Chapter 16: The Morning After

I awoke to the delicious aroma of coffee and baked goods and looked at my watch on the bedside table—10 a.m. Oh no, I overslept! I quickly found my cell phone and texted my parents that I had just gotten up but would be home this afternoon. Mom texted me back not to worry that she and Dad had just assumed the girls and I had been up late. She wasn't wrong. We had stayed up talking and playing video games downstairs until after 1 a.m. That wasn't why I'd overslept, though I groaned, pulling the pillow over my head in mortification. How was I ever going to face Raven and Willow if they knew? Would River say anything? Should I?

I made the bed and dressed in the extra clothes I'd brought. I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and combed my hair. I pulled my wheat-colored hair into a ponytail a……