Page 6 of The Surprise

Not ayou’re so stupidlaugh. But analright, you got melaugh.

And wonder of wonders, Maren laughs with her. Beth tamed the beast.

I take a step and drop my right foot on the far corner on a green circle. “Alright.”

“Beth,” Maren says. She flicks the spinner. “Yellow.”

Beth, being polite, carefully picks the dot that’s one away from Whitney, and one away from me. Even so, she’s facing me, with her foot poked inward to the second row in the mat.

For the first time in weeks, I actually like Maren. There’s no way she didn’t plan that.

“My turn again,” Whitney says.

“Blue,” Maren says. She definitely didn’t spin it that time.

Whitney frowns, but doesn’t argue, dropping her free foot on the blue, facing inward. She’s a Twister pro, and she knows not to get your feet crossed at the beginning.

“Emery,” Maren says. “Blue.”

“Hey,” Emery says. “You have to spin.”

Maren’s smile is devilish as she flicks the spinner and it lands on blue. It’s not too hard to manipulate a plastic spike in a piece of cardboard, as it turns out. “Blue.”

Emery huffs, but she pivots at an angle, both her feet at a diagonal to one another.

“Izzy,” Maren says, “you’re yellow.”

Izzy rolls her eyes, but steps onto the yellow.

“Ethan, blue.”

I’m starting to regret letting Maren pilot this. “Fine.” I stretch a bit, but my foot slides past Izzy and finds the second blue dot. I’m straddling the yellow line, but it’s fine.

“Beth, blue.” Maren’s grinning like an insane person. No one should have that much fun telling other people what to do.

“I think after this you have to spin it,” Beth says. “And I mean, really spin it.”

“Agreed,” Izzy says. “No more puppet master crap.”

Sometimes my sister sounds so much like my mom that it’s almost painful.

“Fine.” Maren says.

But Beth turns, sliding her free foot onto the middle blue dot—the only one left. Our legs brush, and even through the pants leg, I swear something electric shoots up my spine.

I drag in a breath as quietly as I can, hoping no one notices.

“What’s wrong with you?” Izzy asks. “We’re not even to the fun part yet.”

With sisters, there is literally no time when something you hope won’t be noticed goes unnoticed. Never.

If you pick your nose, expect everyone to be alerted. If you toot, just admit it to the whole room. One of them will rat you out for sure. If you drop something and make a mess, they’ll trumpet it to the world. Or snap a photo and send it to the group chat with a joke about oxen breaking things.

“Nothing’s wrong,” I say. “Mind your business.”

“Mind yourownbusiness,” Izzy says. “Mind your businessmakes you sound idiotic.”

“I say that,” Beth says.

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