THE HIGH SCHOOL was more than a few blocks away. By the time we got there, my back was aching, and my knees felt bruised from bumping against the sign.
“Is that a school?” Saffron asked. “It’s huge.”
The only school we’d ever gone to was our tiny one back home, which was just a converted house. This high school was huge and modern, an ugly two-story building with not enough windows. “It looks like a jail,” I said.
“Great. Lock me up and leave me here,” Violet muttered.
Ty laughed. “Oh come on, Vi. Your life’s not that bad.”
She rolled her eyes. “Easy for you to say. You can leave any time.”
Mom stopped walking and put her bag down in a grassy area in front of the school. I lowered my voice as we approached. “Violet’s right, Ty. We’re going to be doing this every day for weeks. Months, even.”
He lifted one eyebrow quizzically. “I thought you were a true believer,” he said. “Bee boy, right?”
“What?” I stopped abruptly, thwacking my bruised left knee on the sign again. “No.”
Ty looked at Violet, then back at me. “Thought it was your research that started all this.”
“I just did a school project,” I said. “That’s all. Did Violet say this trip was my idea? Because it wasn’t.”
“Yeah, um…” Violet looked uncomfortable. “He did a project, but, um, this trip was totally Jade. She kind of took his bee thing and ran with it.”
“Thank you,” I said sarcastically. “Because, for the record? This is not my idea of a good time.”
Ty nodded. “Got it.”
“It’s not his fault his mom’s loopy,” Violet said under her breath.
I wanted to hit her, but we were only ten feet from Mom, and she was already beckoning to us. “Put the signs here,” she called out. “We’ll get set up and…” She looked at her watch. “The students should be coming outside any minute.”
“Right.” I dropped my sign and rubbed my numb hands against my thighs. Ty set his center board up and moved mine and Violet’s into position on either side of it. Saffron lay down on the grass and stared up at the blue sky.
“Saffron, don’t crush your wings,” Mom said sharply. “Get up.” She looked at Whisper, who was about to flop down beside her sister. “And you still need to get your costume on, missy. Come here, and I’ll give you a hand.”
Whisper stuck her fingers in her mouth but didn’t move.
“Come on, my sweet little bug,” Mom said. “Let’s get you dressed.”
Whisper lay down on the grass, completely ignoring her.
“Whisper!” Mom’s tone sharpened. “Enough.”
“Mom…” I said.
“What?”
“Maybe just let her be,” I said. “I think she needs a break, you know?”
“She doesn’t have to do anything,” Mom said. She dangled Whisper’s costume from her fingers. “Just put this on over her clothes and she can stand around looking cute. That’s it.”
“Well, maybe she doesn’t want to look cute,” Violet said.
I looked at her in surprise. Since when did Violet ever take my side about anything?
“I’m doing this for her,” Mom said. “For all of you. So that you can have a decent world to grow up in. So you can have a future.”
Violet snorted and shoved her hands deep into the pockets of her stretched-out black hoodie.
Mom handed me the costume. “I’ve got to find a washroom—I’m desperate for a pee. Wolf, get your sister dressed, will you?” She hurried off into the school building, striped tights, antennae and all. I wondered if any teachers would see her, and what they would make of all this.
Violet looked at me. “Jade’s, like, totally checked out.”
“I know.”
“I mean, look at Whisper. She’s going to freak if you try to put that on her.”
Whisper was sitting on the grass, knees pulled up to her chest, sucking on her fingers.
“Whisper?” I said. “Are you going to put your wings on?”
Saffron flopped back down on the grass, apparently not caring if her wings got crushed. “She doesn’t want to wear her costume,” she said. “Duh.”
I shrugged and looked at Violet. “I wish we could have gone swimming.”
“Me too.” Violet’s dark eyebrows drew together, and the corners of her mouth pulled down in a deep scowl. “This is messed up. Making the twins do this. They’re just babies.”
“I’m not a baby,” Saffron said indignantly, sitting back up. “That’s mean to say.”
“She didn’t mean it in a bad way,” Ty told her. He walked over to her and poked her tummy gently.
Saffron giggled. “That tickles.”
“She just meant you two should be having fun,” Ty said. “Not worrying about grown-up stuff.”
“I wish we had a grandma like Anna,” Saffron said dreamily. “Who would take us swimming.”
I blew out a long breath. “Me too.”
“I have a grandma,” Violet said. “My dad’s mom. We used to see her all the time when I was little. She even lived with us for a while on Lasqueti.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. She used to look after me when Dad was working.”
“How come I don’t remember her?” I asked.
“She moved to Nelson,” Violet said. “Before the twins were born. I don’t think she and Jade got along too well.”
“So she’s their grandmother too,” I said. “Saffy and Whisper’s.” Everyone except me, I thought.
“Yeah, duh.” Violet made a face. “Curtis took them to visit her once, don’t you remember? A couple of years ago?”
I shook my head. “Nope.”
“Well, he did. I was staying with my mom. And you were at that dumb camp.”
“Oh yeah.” It was the only time I’d gone to a sleepover camp, and I’d hated it.
Mom walked out of the school and joined us. “Wolf! I asked you to get Whisper dressed.”
“Yeah.” I gestured helplessly. “She really doesn’t want to. Um, maybe we should just let it go?”
A bell rang loudly in the building behind us.
“Lunch bell,” Mom said. “Whisper, enough lollygagging. Come and get dressed.”
I could see it coming, even if Mom couldn’t. Whisper’s face was getting red and blotchy, her chin was wobbling, she was rocking back and forth like she was trying to drown everything else out. “Mom,” I said. “She’s going to have a major meltdown if you push it.”
“Fine,” Mom snapped, like it was all my fault. “I’ll do the presentation with Saffron. You lot—Wolf, Ty, Violet—perhaps, between the three of you, you can manage to look after one five-year-old?”
Ty picked up Whisper in his arms like she weighed nothing at all and strode away without a word. Violet and I followed. Teenagers were streaming out of the building, looking curiously at Mom and her signs. She started to juggle three balls, smiling at people, gathering a crowd around her. Ty didn’t look back. He walked fast, all the way to the far side of the school field, and Violet and I had to jog to keep up.
“It’s like she doesn’t even see how upset Whisper is,” I said to Violet.
Ty stopped walking and set Whisper down on the grass. “There you go, kiddo. Why don’t you go play? I bet you could climb that tree there.”
Whisper’s lower lip was jutting out unhappily, but at least she wasn’t crying.
“Go on,” I said. “Look at all those pinecones.”
She wandered toward the tree I was pointing at—a tall Douglas fir—and began collecting cones.
“Jade doesn’t see anything,” Violet said. Her voice sounded all choked up. “She doesn’t see that she’s totally messed up my whole tenth-grade year.”
I played with the zipper on my hoodie—up and down, up and down. “All she thinks about is the stupid bees,” I said.
“The end is nigh,” Ty intoned. “Death, doom, destruction…These are the end times.”
“Shut up,” I said. It was one thing for me—and even Violet—to criticize Mom, but Ty wasn’t part of the family.
He just laughed. “Buzz, buzz, buzz.”
Violet shoved him. “Enough. You’re not funny, Ty.”
He was right though. Mom was so stuck on this idea that disaster was lurking just around the corner that she wasn’t even seeing what was right in front of her face. I imagined the days and weeks ahead: all of us crammed into that stinky van, driving from town to town, parking in strangers’ driveways or shopping-mall parking lots. “This trip was a really bad idea,” I said quietly. “Wasn’t it?”
“Duh,” Violet said. “It’s a freaking nightmare. It’s even worse than I thought it would be, and I thought it would be pretty bad.”
“I know.” I wished I was back at school, petting Ginger and listening to Duncan talk about his games and working on some idea for a new project—the history of comic books or Shakespeare or rocket science. Anything other than bees.
Violet turned to Ty. “Screw it. Let’s get out of here.”
“Sure, babe.” He gave her a slow smile. “Where d’you want to go?”
Violet hesitated. “I don’t know. Home, sort of, but I guess we don’t have one anymore. And I’m not going to my mom’s place.” She bit her lip. “Maybe Nelson?”
“To your grandmother’s?” I wondered what she was like. Someone with Anna’s warmth and common sense maybe. Someone with a dog and bookshelves and board games and a busy kitchen, like Eva and Mary.
Someone who didn’t think the world was ending.
“Take me too,” I said impulsively. “Take me with you.”
Violet looked at me. “What about the twins?”
I couldn’t believe she hadn’t just said no. I looked at Whisper, who was stockpiling cones at the base of the tree. Violet was right. We couldn’t all take off and leave the twins behind. “Them too,” I said. “She’s their grandmother, right? Maybe she can help Whisper. Get her to a doctor or something.”
Violet raised her eyebrows at me. “Well, aren’t you Mr. Responsible?”
“She’s your sister too,” I said. “And she hasn’t spoken a word in days. And what does Mom do?”
We all watched Whisper in silence for a long moment.
“Nothing,” Violet said. “Like, not a single freaking thing.”
“Worse,” I said. “She tries to force her to dress up as a bee and talk to total strangers.”
Ty rubbed his hand over the stubble on his scalp. “Yeah,” he said. “That’s messed up.”