WILLOWOOD by Cecilia Galante

Author:Cecilia Galante
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2010-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

“WHERE WERE YOU YESTERDAY?” GINA asked as Lily walked to her desk the next morning. Gina’s hair was twisted into two elaborate French braids, secured at the ends with small yellow bows. “Were you sick?”

Lily nodded. “Yeah. Kinda.” She sat down and got her math book and pencil out of her desk.

“But you feel better now?” Gina asked.

“Yeah,” Lily said. “I feel great.”

She felt more than great, she realized. She felt better than she had in a long time, thanks to Willowood and her iguana eggs. After Nate had left, she had spent the better part of the morning trying to copy exactly what he had done, filling the other two containers, making sure the dirt wasn’t too wet, and carving out small indentations for the eggs. They were all in the shoe box Nate had brought, with the lids tightly closed, hidden inside the fireplace. It was the warmest place in the apartment, away from the drafty windows and cold floors.

She’d stayed inside Willowood for the rest of the day, peeking outside only when she heard the afternoon school bus rumble by. Then she ran upstairs, flinging open the door and throwing her backpack to the floor. Mrs. Hiller was absorbed in yet another episode of Dr. Phil . She had not thought to check the messages on the answering machine, one of which had been left by the school’s attendance office, and which Lily erased as soon as Mrs. Hiller went into the kitchen to get her snack. No one had suspected a thing.

“You didn’t really miss much,” Gina said, turning around in her seat. “It was kind of a slow day.”

“Good,” said Lily.

“You start Alice in Wonderland yet?”

Lily shook her head. “Nope.”

“What were you doing with that weird guy yesterday?” Amanda suddenly appeared next to Lily’s desk. Her lips were slick with strawberry lip gloss and she smelled like hairspray. “I saw you yesterday at the bus stop with him. He was talking to you and then you guys went off together.” She put her hand on her hip.

The rest of the classroom had fallen silent. Everyone was waiting for Lily to respond. Gina’s eyes flitted worriedly from Amanda to Lily and then back again.

Lily took a deep breath and focused on one of Gina’s yellow hair ribbons. She thought about how the Freakazoid had stopped Amanda in her tracks just by the tone of her voice. Of course, the Freakazoid was an adult. Amanda had to listen to her if she wanted to keep riding the bus. She cleared her throat. “It’s none of your business,” she said, making her voice as steady as possible.

“ What’d you say?” Amanda leaned in so close that Lily could see the individual hairs in her eyebrows.

Lily reached under her desk and grabbed her knees to stop them from shaking. “I said, it’s none of your business. Now leave me alone.”

Mrs. Bing breezed in just then, carrying her Styrofoam cup of coffee and a stack of folders. “All right, everyone! Sit down, please.

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