Free A Dead Sister (Jessica Huntington Desert Cities Mystery) by Anna Burke

trinity, her father, mother and St. Bernadette, when Kelly suddenly let loose.
    “Oh my God, Jessica, what are you bitching about? You have it all, looks, brains, and money! Give me a break!”
    “I have it all? What do you mean?”
    “Just look at this room, Jessica. Do you really believe most people live in a palace like this? You’ve been in my room. Your closet is about as big as my whole room, isn’t it, Laura?” Laura looked down at the floor, then, nodded yes, slowly. Jessica had never given the size of Kelly’s room a moment’s thought. But how was that Jessica’s fault?
    Kelly was just warming up, egged on by Laura’s acquiescence. “How about the clothes you’re wearing. You take us shopping with you on El Paseo, but do you know where I shop when I go by myself or with my mom? It’s not Saks, I promise you. The underw ear I have on came from Walmart, not Victoria’s Secret! Does that shock the you? I paid ten dollars for five pairs of panties sealed in a plastic bag, not ten dollars for one pair wrapped in pink tissue paper!”
    Jessica was starting to get ticked. “What do I care where you buy your underwear or how much you paid for it? What’s wrong with you? I don’t care about money.”
    “You don’t care about money, Jessica, because you don’t have to. You just assume it’s there because it is! You have no idea what it’s like out there for real people like me and Laura, who have to work for everything they get.”
    Jessica was getting angrier by the minute. “What are you talking about? I am going to work. That’s why I’m going to college!” By this point, Jessica’s seventeen-year-old face was flushed. Tears of anger welled up in her eyes, and her fists were clenched.
    “Okay, so rub it in. I know, my grades suck and I’m not going to get into any college. I’m going to be lucky to graduate from St. Theresa’s with you two. If I did get into college, who would pay for it, Jessica? Me! That’s who! My parents don’t have extra money lying around. When my grandma died, she didn’t leave me a trust fund. Fuck, I didn’t even know what that was until you mentioned it. I had to Google it. So, if I did go to college I’d pay for it.” The truth of what she was saying got through in a ruthlessly blunt kind of way. A rush of guilt and shame flooded Jessica, warring with the anger she felt.
    “I’m not trying to rub anything in. I, I...” Jessica sputtered.
    Laura tried to object. “Shut up, Laura. You know what I’m saying is true. If you weren’t trying so hard for a saint goody-two-shoes award, you’d say something too. You think you’re that Laura Ingalls girl living in a ‘Little House on the Prairie’, but you’re not. You’re Laura Powers living in a little house on the dump, not easy street like Jessica.” Kelly turned back to Jessica and continued her tirade. “How do you suppose I feel, knowing that I’m a charity case? How can I ever keep up, no matter what I do...” The steam finally ran out. Both Jessica and Laura were sobbing quietly. Kelly started to weep, too. The three of them sat in miserable silence for a little longer, until Laura got up on her knees and put her arms around both of them.
    “It doesn’t really matter,” Laura said over and over. “What matters is that we’re friends, that we stay friends.” That was Laura-the-peacemaker, doing her thing. She was the essential third leg, always propping up their unstable triad. Without her efforts, the three of them might have parted ways long before the end of high school.
    Despite the intermittent drama, they had been there for each other in important ways when they faced one teen trauma or another. At times they had fun, laughing until they couldn’t get a breath. Once, they replaced the usual morning blessing broadcast over the intercom with Jon Bon Jovi’s rendition of Keep the Faith. Another time, with other friends, they put all the picnic tables on the roof of the cafeteria. They