Read Online Sisters of Misery by Megan Kelley Hall - Free Book Online Page A

fact that Cordelia was probably the only person in the history of Hawthorne Academy who wasn’t completely terrified by Kate Endicott. She wasn’t impressed by her money, her family’s influence, or her obvious wrath.
    During French class one afternoon, Kate kicked a cheat sheet under Cordelia’s desk. When Maddie tried to signal to Cordelia, Madame Rousseau noticed the interaction and demanded to know whose cheat sheet it was. Kate giggled, eagerly anticipating Cordelia’s punishment.
    But Cordelia stood up and said in a loud, clear voice, “Je ne sais pas qui a écrit la note, Madame Rousseau. Peut-être elle appartient à quelqu’un dans la classe qui n’a jamais habité en France ou ne peut pas parler la langue couramment, comme j’évidemment bidon.”
    Kate turned and looked with great surprise at Darcy, who shrugged her shoulders. Madame Rousseau smiled and said, “Ms. LeClaire has informed me that she doesn’t know who wrote the note, but perhaps, it was someone in the class who has never lived in France and cannot speak the language fluently, as she obviously can.”
    She turned to Cordelia and said, “Two things are obvious, Cordelia. One is that someone is trying to get you into trouble”—she narrowed her eyes at Kate before continuing—“and two, you belong in a higher level of French.”
    “Merci, Madame,” Cordelia said gratefully. “Je suis d’accord complètement avec vous.”
     
     
    After class, Maddie slammed her lunch tray down on the table, exhausted from having to divide her allegiance between the Sisters of Misery and Cordelia. Luckily, Cordelia had been spending her lunch hours with Mr. Campbell. She was excelling in his English class, so he was giving her training to do some tutoring work on the side. As much as she wished she could have lunch with her cousin, it worked out perfectly because Maddie knew that she’d never be accepted at their lunch table.
    “Nice job in French class today, Kate. Real nice,” Maddie said angrily.
    “Je ne comprends pas,” Kate said innocently. “I was just trying to help your cousin out. Who knew she was freakin’ Celine Dion?”
    “Celine Dion isn’t from France, you moron; she’s from Canada,” Darcy said.
    “French Canadian! Close enough.” Kate retorted. Bridget took her place at the table, and Kate smirked when she saw that Bridget’s tray held nothing but wilted lettuce and a fruit cup. Bridget, who used to be a normal, healthy weight, had wasted away to nothing over the summer after Kate had gotten the rest of the girls to call her Bridget Bubble Butt or Triple B. She begged her mother to put her on Weight Watchers and supplemented her diet with a daily cocktail of assorted diet pills. Some were smuggled out of her mother’s medicine cabinet, and others—illegal in the U.S.—she bought off the Internet. Her rapid weight loss didn’t seem to send up any red flags for her teachers or her parents. So she continued to waste away, the skin around her eyes sunken and hollow, her clavicle too prominent, and her head too large for her slender body. Maddie finally understood why girls who lost weight that dramatically were called The Lollipop Girls.
    When Maddie mentioned to Kate how concerned she was about Bridget’s health, Kate took great pleasure in singing or humming the “Lollipop” song or simply doing the plop sound whenever Bridget walked by. And then, whenever Bridget started looking healthy again or was seen eating normally, Kate was always at the ready; whether it was “innocently” blowing bubbles with bubble soap or bubble gum, anything that reminded Bridget of Kate’s taunts from the previous year would send her spiraling back into picking at lettuce or gnawing on carrots, while wistfully looking away from their full lunch trays.
    “You’re going to need more than that to eat if you’re going to be any help to us today in our match against Cross Prep,” Kate complained. Bridget pretended that she didn’t