Big mistake. Caroline tapped away at her tablet, her jaw clenched firmly. Lara bounced on her toes while she waited for her sister to finish typing.
“I would be good at being a detective,” Caroline said finally. “I would.”
Lara blinked. She had not considered whether or not her sister would be good at detecting. That wasn’t the point. The whole point of FIASCCO was that she, Lara Finkel, was going to be a detective. Caroline already had her special thing!
Gulping in a deep breath, Lara prepared herself to say something wise and sisterly. Something that would magically make Caroline understand why she absolutely could not be a part of FIASCCO.
Instead, Lara said, “Are you absolutely sure about that? There’s a lot that goes into being a detective, you know.”
The moment the words escaped her mouth Lara realized her mistake. Caroline tore her eyes away from the screen and delivered a glare that made Lara’s ankles shake. It really was remarkable how her eleven-year-old sister could imitate their mother so precisely.
“Just because I can’t talk doesn’t mean that I can’t be a detective, Lara.”
As always, Caroline’s computer voice did not waver. She might as well have been reciting state capitals. Or commenting on the rather large number of trees in Seattle. But Lara knew her sister was capital-U Upset. She knew it from the tightness of Caroline’s jaw and the clenched fist flapping by her side.
“I never said you can’t be a detective.” Lara did her best to imitate the tablet’s calm monotone, but a squeak crept into her voice. “I just said you couldn’t be in FIASCCO.”
Logically, Lara knew that such a distinction was unlikely to satisfy her sister. Yet it was true. If Caroline couldn’t see that, it wasn’t Lara’s problem.
Caroline glared at Lara’s last remaining flyer as though it reeked of Kugel’s litter box contents. Her fingers danced across the screen at top speed, and Lara didn’t have to wait very long at all to hear her response.
“Fine. Be that way. By the way, ‘fiasco’ is a stupid name.”
And with that, Caroline closed her tablet shut and marched back toward the house. As Lara watched Caroline disappear behind the bright yellow door, she chewed on the edges of her lip.
For a moment, Lara considered going after her sister and begging for forgiveness. She made it three whole steps before drawing to a stop.
Lara wasn’t going to apologize for starting her own detective agency. After all, it wasn’t like Caroline did absolutely everything with her. Lara thought of the many occasions when she’d walked in on her sister doing something with Aviva. Like baking cupcakes, for example. Caroline hadn’t apologized to Lara for the fact that she apparently preferred to spend time in the company of the world’s most annoying cousin. Why should Lara apologize for FIASCCO?
Feeling satisfied with her decision to not apologize for anything, Lara posted the final FIASCCO flyer on a large tree in the Finkels’ front yard.
Just as she was admiring her work, her father very rudely interrupted. From his place in his parked car, he tapped up against the car window. Lara jumped. “Lara-bear!” he said. “Get in the car. I need you and your sister for some things.”
“What things?” she asked crossly.
“Consider it adventuring of the errands variety,” Dad replied.
That was not promising. Lara groaned, but she marched over and got into her father’s car. When she glanced out the window and spotted her flyer, she couldn’t help but smile. FIASCCO would succeed. She felt sure of it.
A moment later, Caroline entered the car. She did not say anything to Lara. She didn’t even bother keeping her speech app open, but instead started playing Candy Crush.
Fine. It’s not like Lara actually needed her sister.
CHAPTER TWO: SUMMER SCHOOL DAYS
When Dad told her they were going on an adventure of the errands variety, Caroline had hoped it might be at least vaguely interesting. And it was. The problem was that it was the wrong kind of interesting.
“We’re going to school and meeting with Principal Jenkins,” Dad told them as he pulled the car out of the driveway.
At that news Lara crossed her arms across her chest. “We can’t possibly be in trouble yet! School hasn’t even started.”
Even though she agreed with her sister, Caroline did not say anything. She was still supposed to be mad at Lara, after all.
“You’re not in trouble. This is just a visit,” Dad said.
“Aren’t we going to spend enough time there once school starts?” Lara asked.
Dad smiled, but it looked a bit strained. “My signature is needed on some paperwork. I’ve been so busy with work that I forgot to mail some things in. Luckily the school is being understanding.”
Of course. Her father was good at many things, but paperwork was not one of them. It probably had to do with the fact that he had ADHD. As an investigative journalist he was brilliant at figuring out powerful people’s secrets, yet somehow filling out a two-page form on time eluded him. That was just Dad.
“Anyway,” Dad continued. “Since I’ll be going in for the bureaucratic stuff, the principal and I thought it would be a good idea for Lina-Lin to see the school before she begins.” He looked at Caroline in the rearview. “We want you to feel right at home from your very first day.”
The words made Caroline bounce around in her seat. In just a week, she would go to middle school for the first time ever. The prospect filled her with excitement—and, okay, maybe just a little bit of terror.
Her six years of elementary school had left much to be desired. For her first few years Caroline had been in special education—an experience she would gladly scrub completely from her memory were it possible to do so. In special ed., teachers talked in weird voices and made Caroline read books that were way too
