Live and Let Shop Read Online Free PDF Page B

open when a voice said to come in.
    “Hello, Pilar,” said Mr. Kim. “I’d like you to meet your new roommate, Rachel Buchanan.” Pilar was tall and slender. She had dark brown curly hair, shoulderlength, and beautiful dark brown eyes. She had been sitting at her desk, staring at the door, like she was waiting for us to show up. Okay, not too creepy. She waved to me from where she sat.
    “Hi,” she said. “Welcome to Blackthorn.”
    I really didn’t know what else to do, so I mumbled a hello and stood there shifting my weight from my left side to my right and back. I looked around the room. It was a two-room suite: a bedroom with two beds and closets in one room, and a study/sitting room with desks and a couple of chairs in the other. Over Pilar’s desk was a Blink 182 poster. Okay, that was a good sign. Each of the two rooms had a window, and you could look out of the window and see the athletic fields and the woods beyond. But overall it was small. Very small, compared to home.
    Mr. Kim was talking to Pilar about something, so I just kept looking around the room. I saw my suitcase and duffel bag in the bedroom, stacked by one of the closets. At least they hadn’t lost my luggage.
    “Well, I’ll leave you two to get to know each other,” Mr. Kim finally said. “We will meet in the do jang in thirty minutes. Rachel, your do bak is in your closet. Pilar canhelp you with the belt. See you there.”
    With that he turned and left. I didn’t know what to do. I felt like crying. Pilar looked at me and smiled.
    “Don’t worry,” she said, “I remember how I felt my first day here. It’s a little overwhelming. You’ll get used to it. The time goes by fast.”
    “What are you in for?” I asked.
    “In for?” she asked.
    “Yeah, you know—drugs, stealing, stuff like that?” I said.
    She looked puzzled. “I don’t understand,” she said.
    “Didn’t the judge in your case send you here?”
    A look of understanding came over her face.
    “Oh, no—no drugs, no judge. I’m an orphan. My aunt was raising me, but she got sick and couldn’t take care of me anymore. A neighbor of ours was a friend of Mr. Kim and knew about Blackthorn, so she arranged for me to get a scholarship. I’ve been here three years. My aunt passed away last year, so Blackthorn is now my home.” She turned around and sat back down at her desk. She had a really sad look on her face, and it made me feel about two inches tall.
    So to top off the great day I was having, I had justmanaged to act like a total jerk to my new roommate. Someone kill me now.
    “Sorry. I thought…never mind. Just…I’m sorry,” I stammered.
    Pilar nodded slightly and returned to reading her book. I took that opportunity to exit stage left and went into the bedroom to unpack my stuff. Despite growing up in BH, I am mostly a jeans and T-shirt kind of girl. I did all my shopping at the Gap and avoided spending too much time on Rodeo Drive. It used to drive Cynthia crazy. “Do you have to dress like a slob?” she’d screech. Funny that she never figured out that the screeching just made me want to dress slobbier.
    It took all of ten minutes to stuff all my clothes into the closet and the built-in drawers in the wall. The last thing I pulled out was my laptop, an IBM ThinkPad that Charles had given me for my birthday three months before. Actually, he hadn’t really given it to me. He’d given me the money and told me to buy it for myself. He was too busy to shop for my birthday. I loved that laptop—it was probably my most prized possession. But so far I hadn’t seen a phone in the room, which probably meant no Internet access. That would cause me to wither and diequicker than anything. I would have to find a way around that somehow.
    Pilar came in and opened her closet door. “We don’t have phones in our rooms,” she said. “You can make calls to your parents from the conference room next to Mr. Kim’s office, but you have to reserve a time with