Read The Shadow of the Bear: A Fairy Tale Retold for Free Online

But, of course, she couldn’t say that to Sister, who might not know about her father’s death. So, she thanked her teacher quickly and went to her next class.

    Rose hurried towards her sister as she saw Blanche leave Sister Geraldine’s room. “Hey! How are you doing?”
    “The usual.” Blanche gave her a bleak smile.
    “You don’t look too good.” Rose studied her sister’s white face anxiously.
    “I was feeling a little dizzy after lunch. That’s all.”
    “Was someone teasing you again?”
    “We both know that’s the school’s second most popular sport.”
    Rose felt an angry flush pass over her face. “Who? The boys or the girls?”
    “Two guesses,” Blanche tried to smile and pushed back her hair from her face. “Don’t worry about me, Rose.”
    “I do, though.” Rose bit her lip. “You know, the kids in your class must have awfully low self-esteem to get such a charge out of being bullies.”
    “If we believe Bear, they’ll grow out of it someday,” Blanche said ironically.  Blanche already seemed less tense, being able to talk about it, just as Rose had hoped. Rose was heartened. She and Blanche had always been very different people, but since they had come to this new school together, Rose felt a closer kinship between them. She was Blanche’s sole ally in an environment neither of them felt a part of.
    “Keep your chin up,” Rose urged. “I’ll find those boys and pound them.” Rose was not afraid of any kind of male creature. She had already made a reputation among the boys at school by bawling them out for harassing her sister. Some of them looked the other way when they saw her coming, but she couldn’t care less.
    “Sister Geraldine gave me this neat poem,” Blanche said, changing the subject. “I’ll show it to you at home. It was written by one of her old students. Just our luck—the one student here who seems to have any grasp of the higher things graduated a long time ago. But it’s a cool poem.”
    “We’ll read it together tonight,” Rose said, smiling at her sister. “Two more hours!” Blanche grinned back. She turned into the doorway of her next class.
    Rose had the last lunch period of the school day, which was sarcastically nicknamed “the supper lunch” since it came so late in the day. As she walked down the stairs to the basement where the cafeteria was, she saw Rob Tirsch at his locker. She couldn’t help slowing down a bit. Rob was tall, black-haired, and terribly good-looking. Unfortunately, he seemed to know it. He was part of the popular crowd in the senior class, but he had been pretty friendly to Rose.
    “Hey, Red,” he said to her as she passed him.
    “Hi, Rob,” she said, smiling, and he turned around.
     “What you been up to?” He flashed a smile at her, indicating that he would like to talk.
    “Oh, nothing much.” Despite herself, Rose leaned against the wall to talk to him, hoping that the three zits on her face weren’t too obvious.
    “You don’t do much, do you?” He slammed his locker shut.  “Break’s over. Can you believe it? It went by so fast,” Rob ran his hands through his curly hair.
    Rose, whose Christmas vacation had been lonely, if leisurely, simply nodded. “What did you do over break?”
    “Went skiing a couple of times. You ever gone?”
    Rose shook her head. “I’ve done cross-country a few times, but not downhill.”
    “It’s the best. Man, this year is dragging by. I can’t wait till I’m out of here.”   He cast his blue eyes on her again.  “You going to the prom?”
    “The senior prom?  I’m only a junior.  Why’d you ask?”
    “Just taking a survey.”  Rob glanced behind him and winked at her. “Hey, bet you didn’t know this. See that iron door over there?” He indicated a much painted-over door beside the furnace room.
    Rose nodded.
    “D’you know there’s a tunnel there?” Rob asked.
    “Really?” Rose was intrigued.
    “Yeah,” Rob lowered his voice mysteriously.