"Leslie What & Nina Kiriki Hoffman - Chain of Command" - читать интересную книгу автора (What Leslie)

"You look good," I said, thinking that if her pleated skirt had been cut from leather instead of polyester
and if her tank top had been chain mail instead of spandex, she could have passed. Her arms and long
legs were muscled and tan, not from fighting, but from cheering the football team. It stunned me that
someone who existed on tofu and fruit could grow the body of an Amazon.



She made a face. "I can't believe you're going to wear that. This is SO embarrassing."



"Are you all packed?" I asked. The counselor had recommended changing subjects to diffuse tense
situations.



"Let's talk about packing later," she said, meaning she hadn't started. "We gotta go."



I had prearranged for Bear Woman to get the focus group sharpening knives if I ran late, so I wasn't in
any hurry. "Pack," I said, settling into a power pose on the floor. I crouched on my haunches as if ready
to spring, fingers poised an inch above my boar-tusk knife handle. I had killed the boar myself while on
safari in Peru.



"Mom!" Kayla screamed.



I forced myself not to smile. "Go upstairs and pack," I said. Alpha power surged through me in a
premenopausal electrical storm. I unsheathed my knife and lazily carved my initials into the pecan floor.



Kayla stood by, defeated. "Oh, all right!" she said at last. She turned and ran to her room.



Only then did I notice I wasn't breathing. I gasped, both with surprise and the need for air. I had won the
battle. The war wasn't scheduled to start until tomorrow.




Kayla's suitcase was big enough to hold a gray whale, which, incidentally, she tried periodically to save.
She had packed a month's worth of clothing, makeup, and reading materialтАФnearly all relating to Ricky
Martin, her latest pop star heartthrob. She was bringing her own cooler filled with Rainier cherries,
mangos, and a chewy vegan concoction called tempeh that Kayla liked to chop and season with