Beauty Read Free Page B

bother to respond. Tears were streaming down my face now, and I had to swallow hard to choke back a sob. “Move it,” I mumbled, keeping my head down as I shouldered my way through Seth and his friends.
    I heard Seth call out my name as I picked up my pace again, but I didn’t stop for him either. I just kept going, faster and faster, weaving my way through people and rides and games, laughter and voices swirling around me like a storm. I suddenly knew exactly where I wanted to go. The fishpond at the very edge of the fairgrounds. The one place where I could never do any wrong.
    There was a crowd outside the burgnut stand, and I had to slow down to push my way through. “Hey!” I felt someone’s hand on my arm. “Molly!”
    I looked over to see Josh Wilson, the new guy in our grade, standing next to me. “You okay?” He smiled at me. “You look like you’re running from a stampede.”
    “I’m fine,” I said impatiently, avoiding his eyes. The last thing I wanted was to stand around making small talk. Or have some guy I barely knew ask me why I looked like I was attempting to make a river out of my tears.
    “You sure?” He glanced over his shoulder, his eyes wide with mock-fear. “No herd of buffalo to worry about?”
    Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of someone who looked a whole lot like Hudson heading our way. I shook Josh’s hand off my arm. “I have to go,” I said.
    “You’re sure you don’t want a doughnut burger?” Josh asked. His forehead was wrinkling in concern now, which only made me feel worse. “I hear they’re to die for. Literally.” That was just the kind of joke Kemper would make, and normally it would crack me up. But not tonight. “Come on,” Josh said. “I’ll treat.”
    “No,” I snapped. Hudson was getting closer. And—my heart thumped in my chest—there was a girl walking next to him. A girl with white-blonde hair and a big monkey tucked into the crook of her arm. I had to get out of there. “See ya,” I mumbled to Josh. Then I took off running again.
    My feet were starting to get sore in my Keds, but I didn’t care. My tears were falling freely again, and I just wanted to be far away from it all, from the stares and the snickers and those words: You’re too beautiful to go home without a prize. The fishpond was for kids. No one my age would dare be seen there. I knew I’d be safe there.
    I was panting a little by the time I cut through the line of bushes separating the pond from the rest of the fairgrounds, but still I sucked in a breath of surprise as I looked around. Everything was different. The pond was still there, but there were no plastic fish floating along inside it, no, WIN EVERY TIME! sign sticking out of the ground, no swarm of kids lining up feverishly for their turn. The whole place was strangely, eerily empty.
    Wiping my eyes, I sank down into the grass and pulled my knees to my chest, resting my head on them. I had never felt so alone in my life. I couldn’t go back to the fair and face the laughter. And I couldn’t go home until my ride at nine thirty. All I could do was sit here, beside an empty pond, and let the last hour loop through my head over and over again. I thought of Ashley and Hudson, sharing a burgnut, then riding the Ferris wheel together, the monkey tucked tightly between them. Tears pricked my eyes again. It was so unfair. Why did she get to be her, while I was stuck being me? Who made those decisions? And hadn’t they ever heard of a little thing called equality ?
    “You okay, sweetheart?”
    A voice from behind made me twist around in surprise. A woman was sitting behind me, a sketch board set up in front of her and a case of charcoal open in her lap. She was tall and willowy, with hair so red it looked like fire and so long it skimmed her waist. I blinked as I took in her outfit: a fringed leather vest over a colorful patchwork dress. I straightened up quickly, clearing my throat. How had I not noticed her