The New Normal Read Online Free Page A

curb. We both ran to stop it, waving our arms wildly. The driver shook his head but opened the door for Roy to get on.
    â€œRoy,” I yelled. “Thank you!” The door banged closed.
    Roy pressed his palm against the glass window as the bus lurched away.
    I waited alone in the cold for the bus to Canyon Meadows as the sky turned from gray to black.

    When I stepped off the bus, it was dark.
    â€œThere you are,” said a male voice from the bench at the bus stop.
    I peered through the darkness at the guy. I didn’t know him. I pressed my lips together tight and speed-walked away.
    â€œHey! I’m talking to you.” Suddenly he was at my side, tall and beefy with a pug face and a shaved head. He wore a black leather jacket, with spikes on the shoulders, and Doc Martens.
    â€œI’m sorry. I think you have me mixed up with someone else.”
    â€œYou’re Tamar Robinson aren’t you?”
    I kept walking fast. Looking straight ahead. My heart exploding in my throat. “Who wants to know?”
    He chuckled. “Let’s just say I’m a friend of your sisters.”
    â€œThey’re not…”
    â€œI know, I know. Condolences and all that. But debts don’t die when people do, girlie. Sorry to say.”
    â€œLook, I don’t know anything about—”
    â€œListen.” He grabbed my arm, hard. “They owed me a thousand dollars, all right?”
    I stopped walking and tried to pull my arm back, but he had a vise-like grip on me.
    â€œMaybe I could’ve let it slide if it had been less than that, but I have to pay people too, you know? And this is putting a BIG hole in my profit margins. Sorry, girlie, but the weight falls on you. Unless you think I should ask your parents for it…”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œI need it a week from today. In cash. Got it?”
    I ripped my arm away and took off down the street.
    â€œI know where you live!” he yelled after me.
    I hoofed it home as fast as my legs would carry me. When I slammed through the door, the parents were sitting at the kitchen table. Dad had his head on the table, resting on his forearms, and Mom had this look on her face like she’d been punched in the stomach. They couldn’t help me. They couldn’t even help themselves. I didn’t say hi or take off my coat or anything. I went straight up to my room, closed the door and shoved my dresser in front of it, just in case Pug Face broke in. My hands were shaking. My heart was thudding so hard I could feel it inside my skull. A thousand dollars. In cash.
    I flopped down on my bed and closed my eyes. I was tired. I was tired of school and tired of home and tired of having two dead sisters. I wished there were some way I could hit Rewind and go back to a time when the three of us were best-best-best friends and they worshipped me and I adored them and we played Barbies and Lego and Crazy Eights all day.
    But there was no going back. This was my reality: I was sixteen and being hunted by a drug dealer. My hair was falling out and my sisters were dead and my parents were broken and there wasn’t a goddamn thing I could do about any of it.

four
    On Monday I was late for school. It’s true what they say about Mondays—they suck. They always have, and they always will. My first class was Drama, and the teacher, Ms. Jane, asked me to stay after class. Ms. Jane had curly hair the color of taffy, and it was always a frizzy mess. I figured she was going to give me grief about being late, but she didn’t.
    â€œTryouts for the spring play are coming up this week, Tamar.”
    â€œYeah.” So what? I thought.
    â€œI think it would be excellent if you auditioned. You’ve shown real potential in your monologue projects this year.”
    â€œWhat’s the play?”
    â€œ The Wizard of Oz .”
    I smiled, because my favorite movie is Return to Oz , which is sort of a perverse sequel to the