Sellout Read Online Free Page B

have phones in Harlem,” I reminded her. “I’ll call you every night and the time will fly by. And I’ll e-mail you. I’ll be back before you know it.”
    She waved her hand like she wasn’t trying to hear anything I had to say.
    “You’re going to forget all about me, I just know it,” she said. “When you get back, you’re going to be a completely different person. I bet I won’t even be able to recognize you.”
    “Oh, please, give me a break,” I replied.
    “I guess we’ll just have to see,” she said, folding her arms across her chest. “I really don’t understand why you have to go for so long.”
    When I was younger, my visits with Tilly didn’t extend beyond a weekend. The past few years, I started staying a little longer, though the first extended weekend, I was so homesick my parents drove up to get me before my planned stay had ended. It was different now. I was sure I was ready to stay a few weeks and leave the drama behind and start fresh.
    I pulled out whatever clothes were clean and started throwing them in my luggage. I threw a T-shirt to Heather and nodded toward my suitcase. Since I would probably be helping Tilly at her volunteer job, I needed something a little dressier than jeans and T-shirts. I grabbed a new white tank top and a red skirt Heather and I had bought at the mall a few weeks ago.
    “This is such a bad idea,” Heather said, throwing in more shirts. “And why do you need so many clothes for one week anyway?”
    Of course it was a bad idea to Heather; her best friend was deserting her for what she thought was one week. I felt bad for not telling her the truth about what I was considering. No way would she take the news well. That I knew for sure.
    With Tilly acting so disappointed and determined to show me my roots, my extended stay might even be a bad idea for me, too. But staying to face my problem with the two ballet Nazis was out of the question.
    Tilly’s life in Harlem wasn’t glamorous—too many people in too small of a space where everyone knew everyone’s business. But even overcrowded Harlem was sounding better than home.
    “It’s just another visit with Tilly, Heather,” I said.
    I had a hard time believing this myself, though. I knew Tilly wouldn’t take the incident last night lightly. But, seriously, I wore scarves in my hair. I hadn’t tried to skip school or kill anyone. I wore a silly hairstyle. If Stephanie hadn’t slipped on my scarves, I bet no one would have even noticed they were in my hair at all. Surely, the time away would fly by and I’d return to my normal life.
    Packing was overrated. I shut my dresser drawers and picked up my clean clothes hamper and dumped it inside the suitcase.
    “There, packing all done,” I said. I flopped down next to Heather on the bed.
    “Remember when we stuck those up there?” she asked, nodding toward the one hundred glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
    “Of course I remember, I almost broke my neck standing on my desk trying to stick them up there,” I said. We both laughed.
    “Let’s make another wish,” she said. We’d been doing this for years. Usually we wished for boys to talk to us. Heather grabbed my hand and we closed our eyes. My wish was that Stephanie wouldn’t still be mad at me by the time I got back from Tilly’s place.
    My leotard and tutu were in a pile on the floor. We both saw them at the same time. Heather picked them up and tossed both into my bag.
    “Just in case you want to practice while you’re gone,” she said. I smiled, but pulled the leotard and tutu back out and tossed them onto the floor.
    “Actually, Heather, I doubt I’ll be needing these ever again,” I said. No harm in starting fresh right away.
    Heather took a deep breath. “What are you talking about? Is this because of what happened at the show?”
    I shook my head no, but she didn’t notice. She was too busy getting herself all worked up.
    “Because