Free Winter White by Jen Calonita

she gave Mira “the look.” Relief flooded Mira’s face. “You can’t make us change our minds.”
    “Maybe we should take our snack to the living room,” Aunt Maureen said hastily, herding a bewildered Connor away. “I think we’ve had quite an exciting day, and maybe the girls might need some space.” She gave Mira a stern look, but Mira ignored it.
    “Nice, Mira,” Hayden said when everybody left the room. “How could you—”
    “Bite me, Hayden,” Mira shot back venomously. Izzie blinked. Hayden pushed his plate back and walked out, disgust written all over his face.
    “How could he even start with me?” Mira said, getting visibly upset. “Hey, would you mind letting Dad present you at cotillion?” she said, mimicking Callista’s voice. “Are they crazy? What would make them think I would even considerthat?” Mira’s chest rose up and down. “I don’t care how it looks for his career. I don’t care if this sinks him! He doesn’t deserve to present me, and I won’t change my mind.”
    Mira was never unhinged. It didn’t matter what someone did or what name Savannah called her. Mira always held it together. Izzie didn’t know how she did. But for the first time Izzie could remember, Mira was a mess.
    “No one understands why I can’t get over this,” Mira said, her voice strangled. “But I can’t.”
    “I understand,” Izzie said quietly.
    Mira looked at her. “You’re the only one who can.” She leaned her head on Izzie’s shoulder and then turned in for a hug.
    This time, Izzie didn’t want to stop her.

Seven

    “Mira! Wait up!” Izzie’s loud voice ricocheted off the buildings in Emerald Prep’s main quad.
    Mira kept walking, pretending as if she had her iPod buds in. Normally, Mira would have flinched at Izzie’s tone. It was one she felt should be reserved for football games, not for flagging down your sister, but today there was no one around to hear Izzie but Mira. Half the school was at a football game. It was Friday, and all after-school sports had been cancelled so that students could attend the Cardinals final football playoff game against St. Elizabeth’s Holy Rollers. If the Cardinals won, they’d play in the first round of the fall state championships next weekend.
    “Mira! Hell-
o
!” She could hear Izzie running across thegrass. Within seconds, Izzie had caught up with her. “Why are you ignoring me?”
    “Excuse me?” Mira acted as if she hadn’t heard a word Izzie had said.
    Izzie folded her arms across her chest and glared at her. In her EP uniform, she did a good impression of one of Savannah’s mean girls. “Don’t give me that. You heard me calling you after the Butterflies meeting, but you ran off anyway.”
    “I didn’t hear you call me.” Mira was sticking to her story. The truth was, she didn’t want to hear Izzie mouth off about their meeting. She had completely let Savannah take over, and she didn’t want a lecture about it.
    Izzie sighed. “Whatever. I wanted to talk about what happened back there. How could you let Savannah walk all over you like that?”
    See? There it was, right there. She could already read Izzie like a book.
    Izzie’s hazel eyes were practically on fire. “You let her take over the whole meeting, and then we got stuck listening to her talk about her trip to Hilton Head instead of deciding what our next club project was going to be!”
    “It was an interesting slide show, don’t you think?” Mira asked innocently.
    Izzie scowled. “Slide show? She flipped through pictures on her iPhone.”
    Mira shrugged. “Same thing. Besides, Mrs. Fitz was riveted.”
    “No, she wasn’t.” Izzie pushed her bob out of her eyes. “She was waiting for you to take the ball back, since she couldn’t get a word in, either. Now we have to wait till next week to discuss events. It will be a month since we’ve planned anything.”
    “That’s okay,” Mira said. “We’re lucky if we do three or four events a