Barbie World (Baby Doll Series) Read Free

and makes a gagging noise and I laugh. “I tried to tell them that they were being unreasonable, that this is my last summer to be a teen, so getting a job and trying to be responsible is the last thing I want to do.”
    I get up and look in the mirror at the bleach stripping the color from my hair. I wish it could strip the torment that is constantly swirling inside of me as well.
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    “It looks… lovely… but I would have taken you to a salon to get it done if you had asked me.” Mrs. Knight purses her lips as she fingers a piece of my newly bleached hair. That pang of guilt is back, plucking away at my insides.
    “It’s okay. I used to do it myself all the time.” I smile at her as I pour a large glass of Coke with ice.
    Mrs. Knight made me her personal doll when I came to live with them. She dressed me up, did my hair, and changed my clothes. She thought that she might be able to change the reputation I have with a new outfit, but she was wrong. I know she was warned about me from other shocked mothers that called up when they found out she was taking in the little, druggie tramp and her poor, damaged brother. This town is too small and the ladies too southern for gossip not to get to her. After a few of those calls, she took me down to the local Create and Cuts as well as for a trip to the Gap. I appreciate what she was trying to do for me, but I cannot walk around anymore feeling uncomfortable in my own skin. Pretending I am someone I am not. It’s too confusing.
    After Roxie and I successfully bleached my hair back as well as her bangs, I added a few strips of pink back to my hair with cool aid packs I found in the back of the cupboard. “Really, I don’t mind,” I reassure her with my own tight-lipped smile.
    She gives me back another tight-lip smile. “Well, it…it is…it is very nice.”
    I don’t want to seem ungrateful because I am grateful for what the Knights are doing for us, but I don’t belong with them. I never will. I am too different and Mrs. Knight knows that deep down, that is why she tried to change me. However, no amount of hair dye can change the rumors about me. I will never fit into their perfect cookie-cutter life.
    We sit down at the dinner table—an awkward experience for me—but the Knights insist on having at least one dinner together a week. Not only is the thought mind boggling to me that they like to eat together, it is also weird that I don’t have to think about how the food will appear on the table. My mother was on a strict liquid diet and food in the fridge was not a high priority for her. Dinner usually meant me snagging a few things from the gas station or coming up with something edible from what the church had dropped off to Mrs. Sophie.
    “So, kids, you have been out of school for what? A full week? Tell me how you are all planning to spend the rest of your time not lolly-gagging around.” Mr. Knight points his fork at me and then at Dylan.
    “Really, Dad, lolly-gagging?” Dylan says, rolling his eyes.
    “What’s lala gagging?” Emmy asks.
    “Lolly-gagging is what all the cool kids are saying,” Mr. Knight says, rubbing the top of Emmy’s head.
    “Yeah, maybe in the fifties.” Dylan smirks at me and I quickly look away. My heart leaps into my throat, I hate that he has that effect on me still.
    Dylan and I have an unspoken agreement; he does not speak to me and I pretend he doesn’t exist. It is easier that way. At first, I was so angry at him, I blamed him for everything. I blamed him for my mom getting picked up by the sheriff and I blamed him for my screwed up family being torn apart. It wasn’t his fault, though, and when the pain from my injuries started to subside, so did my anger. Now, I ignore him as a defense mechanism. If I allow myself to feel for Dylan what I am aching on the inside to feel, I don’t know what will happen. How will his parents react? What if they call the state and say it was a mistake taking us in? I will lose