Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Author:Laurie Halse Anderson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Wintergirls

I type in the address of Cassie’s secret blog. She stopped adding to it after she freaked out last summer, but she didn’t delete it. I wonder if she stared at it as much as I do.

The Internet beams through me like I’m a paper bag, waves a magic wand, and flash, the pictures of two girls flash waving from a tree house, lips stained grapePopsicle flash wearing identical bathing suits

flash eighth-​grade Christmas break at Killington, the Christmas Dad went on his honeymoon, the Christmas Mom had hardwood installed in the whole house, the Christmas I refused to go with her to visit a new hospital in Costa Rica, the Christmas the Parrishes took pity on me and loaded my suitcase in the car for the drive to Vermont. I brought a backpack loaded with Tamora Pierce books, a small knife, and vodka stolen from Mom’s liquor cabinet.

We skied for a week and a day. Cassie and I were eighth grade going on twenty-​five, all grown up with lift passes and practically our own apartment, a mini-​suite next to her parents in the time-​share condo. We flirted with the guys working the lifts and pretended they flirted back. We obsessed about which bathing suits to wear to the hot tub and wrote down the calories in every bite of food.

flash us taking our own picture, cheeks sucked in flash us comparing the size of our butts For New Year’s Eve, her parents gave us a bottle of alcohol-​free champagne. After they left for the party at the lodge (“Don’t let anyone in, girls, we’re trusting you”) Cassie mixed it with my vodka. We ate homemade gingerbread cookies and drank until our heads floated out the door, down the stairs, and into the frozen night. The fingernail of a new moon watched us stumble

across the bunny hill behind the condo. We made snow angels and tried to blow smoke rings with our smoky breath. Cassie got on all fours like a wolf and howled at the moon, eyes glittering. I made a bad wolf. I couldn’t stop giggling. She howled louder and wilder, trying to bring real wolves out of the woods, or at least ski-​lift operators, until somebody opened a window and told her to shut up. We collapsed in the snow, laughing.

Fireworks exploded overhead. Bells rang. Strangers shouted in one voice because it was New Year’s and everyone was given a fresh start.

“We have to make resolutions,” I said. “I resolve to read a book a day all year.”

“That’s stupid,” Cassie said. “You already do that.”

“So what’s yours?”

She thought about it. “Resolutions are lame. I want to swear an oath.”

“I swear to go back inside because I’m freezing my butt off.”

“No, listen.” She sat up and grabbed my arms. “It’s midnight, it’s a magic time. Anything we swear tonight will come true.”

This was third-​fourth-​fifth-​grade Cassie, the girl strong enough to punch boys and crazy enough to throw up in the roses. I would have followed her into a pit of fire.

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