True Colors by Abby Cooper

Author:Abby Cooper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Astra Publishing House

“Are you ready?”

I take a deep breath and nod. All around town, people are doing their typical after-school things. But not me. I’m doing something no Serenity resident would ever guess—or approve of.

At least we didn’t have to go all the way to the top of the hill. Rayna’s phone started beeping and booping when we were less than halfway up, so that’s where we stopped. Now we’re sitting close together with a book sprawled over our legs and the phone hidden inside. It’s not like anyone else will be here now, but in case someone shows up, all we have to do is shut the book, and they’ll never know we were doing anything other than reading.

“So, first do you want to look up if someone knows a cure, or …”

It should be what I want to do first—it is—but there’s something else I want to peek at super fast. Just to get it out of the way. Then I’ll be ready to focus on what’s really important.

I tell Rayna as much. “No problem,” she says, and types something into her phone. Within a second, she’s holding it out to me. “Here you go. This is Maddy. I can show you others, too, but she’s my favorite.”

As I take the phone in my hands, my haze fills with oh-my-grape, blow-your-mind-lemon-lime, lavender love, and an orangey-yellow I’ve never seen before that weirdly feels both happy and sad at the same time. On the screen, well, it’s … me. I mean, it’s not me, obviously. Maddy has dark skin, long legs, and sparkly silver studs up and down her ears. But she’s my age, and she also has a haze. And in photo after photo, no matter who she’s with or what she’s doing, a whole range of colors around her shine bright. Each photo and video have tons of comments underneath, too. Some are mean—like, really mean—but others are compliments so intense, so personal, so much more heartwarming than almost anything I’ve ever heard in Serenity.

My brain is whirring. All of a sudden I have so many questions, questions that no one, not my parents, not Rayna, not even this magical phone, can answer.

But maybe Maddy can.

There’s a box that says Contact next to the tiny image of her face. And I know this was just supposed to be a quick pit stop on our way to the important stuff, but this feels important, too. For the first time it occurs to me: if something feels important to you, maybe it really is. Even if you can’t explain exactly why to someone else, or even to yourself. Maybe sometimes feelings should be followed.

At least, that’s what I tell myself as I tap on the Contact box and type out a short note. With millions of followers, Maddy will probably never see it, let alone write back. But something about writing it anyway feels good, feels right. And maybe that can be its own reward.

“Want to look up cures now? Or …”

Again, the end of Rayna’s question hangs in the air.

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