“They will, too,” Tiffany argued and then glanced over at Jayden. “Aren’t you going to give them demerits for their smart-ass remarks?”

“Y’all can work out your own problems as long as there’s no blood or broken bones. From what I see, the whole bunch of you are all wind anyway. You’ve got about ten minutes to finish up this job, or I’m giving you all a demerit whether you’ve been spoon-fed what’s in the handbook or not,” Jayden said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“What’s that mean? All wind?” Tiffany asked.

“That you don’t do nothing but talk.” Ashlyn’s tone was icy cold.

“I’ll knock the wind right out of you so hard that it’ll sober you up enough to drive right,” Tiffany sneered.

Ashlyn came up on her knees and glared at Tiffany. “I may like my whiskey, but I could whip your skinny ass with a blindfold tied around my eyes and one hand tied behind my back.”

Tiffany took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Let’s get this cleaned up so we can get out of here.”

“All wind, just like I thought,” Ashlyn said as she wiped up the last of the stain.

Jayden could have sworn it would be Carmella who was the tough one, not Miss Pink Streak. Jayden tensed and got ready to break up a fight, but evidently Tiffany saw that Ashlyn wasn’t taking any lip off her.

“Mary, would you come over here and see if this job is satisfactory?” Jayden raised her voice over the noise of the dishwasher.

Mary rounded the end of the buffet bar, pushed the table back, and took a long look at the floor. Then she took a few steps back and pointed toward the door. “There’s a couple of spots over there, and the door needs cleaning.”

“Tiffany, you can take care of that.” Jayden pointed as she spoke so they’d really hear her words. “Carmella, you and Ashlyn may each grab a broom and sweep the dining room for Miss Mary.”

Carmella sighed. “I’m Cami, not Carmella.”

“You are Carmella while you are here. We do not use nicknames at Piney Wood, and that was not the right response when you are told to do something,” Jayden reminded her.

She closed her eyes, pursed her lips tightly, and then said, “Yes, ma’am.”

“My friends call me Tiff. I hate Tiffany,” Tiffany declared as she cleaned the last few spots from the floor and the door.

“It seems that you hate a lot of things,” Jayden told her. “Hopefully by the time you leave here, you’ll figure out that hate consumes the heart and leaves no room for love. When you finish cleaning, you can hold the dustpan for these two girls.”

Are you preachin’ to them or to yourself? Jayden’s mother’s voice whispered so real that she glanced over her shoulder to be sure a ghost wasn’t behind her.

I’m doing my best to forgive Skyler, but it’s not easy.

Hate was too strong of a word to use for the feelings Jayden had for her sister, but it was difficult to love someone like a sister when Jayden had walked in Skyler’s shadow her whole life. These girls were stirring up emotions that Jayden had buried and tried to forget.

Mary stood to the side, and when Tiffany had cleaned the last of the spots off the door, she nodded. “Good job. Now, take the bucket and scrub brushes to the sink and clean them good. I’ll show you where they belong, and where you can find the dustpan.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Tiffany said.

Jayden hoped that, in the days to come, her girls would learn to say that without so much anger. None of them realized that charm would take them further in life than money or power, but they would—or should—before the end of July.

That’s what I told you your whole life. Her mother’s voice was back in her head. Why can’t you apply that to your own life?

Because I’m still mad at you for what you did, Jayden answered silently.

“You look like you could chew up nails,” Mary said.

“I was fighting with my mother in my head,” Jayden admitted.

“We’ve all done that.” Mary smiled.

When the kitchen was put to rights, Jayden led her girls across the barren yard to the Daydream Cabin. “See these lovely flowers that have been planted here in front of the cabin? I expect the dead blossoms to be picked off daily, for the plants to be watered each morning and evening unless it rains, and, when we leave at the end of July, for this flower bed to look as pretty or maybe to be even more beautiful than it is right now. Is that understood? It would be a shame if the girls from the other two cabins did better at such a simple gardening job.”

“Yes, ma’am.” They all sighed.

“I will not remind you every day about the flower bed. You will take time to do that without me saying a word. The first time I come out here and find wilted flowers, I will give every one of you a demerit.” Jayden opened the old-fashioned screen door and then turned the knob on the wooden one leading inside the cabin.

The girls’ sighs could have been heard halfway to heaven. Apparently, they had expected it to be as cool as the dining room, but what they got was a stark little place that was almost as hot as it was outside.

“We have air conditioners.” Jayden hoped to catch an afternoon breeze through the screen by leaving the door open. “We will save them for night, since they freeze up if we use them too much. Besides, we won’t be in the cabin very much in the daytime. Now, sit down, pick up the handbook with your name on it, and let’s go over the rules. You each have a highlighter, so I suggest you mark the basics so you don’t forget. This is the only time I’m going to spoon-feed you the dos and don’ts in this book. Two of you are fifteen, and the other is sixteen. You are old enough to be held accountable if you break the rules. If being here at Piney Wood isn’t proof of that, then you’ve got more to learn than what’s written in this book.”

Carmella opened the book and groaned. “No smoking?”

“That’s what it says. If you’ve been a smoker, you’ll be quitting cold turkey,” Jayden answered. “If you break that rule, not only will you get one of those demerits that you do not want or need, you will be picking up the yard every evening for a week on your hour of free time.”

Tiffany read the next one and turned pale. “No phones or calls for the next eight weeks? That’s cruel and unusual punishment. Even a prisoner gets a phone call home.”

“You can’t be trusted with a phone, so quit whinin’,” Ashlyn said. “I damn sure don’t want my picture taken in these ugly granny panties and shown to the world.”

“Oh, hush. Giving up my phone won’t be as hard as you giving up your booze.” Tiffany pointed at the next rule. “No liquor or beer. How are you ever going to survive?”

“I can’t drink. You can’t take pictures of me and Carmella in our granny panties, and there’s nothing for Carmella or you to shoplift. It’s going to be a long two months, isn’t it?” Ashlyn did a head wiggle that would have made any smart-ass teenage girl proud.

If groans and grunts were candy and nuts, the cabin would have looked like a sweetshop by the time they finished going through the handbook. While they were still reeling from what they could and couldn’t do during their residence at Piney Wood Academy, Jayden handed each of them a sheet of paper with their names on the top.