Living the Dream Read Online Free Page A

in, I found my room jam-packed with books from floor to ceiling. There was a teeny gap so I could reach my bed, also (to my relief) my bathroom.
    I didn’t need to read the book titles. I knew they’d have environmental scare words like HEAT, MELTING, CATASTROPHE. The angel had thoughtfully left a global-warming DVD on my bed. The cover had a v. depressing picture of smoking factories.
    I squeezed over to my bed and perched tensely, trying to think. None of this was normal. Creation angels don’t just up and leave Earth to harass other angels.
    What’s happening on Earth isn’t normal though , said the small quiet voice of my inner angel. What if things are so bad he can’t actually DO his job any more ? It was the first time Helix had come online since we’d fallen out. I didn’t want to admit it, but she was right.
    But there were Cosmic Agencies completely dedicated to looking after Earth. Agencies composed of super-brilliant angelic scientists all feverishly working on these exact problems. What could one ditzy angel trainee do that Heaven’s scientists weren’t doing already?
    Did he seriously think I was going to read my way through several hundred books on the environment? Assuming I understood one zillionth of the contents?
    Like a little shining fish, a new idea swam into my mind. He doesn’t expect you to READ the books. He’s trying to TELL you something, you moron !
    I got up to pace, but of course there was nowhere to pace so I squeezed over to the window, staring out over the Heavenly rooftops until I’d teased out the next shiny little thought.
    He’s saying that all these words have been written, the Agency has all the facts, humans have all the facts and NOTHING’S changed. Earth is STILL dying.
    I felt a tear splash on to my hand. For the first time I’d let myself glimpse the angel’s agony, that the Universe could allow such terrible things to happen to his beautiful blue-green planet.
    I was still clutching the global-warming DVD. Play time 93 mins. “You know what, angel girl?” I asked myself. “You can’t read all these books, but would it totally KILL you to watch ONE measly DVD?”
    On cue, the angel came shimmering out through the books. Like Helix he’d just been waiting for me to open my eyes. I’m such a slow learner sometimes!
    The angel watched with unblinking golden eyes as I took the DVD out of its case and slid it into my laptop. I stretched between two piles of books to pull down my blind, propped myself up on my pillows and pressed PLAY.

Chapter Five
    T he DVD had finished half an hour ago, but I still couldn’t stop crying. The worst part, because I have a horribly vivid imagination, was the frog story (which isn’t actually about frogs).
    The guy who made the movie said that if you just lob a bunch of frogs into a pan of boiling water, they’re going to die in shrieking agony. But if you place the frogs into cold water, then slowly heat frogs AND water at the same time, they will never even know they’re being stewed.
    The movie guy said that’s exactly what’s been happening to the human race. Earth’s problems have been creeping up so slowly, humans are all like, “La la la!” When they actually need to jump out of that freaking pot and turn off the heat quick-smart!
    I was blowing my nose for the twentieth time when I heard someone hammering on my door. “ Carita , open up! This food is HOT!” Only one person calls me “ Carita “.
    I squeezed my way to the door and there was my soul-mate Lola Sanchez, clutching a sparkly takeaway bag from The Silver Lychee. Coming face to face with the wall of books, she said, without batting an eyelash, “OK, back to mine then!”
    As soon as we were back in Lola’s room, we hugged and screamed, then we jumped up and down, and hugged some more. Then I got my first proper look at my best friend. Reubs was right to be worried about her. Lola was trying to be her normal upbeat self, but her eyes looked totally