Dear Blue Sky Read Online Free Page A

“Jack’s not gross. Jack is Jack. You know that.”
    â€œYou realize your family is pretty weird sometimes, don’t you?” she said.
    â€œIt’s not like your family is perfect,” I answered.
    â€œI know,” she admitted. “When we were getting ready, Dad told my mom she had to lose weight. For like the billionth time. She freaked out, of course.”
    â€œYour mom’s not even fat.”
    â€œTell her that,” Sonia said. “I don’t get how it’s okay for men to be fat and not women. My mom was crying.”
    â€œWell, I guess it’s not okay for men to be fat either, because my mom hides my dad’s pastries. But he usually finds them and eats them anyway.”
    Sonia laughed. Her blue eye shadow sparkled in the light, and her highlighted blond hair fell over her face. “Thanks for helping me. I want to make my own money so Mom can’t tell me what I can get when we go shopping. She doesn’t like buying me makeup.” She glanced up at me. “You’d look amazing in my silver eye shadow. Can I try some on you? Just for fun?”
    â€œNo way. I hate makeup.”
    I could hear Jack outside, yelling at Sef to throw him the ball. I said, “Let’s go out and catch snowflakes. We always do that the first time it snows. Remember last year?” We fell over, we were laughing so hard trying to catch the swirling snow in our mouths.
    â€œNo, thanks.” Sonia’s eyes got smaller, and her lip curled up.
    I shrugged.
    Jack called out, “Touchdown!”
    I said, “I can’t stop thinking about Sef leaving.”
    â€œEverything’s always about Sef,” she said quietly.
    I ignored her. “It’s not just that he’s the best with Jack, but he always makes everything better.”
    She knotted her string and cut the ends. “What about Van? She helps, doesn’t she?”
    â€œYeah, but she’s always with Finn now.”
    â€œThat’s good, right?”
    I shrugged. “I don’t know. She doesn’t even talk to her old friends anymore. She just doesn’t seem like herself.”
    â€œWho does she seem like?”
    â€œSomeone else. Have you seen her lately? She’s obsessed with her clothes and hair and stuff.”
    â€œWell, you’re not exactly a fashion judge. I mean, I’d die for your hair, and you don’t even care what it looks like.”
    â€œI do so. A little.”
    Sonia smiled.
    â€œAnyway, it’s weird how she changed so fast.” I said it about Van, but I realized I was afraid that Sonia was changing too fast too. I’d seen her list of friends “to get to know better”—as if the friends she had weren’t enough anymore. Most of the girls were cheerleaders, like Lisa and Meg, and I didn’t really have anything to say to them.
    Downstairs, Sef yelled out, “Sweet!” Then we heard, “Flag! What the—?” They cheered and booed and yelled some more.
    â€œI’m almost done with this one,” I said, holding up a necklace. “I’ll go check the score.”
    â€œI’ll go too. I’m hungry,” Sonia said.
    We started down the stairs, carpeted in plush blue after Jack started crawling. We could see Eric in the kitchen fixing a drink beside the sink. Mom walked up to him and reached for the drink. “That for me?”
    â€œYou forgot to say please.” Eric raised the drink above his head.
    She stood on the tips of her toes. One hand pressed against his chest. “Pretty please with a cherry on top?”
    Eric smiled with his mouth open. “Are you begging?”
    â€œOh, my God,” Sonia said.
    On the other side of Eric, Jack stopped pouring Life cereal into a bowl and looked at them. Mom smiled back at him, then brushed by them both, and skipped out. She didn’t see us.
    â€œWhat was that?” Sonia hissed.
    â€œI don’t