"Grandmama, what do you think about unicorns?"
I stared at Adrianne. Her face crinkling into a smile, she bent down and scooped Bethany up into her arms.
"Unicorns," she chuckled. "Peculiar creatures, are they not?"
"I was wondering," Bethany giggled, "what their horns are for, other than decoration. Oxen and yaks have horns for self defense. Can you imagine a unicorn with its delicate lightness just using its horn as a way of defending itself?"
Adrianne smiled fondly down into Bethany's forever young gray eyes that seemed to know so much. Affectionately, she tousled the kid's hair.
Something bubbled up inside me, something hot and explosive.
She never looked at me that way.
I just looked at the woman I had called Grandmother until yesterday. I just stood there and looked, all the while fighting a war going on inside me.
Adrianne began tickling Bethany, making her squeal in delight.
Tightening my grip on my pen, I quickly strided back into my room before anything could happen.
"Carolyn," Adrianne said that evening during dinner, "when will you move out?"
I startled at her question. "What do you mean?"
She picked at her salad. "You're 13 now. You can live alone. You're an adult. You can even call me by my first name!"
She wanted me gone. I was sure of it. Adrianne wanted me gone. Badly. Obviously.
Bethany tugged at my shoulder. "Carolyn, you're leaving us?" she asked, her eyes shining with fake innocence and sweetness.
I gritted my teeth. Those idiotic, stone-colored eyes, always darting around for something focus on, always gazing intently into something, anything, nothing. And what did she do with all that she had thought? Absolutely nothing, just stupid thoughts that got her nowhere, absolutely nowhere.
What in the world did Bethany have that I didn't? Why did Adrianne favor her so over me? I had more friends. Better grades. Better manners. Better obedience. Better brain. I was better, and yet I wasn't.
As I glared angrily into my own bowl Caesar salad, I realized that for the first time in quite a while, I was feeling.
I absolutely hated that little blabbering idiot.
