Read White is for Magic for Free Online

everything means."
    "I gotta go," Drea says. She grabs a bar of chocolate from her mini-fridge.
    'Are you all right?" I ask.
    "I don't know," she says. "I don't know if I can take another year of this." She swings her backpack over her shoulder and scoots out the door before I can say anything else.
    "I gotta go, too," Amber says. She kicks through the mound of clothes at the foot of her bed. She picks up a peach sweatshirt, sniffs it, makes a "yuck" face, and then tosses it over her shoulder.
    "What are you looking for?" I ask.
    "Something to wear to yoga after school."
    "Do you want to borrow something of mine?" I ask.
    "Let's face it, Stace, your style's a bit too housewife for my chic blood."
    "What's that supposed to mean?"
    She grabs the box of Rice Krispies and pours a huge helping into her mouth before beginning the explanation.
    42
    And all the while she's talking, she's pointing at the big purple flower in her hair, flashing me the matching garter up around her thigh, and then gesturing toward my gray sweatshirt, draped over the chair--obviously trying to explain her laws of fashion. But I have absolutely no clue as to what she's saying because her mouth is completely Rice Krispied.
     
    "Huh?" I feel my face twist up in confusion.
    She garble-talks even louder, like that will make a difference. When she sees I still don't understand, she lets out a quacklike grunt, fishes a pair of pink stretch pants from the mound on the floor along with a couple tattered Hello Kitty notebooks, and heads out to class.
    I, on the other hand, figure I can soak up another full block before heading off to Mrs. Halligan's happy couch. I hug my knees into my chest and glance down at my gingerbread-cookie-man pajamas, feeling a bit redeemed by their obvious cuteness. But then I look at the gaping hole in the knee from my fall up the stairs the other night. I poke my finger through it and take a deep breath.
    I'd give anything to talk to Chad right now. I kind of wish I wasn't so hard on him about his surprise visit. I scooch back down in bed, feeling lonelier than I have in a long time. But I can't blame Drea and Amber for getting spooked and deserting me here. Who wants to room with the angel of death?
    43

I
    j-cve.n
    When I arrive at Mrs. Halligan's office, she tells me to take a seat on the notorious happy sofa.
    Of course she doesn't actually call it that. She's dubbed it "the lounge"--an overstuffed, green-and-yellow plaid number with wooden trim and worn-out arms. Anything but loungelike, but it's still the place she expects I'm going to spill it about everything that's going wrong in my life.
    Though I feel like that could take days.
    44
    "So," she begins, "your roommates tell me you had a bad dream this morning. Anything you want to talk about?"
    She's sitting on a leather swivel chair, completely focused toward the tip of my nose from behind a pair of giant round eyeglasses. Big silver curls frame her face. "Not really," I say.
    She studies me a few seconds, legs crossed, old-lady shoe bobbing back and forth at me, hands folded neatly in her lap. "It's okay, Stacey," she says. "It's normal to experience nightmares after there's been some kind of trauma in your life. It's just your mind's way of dealing with the situation after the fact. We're coming up on a year now since last year's tragic events. That must be very hard for you." This woman's a genius.
    "Maybe this is just your body's way of exploring the experience," she continues. "Sometimes when something major or traumatic happens, our mind and body don't have time to ask questions." 'Ask questions?"
     
    "Precisely," she nods, happy that I'm participating. "Great!" I beam. "So I just need to let my mind and body ask the questions, find the answers, and then everything will go back to normal?"
    I tilt my head and nod to effect the degree of chipperness I'm going for.
    "I know it might sound easier than it actually is, Stacey, but think about it. The next time you have a