The Princess Revolt by Cathy O'Neill

Author:Cathy O'Neill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2022-03-29T00:00:00+00:00

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Watching cartoons with Riley felt really good and normal, but once Riley and Dad went to bed and the house got quiet, all my worries came back. I called Mom’s phone again even though I knew it was pointless. I just wanted to hear her voice on the voicemail message.

My heart began pounding when I saw notifications for four unread texts from John Lee. I swiped delete on the message thread, not wanting to hear another word from him or think about how much I used to like him. In addition to John’s texts, there were almost a hundred messages from classmates about John’s miraculous recovery. He’d been released from the hospital and had sent photos to the group of him being reunited with his dog. It was a really beautiful golden retriever, and John looked—at least from the photos—like he loved that dog. I still thought he was a jerk, but I had calmed down since the hospital visit and was relieved that John was not going to live out his life as a beast. No one deserved that. I realized too that if John had remained a beast, I would have had to live with that guilt forever. And that would have been awful.

I almost sent Mia a text telling her she should apologize to Romy for what she’d said, but how could I do that, when I’d sort of done the same thing? And Mia wasn’t mean; she just said hurtful things sometimes. Like me. I texted Romy that she’d make an amazing Juliet. I didn’t know what else to say, but I felt like there was something else I should be saying. Romy was my best friend. I thought we talked about everything, but we had never talked about this before, how having dark skin made things different for her.

I walked around the house, checking my hair in every mirror, but the bald patch didn’t seem to have gotten any bigger. I almost wished all my hair would just fall out now so I could be done with dreading it happening. I was staring at my reflection in a mirror in my and Riley’s bathroom, thinking about everything that happened in the past two days, when the sound of water running snapped me out of my thoughts.

I looked at the bathtub and saw that the water was filled to the very top, lapping over the edges and splashing out onto the tile. There were two containers of salt by the tub, and I realized—with horror—that I was holding a third in my hand.

I dropped it as if it were red-hot. I had no memory of filling up the tub. No memory of going downstairs and getting the salt. Why could I not remember, and why did I feel like I’d just narrowly avoided something terrible?

After turning off the faucet and throwing away all the salt in the house, I realized that I couldn’t stay home alone tomorrow and just wait for Mom. It seemed that the spell had put me in a trance so that I had had no control over what I was doing.

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