Page 5 of July (New Orleans #7)

Jill stood there for another long moment, expecting her sister to say something else, but when Juni didn’t, she gave up and returned to the hallway, where her bags still sat.

She moved them to the guest room, which had a full bed with a thin blanket, but it would work for a week or so.

She didn’t have her own bathroom, technically, so after thinking about it for a second, she decided that she didn’t want to share a bathroom with Juni and would just use the one in the master bedroom instead since her mom wasn’t there to use it anyway.

She didn’t want to unpack just yet, but she opened her bag and pulled out her work shirts, hanging them in the small closet because Mel wasn’t a fan of wrinkled uniform shirts.

Then, Jill went into her mom’s room, looking for any instructions or notes on Juni that the woman might have left there by mistake, but finding nothing there, she went into the kitchen, hoping something would be stuck to the refrigerator.

There was no school schedule, though, no list of things to keep in mind or know about Juni, and no emergency contacts; nothing that would help Jill.

After checking the living room as well and finding no signs that her mother had left her with anything she needed, Jill sat on the sofa.

She supposed she might have missed something.

Maybe her mom had tucked whatever notes she’d made into a drawer.

Or, she might have just forgotten to do so altogether in her haste to get to Jill’s grandparents.

Jill leaned back on the sofa and looked up.

Seeing the giant deer head above her own, she sighed and moved over to the right because if that thing fell, she didn’t want it to be on her head.

She had no idea what to do with herself now.

If she were at home, she’d be binge-watching some TV show and eating ice cream from the tub or getting ready to go out with her friends, but dinner would be here soon, so there was no point in getting her laptop out until after.

Then, it dawned on her. Jill hadn’t found any notes, but she also hadn’t found any money.

Her mother was supposed to leave her cash to get food and stuff Juni would need for the week, and she likely hadn’t.

Knowing her mother didn’t really do the whole app money transfer thing, though, Jill made a mental note to walk her through setting it up whenever they talked next.

The doorbell rang minutes later, and Jill rose to get their food.

“I’m starving,” Juni announced as she came bounding into the kitchen.

It was well after seven now, and Jill hated that the poor kid probably hadn’t eaten anything since lunch.

She remembered being around Juni’s age, feeling like it was an eternity between breakfast and lunch and then lunch to dinner.

When she felt her own stomach grumble a second later, she found paper plates for them and set them down by the pizza boxes before she plated two slices of the cheese pizza for her sister and a couple of pepperoni and green pepper slices for herself.

“You eat that on a pizza?” Juni asked before she took a bite.

“Yeah. Have you ever tried it?”

“No, but it’s green. I don’t like green food.”

“You don’t like green food? Like, any green food?”

Juni shook her head and dove into her pizza.

“What about lettuce?”

Headshake.

“Broccoli?”

Another headshake but with an expression that told Jill she was crazy for even asking that one, which made Jill let out a little laugh.

“What about apples?”

“Red only,” Juni said.

“Okay. What about watermelon?”

“That’s red.”

“The outside of the watermelon is green.”

“I don’t eat the outside,” Juni argued.

“Okay. What about gum? Some gum is green.”

Juni seemed to consider for a moment and said, “I like the green apple gum Mom gets sometimes.”

“So, you do eat green food?” Jill asked.

“Gum isn’t food. I don’t eat it. I just chew it.”

And just like that, Jill had been bested by a ten-year-old, which had her chuckling a little. Juni wasn’t wrong, though: she didn’t eat the gum.

Jill decided to let it go and said, “You should try this. The peppers are a little sweet, so it balances with the spice in the pepperoni.”

“No, thank you,” Juni replied and took another bite of her cheese pizza.

“Hey, Mom was supposed to leave me some instructions and stuff so that I know what to do. Any idea where she would’ve put them?”

Juni shook her head and said, “Usually, if she leaves me a note, it’s on the table.” She looked down at the table in front of them, where Jill saw nothing. “Can I have a soda?”

“Oh, shit,” Jill muttered. “Drinks.”

“You can’t say, ‘Shit,’” Juni replied. “It’s a bad word.”

“Right,” she said with a nod. “Are you allowed to have soda?”

“Sometimes,” Juni replied.

“Since I owe you for today, I’ll get you one now, but I’ll check with Mom before tomorrow night, okay?”

“Okay.”

Jill stood, walked to the fridge, and seeing next to nothing inside when she pulled it open, she closed her eyes.

“When did you and Mom go shopping last?”

“Um… I don’t know. It was the weekend, but not the one we just had.”

Jill said shit internally this time. There was a half-gallon of milk in there, a few condiments, about six cans of soda, some lunch meat with an unknown expiration date, and a few other random things, but nothing that would comprise a full meal.

She checked the freezer next, finding some ice cream and a couple of bags of frozen vegetables but not much else.

“I guess I’m going shopping tomorrow,” she muttered under her breath. “Hey, when do you have to be at school?” she asked.

“By eight-thirty,” Juni told her.

“And when are you done?”

“Two-thirty,” Juni said. “Some days, it’s earlier.”

“Some days?”

“There’s a schedule.”

“Any idea where that might be?” Jill asked as she set a soda down in front of Juni.

“Mom had it on her phone.”

“Great,” Jill said sarcastically.