Salem's Sight Read Online Free Page B

shoulders and mostly straight. That was the
average part.
    The color is what most people like,
although I don’t like it myself. It’s sort of light auburn – not
light brown, not dark blonde, not red, but some strange combination
that’s hard to describe.
    I walked over to the mirror near the
window and fixed the back of my earring. With the sun shining in
through the window, I had highlights of pure gold. That was the
part I liked.
    Still, given the option, I would have
traded with Berkley in a second. Traded completely. Like I said
before, she has these cool almond-shaped dark brown eyes. Mine are
just plain light blue. Again a lot of people have told me they’re
pretty, especially boys, but like …hello… who can believe
them?
    And I would’ve killed for her easily
tan-able olive complexion. Add in the fact she’s a petite 5’3 while
I tower over her at 5’7 and there you have us – beauty and the
beast.
    Okay, so maybe I’m not the beast
exactly. But you know, self-esteem again. It’s strange because I
was overconfident before the accident, so sure of myself, so …
invincible. Now my flaws seemed to stand out mocking me. Unworthy,
unworthy, unworthy.
    Berkley opened her backpack with a
loud zip and brought me back to reality. “…sort of like a new life.
It may not seem like things fit together right away but they will.
You just have to go with it.”
    We’d been talking about redecorating.
“What do you mean?” I asked wondering how much I’d missed while I
zoned out.
    “ My parents are settled
now, but when I was young we moved a few times so I know what it’s
like being the new kid. Sometimes it’s hard at first to merge your
old life into your new one. Bit of advice though, just go with it.
Life changes no matter what you do.”
    Like, duh. “I know, but I don’t have
to like it.”
    “ Just don’t fight it. It’ll
take longer and be more painful. It’s going to happen
anyway.”
    Okay, she was a fatalist. I nodded,
although I wasn’t sure I bought into it. It helped that she’d moved
too, though. One more thing we had in common. One more
bond.
    I really lucked out meeting Berkley.
She had a lot of friends, but they were from many different groups.
She could fit in and be accepted by any of them, but she didn’t
make any one of them mutually exclusive.
    It was a good thing, too. It made room
for me. And right now I needed her more than I needed food.
Somehow, I think she realized it.
    I pulled the ribbon out of my hair and
yanked off the rubber band. Having it in a high pony made my scalp
ache. Normally I would have used a scrunchy, but not everything is
unpacked yet and that box must have been put in the basement. The
ribbon had covered the ugly rubber band.
    I looked at the ribbon and threw it up
in the air, catching the other end as it came down. I’m not sure
why I did this, except it seemed to help me unwind and
relax.
    “ What are you going to do
your research project on?” Berkley asked as she continued to gaze
at the topics list we were given in class earlier in the
day.
    “ Not sure, what looks
good?” I continued to throw the ribbon in the air, watching the
light blue cloth twirl, end over end, like a piece of falling
sky.
    I threw it up in the air again and
cupped my hands awaiting its arrival.
    It never came.

CHAPTER four
     
     
    Suspended two to three inches from the
ceiling, the ribbon dangled, teasing.
    My breath caught and I stared. This
couldn’t be happening. That thin strip of blue couldn’t just hang
suspended in air.
    “ Berkley,” I said, barely
audibly.
    I could tell when she looked up by her
intake of breath. “Oh my God! How’d you do that?” she asked as if
I’d just duplicated one of Houdini’s famous illusions.
    “ I’m not doing anything.
It’s… it’s just there.”
    Berkley dropped her notebook and leapt
to her feet. If she ran, I’d have been at her heels. But she
didn’t. Instead, she took the few short steps needed to reach