Covet (Clann)

as long as he was standing there critiquing me. I stopped and propped my hands on my hips. “Do you need something?”
    Frowning, he strolled over to my closet and opened the door. “School starts on Monday.”
    “I know.” Believe me, I know.
    He lifted a sleeve on one of the button-up shirts I’d had for years. I had a quick flash memory of Tristan’s hands gliding down my arms within those sleeves…. “I would have assumed that you would want or need to go shopping to prepare for the new school year.”
    “I will. I figured I’d go late tomorrow night to Walmart when the store’s mostly empty and buy my school supplies then.”
    “What about your wardrobe?”
    “What about it? I haven’t grown any, so everything still fits.”
    “But this is not what the magazines show the teens to be wearing now.”
    “No one cares what I wear, Dad.”
    He turned to face me, arms crossed. “That is not a good strategy for blending in.”
    “Uh, actually it’s a great one. No one’s going to notice the wallflower with three-year-old clothing. Trust me, I’ll be practically invisible.”
    “No, you will not. You will… How would your mother put it? Stick out like a…”
    “A sore thumb?” I finished for him.
    “Precisely.”
    I let my stare show him how much I agreed with him.
    “Perhaps we should discuss this with your mother. Skype is showing her as online now if you would like to webcam with her.”
    Ha! Mom would totally side with me on this. She was all about the waste-not want-not mentality. “Fine.” I sat down at my desk, booted up my laptop and logged into the program. Sure enough, as soon as I appeared online, Mom sent me a video chat request. Within seconds we were able to see each other onscreen.
    She gasped.
    “What’s wrong?” I asked, half rising from my chair out of instinct, as if I could actually do anything to help her from here.
    She gaped at me, leaning toward the screen and adjusting her laptop, judging by how the angle of my view of her changed.
    “Is it weird lighting or…?” she asked.
    “No, it is not,” Dad said, standing behind me. “Which brings us to why I suggested Savannah webcam with you this evening.”
    “I see what you mean,” Mom muttered.
    “What?” I asked, gripping the edge of my desk. “What’s wrong?”
    Mom made that face she always made when she was trying to choose her words carefully. “Well, dear, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you, and you look so…different.”
    “Like a vampire,” Dad said, his tone flat.
    “Really?” I touched my cheeks with both hands. It felt the same to me. Of course, I hadn’t taken a good look at my reflection in weeks, not since Anne’s birthday. There hadn’t been any reason to as I stayed at home all the time now and saw only Dad and Gowin.
    “Perhaps it is due to the feedings,” Dad murmured.
    I glared at him over my shoulder. “I told you it was a bad idea!”
    “Hon, it was necessary,” Mom said. “None of us could stop the change. And it’s not like you’re ugly now. In fact, you’ve become quite…beautiful.”
    So why did her tone sound so weirded out about it?
    “I have been trying to convince our daughter that she needs a new wardrobe this year,” Dad said. “One that is fashionable enough to be a distraction.”
    “He means he wants to waste money on stupidly expensive clothes,” I corrected. “All my old stuff still fits just fine. There’s no point in spending a lot of money on a whole new wardrobe. Right, Mom?”
    She cringed. “Well, sweetie, your dad might actually have a point this time.”
    Huh? Okay, maybe I was going deaf instead of developing better hearing. My penny-pinching, world’s-most-frugal mother did not just say she agreed with her ex-husband about blowing a wad of cash on unnecessary clothing.
    “Think of it as camouflage,” Dad said. “Like birds. If you return to school wearing the same clothing you have always worn, everyone will have no choice but to notice every single change in your physical appearance. But if you show up wearing not only new clothing, but highly fashionable attire that most of the other teens will not have, their attention will be drawn to that instead. Then any physical changes they do notice will simply be written off as part of your makeover.”
    “This is so dumb,” I muttered, flopping back in my chair and crossing my arms. I couldn’t believe Mom had sided with Dad this time. They never agreed on anything!
    “Oh