Poor Little Dead Girls Read Free

darkness under the blanket, she tried to remind herself why she was here. Lacrosse, lacrosse, lacrosse. A college scholarship would make everything worth it. Even if she had stayed in Portland and managed to get into one of her dream schools, they would never have been able to pay for it. Keating was a good thing. As long as she survived the next two years.
    She knew she shouldn’t complain. Her dad made good money and she had always had whatever she needed, but when Sadie had been just a few years old, her mother had gotten sick. Not physically sick, like with cancer, but she was in and out of intensive therapy programs, rehab, and even psychotherapy, for years. Her dad had done everything he could to get her mom the help she needed, but by the time she died, all of their savings were gone and they had a long list of debts to pay. Now all these years later, she only had one image left from that day: her dad, sitting on the floor in the living room with the lights off, tears streaming down his face.
    A squeal came from somewhere outside her blanket force field.
    “Get your ass up, Sadie. I’d know those nasty old shoes anywhere.”
    Sadie peeked out from under the covers and saw Jessica standing in the doorway in a pair of crisp white shorts and a navy polo. Sadie jumped up and ran to the door.
    “Oh my god, please tell me you’re my roommate.” She gave Jessica a big hug.
    “I wish. They always put transfers together, so I’m guessing you’ll be with two other new girls.” Jessica jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “I’m down the hall with Madison Plath. Why don’t they just kill me now and get it over with? She has her army of feng shui consultants in there right now trying to reorganize the place.” She waved a hand at the empty beds. “Your roommates aren’t here yet? That’s kinda weird.”
    Sadie shrugged. “Who knows? Rich people are never on time, right?”
    “Very funny.” Jessica picked one of Sadie’s pillows off the floor and whacked her with it.
    “For your information, I’ve been here since noon getting my crap together and waiting for your ass to show up. And here you are, sleeping on a bare mattress with all your crap strewn around the room in plastic bags.”
    “Ugh, I know. I should probably hide the evidence that I bought all my stuff from Target, right? Just so they don’t immediately realize I’m a charity case.”
    “Meh, who cares. Everyone Googles the new kids, so there’s no point trying to hide it. Want some help unpacking?”
    They spent the next hour arranging all of Sadie’s clothes in the dresser, hanging her uniform skirts, blazers, and polos in the armoire, and trying to make the room feel like home.
    “Posters help,” Jessica said, nodding toward the empty walls. “Madison already covered, like, half the room in Fever Stephens glamour shots.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s weird staring at his creepy airbrushed abs all day, but at least I don’t feel like I’m at my Nana’s.”
    Sadie was pulling the last few items out of her duffel bag — a framed photo of her mom, dressed in yellow and holding a young Sadie on her hip, and a handful of medals from lacrosse tournaments — when they heard a knock on the door. It was three quick raps — authoritative, official. She opened the door to two imposing men in dark suits, each at least six feet tall with broad shoulders and dark glasses.
    “You must be here about the aliens,” she deadpanned. They didn’t smile, but she heard Jessica suppress a laugh.
    “Miss, please vacate the room,” the one on the right barked.
    The two men kept their chins pointed straight ahead as they talked, giving the impression they weren’t really speaking to Sadie at all, but rather casting their commands out into the universe and just expecting it to obey.
    “We need to do a sweep.”
    What the hell? She looked back at Jessica, who was sprawled on the bed on her stomach, paging through last year’s Portland South yearbook. She