"Your principal explained that." Mrs. Brighten continued to stare.
"I also want to say that ... that I know you might think my mom and stepdad are nuts after witnessing the whole parking lot scene, but..." She remembered to breathe. "But ... well, sometimes they are a little nuts, but for the most part, they're really good people." Emotion tightened her throat and she swallowed.
"They both love me."
Mr. and Mrs. Brighten nodded again. A strange kind of awkwardness filled the room. One Kylie hoped to send packing. She really wanted this to go well. And not just for her dad, she realized, but for her.
"I'm sorry we're staring," Mr. Brighten finally said. "It's just ... you look so much like your father. It's amazing."
Kylie smiled again, this one completely genuine. She moved in and sat down across from them at the table. "I know."
"You've seen pictures?" Mrs. Brighten asked.
Yeah, his real father and aunt brought them to me when they were pretending to be you. Yeah, she had to lie. "My mom had a few photos of him." Then Kylie remembered her mom had kept the obituary clipping that had Daniel's image.
Almost a frown appeared on Mrs. Brighten's expression. "I do not understand why she wouldn't have contacted us about you. We could have ... we would have loved to have seen you grow up." She paused.
"It would have helped ... helped with our own loss of your father."
Kylie remembered her mom saying that the Brightens would hate her for this. "She knows it was a mistake," Kylie said, recalling her mom saying almost as much. "But in her defense, she was young, pregnant, and scared. My stepdad, he was someone who knew her and loved her. He agreed to marry her, but he wanted ... he wanted to raise me as his own." She paused. "He was wrong, too, but they were both just trying to do the best they could."
Mrs. Brighten nodded. "I imagine that was a hard place to be."
Kylie's knot of worry lessened. "I hope you'll forgive her. Because ... she's been a pretty amazing mom."
"I'd like to chat with her."
Kylie tensed. "I'm sure that's possible. If you don't mind, I'll check with her ... and get back to you on that." Kylie sent up a prayer that her mom would be agreeable. But oh, lordy, that was going to be a hard conversation.
Tears filled Mrs. Brighten's eyes. "I brought some more photos with me, if you'd like to see them."
"I would love to," Kylie said. "Thank you."
Mrs. Brighten pulled a small photo album from a large beige purse. As Kylie flipped through the pages, she recognized some of the same images she had. Her real grandfather had snuck into the Brightens' houseand had copies made to bring to her so they would appear like the real Brightens. But there were many images that Kylie hadn't seen. And seeing images of her father, she felt emotion swell inside her.
"If you would like you can keep it," Mrs. Brighten said. "I made it up for you."
Kylie smiled. "Thank you so much! I will cherish this, I promise."
Mr. Brighten sat up. "You even act like your father. He was so ... polite."
"Yes," Mrs. Brighten said. "He was such a good boy. Always kindhearted. A gentle spirit. A little shy sometimes, but-"
"I can be shy, too," Kylie said. "I hate it when I'm called on to stand up and talk or give a report in school." Or everyone is looking at my weird pattern. Or thinking I'm pregnant.
Mrs. Brighten smiled. "He really didn't like school very well. He always said he felt as if he didn't fit in anywhere."
"Oh boy, do I know how that feels," Kylie said.
"Not that he got into trouble. Well, there was that one time in his last year of high school. There was a kid at school, Timmy. He was slow, and while walking home from school, Daniel came upon a group of older boys picking on him-really mistreating him. There were maybe six of them, and Daniel lost it. We still don't know how he did it, but he gave all of them bloody noses and black eyes. And there wasn't a scratch on our boy."
Kylie listened to the story with a hungry heart-a daughter eager to know about a father she knew so little about.
"The school suspended him," Mrs. Brighten continued, "but when Timmy's parents found out, they went to the local news channel and they interviewed Timmy about what happened, and the news channel honored Daniel as a hero. And the boys got in trouble. The school was forced to drop Daniel's suspension. Of course, Daniel was embarrassed about the attention. The news channel gave him a trophy, and the next day, he went over to Timmy's house and gave him the trophy. He said that Timmy was the real hero having to deal with those bullies all his life."
Pride for her dad swelled in Kylie's chest. He'd been a protector just like her, and like her, he didn't want the credit. She wished again that she hadn't lost the man whom she'd taken after. Sure, she still had a part of him in spirit form, but she could have used so much more.
"But you know after he graduated from high school, he just sort of found himself. As a matter of fact, one day he came home from a trip and he told me he was finally figuring out who he was."
Kylie remembered her dad telling her about meeting an old man who'd told him he wasn't human. She wondered if that was the same trip.
"I told him," Mrs. Brighten continued, "that I already knew who he was. He was a kind and gentle soul." She stared at Kylie. "I see the same in you. As if ... as if you had some magic spirit that very few people have." She reached across the table and rested her hand on Kylie's.
The aged hand reminded Kylie of how her great-aunt had touched her when playing the part of Mrs.
Brighten. There was no extra warmth from the real Mrs. Brighten's touch as had come from her greataunt's. Yet it didn't make the real Mrs. Brighten's touch any less special. And just like that, Kylie knew how easy it was going to be to love these people, and how lucky her father had been to be raised by them.
* * *It was almost five that afternoon before Burnett and Holiday, holding hands like two lovebirds, walked Kylie to her cabin. Della waited inside to take over shadowing duties.
"You sure you'll be all right?" Holiday asked.
"Yeah." And amazingly, Kylie sort of believed it. Yes, she was still craving some chocolate to counteract the freaking crazy day, and yes, her heart would forever be broken over Lucas, but she was going to be okay.
Thinking of her other roommate, Kylie asked, "Did you talk with Miranda about the Nikki episode?"
"Yes," Holiday said, her eyes frowning. "Although I haven't come up with her other punishment yet."
Kylie couldn't help but put in her two cents. "I'm not saying Miranda didn't do wrong, but Nikki was being overly obvious about her crush with Perry. I even warned her about it. But she didn't listen."
"I know," Holiday said. "Nikki was wrong, but Miranda can't go around turning people into kangaroos."
"Really? You seemed to enjoy hearing about it when she did that to me," Burnett said sarcastically.
Holiday hiccuped. "That was funny." She sent him a devilish grin.
Kylie watched them leave before stepping inside. She found Della sitting at the kitchen table, sipping on a glass of blood, with schoolbooks in front of her. The little vamp took her homework seriously.
Della looked up. "I agree with Holiday. It was funny when Miranda turned Burnett into a kangaroo."
Kylie slumped down into a chair. "Where's Miranda?"
Della rolled her eyes. "She and Perry went off to have make-up 'almost sex'-her words, not mine.
Personally I didn't need to know that. Although I have to admit I wonder exactly what 'almost sex' is."
She frowned. "Then again, it probably involves Perry sucking her earlobes and I'm really not willing to hear about that. Again."
Kylie chuckled. "When you think about it, all things sexual are sort of ... I mean, even French kissing ... having someone's tongue in your mouth. It's gross."
"Unless you're doing it." Della's words came out dreamlike. Kylie felt certain her friend was thinking about Steve. "And then it's not gross. It's almost magic."
Kylie remembered French-kissing Lucas and even doing more the night they'd been coming back from the graveyard. It had been magical. But all that magic was over now. No more Lucas. "Yeah, it's not so gross then, is it." Popping up, she went and looked inside the tiny pantry. "Do we have anything chocolate in this kitchen? Anything?"
"I think there's some chocolate syrup in the fridge. But we don't have any milk. Not that it was me who drank it. That would be the witch." Della glanced back at Kylie.
Kylie reached into the refrigerator and found the chocolate syrup. Oh, hell, beggars couldn't be choosy.
She squeezed a line of chocolate all the way up her index finger and popped the digit into her mouth.
"So the meeting with the Brightens didn't go well?" Della asked.
"No, it went fine," Kylie mumbled around her chocolate-covered finger. When the sweetness disappeared, she pulled her finger out and aimed the top of the bottle down and gave the digit another squirt of sweetness.
"Then why are you sucking chocolate syrup off your finger like it's whiskey? Wait! I know why, I heard about the fiasco with your dad and mom-the whole pregnancy thing. Hilarious." Della dropped her elbows on the table and laughed."Not hilarious." Kylie frowned. "How did you hear about it?"
Della shrugged, looking a little guilty for bringing it up. "Someone heard it go down. Everybody was talking about it. Sorry." She made an apology face.
Kylie moaned. "Will I ever stop being the source of gossip around here?" She held her head back and squeezed a good squirt of chocolate straight into her mouth.
"Now that's gross!" Della chuckled.
Kylie brought the bottle down and licked her lips. "I didn't touch my lips to the bottle. I just poured it into my mouth."
"And on your chin."
Frowning, Kylie wiped her chin with the back of her hand. "Sorry, I'm feeling desperate." She snagged a bowl and spoon and went back to the table and emptied a half a cup of the sweet feel-good stuff into her bowl.
"Damn," Della said. "You are feeling desperate."
Kylie scooped a spoonful of chocolate into her mouth, licked the spoon clean and said, "Monique crawled into the stall with me."
"Who? What stall?"
"Monique. Lucas's Monique. She climbed into the bathroom stall with me in the restaurant bathroom."
"Oh, shit! Did you two like duke it out or something?"
"No." Kylie licked the spoon. "I just peed all over myself." She took another spoonful of chocolate into her mouth.
Della sighed. "Are you okay?"
"I will be after I finish off this bottle," Kylie said.
Della half grinned. "If I was a real friend, I'd stop you from drinking it."
Kylie shook her head. "If you were a real friend, you'd help me finish it."
"Shit. Why not?" She pushed over her glass of blood. "Give me a couple of shots."
Kylie arched an eyebrow. "For real?"
"Yeah." Della pushed her schoolbooks to the side. "Screw homework, let's get drunk off chocolate. I could use a pick-me-up, too."
Kylie saw pain reflect in her friend's gaze. She gave an extra-hard squeeze of chocolate into the vamp's glass. "What really happened while you were away, Della?"