A Tale of Two Proms (Bard Academy) Read Online Free PDF Page B

to find that they looked so young. Had I looked that young and clueless when I’d arrived on the bus?
    I felt a dark pull at the pit of my stomach and I realized it was jealousy. They were only starting out here. They had years left before they’d graduate. I wanted to be them, wanted to turn back time and be that girl again just starting this adventure at Bard. There were some things I’d do over, but mostly, I’d just appreciate the time I had here. 
    Back then, I’d been a little spoiled, I’ll admit. I’d been obsessed with clothes and what the world owed me. Now, things were different.  There’s nothing quite like nearly losing your life a bunch of times to make you grateful that you have one.
    As I watched, a girl stepped off the bus. She was wearing a long light blue dress that nearly dragged the ground. She had dark hair—like mine—pulled back into a loose bun at the nape of her neck. Something about her seemed familiar. I leaned over, trying to get a better look, and Heathcliff followed my gaze. She turned, ever so slightly, taking in a deep breath of air as she stepped onto the green. Unlike the other kids, she carried no luggage, no backpack, not even a purse. She also seemed strangely happy to be here. While the others frowned and moped, she opened up her arms wide, like she wanted to hug the air, as if she was finally free.
    I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Something wasn’t right. Something about her was all wrong. I looked over and Heathcliff was suddenly transfixed. It was as if I wasn’t even in the room. He focused on the girl in the commons with a laser-like intensity that I found troubling. He never looked at other girls like that. Only me.
    He stood and moved to the window like she was pulling him there by a string.
    That’s when I knew.
    “No,” I said, as my heart sped up, the beats bouncing together frantically like heavy drops of rain on a tin roof. “It can’t be.”
    “Can’t be what?” Hana asked me.
    Then, just for an instant, the girl in the long dress turned to face me. I swore she saw me, staring at her from the cafeteria window. I felt frozen to the spot, fear shooting through my veins.
    Heathcliff was at the window, too, staring out of it as if in some kind of trance.
     “Cathy,” Heathcliff said softly, putting his hand to the window. “Cathy.”

C HAPTER T HREE
     
    The shock made it hard for me to breathe, like there was a big flat stone on my chest pressing all the air out of me. I’d seen the impossible again and again at Bard Academy and yet this was the one thing my eyes simply didn’t want to believe.  
    Catherine Earnshaw was dead. I’d seen Emily Bronte kill her with my own eyes. I remember like it was yesterday, the sight of her hand, turned to bone.
    But if she was here, and she was alive, that changed everything.
    I suddenly felt stupid. How many times had I thought Heathcliff had died? Only to see him appear again? The same could happen to Catherine. This was Bard, where the impossible wasn’t just possible, it was probable.
    I don’t know why I was so shocked to see her, standing in the commons, her arms spread wide and a smile on her face.Maybe it was because she really did look like me. She was standing fifty feet away and yet it was like I was looking in the mirror. I’d heard there was a resemblance, but this was ridiculous.I didn’t just kind of look like her. I was her. 
    My eyes sought out Heathcliff, but he was turned away from me, hand on the window in a kind of trance. I knew Heathcliff had probably liked me at first because I reminded him of her, but I thought it was only part of his feelings for me. I had no idea that I was a dead ringer for Catherine Earnshaw.
    Now, it really all made sense. Heathcliff loved me not because a part of her was in me, but because he could pretend all of her was. I felt the room spin and the floor shifted beneath my feet. I needed him to tell me it wasn’t true.
    I reached out to