My Stepbrother Silenced Me for 72 Hours, Then Begged Me to Talk novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Low Profile

Lucy makes friends with half of Northridge in thirty minutes and takes over the campus radio, until Melody runs off crying and Reed summons her to a family meeting.

My mother held my hand in the Northridge parking lot and gave me one rule.

"Keep a low profile, Lucy. Every kid here comes from a serious family. Don't go around befriending people."

She said it like a judge reading a sentence.

I said, "Okay, Mom," and I meant it for about a minute.

At minute one, a basketball bounced off a hoop and flew straight at a girl's face.

I caught it with one hand.

The girl said thank you, and I said "I'm Lucy," and that was friend number one.

At minute four, the camp program director came out of the gym with a whistle and a clipboard.

Her name tag said MARLENE WEATHERBY, and her fleece had a coffee stain shaped like Ohio.

"You're the late arrival," Marlene said. "You're the Lindholms' girl."

"Stepdaughter," I said. "Is that a Split the House mug?"

She looked down at it.

"I watch one show," Marlene said slowly. "Just the one, about couples dividing a house in mediation."

"The one where the husband wants the blender?"

"He doesn't even cook," Marlene said, and she was my friend until the end of time.

At minute nine, a cafeteria cook mentioned that his son, who was twenty and shy, had a dating profile with a single photo of a lake.

By minute fourteen I had rewritten the profile on the back of a menu, and the lake had a dog in it.

At minute thirty I was sitting in the campus radio booth, because the booth door was unlocked and nobody had told me not to.

The microphone was on, and a red light was on, and I did what anyone would do.

"Testing, testing," I said. "Can everybody hear me?"

Every speaker on the quad crackled.

"Great. I'm Lucy, I'm new, and I want to know your favorite song. You can't pick a bad one. Okay, you can, but I'll still like you."

Somebody on the quad cheered.

I played three songs.

By the time I came out of the booth, nineteen people were waiting outside with requests.

One wanted the cafeteria's secret menu.

One wanted a game of pickup basketball.

One boy wanted me to slip a note to a girl in Building C.

"I'm not a mail service," I said, and then I took the note.

There was a crowd of twenty behind me by then, and they were following me to the cafeteria without being asked.

Down the hall, in the center of the corridor, stood Melody.

She had a pastel cardigan, pearl earrings and a girl with a ponytail at her elbow.

Her face was going the color of paper.

The girl with the ponytail waved at me, delighted.

"Lucy! Burgers after tonight's workshop? I'm buying!"

Melody's eyes filled.

"You're supposed to be my best friend," she said to the girl, and then she turned and ran down the hall with her shoulders shaking.

Nobody followed her except me.

"Melody," I said to her back. "Friends aren't phone chargers. Nobody's plugged into you."

She did not slow down.

The crowd behind me went very quiet, and I hated it.

I have always hated it, so I did what I always do.

"Okay," I said, "who wants a pretzel?"

Nobody moved.

Then the crowd parted down the middle, and somebody walked through the gap.

Reed wore a white shirt, gray slacks and a lanyard that said COMMITTEE CHAIR.

I knew he'd been standing in the booth doorway for two songs, because the corner of his mouth had moved on the second chorus.

It only moved once.

I thought it might have been a cough.

"Lindholm," a camper whispered behind me, and the whole clump stepped back.

Reed looked at the crowd, and then he looked at me.

"You've been here two hours and ten minutes," Reed said.

"I've been very productive," I said.

"There's a family meeting tonight." He did not blink. "Be at the house by seven."

"What's it about?"

"Stop talking at volume," Reed said, and walked away.

I stood in the hall while twenty campers suddenly studied their shoes.

Nobody had ever scheduled a meeting about me before.

I decided it was a promotion.

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend