Something Like Fate Read Online Free PDF

scrunched over as far as I can go, teetering on the edge.
    Sophie manages to squeeze in between us. The girl on her other side makes an annoyed tooth-sucking sound.
    “I like your bowl,” I say.
    “Thanks.” Sophie holds it up. “It’s for my sister. She’s in college.”
    “Sweet.”
    We all zone out in a glazing daze.
    When I eventually look up, Ryan’s leering at me. I refuse to let him provoke me. I just don’t believe in putting more hatred out into the world when someone’s directing bad energy at you. I think your fate gets affected by energy, and too much negative energy can be detrimental to your fate.
    Example. You ask the Energy for a sign that everything’s going to be okay, then you look up and there’s some graffiti on the wall that says OK. Those kinds of messages are harder to read when you’re all twarked up in a big snit ball of negativity.
    I ignore Ryan. It bothers me so much that he makes other people’s lives miserable. I think the purpose of life is to help make the world a better place, not to make things worse for everyone. I wonder what it would take for him to get a clue. It’s so tragic to think that he’ll be like this for the rest of his life.
    Sophie gapes at Connor’s vase. “Your vase is so tall!”
    “Thanks.”
    “How’d you do that?”
    “Patience,” I inform her, “and practice.”
    “Gee, Lani,” Connor goes. “That’s right. How did you know?”
    “Oh, just a wild guess.”
    He smirks at me. I smirk back.
    “Thanks for letting me sit with you guys,” Sophie says.
    “You don’t need an invitation,” Connor says. “You can sit with us anytime.”
    I’m not worried about Connor’s karma at all. I hope my karma’s as good as his. If I’m destined for any kind of greatness, I don’t want to end up damaging my fate.

7
    I can’t swim.
    I know what you’re thinking. You’re like, How can you be almost seventeen and not know how to swim? The thing is, no one ever taught me. When I was little, I never went to camp or to the pool in the summer or anywhere else you would normally learn how to swim. My parents never forced me to be interested and it just never occurred to me to go out and learn.
    Until now. We’re having a family reunion in Hawaii the summer after graduation (I’m one-fourth Hawaiian on my mom’s side). I really want to swim in the ocean while I’m there. I love tropical fish. I have a big aquarium in my room with neons and rainbows and two angelfish. My French angelfish is Wallace, and my queen angelfish is Gromit. She’s the most gorgeous queen angelfish ever. She also happens to be my favorite. I know you’re not supposed to play favorites with your pets, but I don’t think the other fish can tell.
    It would be awesome to swim with more tropical fish like mine. I hate being unskilled about something so basic that everyone else can do. So I’m taking a swimming class.
    In a lot of ways, I’m a water person. Water is an earth element, so it goes with my Taurus tendencies. If I feel really tired, taking a shower is this totally refreshing, therapeutic experience for me. My bathroom is all set up like a spa. I have tons of shower gels and bath bubbles and I’m into aromatherapy, especially ylang-ylang and lavender and lily of the valley. I even like having wet hair fresh from the shower, especially in the summer.
    So I’m all about the water. It’s just that I’m scared of water when it comes in the form of a lake or an ocean. Or a pond. Or a pool.
    I’m terrified of drowning.
    Drowning has to be the scariest way to die. Ever since the accident, I’ve had these nightmares about sinking deeper and deeper underwater, my lungs straining beyond belief. I’m hoping that after I learn how to swim, those nightmares will go away.
    My swimming class is every Wednesday after school at the rec center. The only things I’ve learned how to do so far are to tread water and doggy-paddle. A lopsided, damaged sort of doggy-paddle. I’m the