Zombie Blondes Read Online Free

wouldn’t know I still kept them. So I slide it back out into the row a tiny bit and try my best to ignore the laughter that starts up again a few desks behind me.
    The whispers start all over again after that. Louder this time so that I can hear them clearer. Saying how cheap my clothes look. Saying they make me look homeless or something. I can feel my face turning redder as they rattle off insults like the whisper of bullets. Machine-gun whispers that only go silent when our English teacher walks in and begins to take attendance.
    I listen as the names are read out loud. Watch hands shoot up in the air one after the other along with a chorus of “here” as the teacher goes through the alphabet. And I guess I should have listened to Lukas a little better. I should have stayed away from any and all cheerleaders.
    My arm goes up when the teacher calls my name.
    “Here,” my voice escaping my lungs like a small cough.
    The teacher pauses and looks up from the piece of paper in her hands. Narrows her eyes at me to memorize my face. “Welcome to Maplecrest, Hannah Sanders,” she says, without sounding like she really cares at all before reading the next name.
    I sink down in my desk.
    There’s no doubt that I’ve been welcomed, that’s for sure. My two new best friends made sure of that. Made sure I knew exactly where I fit in. As a social outcast. The bottom of the food chain. Alone at the freak table, eating lunch withLukas.
    I watch the clock the rest of the period, counting the minutes until the day is over. Ignoring the rumors about me that spread from desk to desk like a disease. Spread through a series of hissing and laughter and dirty looks in my direction. I do my best not to let it show that it bothers me. Watching the clock and waiting until the moment I can disappear into the tide of kids flooding the hallway. Looking forward to being anonymous once again.

TWO
    My first day at Maplecrest High was hardly a success. Far from it, actually. Minus one creepy admirer and a perfect pair of stuck-up cheerleaders, no one even bothered to notice me too much. A few sideways stares is about all. I can’t believe the kids in such a boring town would find me so dull. I guess I’m just more pathetic than I thought.
    My dad says I just need to make more of an effort. “They’ll come around once they get to know you.” That’s what he said yesterday after I got home and told him how much my day kind of sucked. It didn’t exactly comfort me. I mean, that’s what dads have to say. It’s like a law of parenting that you have to think your own kid is special. It doesn’t make much sense if you think about it, though. Every parent believes it, but it’s a fact that not every kid is special. Somewhere along the way, some of them must bewrong.
    My dad’s bound to be one of them. Our lives are filled with his mistakes, so the chances are pretty good he’s mistaken about me, too. It’s quite possible that I’m no more interesting than the background noise of slamming lockers in the hallways.
    I’m not ready to give up just yet, though.
    Day two is more important than day one, anyway. At least I’ve always thought so. It’s kind of like the dogs I used to watch in the park back when we lived in the city. The dogs would spend the first fifteen minutes just sniffing one another out before they made up their mind whether to play or fight. That’s what the first day at a new school is like. Sniffing out the new dog. Day two is when they decide whether they want to play with me or chase me away.
    Of course, I can make that choice, too.
    I don’t have to sit around and wait to be noticed, not on the second day. I can go up to them just as easily. I guess that’s what my dad means by making an effort. But it makes more sense when I figure it out on my own. I just don’t like him to be right, that’s all.
    “You can do this, Hannah!” I whisper to myself before taking a deep breath and closing my locker. Slinging my