Free The Chosen by Celia Thomson Page A

math. Or at least better than a lot of other sophomores.
    “I don’t know…. I’ve never been much of a joiner.”
    “Just think about it, okay?” he begged. “I’d really like you on the team. You’d be a great role model to younger girls.”
    “Uh, sure. See ya.” Chloe got out of the classroom as quickly as she could, waving her hand behind her. Her on the math team?
If one more thing gets freaky in my life, just
one more thing,
I swear I’m gonna
—
    “Hey, Chloe. You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Paul called out to her. He was flipping through the comic books that he had just bought, brown bag under his arm.
    “Jekyll and Hyde just basically asked me to join the math team. As an alternate,” she added quickly.
    “I didn’t know trig was one of your superpowers. Speaking of, how are things over at the cathouse?”
    “They want me to be their leader.” Chloe leaned against the wall and slid down it until she was sitting on the floor. Paul followed suit. She dug through her bag, hoping for a candy bar or something, but only found an old cough drop. It was a little dusty from being at the bottom of her bag, but she unwrapped it and popped it into her mouth anyway. Cherry. Her favorite. “You?”
    “My dad has a girlfriend,” he said, staring at the floor with large, unblinking eyes.
    Okay. That was officially “it.” The last freaky thing.
    “How long?” she asked, also staring at the floor. Paul got embarrassed easily and he looked dangerously close to freaking out, so it seemed the safest thing to do.
    “I … I don’t know. I think they knew each other—I know they knew each other—she’s the daughter of some friends of my parents.”
    Daughter!
    “Korean?”
    “Yeah. A lot more … traditional than my mom.
And
a lot younger,” he added with an angry smile. “She’s my dad’s new secretary.”
    “Oh, you are
shitting
me,” Chloe sympathized.
    Some of the anger drained out of his smile and it became broader, if sadder. “I don’t think they actually had an affair before my parents began the divorce—I don’t even know if they’re sleeping together now. Shestill lives at home with her parents—she’s thirty-
two
.”
    They sat quietly for a moment, side by side. That seemed like all Paul really wanted: someone to listen and understand and not react. Chloe understood the feeling all too well.
    “Would—would you do me a favor?” he asked, sniffing a little.
    She nodded.
    “Don’t tell Amy?”
    Chloe felt her stomach freeze. This was the beginning of a whole new “it.”
    “I’ll tell her myself, but not yet—I just found out, and …”
    Of course it made sense: things were already weird between her two best friends. Now was not the time for further complications, sympathy, or anger. But he had made Chloe his confidante—once again the three of them were split two to one, but this time Amy was the odd man out.
    And if she ever finds out I knew about this before her and didn’t tell, I’m toast.
    “Yeah, whatever. Sure,” Chloe said.
    They sat there for a few minutes, not speaking. Chloe looked down the empty hall of the math wing, so silent, it was almost like it had already been evacuated for the summer or Christmas vacation. Long rows of green and blue lockers, recently repainted, reflected glossily in the tiles of the floor, extending their length six feet into a blurrier universe. Doors were left openhere and there and the very slightest hint of fresh air managed to tunnel through the ancient smells of paste, dirt, textbooks, and copy paper.
    Very soon, Chloe realized, this would all be a memory. Whatever happened with the rest of her life, as a cat or as a human, less than three quick years would pass and all that would remain of these turbulent days were memories, like this silent, still image of her and Paul on the floor.
    A bell rang and there was a school-wide shuffling and shifting as those who stayed late or were in detention finally got to go free.