As Red as Blood (The Snow White Trilogy) Read Free

looking glass was good enough for her, and other people’s opinions were irrelevant.
    Lumikki thought about what to wear to school for precisely three seconds. She decided to stick with the gray sweater and pull on some jeans. Combat boots, black wool jacket, green scarf and mittens, gray knit hat. Fjällräven backpack. Done.
    Hunger gnawed at her stomach. Not even a light had greeted her in the empty refrigerator. The bulb had been broken for a couple of weeks, and she hadn’t felt like changing it. She’d have to buy a sandwich from the snack bar at school. Maybe two. And definitely more coffee.
    A familiar hectic clamor washed over her at the doors to the school. Everyone was in a hurry and needed to shout about what a hurry they were in. High school students were oh so articulate, so scintillating and creative in their modes of expression. Lumikki knew she was being mean, but some mornings, tolerating the colorful clothing and dramatic gestures was tough. And then there was the unspoken agreement everyone seemed to have about the lines they would stay inside so they could all be “different” and “unique” in the same damn way.
    Underneath her irritation, Lumikki was thankful, though. Going to this school was a privilege. It meant she didn’t have to be in Riihimäki anymore. Getting away from there hadbeen the reason for applying here. Her parents might have had a hard time letting her move so far away to such a big city otherwise, but landing a prestigious spot in an elite magnet school for the arts was a good enough excuse. And during her first few semesters, Lumikki felt like she had died and gone to heaven. That feeling had faded gradually, though, as she got used to the place and began to see how much jealousy, affectation, pretense, self-aggrandizement, and insecurity hid behind all the happy smiles.
    Fortunately, the school wasn’t just noisy, it was also warm, and gradually Lumikki’s stiff limbs began waking up. She knew the unbearable tingling was imminent, as the blood started circulating to her toes and fingers again. She should have put on two pairs of wool socks and crammed her feet into her boots like that. Tossing her coat onto a hook, Lumikki ran downstairs to the lunchroom and snack bar.
    “Veggies today, or just plain?” the cook asked when she saw Lumikki.
    “One of each, please,” she replied. “And a large coffee.”
    “With no room for milk,” the cook said with a laugh as she filled the paper cup to the brim.
    Lumikki sat down at a table and let the warmth slowly sink into her body. Gah! The awful sensation was like a billion little needle pricks, but it was unavoidable in this weather. For a second, she thawed her hands against the coffee cup, and then took a bite of her sandwich. The roll was big and tasty, the tomato was ripe, and the bell pepper was crisp. Lumikki was a financial vegetarian. She didn’t buy meat with her ownmoney, but if someone else was buying and cooking some, then she was happy to eat it. Maybe that made her a hypocrite, but it worked.
    Three girls assailed her eardrums from the next table. Blond hair was swung. Dark, short hair was twirled. Red split ends were inspected. YSL Baby Doll, Britney Spears Fantasy, and Miss Dior Cherie wafted through the air.
    “My head’s going to explode if he treats me like I’m invisible today. If he thinks he can fool around with me at parties and then ignore me at school, he needs to think again. I can’t believe he’s already eighteen.”
    “My head feels like it’s going to explode anyway. I should not have had those last few drinks. I don’t even know what was in them!”
    “Well. At least
we
were only drinking.”
    Feigned expressions of shock. Wide eyes.
    “Oh my God, who?”
    “Oh, come on. You would’ve had to be blind not to notice Elisa’s pupils, dumbass. And she was totally jittery.”
    “She’s always like that.”
    “This was like to the hundredth power.”
    Furtive glances. Three heads