Inconstant Moon - Default Font Edition Read Online Free PDF Page A

made her an easy target. She isn't comfortable being stared at.
    It's different when it's your own family. It's a lot harder with roommates, particularly the one who sleeps in the same room you do. She says a little prayer for being blessed with Amelia as a room mate. Liz knows she wouldn't have lasted five minutes with Maggie. Maggie is a trial. Just thinking of Maggie makes Liz tense. Like most of her residence mates, Maggie came to Christie straight from high school. Even though she's years younger than Liz, Maggie seems to have elected herself house mother, wanting to know where Liz is going, what she is doing.
    Is it prurient interest or is it what Maggie says, that she just wants to know if she should worry? Either way it's driving Liz around the bend.
    Okay, maybe, it makes sense to have some idea where people are. But that's why they have sign in sheets. It's not Maggie's job, she's just another student. They aren't even in the same program for God's sake. Back home, Mom and Dad trusted her to come in when she said. They never gave her the third degree. Why does Maggie? It's none of her business. And although Maggie is the worst, the city slickers think their life experience is more cutting edge because they grew up in the city with drug dealers on every corner. And although Liz knows things most of them never will, to them she's a hick. Inexperienced. Just because she grew up in a small town she lacks 'street cred'. Liz attended a school so small that all the teachers knew her name, so for sure it was harder to get away with anything.
    But the biggest problem for small town kids is no public transit. Going to the movies requires a ride from somebody's parents, not fun for a date. So everybody rushes to get a driver's license at the crack of their sixteenth birthday. Farm kids have the edge over townies because they get a chance to boot around on the back forty, sometimes years before they're sixteen, like her friend Gabe's brother. Liz and Gabe had been inseparable since the third grade.
    Gabe's brother loved driving the four by four, and their Dad let him take it to the Hallowe'en dance before he'd graduated to the full license. Except he was just a little bit cocky, and wrapped the truck around a bridge abutment. Although Gabe was thrown clear, his brother was killed on impact. And you know how it is, even though Gabe lived he wouldn't see her anymore after the accident. It's tough being a fourteen year-old paraplegic.
    Liz knows she hasn't exactly been wrapped in cotton, but it's seems to make it worse that she doesn't do drugs or drink. Sure that's how she was raised but what's wrong with that? Her parents don't drink or smoke. She's seen people drunk and been around people wasted. She knows what can happen. Meh.
    Besides, she knows she's capable of being stupid all by herself. She doesn't need alcohol or drugs to help, she can manage it all on her own, thanks.
    Many of her classmates assume she's naïve because she doesn't try to fry her brain cells. But she knows she's not. She's just smarter than they are. Liz smiles to herself. Maybe that is enough.
    Don't let them — especially don't let Maggie — get to her.

chapter 5 . .  .
    Professor Cootes looks right at Kate when he says, “I seem to be boring your partner Ms. Stone.”
    Kate looks at Maggie, canted to the right, her head resting on her fist, eyes closed, softly snoring. Kate gives her a shake and Maggie's eyes snap open. Kate glances down to read a text message on her cell phone.
    Oscar
How about this one: “Women can discover everything except the obvious.”
    Maggie drifts off while Kate gives Oscar the evil eye and texts back.
    Kate
Ooooooh. That one was catty, Oz. You could get in big trouble repeating stuff like that.
    Oscar
Wilde was frequently catty. Um Maggie's snoring again.
    Kate tries nudging Maggie, but it just changes the timbre of her snores. A sharp kick to the ankle yields a better result. Maggie wakes enough to realize Kate