Free What Happened to Hannah by Mary Kay McComas

must—”
    “Yeah, well, she’s worked hard for it,” Lucy broke in, seeming to be angry. “She’s been training since the seventh grade. She runs all year long and . . . Ow! ” She glared across the table at her brother who had kicked her under the table. Cal slanted Hannah a wary look, extended it to his father, then gave his sister an insistent stare.
    “I don’t care.” She all but shouted at him. “Hannah needs to know. If we don’t tell her now, there’s no telling what she’ll do. She could ruin everything.”
    “Luce,” whispered Biscuit, to get her attention and shake his head—at the same time her father said, “That’s enough, Lucy. Stay out of it.”
    “Oh! Sure. Of course, I have to stay out of it.” Now she shouted, clearly angry. “Anna’s only my best friend so it doesn’t actually involve me-e . I don’t get to say anything about anything. The only one who gets any say in this at all is her .” Hannah’s brows froze mid-forehead when the teen frosted her with a cold green stare. “And she doesn’t know anything about it. It’s not fair that some stranger gets to walk in here and decide everything. Especially since . . .”
    “That’s enough.” Grady’s loud, stern voice brought instant silence. Even Hannah blinked and swallowed. With a halting glance around the table she found that no one, except Lucy, could look her in the eye for more than a millisecond. “Quietly finish your meal, or leave the table.”
    “No.” This time Hannah startled Grady, who looked as if he wasn’t used to having his orders countermanded. She turned to Lucy. “I mean, please don’t decide to leave the table. I think Anna is very lucky to have such a good friend. It might take a little time, but I hope you’ll come to understand that I want what’s best for her, too. And obviously, her running is very important. I can see that. And I’m glad you brought it to my attention right away. I . . . I haven’t had much time to prepare for all this. There’s a lot to do. My friend, Joe Levitz? He offered to scout out a high school this week. You know, just in case. There are dozens of very good schools in Baltimore. I’ll call him tonight and tell him that a great track program is mandatory.”
    She hadn’t gotten the last word out when Lucy’s chair started to scrape across the floor, then fell over backward as she jumped up from the table.
    “Oh my,” Janice said in distress—not that Lucy noticed.
    “You don’t get it,” she said, loud and impassioned. “You don’t understand anything. The records she needs to break are here . The county she wants to represent is this one . The state she deserves to take first place in is Vir-gin-ya, where she’s from. Not Bodymore, Murdaland,” she shouted, using Baltimore’s nickname because of its high-crime rates.
    Stunned by the girl’s reaction to what she believed to be a reasonable and accommodating plan of action, Hannah watched in dumbfounded silence as the girl stormed from the room.
    “Ah, God.” Grady groaned and let loose a long-suffering sigh. He was put out and embarrassed and concerned at the same time. “That was . . . There’s no excuse for her behavior. I’m sorry. This has been . . . hard on her. Hard on everyone.”
    Hannah shook her head and lifted a helpless hand. What happened? One second she’s the welcome benevolent aunt come to help out and the next she’s Cruella De Vil looking for new coat material. How did she end up the bad guy?
    And if Lucy’s taking the move this hard, then it followed that Anna was, too. Looking at her, Hannah watched one corner of the girl’s mouth bend into a regretful smile.
    “I should go talk to her,” she said, quietly—and Hannah realized it was the first time she’d spoken since they met. “May I be excused?”
    There was so much to say, so much to talk about, but she was anxious about her friend, so Hannah nodded and watched her leave the room. Sighing heavily, she