On Raven's Wings Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Is there something going on I should know about? Did the dirty boys in that band you’re in give you drugs?”
    “What?! No! I’ve never done drugs, Mom. I swear.” Sweat trickled down the back of my neck as I thought of Ian’s glowing eyes and the feel of his fingertips on the hem of my underwear. My mom might think that was worse than drugs. “I just felt like a change and Triniti cut it for me.”
    Mom rolled her eyes. Typical. She always yelled at me for rolling mine, but she did it just as often as I did. I learned it from her. I wasn’t allowed to call her on it. I’d just get in bigger trouble. “Triniti is a bad influence.”
    “No she’s not, Mom. She’s fine.”
    My mom sighed. Another of my bad habits I picked up from her.
    “I wish your father’s company hadn’t forced him to take a pay cut. Only one more year of Catholic school and you would have been able to avoid the public school jungle.”
    “Those animalistic public school kids go to college too, Mom. You can’t hide me from them forever.” It was an old argument, one I’d used all those years I rebelled against my plaid uniform, begging for something sparkly.
    “I know, sweetie, I know. But your background would have been so solid. Now…”
    “Now what? I went to Catholic school since kindergarten. If I don’t have that pure background by now, I never would have developed it.” Ian’s lips on my throat flashed into my mind. Sure a blush was creeping up my neck, I pushed back from the island. “I’ve gotta go do homework now. They expect us to work just as hard in public school as they did in Catholic.”
    “One more thing, Mary,” she said behind me. I stopped, but didn’t turn around, hoping the collar of my shirt was hiding the evidence of what I’d been doing with Ian after school. “Your hair is cute. Next time, let’s have a professional cut it, okay? I love you.”
    “Okay, Mom! Love you too.” I skittered out of the kitchen and ran up to my bedroom, my heart pounding a million miles a minute. I’d escaped totally unscathed for once. The stress from the drop in my dad’s income was more disturbing than an unapproved haircut. Mom wasn’t doing well either. Her real estate business had gone down the toilet since the market collapsed. What had been an easy life for us was suddenly one filled with uncertainty and worry.
    Maybe that was why I’d let Ian take my hand and lead me out to his car after school. I missed my happy family. For a second, I thought I could be close to Ian, or at least lose myself in a few moments of wild abandon. That’s all I really wanted – was to forget everything in the arms of a totally hot guy. Six months ago, I wouldn’t have even thought it was possible. After last night’s performance, something changed inside me.
    It wasn’t the fame or the You Tube video circulating (I’d managed to avoid checking every ten seconds to see how many hits my song had). It wasn’t the new haircut or the makeup. It wasn’t the hot groping fest in the dark hallway with Ian. The change happened inside while I was singing. I felt transformed, like I’d shed the girl I used to be and turned into something new, something different. A young woman, full of life, ready to take on the world. It was the girl I’d always tried to be. I never knew she was hiding inside, just waiting for the right moment to emerge.
    I stripped off my clothes and stood mostly naked in front of the full-length mirror in my bedroom. Was this the kind of body a boy would lust after? Ian had tried to convince me that it was, but then he spouted all that weirdo religious junk. And he told me he was a virgin? Weird shit. What boy ever admitted to that? It had to be a lie, one to make my pants fall off. Too bad for him it didn’t work.
    I tossed my clothes in the hamper and slid into a pair of comfy yoga pants and an old Chicago Cubs t-shirt of my dad’s that I stole years ago. Settling on my window seat with my math textbook,