How to Get Away with Lying

Chapter 19

Ethan

Crazy Runs in the Family

"Here's another one," Jessi sighed, wiping a hand across her forehead as she dropped a cardboard box next to my feet. "Damn, this is a lot more work than I thought it'd be."

"Agreed," I replied, combing a hand through my sweaty curls.

Jessi and I had been running around all morning. We were setting up the stage for the parade since the Founder's Day committee had decided that preparing a stage only required two people – which was not true.

By mid-morning, both of us had known that we would never finish setting up in time for the noon parade. So, Jessi had taken matters into her own hands and dragged Kyle, Dylan, and Calvin over. She had then gotten them to help to varying degrees of success.

"Hey!" Jessi shouted at Dylan, who was staring off into the distance. "Hurry it up! We've only got half an hour left until the parade." Jessi marched over to where I was standing with Dylan, then dropped the box that she was carrying at our feet. "We have to take care of these, next. And we have to hang them with the names in alphabetical order."

I picked up a velvet banner reading "Kennedy" in big, golden letters. "What are these for?"

"They're banners with the Founding Families' last names," Jessi answered, rolling her eyes. "Honestly, I think it's a little excessive."

"Did they go this all-out last Founder's Day?" I questioned.

Jessi shrugged, grabbing a couple more banners from the box. "Probably, though all I can remember from last time is my twelve-year-old self being terrified of the crowds. Maybe that's why they only celebrate it every five years." After laughing to herself, Jessi shoved a few banners into Dylan's arms. "Go hang those at the back of the stage."

"A 'please' would have been nice," Dylan grumbled as he walked off. Jessi didn't seem to notice his remark, too busy fixing other banners in their designated places.

"Gross," she snorted, holding a dark green banner away from her like it was poisonous. "Ivy's family is a Founding Family?"

I looked at the banner in her hand, which read "Blackthorn." "So is Nate's family, it seems," I added just as unenthusiastically. I held up a navy-blue banner with "Tucker" printed on it in gold.

"Nice, my banner's orange," Kyle exclaimed as he walked over with a roll of tape.

As it turned out, he was also a Founding Family.

I handed him the banner that was in my hands so that he could check it out. Then, as Kyle left to hang up his banner, I continued to search through the banners.

I soon pulled another one out that removed the air from my lungs, though. I read the name in loopy silver letters, which were printed on the ruby-red fabric.

Morgenstern.

Now that I was seeing the banner, I did remember hearing once that Adley's dad had been a descendant of a Founding Family. Seeing the name printed there, though, still made me feel like I had been punched in the stomach.

You can't keep doing this, I told myself. You can't keep losing it every time you think about her.

Taking a deep breath, I hung the banner up on a peg. Then, I looked away from it.

Of course, I still wanted to figure out what had really happened to Adley. But life still had to continue, whether she was there or not.

I need to move on...