Chelsea M Campbell Starlight (epub)

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.Like, rock-stars-in-a-hotel-room trashed.The wastebasket is overturned, like he’s been digging in my garbage.All the clothes from my closet are draped across the floor.My desk drawers are open.Saiph yawns and closes the door, like this is no big deal.Ho hum, just another boring day for him.“What were you thinking!” I don’t think I’ve ever screamed this loud in my life.Heck, I don’t know if I’ve ever screamed.“You were supposed to stay in the attic.My mom could have found you here—”“I locked the door.”“She thinks I was the one blasting the music.And what were you doing, going through all my stuff?” I grab the clothes off the floor, scooping them into my arms.One of them is a pink flower-girl dress from when I was five.Completely frilly.I remember tripping on the hem and falling down and crying in front of everyone.It’s still the only dress I own.I drop the heap of clothes on my desk chair.Saiph shrugs.“It was boring in the attic.”“So you trashed my room?” He’s gone through everything I own.He knows about the Britney Spears CD.He went through the garbage.Oh, God, he might have even seen it.The poem of total embarrassment.“You’ll thank me later.” Saiph sticks his tongue out at me.“And anyway, maybe tomorrow you’ll take me to school with you.”Thank him? I’m ready to strangle him.I don’t know if a couple of wishes is worth this.Staying unknown, that was working for me.Why would I want to be popular? And Saiph absolutely can’t ever go to school with me.Not now that he knows all my secrets, like what music I like and that I haven’t owned a girly outfit since Kindergarten.Even if the unicorns were embarrassing, at least they weren’t me.Saiph is ignoring my outbursts.“Don’t worry so much.It’s not like I hurt anything.” He leans against my dresser.The movement sends the glass trophy I won six years ago wobbling off the edge.I make a dive to catch it, grabbing it before it hits the floor.Tears well up in my eyes, even though I really, really don’t want to cry in front of him.Or anybody.“You jerk!” I wave the trophy at him.It’s from when I won first place in a spelling bee when I was ten.It’s my only worthwhile accomplishment in life.It’s the only thing I have to show that I might not be a complete and total loser.And he almost broke it.Saiph’s mouth hangs open.He looks sorry, but I don’t care.“Adrienne, I didn’t mean—”A knock on the door interrupts him.We both go silent.Neither of us moves.“Adrienne?” My mom knocks on the door again.“Is everything okay?”I point to the closet.I glare so hard at him that even if my mom wasn’t hovering just outside the door, he wouldn’t dare argue with me.I set the trophy back on my dresser and wipe my eyes.Saiph closes himself up in the closet just as Mom comes in.“I heard shouting.Is something going on?” She surveys my room, taking in all the wreckage.She makes tutting noises and marches over to the heap of clothes, picking them up and heading for the closet.“Adrienne, what were you—”“It’s for the school play!” I run in front of her, pulling the clothes out of her arms.“I’m practicing.”“The play?” She forgets about cleaning.She stares at me like I just said I was abducted by aliens.Then her whole face lights up.She clasps her hands together.“You got a part in the play? Is it a big part?”“Oh, yeah.I got the lead role.” I say this completely sarcastically, complete with an eye roll, but she must not catch that part because her face lights up even more.She sucks in her breath, holding a hand to her chest.“The lead,” she breathes, and I can practically see the gears working in her brain as she realizes that means I finally beat Nichole at something.“Oh, honey, I’m so proud of you!” She grabs me in a huge hug and squeezes.“Mom!”“I have to tell Grandma.And Joanne and Tina and everyone from the old neighborhood.They’ll want to know.Oh, and don’t forget your great aunt Clara, she’ll get such a kick out of this.”“But, Mom…”“Don’t let me stop you.You just keep practicing!” She’s so happy, she’s shaking.She reminds me of an excited little dog.I don’t know if she’s going to bite someone or piddle on the floor.She hurries out of the room, her cell phone already in her hand.I lean against the door to close it, taking a deep breath.Saiph slides the closet open.“That was close,” I say.I’m done yelling at him, but I haven’t forgiven him yet.A pang of guilt wells up in my chest.That, and fear.I don’t know how I’m going to tell my mom the truth.“At least someone in this house took their happy pills today,” he says, nodding towards the hall.He leans against the door with me and smiles, as if he hadn’t spent all day destroying my room and trying to blackmail me into letting him come to school.“I know.It’s going to suck having to disappoint her.She’s going to be so mad when she finds out I lied.” I wince, picturing her having to call up all our friends and relatives and tell them how it was all a big misunderstanding, just like they suspected, and her daughter’s still just a nobody.I hope Nichole’s mom isn’t first on her list of bragging phone calls.“Well, there’s one way to fix all that, you know.”“Fake my own death? Move to Europe? Become a nun?”Saiph licks his lips and sighs, as if dealing with me is exhausting.He’s probably just worn out from trashing my room.“You’re going to be in that play, Adrienne.You’re going to be the lead.”My eyes go wide.“You can really make that happen?”“No, but you can.”Chapter NineI’m taking him to school with me.I can’t believe I’m giving in.But I can’t believe what he did to my room, or that my mom actually thinks I’m in the play, either.He’s made it clear that taking him with me is the lesser of two evils.“Just… don’t talk.”“Don’t talk?” Saiph peels an orange so that the peel is in one piece and sets it on my head as I’m shoveling bran flakes down my throat.“But talking is what I do best.”I grab the orange peel and hurl it at him.“No calling me dirt princess [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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