The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes

you have to be eighteen to tour the interactive torture museum in the basement.” He makes air quotes when he says the word
interactive
.
    “What does that involve?” I try to fight back the blush creeping up in my cheeks.
    “I’ve never been down there so I can’t say. Probably nothing
too
deviant.” He gives me a suggestive look. “You want to check it out? I bet Phoenix wouldn’t card us.”
    “No,” I say quickly. A trio of girls with Kool-Aid dye jobs and big sunglasses turn to look at me from the next table over. One of them snickers. I grab the menu and hide behind it.
    The food choices at Mizz Creant’s include not just pancakes, but also waffles, omelets, and other assorted breakfast items. The laminated menu is shaped like a skull and crossbones. I skim the choices under the heading PANCAKES : SAW-BERRY SURPRISE. CHOKE-A-LOT CHIP. SIN-A-MON SPICE.
    A girl with short, white-blonde hair, wearing a black rubber skirt and a tank top made of what looks like overlapping safety pins, sidles up to the table. She’s got a spiked collar around her neck and rings of black eye makeup around her eyes. “Look who’s come out of hiding. What’s up, kid?”
    “Hey, Phoenix.” Micah nods toward me. “This is—”
    “No one cares.” The girl makes a throat-slitting gesture. “I assume you’re not here because you want me to make you my bitch, so what are you eating?”
    “I like a girl who gets right to the point,” Micah says. “I’ll have the Destructor omelet. With bacon spears and hashbrowns.”
    Phoenix is carrying a little notebook with the metal spiral partially unbent and formed into a shank. She nods atMicah but makes no move to write anything down. “Would you like your hashbrowns asphyxiated?”
    “Oh yeah. Smother away,” he says.
    She pops her gum. “And what does your rebound chick want?”
    I make a noise somewhere between a gasp and a yelp. Phoenix doesn’t even glance in my direction.
    “She can order for herself,” Micah says.
    “Aww. Wait till I tell Amber you’ve gone all submissive.” Phoenix turns her black-ringed eyes toward me and gives me her best bored expression.
    I start to order but no sound comes out. I clear my throat. “I’ll have the Saw-berry pancakes. With bacon spears.”
    “Fabulous.” She spins around and heads toward the kitchen. Between the straps of her tank top, I can see part of a giant pair of wings tattooed on her back.
    “She seems nice,” I say.
    Micah stares at me for a second, then bursts out laughing. I laugh too. He reaches toward my face and runs his finger down the teal streak in my hair. “That was cool of you to let Trinity put this in. I can take it out later if you want.” He folds my hair up and away from my face so he can get a look at the tiny clip.
    “I kind of like it.” I smile. “It makes me feel alternative.”
    He snickers. “You’re about as alternative as skim milk, Lainey.” He drops my hair and runs his finger along the prickly edge of one of the Venus flytrap’s lower leaves.
    “Gee, thanks,” I say, but I didn’t mean alternative likeMicah. Or Phoenix, God forbid. I meant more like getting to be someone else for a change. No one knows me here. I can do or say whatever I want without having to worry about what anyone thinks.
    “Hey. Speaking of Trin. I thought of a rule I want to make.”
    “Let’s hear it.”
    Micah looks up from the plant. “She may have said something about how being the sister to the guy dating soccer star Lainey Mitchell was going to make school suck less in the fall. I didn’t know what to tell her. But if she says hi to you in the halls, promise me you won’t ignore her, okay? No being mean to my sister.”
    Being friends with a varsity soccer player is actually a big deal at Hazelton, especially when you’re a freshman. It never occurred to me that this little charade had the potential to hurt anyone besides me or Micah. “Rule accepted. I would never ignore