Free Sun Signs by Shelley Hrdlitschka Page B

mainland next year. It’s confirmed. I’ve had an interview with the principal and taken an English test. Believe me, Kaleigh, I really didn’t lie to you about anything else. It feels good to be writing to you again. I hope you feel the same. And I hope that you’ll forgive me.
    So, now that you know about how boring and stupid my life is, why don’t you tell me something about you? I’m sure I win the prize for having the dullest life.
    Shari
    P.S. What are you going to do about the science project?

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From: cosmicgirl
To: starlight
Subject: Re: Lies

I don’t know what to do about the project. I tried to get out of doing it at all, but Mr. S. wouldn’t let me off the hook. I’m going to have to make up something.
    Shari, I did tell Jamie that you’d lied to me, but I didn’t tell him any more than that. I was just mad and accused him of lying 2.
    I have missed writing to you. It’s lonely doing school by correspondence, isn’t it?
    k.

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From: starlight
To: cosmicgirl
Subject: Re: Lies

Kaleigh … I’m glad that we’re becoming friends again and all that …
    BUT YOU STILL HAVEN’T TOLD ME ANYTHING ABOUT YOU!!!!
    :)
Shari

March 11
    I just read my last few journal entries, and I realize something’s changing. I don’t feel quite so heavy, so empty. Is it the cosmos, the stars, or just that the radiation has been finished for a while? Maybe both. Or do I dare hope that it’s because I’ve been cured? OMIGOD! Just by writing that down, I think I may have jinxed any chance I have of a full recovery! I take it back!!! Erase Erase Erase …
    Sometimes Stargazer’s messages creep me out. She said to “forgive” this past week. To “listen with my heart.” My initial reaction was, Right! Forget it! Why should I forgive any of those jerks? But now, without meaning to, I think I’ve done that. It’s such a relief to be chatting with those guys again. And yeah, I guess I have forgiven them. Now I don’t remember why I took the whole science project so seriously anyway. It is just one report. One in about 7 billion a person does over 12 grades of school. And Shari and 2good didn’t fake the data to be mean — they were just going along with the game. And like Stargazer says , we are all in this together — the 4 of us are each connected through school and through the way we’ve chosen to do school. We all have crappy stuff to deal with. None of us is happy with what is happening in our lives. We have so much in common, even though it doesn’t seem that way at first.
    How does she know to write all this stuff?????
    Maybe I can try to enjoy what time I have left. No matter how it happens, or when, eventually I’m going to be dead, and I’ll be dead long enough. No point being dead while I’m still alive.

Even More Recording
and Analyzing
    Forecast For the Week of
March 12 – March 18
by B.A. Stargazer

    Gemini (May 22 – June 21)
    Wisdom arrives after a long hard
struggle. You will need both twins
to sort through the many messages
that enter your conscious world.

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From: cosmicgirl
To: jselenski
Subject: Research Project

Dear Mr. Selenski,
    I tried tackling my science project again, but I don’t know where to start. I went back to the Scientific Method outline and realize that I did successfully (I think) complete the first 4 steps of the “seven steps to discovery.” Where things get messy is in the last 3 steps.
    5. Record and Analyze Data
6. State a Conclusion
7. Share Your Discoveries
    I recorded the data, but I can’t analyze it because — as I told you — lots of it is false. Therefore I can’t state a conclusion or share my discoveries either. (Unless you want me to share how angry I was at my subjects!)
    Anyway, I’m thinking that if I did a good enough job of the first 4 steps, perhaps you could just mark me on that portion, and we’ll leave it at that. Seeing as I did more than half the steps, I figure I should at least get a