Read The Curiosities (Carolrhoda Ya) for Free Online Page A

perennial look of confusion is replaced with true bewilderment. He holds the door open for all of us.

    “I need to get something to mark the occasion.” I pat Andy’s stomach as I pass by him. I remember that the others are not in on the pregnancy joke just as I realize that Andy’s stomach is flat and hard under my hand. I was about to smile, and I saw that he was too, but instead we exchange a look that feels like it lasts a minute.
    “What occasion? Lunch?” Daphne looks pissed at me. I am not supposed to have conversations that she is not a part of. Then she looks pissed at Apollo, who let his shoulder touch her shoulder. “I don’t get it. Emma, you should leave the funny to Apollo.”
    Andy and I bust out laughing, as Apollo hasn’t been funny since the day his BMW got a scratch and he made his voice three octaves higher than usual. Apollo, however, looks flattered and grants Daphne one of his most shining, godlike smiles. Daphne looks startled, as if she hadn’t realized how awesome he could be when he smiled.
    She lets him walk beside her all the way to Hallmark, and he keeps glancing over at her without trying to touch her. That leaves Andy and me to walk behind them, just us instead of lady-in-waiting and manservant for once. In the store, Daphne and Apollo head down the wrapping-paper aisle while Andy and I walk to the stuffed animals.
    I hold up an elephant to Andy; its eyes are slightly crossed. “Hi, I’m anatomically incorrect,” I say, moving the elephant’s head in time with my words.

    Andy pushes some animals aside until he finds one that he likes. It’s a horse with a green mane and tail. “And I’m more practical for most third century B.C. land wars.”
    “Are you going on about the Alps again?” I ask him with my elephant.
    “I can’t stop thinking about it,” Andy’s horse replies. “It was a significant FUBAR.”
    “I still get more views at the zoo.”
    Just then, Andy’s head jerks up to look over the display, and I follow suit. Apollo has an arm braced on either side of Daphne, carefully inserted between gift bags hanging on the wall, and amazingly, it looks like he might kiss her.
    Suddenly, Daphne bursts out, “I changed major.”
    Apollo leans back. “What?”
    “This morning,” she says. “I put in the paperwork. I got assigned a new advisor.”
    “So?”
    “Poli-sci,” Daphne gasps out, her voice desperate. She crosses her arms tightly over her chest. “I’m becoming a political science major.”
    Apollo lowers his hands from either side of her and steps back. He is looking at her with an expression of utter loss and betrayal. I am reeling a bit myself. A poli-sci major? It seems so drastic. But Apollo really had left her no other choice.
    “I will stop saying bad things about political science,” Apollo says, formally. “I may even take some modern Russian classes.”

    But things have changed, and we all know it. She’s not even the same species anymore.
    We leave the store, Apollo and Daphne several feet away from each other.
    I reach down and take Andy’s hand.

GIRLS RAISED BY WOLVES
by Brenna Yovanoff
    Brenna writes about high school in a way I never experienced it: as if high school were a million different worlds, all coexisting, and they’re not only each legitimate and meaningful, but important. Without magic or monsters she makes these characters matter. I both wish my high school had been like that and am vehemently glad it wasn’t. —Tessa

    The most obvious conclusion one could draw from this story is that girls are mean. Which may or may not be true. The underlying conclusion one could draw though, is that sometimes being who you are—whoever you are—is hard. Sometimes, you can have it all together and still drive yourself crazy. —Brenna
    Hadley:
    Valerie Solomon is perfect.
    Her makeup is flawless and over-the-top, and her hair is always completely amazing. It never looks like someone styled it with an eggbeater unless she means