Free Nightbird by Alice Hoffman

decision to stick with life as I knew it, which meant I was alone. But at least I wasn’t dumped or betrayed.
    I continued walking, and Julia did, too. It was a hot afternoon and there were bees buzzing in the fields.
    “In other words, you don’t want to be friends.” There was a catch in Julia’s voice. When I glanced at her I thought I saw a glimmer of tears in her eyes.
    “
You
don’t want to be friends with
me
,” I corrected her.
    “Who told you that? Because I never said that.”
    We were walking side by side, jumping into the grass whenever we heard a car behind us. It was hard having a conversation while we were either leaping around or striding along the hot blacktop.
    “No one told me. I just know what will happen. Eventually you’ll find other people you like better. They’ll tell you I’m a nobody and you’ll realize it was all a mistake, so it’s just faster and easier if we’re not friends from the beginning.”
    “Okay.” Julia nodded. “Fine.”
    My face felt hot. This had been my fear, that it would be this easy for her to drop me. And it would hurt this much. There were probably tears in my eyes now, too.
    Then Julia shocked me. “We’ll be soul sisters instead. That’s more than being friends. It means I won’t everthink being friends is a mistake and neither will you. It means you won’t guess what I’m thinking. Instead you’ll talk to me and I’ll talk to you, and we won’t keep things from each other.”
    I felt a surge of relief, but I said, “We don’t even have anything in common.”
    “Oh, like you’re tall, I’m short?” Julia grinned. “Important stuff like that? Is that what you mean?”
    I had to laugh. It sounded silly when she put it that way.
    “We actually have tons in common,” Julia went on. “We both love books, window seats, pie, dogs, and the last day of school!”
    That much was true. We were walking under the tall shady trees. At this time of year in Sidwell everything was green and lush. The summer stretching out in front of me was starting to seem pretty great. Having a friend made it feel as if summer would last twice as long and be at least three times as much fun.
    “And more importantly, we have a secret that binds us together,” Julia said solemnly. I looked at her and she nodded. “I saw James.”
    Julia knew about my brother.
    We went into the woods and found a quiet place where we could talk. At first I could hardly catch my breath. I didn’t know how it would feel to share mysecret. I didn’t even know if I could share. The light coming in through the trees was yellow. There were wildflowers all around and ferns were unfolding. We’d gone pretty far, almost to the nesting place of the owls, which I could never seem to find without my brother. All the same, I had the feeling the owls were peering down at us. It was so quiet we felt we should speak in whispers, so we did. Once Julia began to talk, it was a huge relief to have someone know the truth.
    She told me that one night she’d heard Agate leave Mourning Dove when everyone else was in bed. She followed her out of the house, through the tall grass, into the woods. Soon she lost sight of her sister. In the dark, she felt lost and panicked. She’d heard there was a bottomless lake nearby, and was suddenly terrified that she’d fall into it, drown, and never be heard of again.
    Julia made her way through the brambles, getting more and more lost as she went on. At last she heard her sister’s voice, down at the shore of the lake. Agate was sitting there with my brother. Julia crouched down, hidden by a patch of thorny bushes. If she crashed back through the brambles they’d surely hear her and know she was spying. She said she felt spellbound. There were pools of moonlight in the grass and the lake looked blackand was so still it seemed more like glass than like water. Agate and James were laughing and talking. Everything seemed so perfect, until James turned and Julia saw him