Ananda opened the door, waved to Stacy, and stepped inside the big house she shared with Brian and Kevin. Almost immediately she heard Brian's voice snap at her from the dining room.
"Panda! Get in here!"
Uh-oh. That didn't sound good. Ananda felt her throat tighten the way it always did when she was in trouble. 'Nick why did you have to rat on me?' she thought to herself as she dropped her backpack and slowly walked into the dining room. "Am I in trouble?" she asked innocently.
Brian was sitting with Kevin at the long table that normally had room for the house's three occupants and any company they might happen to have... which was pretty often. "You sure are."
Then from Kevin: "Sit down."
'Oh Nick, you idiot, I am never going to speak to you again...' Ananda pulled out the chair across from Kevin and sat down gingerly, as if she was afraid she might break it.
"Are you doing drugs?" Kevin asked bluntly.
Ananda scoffed. "No. Who told you that, Nick?"
Brian gave her a strange look. "No, he didn't. Nobody did, but it did just so happens that my girlfriend-"
Ananda cringed. 'Man, Leighanne!'
"-noticed that the girl who picked you up for school this morning looked considerably like the girl she saw at the court yesterday."
Ananda bit her bottom lip and folded her arms over her chest. "No comment," she muttered, staring at the floor. 'Leighanne Wallace, you little traitor, how could you do this to me, I am going to be in the deepest trouble in my life, I might have to go back to Kentucky, I'll never see Nick again, I can't believe you this is all your fault-'
"Panda..." Kevin's voice interuppted the chain of negative thoughts pushing their way into her mind. "What's going on?"
Ananda sighed. There was no way around the truth now... unless... "Okay. I give up. Yes, Stacy is an addict. No, I am not. I have never ever ever gotten high before in my life, and I am in no way curious because I know it will fuck everything up."
Kevin shot Ananda a warning look at her leisurely use of 'the F word'.
"Sorry, it slipped. But I'm serious though, I'm a good girl-"
"Yeah right," Brian coughed conspicuously into his hand.
Ananda rolled her eyes at her big brother. "-most of the time. My point is, I'm not that dumb. Kay?"
Brian and Kevin didn't say anything.
"What, don't you beleive me?"
Brian heaved a dramatic sigh. "Don't get us wrong lil sis, we want to, but-"
"But you don't."
"I didn't say that."
"What then?"
"Maybe you should just not hang out with Stacy for a while," Kevin said.
Ananda dropped her jaw at her cousin's words.
"What? No, no way!"
"Panda Bear, people like that can be dangerous."
"Oh please Bri. Stacy is not dangerous. She just has a problem is all-"
"A big problem."
Ananda gave her brother a dirty look as she continued.
"But I don't. And I won't. Promise." With that Ananda jumped up from the table and ran upstairs to her room.
