Free Beautiful Darkness by Kami García, Margaret Stohl

and tried to concentrate, to see if Lena was there. But I already knew she wouldn’t be. I could feel when
     she had pulled away, which was most of the time, lately.
    Amma called up the stairs again. “If you’re fixin’ to be late for your last examination, you’ll be sittin’ on your sweet corncakes
     in that room a yours all summer. That’s a promise.”
    Lucille Ball was staring at me from the foot of my bed, the way she did most mornings now. After Lucille showed up on our
     porch, I took her back home to Aunt Mercy, but the next day she was sitting on our porch again. After that, Aunt Prue convinced
     her sisters that Lucille was a deserter, and the cat moved in with us. I was pretty surprised when Amma opened the door and
     let Lucille wander in, but she had her reasons. “Nothin’ wrong with havin’ a cat in the house. They can see what most people
     can’t, like the folks in the Otherworld when they cross back over—the good ones and the bad. And they get rid a mice.” I
     guess you could say Lucille was the animal kingdom’s version of Amma.
    By the time I made it into the shower, the hot water rolled off me, pushing everything away. Everything except the scar. I
     turned it up even hotter, but I couldn’t keep my mind in the shower. It was tangled up in the dreams, the knife, the laughter—
    My English final.
    Crap.
    I’d fallen asleep before I finished studying. If I failed the test, I would fail the class, Good-Eye Side or not. My grades
     were not stellar this semester, and by that I mean I was running neck and neck with Link. I wasn’t my usual don’t-study-and-get-by
     self. I was already close to failing history, since Lena and I had ditched the mandatory Reenactment of the Battle of Honey
     Hill on her birthday. If I failed English, I’d be spending all summer in a school so old it didn’t even have air conditioning,
     or I’d be looking at sophomore year all over again. It was the particularlypenetrating problem a person with a pulse should be prepared to ponder today. Assonance, right? Or was it consonance? I was
     screwed.
    This was day five of supersized breakfasts. We’d had finals all week, and Amma believed there was a direct correlation between
     how much I ate and how well I would do. I had eaten my weight in bacon and eggs since Monday. No wonder my stomach was killing
     me and I was having nightmares. Or at least, that’s what I tried to tell myself.
    I poked at the fried eggs with my fork. “More eggs?”
    Amma squinted at me suspiciously. “I don’t know what you’re up to, but I’m in no mood for it.” She slid another egg onto my
     plate. “Don’t try my patience today, Ethan Wate.”
    I wasn’t about to argue with her. I had enough problems of my own.
    My dad wandered into the kitchen and opened the cupboard, searching for his Shredded Wheat. “Don’t tease Amma. You know she
     doesn’t like it.” He looked up at her, shaking his spoon. “That boy of mine is downright S. C. A. B. R. O. U. S. As in…”
    Amma glared at him, slamming the cupboard doors shut. “Mitchell Wate, I’ll give you a scab or two all your own if you don’t
     stop messin’ with my pantry.” He laughed, and a second later I could have sworn she was smiling, and I watched as my own crazy
     father started turning Amma back into Amma again. The moment vanished, popping like a soap bubble, but I knew what I’d seen.
     Things were changing.
    I still wasn’t used to the sight of my dad walking around during the day, pouring cereal and making small talk. It seemed
     unbelievable that four months ago my aunt had checked himinto Blue Horizons. Although he wasn’t exactly a new man, as Aunt Caroline professed, I had to admit I barely recognized
     him. He wasn’t making me chicken salad sandwiches, but these days he was out of the study more and more, and sometimes even
     out of the house. Marian scored my dad a position at the University of Charleston as a guest lecturer in the English