Painted Blind Read Free Page A

about the time I got strong enough to heave a snowball from my front yard into his, Rory’s parents divorced, and he moved across town. Rory now held a place in the social outcasts category, which he earned with greasy hair and the worse case of acne I had ever seen. He still talked to me occasionally, but today I wasn’t in the mood. I turned my back to him.
    Savannah must have put an air freshener in her locker because the air held a hint of cinnamon and orange. Something else, too. Salty, like the sea. Just as I lifted the handle, a voice behind me whispered, “Perfect!”
    I spun around, ready to give Rory a verbal beating. “What did you say?”
    He was still ten feet down the hall. Startled, Rory paused. “I didn’t...”
    Someone sneezed. Rory and I said, “Bless you” at the same time, then looked around. There was no one there but the two of us, and neither of us sneezed.
    Rory muttered, “Weird,” and continued down the hall.
    As I grabbed my books and walked away, I heard a string of whispered curses that started with “stupid” and ended in a language I’d never heard in my life.
     
    It took three steadying breaths before I could open the classroom door. I took Advanced Chemistry not because I was good at science, but because Mr. Billiard wore Coke-bottle glasses and called me “Ron’s girl.” All of us were just a blur to his ancient eyes—the children of students he loved in better years. However, to my utter disappointment, Mr. Billiard was spending the semester drinking coffee in the staff lounge while a student teacher named Michael Darling taught Advanced Chemistry.
    When I opened the door, Mr. Darling turned from the class and said, “Look, everybody! Venus has arrived.”
    A guy in the back whooped, “Yeah, baby, take it off!”
    My armpits grew damp. My eyelid twitched. I told myself not to overreact and hurried to my seat. I clenched my teeth as Savannah turned to me.
    “South Dakota?” she said. “Then how do you explain this ?” She opened the September issue of Cosmopolitan to a two-page spread of the Venus ad and held it out to me.
    I swiped the magazine and closed it as fast as I could. Getting harassed by a teacher was bad enough. I didn’t need it from my best friend, too.
    Back from his errand to the office, Rory filled the seat in front of me, but he didn’t mention the strange sneeze in the hall.
    “I don’t know how you could have done it,” Savannah whispered. “You won’t even wear a skirt to school.”
    I picked stray shavings off my pencil and stared at the desktop. I should have told Savannah about modeling, but she wouldn’t have understood why I needed her to keep it a secret.
    “There are no modeling agencies around here. How did you …” She broke off and answered her own question. “Jill.”
    It bugged Jill to no end that she had a head-case for a daughter.  Modeling was her grand scheme to cure me. She came from L.A. the last week in May and flew with me to New York. We stayed a week while her friend put together my portfolio. Then we left for Milan. Jill helped me decorate my apartment and went with me to my first two modeling sessions. All I needed was confidence, she said. I would learn to feel more at home in my own skin. A week later she slipped out while I slept. She was halfway to New York when I found her note. It said she was so proud of me. I tore it to shreds.
    I wanted to go home, but I’d signed a contract. If I quit, I had to repay all the expenses the agency incurred to get me there. Too proud to tell my dad what a fool I’d been, and unwilling to let him foot the bill for my stupidity, I stayed and I worked. Blair kept me booked double sessions nearly every day. I finished my contract and refused to stay longer, even though she offered to find me a private tutor or pay for a school abroad. I missed my dad, and I wanted to be a normal high school student. Even if I wasn’t normal.
    “I’m still mad at you.” Savannah reached