Page 12 of What Happened to Lucy Vale

Eleven

We

@badprincess: Does your cousin even have a landscaping business?

@badprincess: I thought he just sold weed

@stopandfriske: weed is a plant

@stopandfriske: You have to grow it

@stopandfriske: on land

@brentmann: when do you scape it?

Akash, we agreed, had gotten stupid lucky.

He reported almost daily interactions with the new girl and her mother.

He’d observed Lucy Vale on her hands and knees, trying to coax Maybe out of the overgrown thicket that almost entirely concealed the screened porch.

He’d spotted Lucy Vale pumping air into her bike tires, and she’d waved and shouted hey.

He’d seen Rachel Vale sweeping debris off the back porch, and she’d come down to the service road to introduce herself.

We wanted to know what Lucy’s mother was like.

@kash_money: young

@spinn_doctor: he means hot

@kash_money: if I meant hot, I would have said hot

@spinn_doctor: you did, on our group chat

@brentmann: dibs on the milf

@skyediva: wait, @spinn_doctor and @kash_money have a group chat?

We tossed around how we might engineer a chance meeting with the Vales.

Since Akash refused to introduce us, we suggested congregating en masse at his house, hoping to at least catch a glimpse of them.

He strictly nixed the idea, claiming that his parents still suspected him of dealing drugs and that they’d been running a borderline surveillance state ever since he’d received his devices back.

We grew resentful. We suspected Akash of playing favorites.

When we heard that Meeks, Spinnaker, and Kaitlyn Courtland had been invited over for a game night, had actually been midargument about the relative powers of ogres versus giants when a voice at the back door announced a paint-splattered Lucy Vale, out of the blue, live and in need of masking tape, we seriously regretted not getting into D the gamers were cashing in on their friendship with Akash to unfair advantage, and there was nothing we could do about it.

It took forever to learn D no song requests or manipulation of the playlist; Meeks would DJ.

We were fucking outraged.

Forty dollars? To hear Meeks DJ?

How dumb and desperate did he think we were?

We all knew the answer: exactly as dumb and desperate as we, in fact, were, which is why we were so scandalized. It was flagrant extortion. It was Mafia shit—especially since Spinnaker’s family was insanely rich.

The fact that we would probably end up paying was the worst part.

@highasakyle: This is why nobody likes you

@highasakyle: You should be paying us

@bassicrhythm: doesn’t your dad have like three BMWs?

@spinn_doctor: one of them’s a Porsche

@spinn_doctor: And my dad didn’t get rich by spending money

@nononycky: True. Just by inheriting it

@hannahbanana: Can you justify that cover price?

@hannahbanana: Would love to see a list of expenses

@skyediva Maybe we can trim the budget

@hannahbanana: Transparency = trust

Hannah Smith, alto saxophonist, was also the treasurer of DACS, Diversity in American Culture and Society, and the daughter of an accountant and an elementary school principal. No one could mine a balanced budget for meaningless motivational slogans like Hannah could.

We were still bartering with Spinnaker on the general thread when a new message popped up under # Announcements .

Sofia Young was back, and she’d apparently forgiven us.

@goodnightsky: check it out

@goodnightsky: my mom’s going on a “work trip” this weekend with some slut she met on WLW

@goodnightsky: I can’t believe this is my life now

@goodnightsky: soooooo . . . .

@goodnightsky: party Saturday night??

We weren’t happy Sofia’s parents were divorcing, obviously.

But we were glad that Sofia had found the silver lining.