The Almost Girl – ebook edition Read Online Free PDF Page A

instead of my usual detached assessment of potential danger. I see them as people instead of targets or threats, and I am surprised by how young they all are. Not that I am much older, but truth is, I feel older.
    Harder .
    Half of these kids haven’t felt the sharp edge of hunger or had to fight for anything in their lives. They are plump, satisfied, and ignorant. Where I’m from, our training begins the minute we are born, and we face survival tests far worse than a quiz on Shakespeare before the age of five. Education is mandatory, but so are other things – physical education, weapons education, life education.
    I realize that I’m judging once more and give myself a shake. Be fair , I think. It’s not their fault that they are the way they are, and have evolved in a different world under a different set of rules and circumstances. They are people, the same flesh and blood as I am.
    Well, maybe not Sadie , I think with a grin, she’s pure venomous angst .
    The ones in my group seem likable enough: a girl, Charisma, who is quiet but friendly; Caden, of course; and another jumpy thin boy, Philip, with an overbite and fingernails bitten to the quick. His head is already buried in his physics textbook. Leafing mentally through my slang file, he is what most in this world would call a nerd or a geek, but where I’m from, Philip would be a coveted asset. Someone with his skills would be selected in a heartbeat. My father would have loved him.
    Caden opens his books on the table and leans back in his chair, grinning at me. “Hey, Crutches, let me know if you need any help.” He’s joking, of course, knowing what my response will be. I shoot him a look communicating exactly what I will do with my crutches if he offers to help me again. His grin widens and I can’t help smiling back at him, the acid thought of my father melting away.
    I feel eyes lasering into my back, but I refuse to give their owner the satisfaction of a response. Sadie is a nuisance, nothing more, and truth be told, I’d rather pass the next few weeks in anonymity instead of some full-on teenage feud with a hormonally-challenged seventeen year-old who thinks I’m after her boyfriend.
    At seventeen, where I come from, you’re a full grown contributor, responsible for a heck of a lot more than picking out a prom dress or fighting over a boy. If you have disagreements with another, you duel it out. It’s that simple. If you need intervention for bigger disputes or feuds, you get it in front of the Royal Tribunal. Here, in the capricious world of high school, it’s an entirely different story. I sigh. Needless to say, I’ve had enough of this version of high school to last me a lifetime.
    “So what’s the verdict?” a low voice says. Caden is staring at me with a raised eyebrow and a half-smile.
    “What?”
    “Your analysis of us? Of me? Come on, be honest, what do you really think?”
    It is one of my few unguarded moments, and for a second, I see a flash of Cale’s perceptiveness in him. My face composes itself into its normal emotionless mask, but Caden’s knowing expression is so hauntingly familiar that it throws me. I feel an uncomfortable warmth seeping up into my neck and across my ear lobes. I don’t like this feeling. It makes my response far sharper than it should be.
    “You like being the center of attention, you’re smart but lazy, you want to get out of this town as soon as you graduate, and your girlfriend is a bitch. How’s that?” The words snap like rubber bands to my lips, but as soon as I say them, I find myself wanting to take them back. My anger is directed at myself, not anyone else.
    Charisma is staring at me slack-jawed, and geek-boy has even raised his head from his book, looking nervously from Caden to me and back again as if expecting a full-on brawl right there in the middle of physics. But Caden’s expression is measured, and he holds my challenging stare easily.
    A slow smile. “Three out of four, so not