Between the Lines Read Online Free PDF Page B

the dialogue, which is all the way it should be. I glance at the illustration: the prince sitting on a throne, his dog waiting beside him.
    “Delilah!” my mother yells. “I told you twice already… we’re going to be late!”
    I stare at the page, my eyes narrowed. What is it that’s off? “Just let me finish—”
    “You’ve read that book a thousand times—you know how it ends. Now means now !”
    I flip through the book to the final page. When I see it, I can’t believe I haven’t noticed it before. Just to the left of Princess Seraphima’s glittering gown, drawn into the sand, is a grid. Sort of like a bingo chart. Or a chessboard.
    “How strange,” I say softly. “That was never here before.”
    “DELILAH EVE!”
    When my mother uses my middle name, it means she’s really angry. I close the book and tuck it into my backpack, then hurry downstairs to scarf down breakfast before I am dropped off at school.
    My mother is already rinsing her coffee cup as I grab a slice of toast and butter it. “Mom,” I ask, “have you ever read a book and had it… change?”
    She looks over her shoulder. “Well, sure. The first time I read Gone with the Wind and Rhett walked out on Scarlett, I was fifteen and thought all that unrequited love was wildly romantic. The second time I read it, lastsummer, I thought she was silly and he was a selfish pig.”
    “That’s not what I mean…. That’s you changing—not the book.” I take a bite of the toast and wash it down with orange juice. “Imagine that you’ve read a story a hundred times and it always takes place on a ship. And then one day, you read it, and it’s set in the Wild West instead.”
    “That’s ridiculous,” my mother replies. “Books don’t change in front of your eyes.”
    “Mine did,” I say.
    She turns and looks at me, head tilted as if she is trying to figure out if I am lying or crazy or both. “You need to get more sleep, Delilah,” she announces.
    “Mom, I’m serious—”
    “You simply saw something you overlooked before,” my mother says, and she puts on her jacket. “Let’s go.”
    But it’s not something I overlooked. I know it.
    The whole way to school, my backpack sits on my lap. My mother and I talk about things that don’t matter—what time she is coming home from work; if I’m ready for my Algebra test; if it’s going to snow—when all I can focus on is that faint little chessboard scratched into the sand of the beach on the last page of the fairy tale.
    Our car pulls up in front of the building. “Have a good day,” my mother says, and I kiss her goodbye. I hurry past a kid plugged into his earphones, and the popular girls,who cluster together like grapes. (Honestly, do you ever see just one of them?)
    The school’s current “it” couple, Brianna and Angelo—or BrAngelo, as they’re known—are wrapped in each other’s arms across my locker.
    “I’m gonna miss you,” Brianna says.
    “I’m gonna miss you too, baby,” Angelo murmurs.
    For Pete’s sake. It’s not like she’s leaving on a trip around the world. She’s only headed to homeroom.
    I don’t realize I’ve said that out loud until I see them both staring at me. “Get a life,” Brianna says.
    Angelo laughs. “Or at least a boyfriend.”
    They leave with their arms around each other, hands tucked into each other’s rear jeans pockets.
    The worst part is, it’s true. I wouldn’t know what true love feels like if it hit me between the eyes. Given my mother’s experience with romance, I shouldn’t even care—but there’s a part of me that wonders what it would be like to be the most important person to someone else, to always feel like you were missing a piece of yourself when he wasn’t near you.
    There is a crash on the metal of the locker beside mine, and I look up to see Jules smacking her hand against it to get my attention. “Hey,” Jules says. “Earth to Delilah?” Today she is dressed in a black veil and a miniskirt