Page 49 of The Secrets She Keeps

That gave Brianna a bit of a sick feeling in her stomach when she thought about that.

"She asked me what my name was. And said she didn't know any doctors with our last name. But I didn't get to tell her that my daddy has a different last name than me. He's Dr. Timothy Grundenman. He's very important."

"They just aren't the right family for you to play with, Leena. They just aren't." The last thing she wanted was Leena getting mixed up with the Colesons, even the kid ones. It just wasn’t really that safe.

"Iagan was really nice. Nyra and Nyma’s cousin. He’s almosteleven.He didn't tell us to go away. And he let me throw the basketball too."

"They aren't your friends. Remember that."

"I have friends. But you don't. Probably because you are too mean." Leena scrunched her face up at Brianna. She stuck her tongue out. “You’re just Pee-anna.”

Something about it made Brianna laugh. It was kind of cute, in a really bratty way and everything. Her little sister didn't sit back and just take crap off of people. Even at only eight. That was a good thing, right?

"I do, too, have friends."

"Who? Not your boyfriend either. You can't say him. He’s a boogerhead anyway."

Brianna gave it an honest thought. A friend was someone you could count on when the chips were down, right? Someone who wouldn't hurt you just because they wanted to. Someone you trusted.

Someone you talked to when you had problems. Someone you weren’t related to, who just had to talk to you either.Someone who helped you when you needed it—even when you didn’t ask.

Her gaze landed on their house. The Barratts. "Right there. That house right there."

"What about it? It looks like all the other houses here. Very weird. Why is there a fence around the whole neighborhood, anyway? It’s weird. Like we are in jail. Azkaban!”

Sometimes, Leena said really weird things.

“The gate is to keep the riffraff out. That's where my best friend Powell's parents live. We have been friends since we were in kindergarten together. Me, Powell, and her twin brother."

"How can a brother be a twin? Nyma and Nyra are twins. They are identical. That means twins have to look the exact same. Like Fred and George.”

Fred and George? They had to be kids from her school, right? What boring names. Didn’t their parents have any creativity at all?

"They just are. Powell is my best friend." And Powell was right there. Talking with her brothers in their parents' front window. Brianna didn't know what made her do it, but she waved.

Just like she'd expected, Powell waved right back.

Powell always did. She always talked to Brianna too. And whenever Brianna had needed anything, help or something, Powell had been there.

Without Brianna even really having to ask sometimes either. And every time Brianna had asked, Powell had come. Immediately. Every time Brianna had ever really needed her.

Brianna had never really thought about that before.

Powell had even been at Brianna's stepfather's funeral. And Brianna's mother's five years before that. And Banks's. Powell had been at Banks's funeral too.

Powell had stood right there next to Brianna and Bethany when Powell really didn’t have to. Helping deal with the crowds and curiosity seekers who had just been there because they wanted to know what Banks had really been doing before he'd been murdered. They’d asked so many mean questions that day.

Powell had even gotten mad.

Powell had kept them from bothering her and Bethany too much.

Powell could be kind of fierce sometimes, even though she was really little.

No one else in Brianna's circle had done that. They'd stayed away, mostly. And some of them hadn't ever bothered to come back around. But Powell had been there. Powell might actually be the only real friend besides Jack that Brianna had.

Brianna didn't like how that made her feel at all.

What had she done so wrong in her life that she didn't haveanyoneshe really mattered to anymore?

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