Free Fraying at the Edge by Cindy Woodsmall Page B

him get back to the people who aren’t trying to figure out how to use electricity.”
    While Gabe wrapped up the call, Cameron went to the plastic box Ariana had been at a few minutes earlier and pressed some buttons, and silence reigned. Cameron pointed at it. “This is a control panel for the security system. Because Dad and Brandi feared the apocalypse would take place while you were here alone, they set it.”
    Ariana looked Brandi in the eyes, and the realization of just how much they favored each other made the walls around Ariana’s heart quake. Brandi’s blond hair and green-blue eyes were a darker shade than Ariana’s but very similar. Brandi had a willowy, hourglass figure, almost identical to Ariana’s. She didn’t want to be like this woman, to embrace her in any way, and yet the reality was staring back at her. “Until just now I didn’t realize you weren’t home.”
    “Oh, honey, I’m sorry. You’ve hardly slept all week, so I thought—”
    “I was in my room awake, studying the driver’s manual while trying to stay quiet so I didn’t wake you.”
    Cameron went to the back door and closed it. “My guess is that while Dad was disarming the alarm so we could come in, it caused loud beeps inside, and you pressed some buttons trying to make it shut up. And, voilà, just like that we had a perfect storm of chaos.” Cameron motioned from her friend to Ariana, shaking her head. “Disney’s Giselle lives, and I’m sharing a house with her.”
    The girl laughed, opening her eyes wide and blinking, probably mimicking the character.
    “Cameron!” Brandi pointed at her. “You be nice.”
    “I’m only teasing.” Cameron shrugged and pulled a wide red band of some type off her wrist. “It’s a whole new world for you, isn’t it, Princess Jasmine?”
    “That’s enough, Cameron.” Gabe spoke softly as he put the phone back in its cradle.
    “What?” Cameron’s eyes were wide. “You don’t think I’m being nice either? She and Toto aren’t in Kansas anymore. Is anyone in this house surprised by that?”
    “I am.” Ariana’s words were more of a growl than anything else, and she grabbed the eggs and cheese and all but threw them back into the refrigerator. She wasn’t cooking anything for anyone. “I’m totally surprised by it. Shocked. Miserable. But it’s just funny to you, isn’t it?”
    “I didn’t mean—”
    “Ya, you did, Cameron. You like poking fun and comparing me to movie characters because I can’t call you on exactly what your rudeness implies. I had siblings, good ones, even a twin. But like that”—she snapped her fingers—“no more. Now I have
you.
” She fluttered one hand toward a window. “And Nicholas’s two stepsons. And none of you are actually related!” Ariana opened the pantry and tossed the french bread onto a shelf. “Tell you what. You learn Gabe isn’t your dad at all, and trade him for someone as difficult as Nicholas. You give up your comfortable life and put yourself, by yourself, in, I don’t know, maybe the Middle East, where the culture is totally disrespectful of you and all you’ve been taught to believe. Then we’ll talk about how nice you’ve been, okay?”
    Cameron stood there, eyes narrowed and locked on Ariana as if she was about to unload on her.
    What is wrong with me?
How could she stand in her birth mother’s kitchen and yell at Cameron, or anyone, really? Nevertheless, Ariana snatched the driver’s manual off the countertop and shook it in Cameron’s face, daring her to speak up. “Today I have to give up my Amish clothes. Is that funny too? I’m being forced to wear Englisch ones because the irony of Nicholas being disgusted by Amish rules while he burdens me with his decrees somehow goes over his head. And I have to change my hairstyle. And when that’s done, I get the fun of trying to pass some Englisch test to get a driver’s license. None of which I ever planned or wanted to do, but, you know, that’s okay