Read Thyla for Free Online

too: long and slightly pointed and dark. I looked at Charlotte’s fingernails. They were pearly pink and they sparkled in the sun.
    I liked mine better.
    ‘That’s a very charming bangle,’ I said, looking at the metal circle around her wrist. I said it partly because I felt as though I should compliment her back after she had been so nice to me, and partly because I really did like it.
    The bangle was made from flat, shiny copper. It looked like she polished it every day. Carved into its surface were intricate patterns that looked somehow like … animal tracks?
    A word tried to push its way into the group of words inside my mind.
    It started with a ‘P’.
    Poor … Purr …
    Purinin …
    I could not draw my eyes away from the bangle. It seemed, strangely, as though as I was looking at it, the patterns began to move – the footprints began to leap and dance. Almost as though my brain were not in control of my limbs, I reached out. I wanted to touch it. I just wanted to find out what it would feel like. It was as if I was under some strange sort of spell.
    Rihannah jerked her hand away, breaking the enchantment. ‘Don’t touch that … please,’ she said. I looked up at her eyes. They seemed fearful. I wondered why. All I had wanted was to touch the bangle. I looked back down at it again now. The footprints were standing still. The magic was over.
    ‘Tessa?’
    ‘Yes?’ I said, looking up at Charlotte.
    ‘Time to move on,’ she said. ‘See you later, Rhiannah.’
    ‘Yeah, I gotta go too. My brother’s waiting for me,’ said Rhiannah. Her voice was back to normal now. ‘Great to meet you, Tessa!’
    I watched Rhiannah walk towards the school gates. As they opened, I saw a boy standing on the other side. His hair was dark, like Rhiannah’s. Even from here I could see that he was exceedingly handsome. As the gates shut, I was almost certain I saw his eyes flick my way, and his brow furrow. I felt my heart begin to beat very quickly, and I pressed my hand to my chest, feeling my cheeks burn.
    ‘He’s a bit of a looker, isn’t he?’ Charlotte whispered in my ear. ‘I don’t blame you for checking him out.’
    ‘I was doing nothing of the sort!’ I protested.
    ‘Oh, come on. Perrin is famous,’ said Charlotte. ‘One of the best-looking boys in Hobart. Pity his sister is such a nutcase. I hope she didn’t scare you. I only introduced you so you didn’t get freaked out by her later.’
    I shook Perrin’s face from my head. I wanted to tell Charlotte that I didn’t think Rhiannah seemed weird at all. She seemed much nicer than all the ones who didn’t smile with their eyes.
    But before I could say anything, the loud noise that had scared me so much that morning quaked through the air yet again. It scared me less each time. I flinched, but I did not cower.
    Charlotte clapped her hands. ‘Class time!’ she said. ‘I do hope you have enjoyed meeting my friends, Tessa. They are definitely the most correct people for you to be associating with at Cascade Falls. I hope you will understand now that Erin and Laurel, and Rhiannah and her crowd are, well, not . You’ll thank me later for teaching you this, trust me. Now, according to your schedule, you have maths, with me. Come on. We mustn’t be late.’
    I trailed along behind Charlotte as she marched up the long, polished wood floorboards of the corridor towards our classroom, watching as the sun through the windows glinted off her spun-gold hair. I couldn’t help thinking that the halo of light did look very much like a crown.
    ‘Princess Charlotte,’ Erin had called her.
    I wondered then whether the Tessa who came out of the bush, with her matted hair and bruises and the long streaking scars across her back, would have seemed like the kind of girl Princess Charlotte would want in her court.
    I wondered if the Tessa from now would be, if Charlotte could see who she really was.
    After all, I still had the scars.

As I lay in my new bed on the first