True Colors Read Online Free Page A

I ducked before it took my head off. Kyle ran after it and stuck his arm out like he couldn’t stop. He pulled me back with him and then tried to lift me up even though I’m almost a foot taller than him. Ericka tried to get his attention, but he ignored her. Again. Ericka moved away and pulled out her wallet with some baby pictures of her little cousin, Isabella, to show Hana and Tori. Nobody passed me the pictures so I had to look over Hana’s shoulder. I said Isabella was cute, but she looked like a fat raisin and she had Ericka’s ugly hair color. Poor kid. Ericka didn’t say anything to me, and I wondered if I had been bragging or something? I didn’t mean to, but I thought Hana wanted to know about my jacket.
    I felt like I was walking underwater the rest of the day. I had history with Tori and Ericka, and I sat at their table like always. Mrs. Hearst told us to get into groups of three to work on the questions at the end of the chapter. I thought everything was fine until Tori and Ericka got up to sit with somebody else and left me sitting by myself. I looked around the room, and the only group left with two people in it was India Allen and Peyton Urich’s table. India and Peyton were best friends with Devon, the girl who was going to be in the American Ingénue competition with me. I took a deep breath and walked over to their table to ask if I could work with them.
    â€œSure. We’re in luck. Loser here,” Peyton said nodding towards India, “thought we were supposed to do the questions for homework last night, so ours are already done.”
    â€œI was at my grandparents’ last night, and they don’t have cable or Internet,” India said, flipping her long honey blonde hair over her shoulder. “And they live in the middle of nowhere, so it’s not like you can get Wi-Fi for your phone. It’s like being in a cave or something.”
    Mrs. Hearst had us put our answers on the board, and I offered to go up and write the ones for our group. Mrs. Hearst asked if anyone had a different answer to each of the questions. No one had a problem until she got to our question, and Tori raised her hand. Tori probably thought I had come up with the answer since I wrote it on the board. Mrs. Hearst told her she only had it half right and moved on. Hah.
    â€œSorry it wasn’t up to Tori’s high standards,” India said, rolling her eyes in Tori’s direction.
    The bell rang, and I started to walk to the next class when I heard Ericka telling Tori I had been talking bad about them to Peyton and India.
    â€œHow pathetic,” Tori said.
    I whirled around. “I didn’t say anything about you guys.”
    â€œOh yeah, right. Why don’t you go flirt with your new boyfriend?” Ericka said. “It’s sad how you throw yourself at Kyle.”
    â€œMaybe you could brag about your little story some more,” Tori said. “Or your fabulous modeling career.”
    I went to French class and tried not to cry. I opened my book and pretended to read the next chapter on verbs. At least neither of them was in this class. Plus, it was Friday, and I’d have the weekend to get away from them. Of course, all this crap would start up again on Monday, but maybe they’d stop being mad at me by then. Otherwise, I’d have to pray for a freakishly early snowstorm on Sunday night.
    At the end of the day, I waited until the last second to get on the school bus to go home so it would look like I was sitting in the front because there weren’t any other seats. I didn’t want anyone to know those jerks didn’t want me around.
    ****
    When I got home, Mom asked if I had any plans with my friends this weekend. I’d more or less have to have friends first. I shook my head, and she said we could order pizza and rent movies.
    I headed over to the cartoon section at Movies ‘R Us. I’d never admit this to anybody, but I love