Burn Girl Read Online Free Page B

down and begun to think having a friend was possible. She’d become much more.

CHAPTER 3
    FIVE YEARS AGO—MEETING MO
    The November wind cut through my jeans. I was too cold to walk to the library so I dropped to the ground and leaned against the dumpster behind the Animas View Motel.
    Mom shouldn’t have invited those people into our room. She promised she wouldn’t, but that was yesterday. She changed her mind a lot and yet I still wanted to believe her.
    â€œDoesn’t it stink down there?” The girl’s voice carried above the wind. She sat on top of the cinder-block wall at the back edge of the motel parking lot. In hot-pink sweatpants and a purple down jacket, she looked like a Barbie doll on a ski trip.
    â€œNah,” I called out. I hadn’t been able to smell anything since the accident, but I didn’t need to tell a stranger that.
    Although the wall was at least six feet high, the short girl jumped down like the distance meant nothing, her blond ponytails flying behind her. I stood and brushed the gravel off my jeans.
    â€œYou live in the motel?” she asked.
    â€œWhat’s it to you?”
    She shrugged. On tiptoes, she peered into the open dumpster. “You lied. It does stink.”
    â€œI’m not a liar.”
    â€œDidn’t mean it like that,” she said. “Don’t be mad.”
    I wondered what she wanted.
    â€œWe see you out here a lot,” she said. “But you don’t go to school.”
    â€œWho’s ‘we’?” I stuck my hands in my jacket and stepped from side to side to stay warm. She must be freezing in those girlie sweatpants.
    â€œMe and my neighbor, Brittany. She says you’re white trash and I’m stupid for talking to you.”
    â€œThen why are you?”
    â€œShe can’t tell me who to be friends with.”
    Friends? The girl acted like she already knew me.
    â€œYou always have a book, but not today,” she said. “I love reading too.”
    â€œIt’s too cold to hold a book. You spy on everybody?”
    I jumped back when she laughed. She sounded like a donkey, and I couldn’t believe such a big noise came out of such a small girl.
    â€œI haven’t been spying. I live on the other side of the wall and a few blocks over. I just notice things.”
    â€œLike?”
    â€œLike your face.”
    I pulled my hair down over the scar. For those few minutes I’d forgotten about it.
    â€œYou don’t have to hide it. Were you in an accident?”
    I nodded. “Three years ago. In Albuquerque.”
    I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone where we’d come from, and now I’d told this weird girl who’d been spying on us.
    â€œThat’s too bad,” she said. “By the way, my name is Mo.”
    I was shocked she didn’t ask any more questions about the accident.
    â€œMo’s a boy’s name,” I said.
    â€œShort for Maureen. It’s an old lady name, but my mom said I should like it because it’s my grandmother’s name. What’s yours?”
    â€œArlie,” I said, giving away a second secret I shouldn’t have.
    â€œThat’s a nickname. What’s your real name?”
    â€œArlene.”
    â€œThat’s an old lady name too. What are the chances?” She gave another donkey laugh.
    â€œYou know, I could bring you the homework assignments I get at school,” Mo said. “Then if you ever go back, you won’t be behind. How old are you?”
    â€œI’m eleven,” I said. “Today.”
    I’d tried to wake up Mom this morning, to remind her she promised we’d go to the movies to celebrate. She rolled over and said I was wrong, that my birthday was next month.
    â€œOh, happy birthday!” Mo squealed this time instead of making the donkey noise. “Then we’re both in the sixth grade.”
    I took her word for it.
    â€œWhat are you doing to