“No, Harper, I’m not acting out.” Gemma sighed in frustration. “There is actually something wrong with me. Like on a cellular level.”

Harper leaned back and looked over Gemma again. “Are you sick? You don’t look sick.”

“No, I feel fine. Better than fine, actually.”

“Then I don’t understand.”

“I know you don’t.” Gemma shook her head and stared down at her lap. “But something is very wrong.”

A loud knocking came from the front door, more of a demanding pound than an actual knock. Harper glanced at her bedroom door, hesitant to leave her conversation with Gemma. But Brian was working late, and the knocking only got more insistent.

“I’m sorry,” Harper told her sister as she got up. “I’ll be right back. I’ll send whoever it is away, and we can talk.”

“Okay.” Gemma nodded.

As soon as Harper left, running down the stairs and shouting at whoever was at the door to keep their pants on, Gemma flopped back on the bed. She stared up at the ceiling and tried to think of how to phrase it to her sister that she thought she was transforming into some kind of monster.

“What are you doing here?” Harper snapped downstairs, and Gemma listened more closely.

“We’re here to talk to your sister,” came the reply, and the sultry baby-talk was unmistakable. Penn was at her front door.

Gemma sat straight up, her heart pounding erratically in her chest. Part of her was afraid, the same way Penn always scared her. But the rest of her felt strangely excited. The sound of Penn’s voice drew her in, in a way that it hadn’t before, almost as if it were calling to her.

“You can’t see her,” Harper said.

“We just want to talk to her,” Penn said sweetly.

“Only for a minute,” Lexi chimed in, in her usual singsong way.

“No,” Harper said, but her voice had less conviction than it had a moment ago. “You’re not her friends, and you can’t talk to her anymore.”

Gemma got off the bed and raced down the stairs, but she stopped halfway. From her vantage point, she could see them at the front door. It was only Penn and Lexi standing outside, with Harper firmly blocking their path.

Looking at Penn and Lexi just then, Gemma realized she’d begun to look like them. Not exactly like them, since Penn and Lexi looked distinctly different. But there was a certain quality to them, a preternatural splendor. Their flawless tanned skin seemed to glow, as if they were illuminated by their own beauty.

“Hi, Gemma,” Penn said. Her dark eyes rested on Gemma in a come-hither way that she couldn’t deny.

“Gemma, go back upstairs.” Harper glanced back at her sister. “I’m sending them away.”

“No, don’t,” Gemma said quickly, but her words were so quiet, she was surprised anyone heard them.