Dark Secrets Read Free

searching.
“Amara-Rose?”
    Emily’s eyes fell on
me.
    “ Um, yes.”
    “ Right.” The lady
woke up then and, in a jittery fashion, fumbled about her papers.
“I’ll just find your file here among all this mess, and—” her voice
trailed off. “Haven’t had a chance to read it yet. Been so busy
with all this stuff here. Ah, here we go.” She put her glasses on.
“Yes, this is you.”
    I stared at the
folder, wondering when I had become an A-Four piece of
stationery.
    “ Well, um, here’s
your class schedule—” She handed me a piece of paper. “And you can
just go ahead and take one of those there maps ya see.”
    Emily handed me a
pamphlet from the desktop. I ran my fingers over it, biting my lip
to hide a hint of a grin. This little piece of paper was my new best
friend.
    “ Now, Emily, can you
show Amara-Rose to her first class?”
    “ Happy to.” Emily
grabbed my hand and dragged me from the room, but even as the door
closed, the eyes of Reception Lady lingered along my nerves. “I bet
you have English first period.” She snatched my schedule, then
grinned widely. “You do. I hate you.”
    “ Nice to meet you,
too.” I took the paper back and frowned at it.
    “ It’s just....” She started walking; I followed. “You
have David Knight in your class.”
    I scratched my head,
choosing to ignore her complete lack of composure. “School
heartthrob?”
    “ You guessed it. I
mean, he’s a bit of a jerk, really—to most girls, but he’s just so
damn cute no one cares.”
    My lip curled. I bit
it. This girl had issues. “I don’t like jerks, really.”
    “ Mm-mm.” She shook
her head. “He won’t be a jerk to you. You haven't done anything to
annoy him yet.”
    “ Lucky
me.”
    “ Yeah, and he totally
goes for that lost lamb thing you’ve got going.” She motioned to
me—all of me.
    “ Um, yeah, well, my
biggest concern for senior year is not what some jerk-face cute guy
thinks of me.”
    “ That’s because you
haven’t seen him yet.”
    I rolled my eyes. As
if I’d ever be that pathetic.
    “ Yep.” She considered
me again for a second. “He is just going to snatch you
up.”
    “ Should I be
worried?” I wasn't partial to being snatched.
    “ No
way. They’d deny it, but any girl in the school would give their
right arm to be snatched by David.”
    Or maybe just you
would.
    “ Okay.” She stopped
again. I wanted to keep walking—right past the glass doors, out to
the front parking lot and into the closet under the stairs back at
Dad’s house. “Here’s Room One; you’re late, but people will only
whisper about you for the first ten or so minutes.”
    “ Great.” I faked
another smile.
    “ That’s the spirit.”
She curled a fist in front of the door and said, “Take a deep
breath.”
    I tried, but the deep
gasp of air just formed another lump in my throat, making me dizzy
as I held it in.
    “ Okay, you can let it
out.” She laughed. “You ready?”
    My head moved; I think
I nodded. Then, Emily rapped lightly on the door, sending my nerves
into a frenzy. Don’t get me wrong, I could handle nerves, and
butterflies in my stomach were just yesterday’s breakfast, but
these felt more like bats. Big black, hairy bats.
    The door clinked and
popped open a little, revealing a shiny head with a light tuft of
hair around the ears. “Emily? What can I do for you?”
    “ This is Ara. She’s
new.” Emily presented me.
    “ Ah, yes. Of course.”
He turned to look at my face; his eyes warm, his grey-brown
moustache curving atop his grin. “Ara, is it, not
Amara-Rose?”
    I shook my head—maybe
I should’ve nodded. Who knows?
    “ Well, Ara, I hope you’re a much quieter student than this lot.” He jerked his
thumb to the noisy class; I tried to look past him to get a handle
on the room, so as not to trip on anyone when I walked in, but he
was in the way.
    “ I don’t think you
need to worry about that, Mr Benson. She’s hardly said two
words.”
    The teacher