Read Infinite (Strange and Beautiful, Book 1) for Free Online

she’d pounce. Sometimes I’d guess, rarely ever right, or mumble
that I didn’t know, and she’d snap, “Wrong! Anyone else?”
    It was mortifying, and if Miss Barkley didn’t hate me, then she
had to be sadist.
    The only other possible explanation, aside from sadism, was that
Miss Barkley disliked me because she disliked my brother. I’d overheard Luke
telling one of his friends that he’d called Miss Barkley a dyke last year,
which was totally rude and uncalled for in my opinion, and he was pretty sure
she’d heard him as she walked by. 
    “I’m sure she was too embarrassed to actually say anything,”
he’d chuckled. “I mean, denying it would just be lying, I’m sure.”
    But he’d gone on to say that the next time he took one of her
classes, she’d always put him on the spot, probably in much the same way she
was doing with me now, and he’d just scraped by with a C- in her class.
    It was disheartening that Miss Barkley couldn’t have associated
me with Skylar instead of Luke. While my sister wasn’t the best student, she’d
never done anything, as far as I knew, to piss off Miss Barkley, and she’d
passed with a B in the class.
     I couldn’t exactly explain this theory to Mom without ratting
out Luke, so I was stuck with a weak, “I don’t know why she hates me,” which
Mom refused to believe due to her biased belief that no one could possibly
dislike her children.
    Tegan, at least, believed in my theory. After all, she was there
to witness my daily torture. Thankfully, Tierney was nice enough to help me
with my essays. She had infinite patience as I stumbled my way through various
papers.
    Tegan also pointed out that it was weird that I enjoyed writing
short stories and poetry, but I struggled so much with writing essays. I tried
to explain that it wasn’t the same. “I write stories and poems because I enjoy
it, and they’re mostly just for me,” I said. “I’m not getting graded on them
like I am with essays.”
    Tegan had smiled sympathetically, but I could tell that she
didn’t fully understand what I meant since she never wrote for fun. Also, she
was a good student and didn’t struggle like I did with improper grammar and run
on sentences.
    When Miss Barkley handed back our first essay, my paper looked
like it was bleeding from all of her comments and corrections. I’d been so
upset after class, and when Tierney met us at Tegan’s locker, she’d offered to
start editing my papers for me after Tegan had explained why I looked like
someone had killed my non-existent puppy.
    Sometimes I felt jealous of Tegan’s relationship with Tierney.
They got along so well and were actually, honest to God, friends. Sure, they’d
fight occasionally, but Tierney had never denied being related to Tegan.
Sometimes I’d try to imagine having that kind of relationship with Skylar, but
the idea seemed so foreign to me. Besides, I figured I probably wouldn’t spend
as much time at Tegan’s house if Skylar and I were friendlier, and that would
be a major loss because I loved staying over at Tegan’s, which is what I had
done pretty much every weekend since school started.
    When I’d ask if I could stay at Tegan’s, Mom would always ask,
“Are you sure it’s okay with Tegan’s parents?”
    Probably because Mom couldn’t fathom the idea of having one of
Skylar, Luke or my friends over every weekend, I don’t think she actually
believed me when I’d always reply, “Yes, I’m sure they don’t mind.”
    But Trista and Travis Tyler probably weren’t like most parents.
For one thing, they were really cool and fun. They’d do things as a family, not
every weekend but often enough. They even had family game night (Thursday), and
it wasn’t unusual to go camping, bowling, attend some kind of race or sporting
event or visit an amusement park over the weekend. And they never hesitated to
invite me along.
    Last winter break they even let me go with them on vacation. We
stayed at a ski lodge for