Shingaling Read Online Free PDF Page B

would.

How Nobody Gets Mad at the Lavender Fairy
    Summer sighed. “Could you please not call him that?” she asked, almost shyly.
    Ximena acted like she didn’t get it. “Why? He’s not here,” she said, pulling her hair into a ponytail. “It’s just a nickname.”
    “It’s an awful nickname,” Summer answered. “It makes me feel bad.”
    Here’s the thing with Summer Dawson: she has this way of talking where she can say stuff like this, and people don’t seem to mind. If I had said something like this? Forget it, people would be all over me about being a goody two-shoes! But when the Lavender Fairy does it, with her cute little eyebrows raised like smiles on her forehead, she doesn’t come off as preachy. She just seems sweet.
    “Oh, okay, I’m sorry,” answered Ximena apologetically, her eyes open wide. “I honestly wasn’t trying to be mean, Summer. But I won’t call him that again, I promise.”
    She sounded like she was genuinely sorry, but there was something about her expression that always made you wonder if she was being completely sincere. I think it had something to do with the dimple in her left cheek. She almost couldn’t help looking mischievous.
    Summer looked at her doubtfully. “It’s fine.”
    “I really am sorry,” said Ximena, almost like she was trying to smooth out her dimple.
    Now Summer smiled. “Totally cool beans,” she said.
    “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,” answered Ximena, giving Summer a little squeeze. “You really are a saint, Summer.”
    For a second, I felt a quick pang of jealousy that Ximena seemed to like Summer so much.
    “I don’t think anyone should call him a freak,
either,
” I said absently.
    Now, here I have to stop and say something in my defense—I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I SAID THAT! It literally just came out of me, this stupid string of words hurling from my mouth like vomit! I knew immediately how obnoxious it made me sound.
    “So
you’ve
never called him that,” Ximena said, raising one eyebrow high. The way she was looking at me, it was like she was daring me to blink.
    “I um…,” I said. I could feel my ears turning red.
    No, I’m sorry I said it. Don’t hate me, Ximena Chin!
    “Let me ask you something,” she said quickly. “Would you go out with him?”
    It was so out of the blue, I almost didn’t know what to say.
    “What? No!” I answered immediately.
    “Exactly,” she said, like she had just proved a point.
    “But not because of how he looks,” I said, flustered. “Just because we don’t have anything in common!”
    “Oh, come on!” laughed Ximena. “That’s
so
not true.”
    I didn’t know what she was getting at.
    “Would
you
go out with him?” I asked.
    “Of course not,” she answered calmly. “But I’m not about to be hypocritical about it.”
    I glanced at Summer, who gave me an
ouch, that hurts
look.
    “Hey, I don’t want to be mean,” continued Ximena matter-of-factly. “But when you say,
Oh, I would never call him a freak,
it totally makes me look like a jerk because I had obviously just called him that, and it’s kind of annoying because everyone knows that Mr. Tushman
asked
you to be his welcome buddy and
that’s
why you don’t call him a freak like everybody else does. Summer became friends with him without anyone forcing her to be his welcome buddy, which is why she’s a saint.”
    “I’m not a saint,” Summer answered quickly. “And I don’t think Charlotte would have called him that, even if Mr. Tushman hadn’t asked her to be a welcome buddy.”
    “See? You’re being a saint even now,” said Ximena.
    “I don’t think I would have called him a freak,” I said quietly.
    Ximena crossed her arms. She was looking at me with a knowing smile.
    “You know, you’re nicer to him when you’re in front of teachers,” she said very seriously. “It’s been noticed.”
    Before I could answer—not that I even knew what I
would
have answered—Mrs. Atanabi burst into