Page 193 of Chaos Kills

Touche.

“I’ll be right back.”

“Don’t forget a snack for me,” she says as I begin to walk away toward the kitchen.

“You had your snack, Little T. I was standing right in front of you.”

Her scoff is undeniable.

However, she doesn’t deny that fact.

FORTY-FOUR

bay

“You don’t even knowwhat a platypus is,” Levi argues, molding clay between his thick fingers and squinting so hard at what he’s doing that he might pop an eye vessel.

“Yes, I do,” Mae retorts, dabbing her paintbrush in more blue paint. “They live in France.”

“No, they don’t,” Ellie replies as I continue braiding her hair. “They live in Australia.”

“No, they don’t,” Levi scoffs. “How can this thing live with all the weird shit over there?”

“Didn’t you read Mae’s report?” Ellie points out. “It’s in there. And everyone knows they live there.”

“I thought they lived in Asia,” I state, fishing for more of her hair. “But what the hell do I know?”

“Obviously not where platypuses live,” my sister mutters before I give a playful little tug to her hair for the smart-ass comment. “Ow.”

“Don’t be a baby,” I tease with a smile. “And if you keep it up, I’m going to stop, and you can figure out how to do your own hair.”

“How are you thisoldand not know?”

I perk an eyebrow. “What do you mean thisold?”

“Old.”

This little asshole.

Levi laughs before getting frustrated at whatever he was attempting to do and balls the clay in his hands to start over.

For the fourth time.

Mae has a project in her science class, and they have to make a diagram of their favorite animal. Where she got a platypus from is beyond me.

“This clay is a piece of shit,” my best friend says under his breath. “Let’s go to the store, Mae, and see if we can buy a figurine or something for this dumb-ass?—”

“Nooooooo,” she objects instantly. “I want you to make it.”

“I can’t,” he exhorts. “I’m not an artist, Mae.”

“Just do it.” Levi sends her a withering look, but gets nowhere. My little sister flat-out ignores him and continues to paint her platypus’s environment out of a box. “I want noodles for dinner.”

“Alright,” I tell her. “Let me finish up Ellie’s hair?—”

“I want Cairo’s noodles.”

My whole face skews in response to that because he’s starting to become a household name around here.

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