Starseed Read Free Page A

students were raised in hard circumstances, without mothers and fathers and the luxuries you enjoy, so they appear different,” the principal continued. “I ask you to make them feel welcome as we try to assimilate them into society.”
    Jordyn must be one of them, Kaila thought. That must be why they seemed so strange.
    She was desperate to find out more. Mustering courage, she whispered to the girl next to her. “Hey. You ever heard of this cult thing? I haven’t.”
    The girl raised her eyebrow. “Where’ve you been? It was all over the news for weeks.”
    Kaila shut up. Where had she been? Probably playing with her dogs and horses in La La Land. Rebuked and self-conscious, she tucked her left hand beneath the bottom of her t-shirt.

    In second period English, someone tugged Kaila’s wig. Kaila slapped her hand on her head to secure the wig and turned around.
    “Nice hair.” Dark bangs slanting across the girl’s forehead covered one eye.
    “Thanks,” Kaila said, hoping that it wasn’t obvious her hair was a wig. So far, no one but Jordyn had seemed to notice.
    “I had long hair but cut it off,” the girl said. “Too much work.”
    “Well, I got a big head. Someone once called me an egghead, and the hair hides it. So that’s my deal,” Kaila said. “It really sucks being called an egghead, ya know?”
    At once she blushed. Why did she blurt something so juvenile?
    The girl smiled. With relief, Kaila realized it was okay.
    “I’m Melissa. You?”
    “Kaila.”
    “I saw you get on the bus this morning,” Melissa said.
    “Really? I didn’t see you.”
    “Cause I was in the back. You’re new here, huh?
    “Yeah. First day.”
    “I can tell.”
    “How?”
    “Girl, your eyes are as big as saucers.”
    Kaila digested this. Was it so obvious?
    “Just kidding. Didn’t see you here last year. Where were you before this?”
    “Home schooled.”
    “Hmph, don’t know what’s worse—stuck at home or in this hell.”
    Kaila smiled at Melissa and Melissa smiled back. Melissa’s left eye didn’t focus straight at her. It turned inward like a cross eye. Melissa lowered her gaze. Kaila realized that she must be self-conscious about her eye, just as Kaila was about her left hand. It was probably why Melissa wore her bangs in her face. Kaila panged with empathy, knowing what it was like to feel different and weird.
    “Hey,” Kaila said. “I like your hair. It’s sassy.”
    Melissa looked back at Kaila and this time didn’t avert her gaze.
    The bell rang and the teacher, Mr. Foret, who had curly black hair, black-rimmed glasses, and a faded plaid shirt, handed out the semester’s reading assignments. The class groaned.
    “Silence!” he shouted.
    Someone threw a paper football that hit him on the side of his face. Everyone tittered as Mr. Foret’s face reddened. Another paper football sailed by and hit the board.
    “Stop,” he said with little conviction.
    A guy next to Kaila with hair to his shoulders slumped over his desk, sleeping.
    A paper football hit Kaila’s head.
    “Score!”
    She turned around. Two big guys sat in the back, laughing. They had wide shoulders and puckered their lips at her with mock kisses. She then noticed a girl with long strawberry hair and a headband staring at her, a cold, withering look.
    Kaila turned and focused on the teacher, as stale and spineless as he was. Oh my god , she thought, who are these people?
    Melissa pressed a note under her arm.
    Welcome to the Bush Zoo. Meet me in the cafeteria by smoothies at lunch. I’ll give you the full freak tour.
    Kaila smiled gratefully at Melissa. Thank goodness, she wouldn’t have to hide alone at lunch.

    “Because I don’t want to be a whale,” Melissa replied after Kaila asked why all she ordered for lunch was a smoothie and chips.
    “The same,” Kaila said to the cafeteria lady. Oh, my God. She was positively hangry —a cross between hungry and angry. But since she was learning the ropes, she begrudgingly