Chapter 2

2: 2

At six in the morning, a smell woke me.

I pushed open my door, and there was a bowl of noodles sitting on the kitchen stove.

Mom stood beside it and gave me a little smile. "Eat up. I made it for you."

I froze.

A whole poached egg sat on top of the noodles.

In Greenhollow there's a saying: when a family's had a falling-out, an elder cooks the younger one a bowl of noodles with the strands left unbroken, and it's called heart-binding noodles.

Eat this bowl, and no matter how badly you've been wronged, you're still family.

Staring at those noodles, my nose stung, hard and sudden.

Mom sat down across from me and sighed.

"Gladdie, let me tell you what's really in my heart."

"Mm."

"Business hasn't been easy these last couple of years. Your dad's under a lot of pressure, your brother's got college admissions next year, and after that there's a house to buy and a wedding to pay for..."

Chewing my noodles, I nodded.

"Mom knows she's wronged you. But you're the older sister. Bear with it a little, all right?"

I bit into the yolk and watched the gold run out little by little into the broth.

"Mm. I know."

For a second, the wall inside me really did loosen a little.

Maybe they were just scared of being poor, I thought. Maybe once my brother finished his exams, things would get better.

But halfway through the bowl, one detail came back to me.

Just now, coming out of the storage room, I'd seen Mom sitting at my computer.

The second I opened the door, her hand shot out and closed something.

I put down my chopsticks and got up to head for the storage room.

Mom called after me, "You haven't finished your noodles!"

I ignored her. I pushed the door open, turned on the computer, and locked the door behind me.

The moment the screen lit up, cold went straight through me.

The college-application system.

My first choice had been changed to a local community-college accounting program.

Two minutes, forty-seven seconds.

The system was about to close. Once it did, the choices would lock and could not be changed.

My hands started to shake.

Outside the door, Mom's voice sped up.

"Gladdie, Mom's thought it over. That out-of-town school is too far, and the tuition's expensive. A local community college is so much better. Close to home, and you learn accounting, so you can help keep the books for the family..."

I clicked frantically, changing the choices back one field at a time.

Eight seconds.

"Listen to Mom..."

I finished the last field and hit submit.

The page jumped: choices locked.

I slumped in the chair, and every bit of strength drained out of me.

All at once I understood that so-called bowl of heart-binding noodles.

She hadn't wanted to make up with me.

She was afraid I'd get away, so she wanted to settle me down with a bowl of noodles first, then cut off my road with her own hands.

Dad rushed back from the shop out front, and when he saw the words lock successful on the screen, his face went dark.

"Ungrateful brat! Grown your wings, have you!"

Beside him, Mom started wiping at her tears. "Everything we do is for your own good..."

I said nothing.

If it was really for my good, why couldn't you let me know?

Once they'd cursed themselves out, they went back to mind the shop out front.

I changed the delivery address for my college acceptance letter to Teacher Lane's house.

Then I dumped the bowl of stone-cold noodles into the trash.

From today on, no one's going to fool me back with a bowl of noodles.