Lovetorn Read Online Free PDF Page A

asked, her eyes opened wide. “How were your classes?”
    “Okay,” I said, balancing a tray on which wobbled a solitary bottle of water. “Come, let’s go sit somewhere.”
    “I already ate,” she said. “But I’ll sit with you.”
    We found a table. I fished out the lunch my mother had packed. It was made up of three small containers linked together by a wide clasp. Sangita’s was identical, differentiated only by a sticker of silvery pink wings on hers and a shiny red heart on mine.
    I carefully unclasped the first container. There was white rice dotted with mushy green peas, faintly scented of cloves and cinnamon. Underneath that was shredded cabbage fried in oil with green chilies. And in the final one, yogurt whipped with water until it was a creamy liquid, garnished with cilantro and flavored with salt and paprika.
    “How was your morning?” I asked Sangita. “Did you enjoy your classes?”
    “We did a cool science project,” she said, her voice sounding enthusiastic. “We were experimenting with static electricity. I had a partner, a nice girl named Amy.” Sangita began scanning the area for her new friend. She talked excitedly about her experiments. I wanted to listen but found myself distracted, wondering at how she seemed to have had such a pleasant morning while mine was not. Nobody had teased or made fun of her, and I hated the fact that this made me feel more alone.
    “Hey, you,” said a voice from a table behind us. I turned around and recognized a boy, Charlie, from homeroom. He had spiky hair and was wearing a faded black T-shirt that looked like it had been washed too many times. He was sitting with two other boys.
    “What crap do you have in there?” he asked, pointing to my lunch. “It’s stinking the place up.” His eyes were narrowed. The boys with him stared at me.
    Heat rushed to my face, a cold fear clutching my heart. Sangita opened her mouth to say something, but I shook my head at her. She remained silent.
    “So what happened? All the call center jobs were taken, and you had to come here?” Charlie said. A boy with him laughed. “You know, my dad lost his job ’cuz it was outsourced. One of you people must have taken it.” His voice was menacing.
    I was suddenly scared. Sangita put her hand on top of mine. Tears stung my eyes. My mind raced frantically to think of something to say. But nothing came to mind. I was trembling and humiliated and speechless.
    “Dude, leave ’em alone,” his friend said, nudging Charlie with his elbow.
    With that the three boys picked up their trays and walked away. Charlie glared at me over his shoulder as he left.
    Sangita looked at me, our hands still clasped together. We finished eating in silence. Her break ended before my lunchtime was over. When she had to leave, I remained there, my shoulders hunched over, tears dripping into my mother’s food.
    Science and Social Studies still to go. I didn’t know how I would get through the rest of the day. I was terrified that Charlie would be in one of my next classes. I couldn’t face him again.
    In Science I was distracted and jumpy, looking up at the door every time someone walked up and unable to concentrate on carbon compounds.
    As I walked to Social Studies, I kept looking over my shoulder, convinced that Charlie was trailing me. In the class, led by an Armenian teacher, we read about the rise of industrialization and how it changed the face of early America. The teacher, Ms. Jalashgar, was animated and fun, and I could see that the other students liked her. Part of me would have loved to listen fully, to learn. But all I could think about was how little I wanted to be here, that America was the last place in the world I would have chosen to come to.
    I had never been so happy to see my father, who was waiting outside the school at three that afternoon to take us home. He was leaning on the door of Mr. Phil’s taxi.
    “Come, girls, you must be tired,” my father said jovially.