"Holy Mother," Racey breathed, looking at me, "I can't get over it."
I took the bag of Raisinets from her and got a small handful "Me neither."
"So Petra knew about your mystery twin," she said.
I nodded. "She had to. She was stunned, but not surprised, if you know what I mean."
Racey nodded, leaning against my wall. It was getting late-soon shed have to go. School night, etc. Like I could deal with school now. I could barely stand school when my life was somewhat normal-now it would be an unending agony.
"Well, oh my God," Racey said, trying to sound normal. She tucked her white-streaked hair behind one ear. "You told me you wanted a sister once."
"No. I said I wanted you to be my sister," I reminded her.1 don't want another me as a sister"
"That would be a nightmare," Racey agreed, and I kicked at her with my bare foot. She laughed and said, "So what's Petra 's explanation, then?"
"Don't know," I said shortly. "Haven't heard it," I leaned against my headboard and pulled a pillow into my lap. "She said she'd explain it, but she started doing all these protection spells, and then later she said that she wanted to see Thais and me together."
"Do you think Thais'll come live here?"
I groaned. "I don't know. She's living with some friend of her dad's. But if Nan is an actual living relative… I mean, there's no room here! We'd have to share a room!" I kicked a pillow on the floor.
"Okay-its a freak show," Racey agreed. "Got it. Let's talk about something else. How's the mysterious Andre?" She raised her eyebrows suggestively.
"How would I know?" I snarled. "I haven't seen him today because, oh, yeah I found out that I had an identical twin sister that my grandmother has been lying to me about for seventeen years!"
Racey pursed her lips, 'All righty, then. Who'd you get for chem lab?"
Unwillingly, trying to hold on to my outrage, I laughed. Only Racey could make me laugh at a time like this, "Foster"
"Me too! We can swap notes. Now, quick segue: so you still like Andre?"
"More than like. I mean, he's… he's just everything I could want," I shook my head. "He's perfect for me. I can't imagine ever wanting to be with anyone else."
Racey's eyes widened in alarm. She'd never heard me talk this way. I'd never heard me talk this way either, I'd been with tons of guys, and Andre was the first one who'd even gotten close to touching my heart. And he was more than close. This was all new territory for me. It was exciting. Kind of dangerous.
"Huh," she said, obviously thinking this through.
"Anyway: you and Jonah," I said." What gives?" Racey and Jonah Weinberg had had a summer fling, and now he was in her English class.
"I may have underestimated him," Racey allowed.
I grinned. "He did look pretty good today, didn't he?"
"Yeah." She was about to elaborate when her cell phone rang. "Hey, Mom. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah, okay. Got it. She clicked the phone off. "Its a school night" she said brightly. "I better get my butt home so I can get a good night's sleep!"
I laughed, feeling better. "Okay. But thanks, Race. You're my lifeline." I hugged her.
"Clio-it'll be okay." She pulled back and looked into my eyes. "No matter what happens, it'll be okay, and I'll be here for you." We didn't usually get all sappy with each other, so I was touched.
"Thanks. And after all, you have sisters, right?" She had two sisters, both older, and Trey, just a year younger than us.
"Yeah." She frowned. "They suck." Then she pasted on a falsely enthusiastic face, "But I'm sure your sister will be great?
I snorted and kicked her in the butt on the way out. Thank you, Deesse, for friends. It was the most heartfelt prayer I'd said all day.