He leaned down so his mouth was deliciously close to my ear. “You’re going to want to pretreat that,” he whispered. His breath sent a ripple of chills down my spine. “And wash it in warm water.”

“Cold water! You’re not even listening!” I slipped out of his grip, as much as I would have enjoyed prolonging the moment. My parents didn’t mind him being at the house when they weren’t there, but only because they trusted us not to spend hours in the kitchen making out.

“I can only learn so much in one day,” he said. “Such as, cheaters never win.”

“Cheaters go flying face-first down a hill,” I said. “And end up with gravel stuck in all sorts of exotic places.”

I took in the whole picture of him, new tennis shoes scratched, knees mottled, shorts muddy, shirt stained and stretched.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “How can a man with pebbles embedded in his butt be so irresistible?”

Sun shone through the kitchen window, casting a glow on his summer-tanned skin and making the curls in his blond hair look like strands of gold.

I smiled at him, not wanting to interrupt this perfect moment.

“It’s going to be a good year,” he said.

“The best year,” I said. And I believed it. I had a boyfriend who was going to be Student Council president, the perfect best friend, and I even got along with my parents. In that moment, it seemed like nothing could possibly go wrong.

He reached a hand out to me, and I took it. As we melted closer, something caught my eye, a change in the light somewhere in the room.

I glanced up and then slammed back against the refrigerator, like I’d seen a ghost.

It wasn’t a ghost—but it was close enough.

My little sister, Kasey, stood at the end of the hall in a baggy black T-shirt and sweatpants, her hair in a long braid. Her once-round baby face was thin, and sharp shadows underlined her cheekbones. Her eyes were rimmed by faint gray half-moons.

In half a heartbeat, I was across the room, crashing into her. We tumbled to the floor, our limbs tangled underneath us.

“Lexi!” she sputtered. “Wait!”

“Don’t move,” I said, grabbing both of her wrists in my hands.

“Be careful!” Carter said, rushing over to us. “I’ll call the police!”

“LEXI, STOP!” Kasey’s screech cut a hole in the chaos. In the sudden silence, I realized she wasn’t struggling.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded. “Did you run away?”

“Run away? No, Lexi,” she said. “I’m home. I’m just home.”

NINE MISSED CALLS.

I lobbed my useless cell phone at the couch. “It was on vibrate.”

Mom’s hands were pressed against her forehead like she was fending off a headache. “Your father and I were gone for twenty minutes, max. We had to sign some papers at the school.”

About thirty seconds after I self-defensed my sister into submission, my parents came tra-la-laing through the front door to find me still sitting on her. High jinks ensued.

I tried to apologize to Kasey, but she slunk off into her room.

“But honestly,” I said. “She’s at Harmony Valley for ten months and you had no clue she’d be coming home three weeks early?”

Mom did a palms-up shrug. “Honey, we didn’t know for sure. I didn’t want to get your hopes up.”

“Hopes,” I repeated.

The flatness of my voice made my mother cringe. “Alexis…you’re happy about this, right? Not the—the tackling part, but—Kasey coming home?”

We both caught the pause before my answer. “Of course,” I said. “Mom, I was surprised. I get back from hiking with Carter, thinking the house is empty, and Kasey comes trotting out, all, ‘Oh, hey, remember me, your sister from the mental hospital?’ I thought she escaped.”

Mom shuffled through the stack of papers in her hand, her faux-casual attitude giving away how upset she really was. “I just really want this to work for her. I want her to make friends, and find her way around school, and—what if she doesn’t?”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “She will.”

Kasey being home meant she was going to Surrey High, where I’d spent two years building up and then dissolving a variety of enemies and alliances.

She wasn’t just a freshman; she was Alexis Warren’s little sister.

And that meant it was my job to make sure she didn’t crash and burn.

Even though Mom didn’t mean to make me feel responsible for Kasey, we all knew that my reputation preceded her. I’d mellowed way out, but there were still a lot of people who would never see me as more than the rebellious punk I’d once been.

Cyrus Davenport was one of them.

“Oh”—he sneered at me over the cheese tray on the snack table—“Alexis. I didn’t know Cecilia invited you.”

“Hey, Cyrus,” I said. “How’s UCLA?”

“I assumed you’d be in juvie by now,” he said, pursing his lips and turning away.

“Okay…good to see you, too,” I said to the air where he’d been standing. The low buzz of the Davenports’ first-week-of-school party closed in around me.

“So Cyrus is still a drama queen,” Megan said, appearing at my side. “Nice to see college doesn’t always change people.”

Kasey stood a few feet away, clutching a bottle of water in her hands like a security blanket. She was wearing stiff, brand-new jeans and a shirt she’d borrowed from our mother, this gold silky blouse that made her look about forty. “Why does that boy hate you?”

Carter slipped his arm around my waist. “I’m a little curious, myself.”

“It’s one of Alexis’s bad girl moments,” Megan said. “I’m sure you guys wouldn’t be interested.”

Carter lowered his chin. A smile played on his lips. “What did you do, you monster?”

I glanced at my sister, whose eyes were as round as quarters, not sure if I wanted her to hear this story. “Well…two years ago—you were still at All Saints, Carter—I was going through one of my…phases. I hacked into the drama club website and switched some casting decisions for The Sound of Music. I mean, their password was password. They were asking for it.”

“And Cyrus got the part of…”

“Fräulein Maria,” Megan said.

“Turns out it was the one role he always wanted,” I said. “He’s hated me ever since.”

Carter pulled me closer. “Know what I always wanted? A girlfriend who was a junior.”

“Aww,” I said. “I always wanted a seventy- to three-hundred-millimeter zoom lens. With macro.”

He gazed into my eyes.

Even though we’d been a couple for almost five months—since the April prom night when we officially admitted our feelings for each other—a battalion of happy butterflies still launched in my stomach when he looked at me like that. He wrapped his hands around mine, and it was like we were in our own little world, not a single angry thespian in sight.

“You two are gross. I’m going to mingle.” Megan gave her dark shoulder-length hair a shake and scanned the crowd. “Want to come with me, Kasey?”

“What?” Kasey asked, choking on a mouthful of water. “No, thank you.”

“Yes you do,” Megan said, herding her away. “Because the alternative is staying here with Edward and Bella.”

When we were alone, Carter’s expression darkened with concern. “Everything okay with her?”

I nodded. “She still flinches whenever I walk into a room, but she accepted my apology.”

His hand rested lightly against my lower back, almost like he was trying to prop me up. “I’m surprised she came.”

“Me too.” In fact, I’d only asked her because I was sure she’d say no.

But then she said yes, and the night became less about having a good time and more about making sure nothing disastrous happened to her.

I began to get the feeling that having a good time in general was about to get a lot more complicated.

As things began to wind down, Carter got stuck in a conversation about Student Council elections and I got up to find Megan. I found her in the kitchen—alone.