Portal Read Online Free

hand him his present and then hang out with Will and Justin. I had actually totally forgotten to pick up an iTunes card for him, better do that soon. I guess it was time to get up.
    I sat up and turned to put my feet on the floor but immediately pulled them back on the bed in horror. The floor was cold and hard! It didn’t feel like my blue-carpeted bedroom floor, which is always warm. I looked down and saw a stone floor. This was not my room.
    I sighed, back to this old nightmare again? Surely I couldn’t possibly still be dreaming unless I had been in a nasty accident and was in some kind of coma. This looked too real, felt too real. I looked around. At least things were consistent. I was in the same room as last night. I slid my feet into the flip flops conveniently waiting by the bed and hurried into the bathroom where I splashed cold water on my face hoping that would force reality back into my life. No such luck.
    When I looked up into the mirror, Barbie stared back at me. I struggled to remain calm. I tried holding my breath, unsuccessfully, and instead gave in to full blown panic. I screamed at the top of my lungs and collapsed on to the floor in a bundle.
    Ella came rushing into my room with her mouth opening wide as she saw me on the floor and just as quickly, she turned around and vanished. She returned back with Mom who ran over and tried putting her arms around me.
    I struggled out of her grip and yelled hysterically, “I hate you, leave me alone!” I could tell she was shocked but she let go.
    “Ollie, what’s going on?”
    It was a male voice, no doubt the stranger from yesterday.
    “I’m not sure, Rupert. Arizona seems very upset about something,” said Mom with an edge to her voice.
    Rupert came over and sat down beside me on the floor. “Arizona, whatever it is, we’ll sort it out. You do need to tell us what’s going on though so we can help you.”
    I struggled to calm down. A thousand questions were thrashing around in my head; just one came flying out my mouth.
    “Why is my hair blonde?”
    There was a dead silence in the room as everyone absorbed my words. They’d clearly not expected this particular one. I could hear muffled giggling noises coming from my annoying sister. I wanted to turn around and hit her. Mom took hold of Ella’s hand and gave her the look . It just made Ella giggle more and she turned and fled from the room, exploding into laughter right outside the door. Mom sighed and tried to remain seriously concerned, I could see that she was as bemused as Ella.
    “Arizona, you’ve had it blonde for at least five years now. What’s the matter? Do you want to change the color back? It’s really no big deal.”
    It was totally clear that I was making no sense whatsoever to the people around me. I needed to be more careful or they would think I was completely mad. I really couldn’t risk being sent off to a psych unit. So, I clenched my teeth to stop them from talking, stood up and walked over to my bed.
    “I guess I’m just tired and I do have a headache. Can you leave me alone for a bit?”
    Rupert and Mom nodded as they left my room. Mom turned around to remind me to come down for breakfast.
    I sat down on the bed and stared at the wall, the wall with the flat screen TV. I wasn’t sure what to make of all this. Mom is my mom, same bossy person. Ella is still annoying and Gertrude does not seem to be the least bit worried.
    Where did this Rupert come from? Could he be Mom’s new boyfriend? Gross! And where was Dad? I would do what I always did in difficult situations, what my Dad always did – nothing . I would wait this out, whatever it was.
    I lay down, looking up at the ceiling until the smell of maple-covered bacon seeped into the room sending Gertrude into a frenzy. She darted over to my closed bedroom door, whining to be let out. The bacon smell was followed by a whiff of cinnamon. I opened the door and Gertrude shot out and scrambled down the stairs.
    The