Sisters of Misery by Megan Kelley Hall Page B

healing. Plus, I added a moonstone and an opal because they bring me the ability to commune better with the spirits of the night,” she continued.
    “What’s that one?” Maddie asked, pointing to a reddish flower.
    “Oh,” Cordelia said, her eyes widening. “That’s called dragon’s blood.”
    “Yuck.” Maddie made a face, wrinkling her nose. “What’s that for?”
    “Revenge,” Cordelia said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Sweet revenge.”
     
     
    Maddie and Cordelia decided to eat their dinner down by the ocean that night. The water was calm, and the sand still held a little warmth from the afternoon sun. As they ate their sandwiches, Maddie opened up a little more about her group of friends and how they were called the Sisters of Misery, the initiation rituals, and some of the milder things they had done. Shop lifting, egging people’s houses, toilet papering trees, spray painting mean words on the sidewalk in front of people’s houses. As Maddie relayed this information, the expression on Cordelia’s face turned from mild annoyance to disgust.
    “And you call these people your friends? Why, Maddie?”
    Cordelia picked up a flat stone and whipped it toward the water, watching it skip across the calm sea.
    Maddie couldn’t explain. There was never a time in her life that those girls weren’t her friends. They were just always there—for the good times and the bad. She’d never really questioned it before, not until Cordelia came into her life.
    “You’ll see,” Maddie offered. “It’s just a lot easier being on their side. They can make life pretty brutal.”
    Maddie told Cordelia about the first time she was involved in one of Kate’s schemes, one that still made her stomach wrench with guilt. When they were ten, Kate had taken a particular dislike to a girl in her class, Emily Patterson. Kate decided one afternoon to lure her into their group. From the look on Emily’s face when Kate was kind to her, it was as if the clouds had parted, and she was basking in the warmth of Kate’s attentive glow. At only ten years of age, Kate had already taken part in a few Misery Island rituals with her older sister. And she seemed eager to take the dirty tricks she had learned from the older girls out on others. Maddie, Hannah, Bridget, and Darcy were just happy to be on Kate’s side. It was much safer than being against her.
    “Come on, Em,” Kate said cheerfully as she invited the group back to her house after school. Emily trotted along happily beside Kate like a lamb being led to slaughter. As the girls gathered round the granite island in Kate’s expansive kitchen, Kate set out some cookies for everyone, watching as they happily sat back and chomped away, gossiping about school, boys, teachers, other girls in the class. Emily devoured her cookie and slugged back some milk. It killed Maddie to sit idly by, forced to watch Emily’s humiliation.
    Earlier that day, Kate had dipped Emily’s cookie in the school toilet, allowing Darcy and Hannah to take turns peeing on it. Maddie watched them, horrified, begging Kate to reconsider. Kate hissed, “If you say one word to that cow before she eats the cookie, plan on having to closely inspect everything you eat around us from now on. Got it, Crane?”
    “But, Kate,” Maddie pleaded, “she hasn’t done anything to you. It’s not fair.”
    “Life isn’t fair, Maddie,” snapped Kate. “The sooner you figure that out, the better.”
    So, Maddie watched sadly as Emily happily munched on the cookie, thrilled to be included in the “cool” girls’ afternoon plans. It was only after she finished eating that Kate gleefully told Emily what she had just consumed.
    Maddie had always thought “turning green” was just an expression. But that afternoon, Emily Patterson’s face turned a mild shade of chartreuse. She abruptly ran for the counter sink, heaving into the stainless steel basin. The girls all laughed, and Kate said something about how she was