Alone in the Crowd by Pascal Francine

Author:Pascal, Francine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-01-25T16:00:00+00:00

Seven

Lynne was standing in front of her locker in the main hall, looking uneasily at the pile of books and papers she had been meaning to straighten up for ages. Her last-period class had finally ended, and the weekend was here. Why wasn't she as glad as she'd expected to be?

Mr. Collins's words kept resounding in her head. If only he were right—if only there really were something that could prove once and for all that she really mattered. Staring into her messy locker, Lynne found herself wondering if she shouldn't take her mother up on her offer for a day at the Silver Door. Maybe she should risk it—and try wearing her contact lenses and doing something with her hair.

Impulsively, Lynne slammed her locker shut and darted across the hall to the girls' bathroom. Setting her backpack on the floor, she walked across the tiled room to the sink and looked apprehensively at herself in the mirror. Good Lord, she thought. She looked even worse than she had feared. Her hair was unusually frizzy that day, standing away from her head in a tangled halo. Her glasses were smudged, and in the fluorescent light of the bathroom, her skin looked even more sallow then usual. And her outfit! Lynne couldn't even remember getting dressed that morning, but whatever could have inspired her to wear the same grubby pair of blue jeans and her old navy T-shirt?

This is it, Lynne told herself, glaring at her reflection. This is really it. Suddenly she was fed up with herself for being such a slob. True, she might not have been blessed at birth in the beauty department, but that didn't mean she had to aggravate the situation by taking such bad care of herself.

Full of resolve, Lynne dashed out of the bathroom into the main corridor and smack into him. Her face turned bright red. "Guy . . ." she mumbled, stepping back clumsily and almost falling down.

Guy laughed, his arm shooting out to steady her. "Where are you racing off to?" he demanded.

Lynne swallowed hard. His hand was warm on her arm. "Actually, I'm just going home," she admitted. Go on, ask him if he's walking home, she instructed herself. But she just stood there, tongue-tied and awkward, wishing the floor would open up and she could disappear forever.

"Well, if you wait a minute, I'll join you," Guy said cheerfully. "I just have to pick up the cassettes."

"I'll wait here," Lynne said nervously. Somehow she had managed to put the songwriting contest out of her mind for the last few hours. But at Guy's reminder her heart began to pound. Maybe he had already listened to "Outside, Looking In." Maybe The Droids had all listened to it—and had decided to eliminate it! She was sure now that she had made a huge mistake believing her own work could stand up to the serious scrutiny of The Droids. Who did she think she was trying to fool?

"How's the song contest going?" she asked, dry-mouthed when Guy returned.

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