost looks like a birthmark,” Mom said, caressing Lauren’s cheek. “There’s something beautiful about it.”

“Oh my God,” Lauren said, and ducked under Mom and out of her chair, into the mudroom to find her backpack and head to thebus