CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
MOM GENES
“NUDI duty done!” Candace peeled out of the dark parking lot and lifted her palm, expecting a triumphant sisterly slap.
“Hands on the wheel,” Melody insisted.
Candace did what she was told. “Okay, so that was seriously amazing on every possible level possible!”
Ping!
TO: Melody
Oct 14, 8:19 PM
MOM: CANDACE TOLD ME YOUR VOICE IS COMING BACK!!!! CAN’T WAIT TO HEAR. LOVE YOU!
Without responding, Melody tucked the phone inside the pocket of her hoodie.
“Can? Would you say my old nose looked like a camel’s humps?” she asked, fixated on her reflection in the side-view mirror.
“Yeah,” Candace said, giggling. “It kind of did. Hey, did you even know camels could run like that? I had no idea. Could you imagine if we had been on them? It’s not like that wrangler could have saved us, that’s for sure. She was so freaked, I think that poo smell was coming from her, not Humphrey. Too bad Van-Verbeentengarden didn’t get any shots. He said he didn’t want to get sand in his lenses, which I guess is for the best, ’cause he’s taking my yearbook picture in the spring. Hey, maybe he can be the official NUDI photographer. He can ride with us on missions and document our battles. Too bad he didn’t get you beating the truth out of Cleo. Love the girl and everything, I really do, but was she seriously going to erase that movie? Just to get her friends to that shoot? Omigod, even I wouldn’t do that. And what about Joffree? Do you really think he was born without a last name?” She paused for a nanosecond. “Too bad VanVerbeentengarden wasn’t.…”
Melody tried to nod in all the right places. Tried to agree when Candace gave an opinion. Tried to smile at the charming parts. But everything came out sounding like a tiny grunt. She considered asking Candace if she’d ever heard of a Marina, a woman with a voice so intoxicating she “could get anyone to do absolutely anything.” But maybe Manu had it all wrong. Maybe Marina was a distant aunt or her old nanny or the mother of some other kid with a camel-hump nose and a magical voice. Because Glory Carver was her mother, of that she was sure… until now.
“Okay, so here’s my theory on Jaydra. For starters, her name is probably Jane Drake, or something boring like that. And Jane Drake had terrible style until one day she landed a job in a clothing store, probably thanks to some relative. But it wasn’t a cool store like Intermix or the Co-Op. It was cool by her standards, like bebe or Betsey Johnson. After a few months, she started getting discounts and bought some clothes. She’d copy the other, cooler salesgirls until one day, during her lunch break, someone at the food court complimented her outfit. And that rocked her world. That night she changed her name from Jane Drake to Jaydra and…”
Melody sighed, wishing she had never met Manu. She had earned Cleo’s respect. There would no longer be a divide. RADs and the NUDIs could finally band together as a unified force. And they would need to, now more than ever. She had everything she had been fighting for.
Everything except the truth.
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The Ghoul Next Door Page 18