Shingaling Read Online Free PDF Page A

and Ellie turned away the moment I glanced in their direction.
    “They were
so
just talking about you!” said Maya, giving them her dirtiest look through her black-framed glasses.
    “Stop that, Maya,” I said to her.
    “Why? I don’t care,” she answered. “Let them see me.”
    She bared her teeth at them like some kind of crazy ferret.
    “Stop looking at them, Maya!” I whispered through my own gritted teeth.
    “Fine,” she said.
    She went back to playing her colossal game of dots with Rand, and I concentrated on eating my ravioli. At one point, I could feel someone’s eyes burning into my back, so I turned around to sneak a peek at the Savanna table again. This time around, Ximena, Gretchen, and Ellie were talking together, completely oblivious to me. But Savanna was glaring right at me! And she didn’t look away when our eyes met. She just continued staring me down. Then, right before she finally stopped, she poked her tongue out at me. It happened so fast, no one else would have seen it. And it seemed so childish, I almost couldn’t believe it!
    That’s when I realized that I got it wrong before, about Summer taking the third spot in Mrs. Atanabi’s dance piece. I had thought that spot should have gone to Savanna,
not
Summer. But in Savanna’s view, it wasn’t Summer who had taken that spot from her. It was
me
! “Charlotte’s
always
the first to sign in,” she had said.
    Savanna blamed
me
for taking her rightful spot in the dance!

How We Got Off to an Awkward Start
    All the next day, the threat of a snowstorm made everyone kind of giddy and uncertain, since there was talk that the school would close early if it came down as bad as the forecast predicted. Luckily—because the last thing in the world I wanted was for our first rehearsal to be canceled!—the snow only started falling in the late afternoon. Not hard at all. So I made my way up to the performance space as quickly as I could after the last bell. Given that Mrs. Atanabi had issued such a threatening warning about being late, I wasn’t surprised that both Summer and Ximena were already there, too.
    We said hello to one another before changing into our dance clothes. It was a little awkward at first, I guess. The three of us had never really hung out together before. We were from different groups, our own version of mammals, reptiles, and fish. Summer and I only had one class together. And, like I said before, I
barely
knew Ximena. The longest conversation we’d ever had was back in December, in Ms. Rubin’s class, when she asked me—without a shred of remorse—if I would mind switching partners with her so she could be paired up with Savanna. Which is how I ended up with Remo as my science fair project partner, but that’s a whole other story not worth telling.
    We started doing warm-ups and stretches to pass the time. Mrs. Atanabi was now almost half an hour late!
    “Do you think this is how it’s always going to be?” said Ximena, mid-
battement
. “Mrs. Atanabi being late?”
    “She’s
never
on time to theater class,” I said, shaking my head.
    “Right?” Ximena said. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
    “Maybe she just got stuck in the snow?” Summer said, somewhat hopefully. “It’s starting to come down pretty hard now, I think.”
    Ximena made a face. “Yeah, maybe she needs a dogsled,” she answered quickly.
    “Ha-ha-ha!” I laughed.
    But I could tell I sounded dorky.
    Please, God, please don’t let me seem dorky in front of Ximena Chin.
    The truth is: Ximena Chin made me a little nervous. I don’t know why exactly. It was just that she was
so
cool, and
so
pretty, and everything about her was always
so
perfect. The way she wrapped her scarf. The way her jeans fit her. The way she fastened her hair into the neatest twist. Everything was so flawless with her!
    I remember from the moment Ximena started at Beecher Prep this year,
everybody
had wanted to be her friend. Including me! I’m sure she didn’t