Runaways (Orphans 5)

Up until now Patsy had accepted our excuses

for Butterfly staying in the cottage, but by the next

morning she was beginning to get a little suspicious.

Thankfully Butterfly's fever had broken during the

night and she was feeling well enough to join us for

the lunch shift.

Just when we thought we were safe, Patsy made

an announcement that made our blood run cold. "Payday tomorrow," she declared cheerily. "I'll

need everyone's social security number and addresses."

We looked to Crystal.

"Can't you pay us off the books, Patsy? We'll

accept less money," Crystal proposed.

Patsy shook her head slowly and a curious

expression came over her face. "You girls should be

able to tell by now that that's not the way I run my

business. I'm to

tally on the up and up." She shifted

around to glance at each and every one of us, and it

felt like she was waiting for one of us to crack. I couldn't stand the silence any longer and

finally spoke up. "We'll have to dig through our things

for the social security cards. Is it okay if we bring

them tomorrow?" Crystal glared at me while Raven

and Butterfly looked on wide-eyed.

Patsy let us go that evening without another

question, but as soon as we got to the cottage Crystal

let me have it.

"What were you thinking, Brooke? How are we

supposed to come up with those cards?" She was

livid.

"I couldn't help it. Patsy was staring at us with those big eyes and I just thought we had to make up something!" I knew I'd gotten us in bigger trouble, but