Free The Education of Bet by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Will could forward them for her and Bet could save on postage. And I had come up with
that
contrivance so I would not have to create a false address from which to send Bet's letters.
    Oh, my head was starting to spin! What a tangled web I was weaving now that I practiced to deceiving!
    ***
    God,
it was noisy in this place! How loud the world had grown, and how many people were in it!
    Mr. Winter, the master of Proctor Hall, was a short man, round as a Christmas goose, with little hair, only a horseshoe of black rimming his otherwise bald pate. He was also, apparently, a deaf man, for he did not seem to notice the overabundance of noise that thundered the walls as he led me up the stairs to my room.
    As we turned onto the landing, with me barely able to drag the heavy trunk up the stairs behind me, I caught my first sight of three of my floor mates. One was a tall hulk of a boy with yellow hair and disturbingly pale blue eyes. He had on a purple and red waistcoat, a sign that he was somehow different from the rest of us. Another one of the boys was also tall, but he had the build of a twisted string bean, and his brown hair and squinty brown eyes gave him the appearance of a rodent. As for the third boy, who had a shock of curly red hair badly in need of cutting, it was difficult to gauge his height since he was curled up in the large arms of the first boy.
    "Ooh, New Boy," the hulking one said upon seeing me. I couldn't be entirely positive, but I was fairly certain that that was a sneer I saw stretching out his lips. Then, as though my arrival were of no immediate importance, he turned his attention back to the string bean. "Here, catch," he said.
    Before I knew what was happening, the hulking one tossed the boy he was holding, and the string bean stretched out his arms, just barely grasping and holding on to the flying object.
    Mr. Winter began to lead us past as though nothing out of the ordinary were happening.
    "Your turn," the string bean said, and suddenly the third boy was flying through the air again, only this time he was screaming.
    I couldn't believe what I was seeing: they were playing catch with a human being!
    "Um, shouldn't someone do something about that?" I suggested to Mr. Winter, casting furtive glances over my shoulder as the master plodded down the hall.
    "Whatever for?" he said. "It's just high spirits."
    "Yes, but someone could get"—I heard a loud thump behind me, the third boy crashing to the floor—"hurt."
    "Pish-tosh. Boys will, after all, be boys." He stopped in front of a closed door. "Here we are."
    Mr. Winter turned the knob without knocking first.
    Later on, I would more fully register the appearance of the room that was to be my home for however long I could get away with my plan: the lone narrow window that let in little light even at high noon; the fireplace with no logs in it; the hardwood floors with no carpet to warm one's feet on cold mornings; the walls that perhaps had once been cream but were now stained to more of a grayish brown in spots; the two wooden desks and chairs, more utilitarian than decorative, as were the two wardrobes; the two narrow beds, shoved up against opposite walls.
    I would take in all of the meagerness of my new lodgings later, because in that moment I was too busy taking in the first sight of the person I would be sharing it with.
    "Gardener, meet James Tyler," Mr. Winter said, introducing us, although I must confess, I barely registered the words.
    I'd read about beauty in books. I'd even seen some of it in the world. But I'd never before seen so much of it gathered up into a single human being.
    James Tyler was a good six inches taller than me; lean without being skinny; with hair that looked like a successful alchemist had fashioned it, adding just a hint of platinum to all that gold; and eyes the color of the ever-changing sea.
    "Pleased to meet you," he said, holding out a hand with fingers so long and strong, I thought he must be able to play piano