Torch Red: Color Me Torn with Bonus Content Read Free

I’ll go out of my way to be really nice to Shawna.
    “What year are you?” I ask as we begin to walk down the hall.
    “Junior.”
    “Me too,” I say in my most cheerful voice. “It must be hard to move in your junior year.”
    “Yeah,” she answers in a glum voice.
    I make my best attempts at small talk as I show her the cafeteria, the classroom wings, the girls’ gym, and finally her next class, which happens to be the same as mine, but this girl seems determined not to be cheered up.
    “And this is English lit,” I finally tell her as we go into our second-period class. I nod to the old guy up front. I’ve heard they’ve tried to force him to retire, but he won’t give in. “Mr. Franklin comes across as kind of grouchy at first,” I whisper to her as we find seats. “But he’s really not so bad.”
    Then Shawna sort of smiles. “I guess you could say the same thing about me.”
    “Hey, don’t worry about it.” We sit next to each other. “It must be a drag changing schools.”
    She nods. “Yeah. It’s kind of hard.”
    Then Emily and Andrea come into the classroom and I quickly introduce them to Shawna. To my relief they both smile and even welcome her to our school.
    I pretty much hang with Shawna all morning and even invite her to join me and my friends for lunch. I’m thinking that she’s really a lot like the rest of my friends and actually seems to fit in pretty well. But I’m a little worried about girls like Thea and Kirsti. I mean Shawna is cool and everything, but she seems a little quiet and I’m not sure how she’ll react to their big mouths.
    “Where are you from?” asks Kirsti.
    “Jackson,” Shawna answers as she sticks a straw into her diet soda.
    “My cousin goes to Jackson,” Andrea says. “Maybe you know him.”
    Shawna kind of frowns now, like maybe she doesn’t want to talk about this, or maybe it’s depressing her.
    “I think it’s been hard on Shawna,” I say quickly, “I mean moving in the middle of the year.” I hope that Andrea will catch my drift. But unfortunately she doesn’t.
    “His name is Caleb Andrews,” she continues.
    To my relief, Shawna smiles. “Oh yeah. I know Caleb,” she says. “We even went out a few times last year.”
    “Really?” Andrea nods with approval. “I think he’s pretty popular over there.”
    “Yeah,” says Shawna. “He’s a cool guy. And nice too.”
    Well, that seems to settle it with Andrea. It’s like she’s completely accepted Shawna now. And if Andrea accepts someone, everyone else usually just follows along. Shawna tends to stick pretty close to me throughout the rest of the day, and I don’t really mind. In fact, I think I’m really starting to like this girl. After she lightened up I could see that she’s pretty funny. And she wasn’t even offended by Thea’s and Kirsti’s locker-room stupidity. Let me tell you, they were a little out of hand today. Fortunately for me, they were so busy yakking about
their
New Year’s Eve that they never even asked about mine.
    After school, Shawna offers me a ride home.
    “Good idea,” says Emily, my “sometimes ride.” “I mean since I’ve got cheerleading practice today.”
    “I used to be a cheerleader,” says Shawna in a flat voice.
    “Too bad you moved here too late to try out,” says Andrea. “Maybe next year.”
    “Yeah. Maybe.”
    Then I remember that today is tryouts for the spring play. “Hey, I’d love a ride, Shawna, but I was going to try out for the play this afternoon.”
    “Yeah,” says Emily, “Zoë is our drama queen.”
    “I am
not
.”
    “Yes, she is,” insists Andrea. “She’s really good too. You should’ve seen her in
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
as Puck last fall. She was totally amazing.”
    Now I’m feeling slightly embarrassed, although I don’t particularly mind the praise. Okay, maybe I am a little egotistical when it comes to my acting. “Well,” I say with a shrug. “I suppose I was okay.”
    “I was in