Entangled Summer Read Free Page B

Drama-major. You always think someone is someone famous.”
    “Okay fine. He looks like Theo James's twin brother. Happy?” She shook my arm when I didn’t respond. “The point is he's mind-meldingly hot.”
    I sighed and pulled away. “I'll take your word for it.” I said. It wasn't like I was going to get a chance to set eyes on him anyway. Nothing about the meeting I’d just had indicated I had a snowball’s chance in Hades, of moving on to the next interview. The one held by Theo's imaginary twin. I told myself it didn’t matter. Maybe he wasn’t a hundred, but I still pictured him in an Armani suit, next to his Ferrari convertible, name-dropping super models and rock stars, waiting for me to go all weak-kneed and doey-eyed. Not. Gonna. Happen. Never has. Never will. I just don't do gaga over guys. Except for one.
    The door that Kenzie had escaped from opened, and I was called again, only this time over a paging system, filling the hall with the sound of my name. “Nora Dultry. Please enter.”
    I glanced at Kenzie before I headed into part two of the weirdest interview ever.
    This room was the complete opposite of the previous one. There was another massive desk with two chairs, but behind it was a wall-sized window overlooking the forest. The top of the window was arched and filled with a stained glass scene. The center held an emblem that seemed familiar. A tree, but not just any tree. Its branches and roots seemed to reach beyond itself into the past and the future simultaneously. The space looked alive with color, full of tropical plants and antique collectibles. A vintage typewriter, an old phonograph, an antique paint box, a first edition copy of Ulysses, not kept under glass. The bookshelves were lined with titles like Dream States, Parallel Universes and Alternate Realities by authors I couldn’t pronounce, and The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Schovel Shinn, circa 1925. I slid the books back in place and roamed the mausoleum until I heard voices outside the door.
    Phase two begins , I muttered to myself and dutifully took a seat in the arm chair across from the glass top desk.
    Miss Strange stepped into the room, looking less than impressed to see me. I sprang back to my feet. Should I run? Make an excuse that I was waiting for Kenzie? Lie down and play dead? Which one of the three would keep me from being tossed over the iron gates and banned from the premises? She would inevitably insist there’d been some mistake and that I was not supposed to be here. And I’d be out on my ass, which is where I figured I’d end up.
    But she didn’t call security to have her guards throw me out the main doors. That was a good sign. I think . Instead, she sat down on the arm chair next to the bookcase.
    “Normally you would be speaking with Troy Bellisaro, our department head. But he is, indisposed , at the moment.”
    It was evident by the way she said indisposed , she didn’t approve of whatever task he was indisposed with. I let it go... not my circus, not my monkeys. I was just relieved she hadn’t railed on me for not leaving the premises. I relaxed a bit after that, even tried for casual conversation. “Interesting selection of books here.” I pointed to the shelves. I’d expect to find Monet art books, or Shakespearean plays, instead of,” I grabbed the closest book from the shelf and read the title, “ Quantum Dreaming, A Journey Through the Unknowable ?” I slid it back in place.
    Miss Strange didn’t flinch, or even respond to my observation. “Please sit down Miss Dultry.”
    She waited for me to settle in the arm chair across from hers.
    “My function here at the school is to monitor the physiological and psychological wellbeing of everyone associated with Wanderlust Academy. We have a certain profile to uphold and we pride ourselves on our holistic approach to everything that we do. One cannot perform one’s duties with the same rigor and attention to detail when one is