Remarkables by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Author:Margaret Peterson Haddix
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-08-04T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Nine

“What are you talking about?” Marin asked. “I haven’t even been here!”

“That last night you were!” Ashlyn accused. “When you said . . .”

And maybe Charley was right, and time travel actually existed. Because suddenly everything came back like it was happening all over again, everything Marin had tried to avoid thinking about for the past three weeks. She looked down, and it was like she wasn’t seeing the jagged black and white of Ashlyn’s current bedspread, but the irregular blotches of Ashlyn’s old tie-dye.

It had been the night of her last sleepover with Ashlyn and Kenner, and they’d just gotten back from Marin’s last trip to Mudlow’s for ice cream, the last time she’d have to hear Kenner complain, That is the stupidest name for an ice cream place! Who would ever want to eat “All your favorite flavors of mud”? And it was also the last time Marin had countered, I would! Mudlow’s is the best! Nothing had felt right to Marin that night. She was getting tired of lasts, and she found herself wondering if she could get away with saying, You know what? I’m really tired. Why don’t we just go to sleep? But probably if she did that, Kenner and Ashlyn would stay awake and draw a mustache on her face with a black Sharpie as soon as she was asleep, or draw circles and fake eyelashes around her eyes.

After all, they’d done that before.

And then the three girls had walked into Ashlyn’s bedroom, the sweet aftertaste of the ice cream already feeling wrong in Marin’s mouth. And Kenner had said, “Ashlyn, why do you still have that ugly bedspread? It looks like puddles of dog vomit!”

And Marin had snapped, “Why do you have to be so mean?”

Then Ashlyn had taken a step forward, hovering right between Marin and Kenner. Marin had expected Ashlyn to step over beside her and say something like, Yeah, Kenner. If you’re going to be mean, you should just go home, so you don’t ruin Marin’s last night.

Instead, Ashlyn had stepped toward Kenner, and said in a weak, shaky voice, “Marin, stop it. Kenner’s just trying to help. So we’ll be ready for middle school.”

Something had exploded inside Marin then. Everything she’d bottled up inside all spring long—every barb and jab and taunt and whisper she thought she’d managed to ignore and get past—maybe none of it had rolled off her the way she thought. Apparently she’d been keeping score in a way she hadn’t even noticed, and every cruelty Marin had endured had actually gotten under her skin and festered and grown and sparked a fury that Marin couldn’t control.

She’d never felt like this before in her life.

“I hate you both!” she’d snarled back at Ashlyn and Kenner. “You’re terrible people! You’re so mean I won’t miss either of you at all—I’m glad I’m getting away from you! I hope you both fail in middle school, and nobody likes you, and they laugh at everything you wear, and you

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