Don't Die Dragonfly Read Free

pilot, and have three children—all boys.
    Reading over my shoulder, Penny-Love chuckled. “Amanda? A fashion designer? That’ll be the day.”
    “How come?” I asked.
    “She wears faded army fatigues and oversized hiking boots. She has zero fashion sense.”
    I thought Penny-Love was being kind of harsh, but our friendship was still new, so I didn’t say anything.
    Returning my gaze to the newspaper, I skimmed over the next predictions. Some of them were my suggestions, like the lucky color. Glancing down at the vines embroidered up the leg of my jeans, I hoped green would indeed prove lucky.
    When I reached the end of the column and found no mention of the girl with a dragonfly tattoo, I felt relieved—and disappointed. I was glad my silly idea wasn’t in print for everyone to see. But I felt uneasy, too, as if I’d let someone down.
    “Cool, huh?” Penny-Love said as we reached our homeroom class. “I mean, I don’t believe it or whatever, but it’s fun. Where does Manny get all his ideas?”
    “He has a good imagination. If he doesn’t get that Pulitzer he’s always talking about, he’ll make a great tabloid writer.”
    “Is that a prediction?” she teased.
    “No!” I said a bit too sharply. “I only believe facts.”
    “Like the fact that you’re hot for Josh.” She nudged me and pointed to a dark-haired boy as we took our seats. “You ever gonna tell him how you feel?”
    My gaze drifted across desktops. The room suddenly felt warm and I couldn’t stop staring. Josh DeMarco. Student council junior president, A+ student, a dedicated volunteer, and so fine that my heart sped up just being near him. He was too good to be true—maybe too good for me. And I hadn’t found the nerve to talk to him. I probably never would.
    The morning went by quickly with a surprise quiz in English lit and extra homework in Spanish. I always ate lunch in the cafeteria with Penny-Love and her group of cheerleading friends, but I’d forgotten my calculus book, so I made a detour to my locker. As I grabbed my book, out of the corner of my eye I glimpsed dark hair and a smile so sweet it took my breath away.
    Josh.
    Waving as he left his friends Zach and Evan, Josh was walking this way. In seconds, he’d pass by, just inches from me. This was my chance to talk to him, find out if he knew my name and might want to know more. Yeah, like that was going to happen! If I managed to utter one word that would be a miracle.
    But I couldn’t let him catch me staring, so I leaned closer to my locker—too close! I banged my head on the door, then lost my grip on my book, and it went crashing to the floor. By the time I’d picked it up and shut my locker, Josh had passed.
    With a low groan, I watched him pause to talk to a girl with long brown hair, then laugh at something she said before continuing on his way.
    Sounds faded and a fog rolled through my mind, clouding everything except Josh. It was as if I was standing next to him, moving in step and sharing his heartbeat. I could even hear this thoughts. He was thinking about his car—a secondhand Honda Civic—and planning to stop by an auto parts store after school to repair a broken taillight. Not paying attention, he walked into his auto shop class. I smelled grease and saw the instructor helping a skinny boy move a car on a lift.
    Josh headed straight for a tool cabinet, crouching low to sort through a bottom drawer. He was directly in front of the lift, with his back to it.
    My mind was still with Josh as I closed my own locker and began walking towards the auto shop, just at the end of the hallway.
    I entered the classroom that was just outside the actual shop. A couple kids noticed me; one was a girl from my calc class.
    “Hey, Sabine,” she said, but I didn’t say anything.
    Josh was still hunched over the drawer, looking for something. “Spark plug gapping tool,” I heard in my mind. The skinny boy had the control for the lift in his hand now, but the