The-Lucky-List-Rachael-Lippincott

much just be hiding out in my house, but I’m not. I mean, we’re going cliff jumping this Wednesday. And
I didn’t read a single statistic about it. And today we even—”
I move to pull the list out of my pocket, to tell her about it.
“Yeah,” she says, cutting me off and letting out a short laugh. “Yeah, sure you will.”
I wince, her words stinging a little as they silence my excitement from my crazy aernoon at
Snyder’s Orchard. My excitement about the list I was on the verge of telling her about.
I thought she’d be excited too.
“I just mean from chickening out on our tattoos, to refusing to even try a night of camping with me
at Huckabee State Park, you’re not exactly Miss Adventure anymore. At least not with me.”
Wow. I guess Matt isn’t the only one missing the old Emily.
“Sorry,” she says, her dark brown eyes instantly crinkling with guilt. “That wasn’t cool.”
“It’s okay,” I say, shrugging. Then the both of us fall silent.
“How’s packing going?” Kiera asks, trying to change the subject.
“Fine,” I say. It’s almost the truth, though I did have to hide my mom’s favorite mug in my dresser
this morning before my dad could throw it into a donation box to drop off on his way to work.
He’s still on a rampage. It’s like he’s trying to completely erase her from not only this house but also
from wherever we’ll end up. Like he doesn’t even care that she used that polka-dot mug every single day,
sipping coee from it while she leaned against our kitchen counter and checked my homework. I
wonder what other pieces of her life are gone that I haven’t noticed.
It’s a miracle I found the list before he could incinerate it.
I’ve been avoiding finishing up her closet because I don’t want to know what he’ll force me to throw
out.
Kiera’s phone alarm pings loudly through the speaker, her hand reaching quickly up to swipe it
away. “Oh, shoot. Ten minutes until my phone goes back in e Locker. I gotta go! I told Paul I’d call
him with an update.” She gives me a big grin, leaning forward. “Gotta tell him the big news!”
I smile back at her, knowing how big this is for her. “Your first boyfriend, Kiera! This is so exciting.”
“I know, I know!” she sings. “Todd. Who’d have thought.” She freezes suddenly, her face going from
an expression of absolute bliss to deathly serious in a fraction of a second. “I’m sorry, again. About
what I said.”
I nod, waving my hand like it’s nothing. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t even worry about it.” She doesn’t look
convinced, so I double down with the most blindingly enormous smile I can muster. “I’ll talk to you
soon, okay?”
“Okay! Bye, Em!” I barely have time to wave before the call ends, her face disappearing and my
phone screen going dark, my reflection staring back at me as I let out a big sigh.
Did Mom and Nina ever fight? Ever struggle to see eye to eye?
I lean back against the couch, my hand sliding into my jeans pocket to pull out the list. I wish I had
told her. But her “yeah, sure” keeps ringing in my head.
Carefully, I unfold the list, my finger tracing the small green check next to “10. Steal an apple from
the First Tree at Snyder’s Orchard.”
I’ll prove it to her. She’s not the only one who’s going to come back different.
Two down, ten to go.