Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs Page A

what I’ll do.
    Without another word, she turns and walks away.
    Animal Farm in hand, I collapse on the bed.
    All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
    Sounds like my life.
    Maybe this book won’t be so bad, after all.
    Two hours and forty-seven pages later I’m still twenty pages from being done with my reading assignment.
    I can’t face another page of Animal Farm without a break, so I head to Damian’s office to check e-mail. He’s there, bent over a stack of papers. It’s a really big stack and I wonder if he has to get through the whole thing tonight.
    He sure seems to be busy all the time.
    I’m not sure if I should interrupt, so I hover in the doorway. He looks up and smiles.
    “Good evening, Phoebe.” He pushes his papers aside and smiles at me. “How is the homework coming?”
    “All done,” I say cheerfully.
    Okay, so I still need to read another twenty pages of Animal Farm and choose a painting from the Art History book to study for the semester, but everything else is finished.
    “Please,” he says, gesturing to the computer, “feel free to check your e-mail. But be sure and leave enough time to finish your reading.”
    How did he know? Either I’m that transparent or he can read minds.
    “I don’t read minds so much as I read emotion,” he says. “I sensed your guilt over lying to me.”
    “I wasn’t ly—”
    “You were stretching the truth.” He gave me a disapproving principal look.
    “Fine,” I relent. “I’m almost done.”
    He points to the chair in front of his desk. “Please, take a seat.”
    Nervous about his “discussion” tone of voice, I sink into the chair with a sense of despair. I’m about to be lectured, I just know it.
    “Don’t worry,” he says, again reading my mind—or emotions, or whatever. “I know this is a difficult transition for you. There are many changes occurring simultaneously. Whatever your opinion of me and my relationship with your mother, I would like you to trust me. No matter what problem you are having you can discuss it with me and I will advise you as best I can. In the strictest confidence.”
    I nod, knowing this is a really kind offer. There is still some part of me that won’t just open up and accept his help. Not out loud anyway. But it’s good to know it’s there. If I need it.
    “You should know,” he adds, pulling his pile of papers back over and starting to look through them again. “Ms. Tyrovolas frequently gives a detailed quiz over reading assignments.”
    “Oh.” Cool. Insider information. I’m beginning to see how having Damian as an ally could be really useful. “I’ll just check my e-mail real quick, then.”
    He nods and keeps reading his papers.
    Anxious to see if Cesca and Nola e-mailed me and get back to finishing the Animal Farm pages, I jump into the chair in front of the computer and log on to my account.
    I have two messages.

    To: [email protected]
    From: [email protected]
    Subject: Training Meeting
     
    Phoebe,
    As you overheard, your place on the team is conditional on your placing in the first meet. That is in three weeks. Come by my office after school so we can talk about your training schedule.
    Coach Lenny
     
    I send him a response saying I’ll be there as soon as I get out of Philosophy. Then I save his message in my Running folder and move on to the second message. It’s not from California.

    To: [email protected]
    From: [email protected]
    Subject: No Subject
    Making the team was the easy part.
    G
     
    Teeth grinding, I click the delete button. That message disappears. . . . but another pops up in its place. I hit delete again. Another message pops up. Delete. Pop-up. Delete. Pop-up, pop-up, pop-up. Delete, delete, del—

    To: [email protected]
    From: [email protected]
    Subject: No Subject
    You can’t get rid of me with the delete key.
    Remember who has powers.
    G

    “Son of a—”
    “Something wrong?” Damian looks up from