Can't Look Away by Donna Cooner

Author:Donna Cooner
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2014-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

“I think it’s time for the quiet game,” I said, but Miranda knew that trick.

“Kaylie Smith asked me to her birthday party this weekend. She’s the first in the class to turn ten. It’s going to be a carnival theme.” She was talking so fast I could hardly understand her. “And there is going to be a face painter there and I think I might get a lightning bolt painted on my face. Not like the Flash. More like Jolt.”

“Uh-huh,” I said. I had no idea who Jolt was.

“Right here,” she pointed to her left cheekbone. “And for lunch today we had rosy applesauce and I think it made me feel sick to my stomach. Do you think I’m allergic to rosy applesauce, Torrey?”

“No,” I said, pulling my cell phone out of my pocket to see if I’d missed anything. I was thirteen, had just posted my first vlog, and was eager to see if someone, anyone, had watched it yet. I wasn’t thinking about applesauce and superheroes. The only thing on my mind was fame.

“But after lunch I felt better.” Miranda wasn’t even taking a breath. “And Mrs. Jackson, the art teacher, let us paint with real paints. I think the best color in the world is blue. What do you think, Torrey?”

I didn’t answer, looking at my phone. Three people somewhere in the world just watched my vlog. Adrenaline pumped into my body.

“I’m bored. Let’s play hide-and-seek. Come on. Please.” She was hopping all over my room.

Hide-and-seek.

It was a game we’d played together since Miranda was able to walk. Now that I thought about it, maybe even before then. When she was a baby, I’d throw her blue baby blanket over my head and “disappear.” She’d actually cry sometimes at the thought that I’d somehow left her. Or at least she would start to cry until I pulled the blanket off my head and — “ta-da!” — reappeared. Miranda had found me. She would giggle wildly — a baby laugh so contagious everyone in hearing distance would start to laugh, too. She loved that game so much, Mom would make me play it with her over and over again on long car trips. She never tired of it. It was so simple, really, but it never failed to make me feel good, too.

Now I was too grown-up, too cool, to play childish hide-and-seek games, no matter how many times she asked.

“You’re too old for that,” I told Miranda, looking back at my phone. I had a text from Zoe, telling me she thought my vlog was amazing.

“Nobody’s too old for hide-and-seek,” Miranda said, and I could tell she wasn’t going to go away that easily.

“Okay. You go hide and I’ll come find you,” I said, glancing up at my sister.

For a quick moment, her face lit up, and then she realized it was just another trick.

“You’re not coming to find me, are you?” she said sadly.

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