Crystal Caves by Grayson Kristine

Author:Grayson, Kristine [Grayson, Kristine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: WMG Publishing
Published: 2015-11-27T05:00:00+00:00

TEN

I DON’T USUALLY meet up with M, V, & A until second period study hall. We don’t have to go to a designated hall (which confused me. Most of the terms around this school confuse me).

Instead we meet in front of Veronica’s locker. She has a good one, near the covered stairwell leading to the really pretty second floor. The lockers here aren’t like lockers on TV. In fact, Agatha says most public schools don’t even have lockers anymore because kids hide drugs in them, to which Veronica said, “Well, duh,” and waved a bottle of pain pills she cadged off her folks.

Veronica doesn’t take the pills, but she sells them so she can augment her wardrobe with stuff that Melanie says she’d look good in.

I get there first, but hang out near the corridor leading to the science wing. I don’t want to seem too eager, but I’m always afraid M, V, & A will leave without me.

Veronica shows up first, then puts her books in her locker. Mine are already in my locker, but I have my book bag anyway—I don’t like going without my iPad. It feels like low-level magic to me, something that answers all my questions and tells me how to find things.

My phone feels the same way, but I don’t like using the small screen as much as some kids do.

I amble over, just as Melanie comes down the stairs. She reaches me before either of us get to the locker. She touches my barrettes.

“Wow,” she says. “Bows and diamonds. Next thing you know, you’ll be wearing makeup.”

They’ve teased me about makeup from the start. Mother wants me to wear it, M, V, & A want me to wear it, but I hate how it feels on my face. Plus, when I look in the mirror, I don’t look like me. Since everything else familiar’s been taken away, looking like me has become more and more important.

It takes me a minute to realize that Melanie’s not wearing a white blouse with her uniform. Instead, she’s wearing a cream shell that shines. She has her blazer over the shell so no one can see that she doesn’t have sleeves, but I know the minute we leave, she’ll take the blazer off.

Her skirt is the proper length today, but she’s wearing tight leggings instead of knee socks.

Little things, things you don’t notice unless you look hard. Because the leggings are black like the knee socks. Unless you’re trying to look up her skirt, you don’t see that the leggings go all the way up.

Agatha shows up before I have to say anything about the makeup. Agatha’s uniform always looks a bit rumpled, and her hair usually needs combing. At least once a day, Veronica will comb Agatha’s hair, in what Melanie calls the daily grooming session.

Agatha looks tired, and if I ask about it, she’ll tell me about some rally her dad made her go to, or some protest her mother has organized. Her dad’s really

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