Free Seeing Cinderella by Jenny Lundquist Page B

taking my eyes off Ellen and Stacy. “That’s all we ate though, because I forgot to put the chicken in the oven.”
    Ana laughed and went back to her script.
    The bell rang, and Mr. Angelo announced he was assigning partners to run lines. I tried to catchEllen’s eye, but she just listened to Stacy, who pointed at a poster on the wall advertising Pacificview Middle School’s annual Halloween carnival.
    Fine, be that way, I thought at Ellen, yanking my glasses from my backpack and slipping them on. She could ignore me all she wanted, but she couldn’t hide from my super freaky magic glasses. Holding my script in front of me and pretending to study, I spied on Ellen and Stacy’s thoughts.
    Stacy: The Halloween carnival sounds fun. I bet there’ll be lots of boys.
    Ellen: Callie and I hang out every Halloween. It’s tradition.
    Stacy: Why can’t Ellen just tell Callie she doesn’t want to do another boring sleepover?
    Ellen: Maybe I could tell Callie I can’t make it—and then meet Stacy at the carnival.
    I slumped in my seat. My eyes felt hot with tears and my throat felt thick. I wanted to cry and yell at Ellen—but I knew I couldn’t. How could you argue with your best friend, when she never told you her true thoughts? When the only reason you know what she really thinks is because you’re spying on her?
    Before Ellen told me she “couldn’t make it” on Halloween, I jumped up and marched over to them.
    “Hey, I’ve got a great idea,” I said.
    “You do?” Stacy sounded skeptical. And so were herthoughts: What, like watching a bunch of cheesy horror movies? I swear, Callie likes the most boring things.
    I paused. Because last year after trick-or-treating, Ellen and I had watched a bunch of cheesy horror movies—and laughed ourselves silly. Which meant Ellen told her what we did last year. Did Ellen think that was boring now?
    “Well, what’s your wonderfully great idea?” Stacy prompted.
    Since smacking Stacy right then would probably make Ellen mad (and get me suspended), I pointed to the poster instead.
    “What if we went to the carnival instead of having a sleepover? We could get a big group of people together.” I turned to Stacy. “You could come with us, if you want to.”
    Ellen stared at me, her thoughts slowly scrolling across the blue screen hovering next to her: I wonder if it would be more fun to just go with Stacy.
    I felt something deflate inside me then, and I was about to say that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea, after all.
    But then Ellen shook her head slightly. Stop it! Callie’s your best friend. What kind of a person doesn’t want to go to the carnival with her best friend? Besides, we had so much fun last year.
    “Sounds good,” Ellen said. “Can we meet at your house like last year?”
    “Sure,” I said, smiling back at Ellen and holding out my pinkie. “It’s tradition, isn’t it?”
    “I’ll go,” Stacy said, smiling widely as Ellen and I crossed pinkies. But her thoughts were not happy at all: Why does Callie have to ruin everything?
    “Great,” I said, floating off as Mr. Angelo called my name. From his thoughts, I knew he was about to pair me up with Scott Fowler.
    Right then, I loved my glasses.
     
    “Your beauty is exquisite. You’re captivating. You’re . . . you’re . . .”
    I leaned farther toward Scott. He was so close I could see the flecks of gold in his brown eyes. My heart raced and I was having trouble breathing. “Really? Tell me more.”
    “Your beauty is like . . . like—oh forget it!” Scott flung his script across the multipurpose room. “This Cinderella stuff is a bunch of junk. Good thing we’re just understudies. Know what I mean? At least we don’t have to really know any of it. Not like them.” Scott pointed over to Charlie and Ellen, who also ran lines together.
    Students sat scattered throughout the multipurpose room in groups of two. Mr. Angelo stood behind Charlie and Ellen; all three of them looked