Free The Trouble with Emily Dickinson by Ken McKowen Page A

them.”
    Christine climbed out of bed, and evened out
her pajama shorts. Her lips were moving, and Kendal sensed that she
was choosing her words carefully.
    “I know all I need to know about her,” she
said coolly. “And don’t forget, I know you, too.” She casually
grabbed her robe off of the back of the door and pulled it on. As
she was tying the knot around her waist, she looked up at Kendal.
Her eyes were icy. “I don’t know who you are trying to be lately,
but it sure isn’t the Kendal McCarthy that I know.”
    She pulled the knot tighter and tossed Kendal
one final cold look before she left the room.
    Fuming, Kendal threw her books into her
backpack. What bothered her most was the fact that Christine
somehow managed to sneak in the last word.
    “I know me,” she said aloud in the vacant
room, her voice overflowing with anger. “I know myself better than
anyone, and I also know that for the past few years I haven’t been
the real me.”
    In the middle of her monologue, she stepped
on something squishy lying on the floor. She bent over, picked up
the ice mask that Christine had been wearing, and threw it at her
unmade bed.
    “You don’t know me at all,” she spat. “So
take your little beauty mask and shove it.”
     
     

CHAPTER 13
     
    JJ was at the library much earlier than she
needed to be. She’d skipped going to the dining hall with Queenie,
afraid that she might get distracted or delayed by needless
conversation. Instead, she enjoyed a healthy portion of ramen
noodles, the chicken-flavored kind, and some crackers. She also
took a long time to select an outfit. Normally she would go to the
library wearing nothing more than jogging pants and a sweatshirt,
but today she felt like raising the bar just a bit. She put on a
pair of jeans and a vintage T-shirt from the Gap. Instead of
wearing her usual baseball cap, she decided to slather some gel in
her hair and spike up the ends just so. She even sprayed on some
cologne for good measure.
    Now she sat in the library at the same table
Kendal and she had been at last time, her knees shaking slightly.
Every so often, she caught a whiff of her own cologne and smiled.
At the very least, she certainly smelled good. Her cell phone
buzzed in her pocket. She took it out and read a text message from
Queenie, “Beware of the science experiment!” All JJ could do was
laugh.
    She stuffed her cell phone back in her
pocket, and idly thumbed through a book of poetry she’d pulled off
one of the shelves. She kept a watchful eye on the door as she
reread each sentence. Somehow, she’d missed seeing Kendal storm her
way into the library, and looked up only when the girl reached the
table. Kendal’s bag of books landed on top of the table with a
resounding thud.
    “Hi,” she said, her face expressionless.
    “Um, are you okay?” JJ asked cautiously.
    “Me? Yeah. I’m fine.” She reached into her
bag and pulled out the bag of Chex Mix she had bought earlier.
“Except for the fact that I’ve just now realized that I’ve wasted
all my time here at Sampson on a group of girls who are mostly
small-minded and lack any substance at all.”
    “That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?”
    Kendal slid down into the chair next to her.
“No. I think it’s dead on,” she snapped. Then she slid the bag of
Chex Mix over to JJ who politely declined. Kendal shrugged and
began snacking mindlessly. “I’ve known these girls for three years
now and they don’t even have one small clue about who I really am.”
She tucked her hair back behind her ears, which caused JJ to look
at her in amazement.
    “Wow, you have tiny ears.”
    “What?”
    “Your ears. They’re tiny. And cute.”
    “Yeah,” Kendal said. “They’re small. So
what?”
    “Nothing. I—I just noticed. That’s all.” JJ
instantly wished that she could censor her thoughts before they
spilled out of her mouth without her consent. “Uh, about your
friends—is it possible that maybe you just haven’t