Everyday Angel #1: New Beginnings by Victoria Schwab

Author:Victoria Schwab
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 2014-10-05T04:00:00+00:00

Aria’s heart thudded happily. She’d done it. She’d found something for Gabby.

When Gabby had started singing in the circle, her smoke began to shift, to change. Aria had watched it ripple and — for a little while — thin. The smoke had come back, of course, by the time they reached the hospital. But it was a sign, a step — even a small one.

“What are you smiling about?” asked Gabby as they ambled down the sidewalk.

“Nothing,” said Aria. “Just thinking.”

They walked in an easy silence up the hospital steps. They’d fallen into a routine, heading there together each day after school. Later on, Aria would follow Gabby home — now that she’d been invited in, she could come and go — and make sure she was okay alone. Gabby’s mom came home most nights, but Gabby was usually asleep, and even when she wasn’t, Mrs. Torres’s being there didn’t make the house much warmer. Gabby and her mom just sat at the table, eating dinner while the TV rambled in the background.

At the hospital, Aria and Gabby found Marco flipping through channels on a TV mounted to his wall.

“Thank god you’re here,” he muttered when he saw them. “Mom’s at her worst. I sent her on some errand for an obscure caffeine-free healthy soda just to get a few moments of peace.”

Gabby frowned. “Why is she hovering? Did something happen?”

He shook his head and tossed the remote onto the bed. “I had one small coughing fit. It wasn’t even that bad, but I got dizzy and she freaked out.”

“Are you okay now?”

“Of course I’m okay.” He rubbed his eyes. “I was okay then, too. But I’m losing it, Gabs. They better clear me for surgery soon ’cause I can’t keep doing this. I can’t stay in here. I can’t …”

His breathing started to tighten, and Marco closed his eyes and rested his head on his knees. Gabby hurried forward and began rubbing circles on his back and whispering in Spanish. Aria hesitated by the door, watching Gabby’s smoke engulf them both. Aria didn’t know what to do. She wished that she could make Marco better, but her powers didn’t work that way.

Gabby picked up the remote. “Let’s find something good,” she said, flipping through channels. It didn’t seem to help. “Do you want me to go get Henry?” she finally asked.

Marco nodded silently.

“I’ll go find him,” offered Aria.

Gabby gave her a look that was equal parts surprise and relief. “You sure?”

Aria nodded. “He’s in 308,” said Gabby, adding a small, “Thank you.”

Aria wove through the halls to the other side of the floor, stopping outside room 308. When she peered in through the glass insert, she saw the boy sitting in bed, pale as the sheets, his purple-black smoke still hanging cloudlike around his shoulders. Why hadn’t anyone like Aria come to help him yet?

A book sat open in his lap, but he was staring past it into space. And then, as if he could sense Aria there, he turned his head and saw her.

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