The Calling Read Online Free PDF

possibilities. And doors opened for her.
    The door to the stage was unlocked last night. Probably by mistake. She smiled at remembering it.
    â€œPaige, you’ll always be my very best friend. You know that. We’re practically sisters. Not that you need one. Remember when we pricked our wrists and put our blood together. That meant a lot to me. I won’t forget you.”
    They walked to first-period literature class in silence. At the door, Paige said, “I just realized. If the dancers are vampires, you’re going to be a vampire, too.” She giggled at the idea and placed both hands around her neck to protect it from Miki.
    â€œI guess so.” Miki laughed and made an awful pun. “If you can’t bite ’um, join ’um.”
    Ms. Stephens didn’t ask why Miki and Paige were late to class, but she did signal for them to hush laughing and sit down.
    Miki followed her orders, but she knew she wasn’t going to hear a word any teacher said today.
    Tonight she started rehearsal for her first show. Tonight she was turning pro.

Five
    M IKI HAD ALREADY pulled on her coat and boots, and was getting ready to leave dance class when Paige stopped her. “Miki, are you sure you want to do this? I don’t feel real good about it.”
    â€œOh, Paige, everything makes you nervous.” Miki spoke sharper than she meant to.
    â€œThat’s not true, Miki. I’m thinking about you. You don’t know these people. You don’t know anything about them. What did your mother say about your doing this?”
    Miki pretended to adjust her boot.
    â€œYou didn’t tell her, did you?”
    â€œI left her a note. But, Paige, my mother doesn’t care what I do. She doesn’t care where I go, or where I am at any given time. You know that.”
    â€œI don’t either. She cares, she’s just busy.”
    â€œSo am I.” Miki started to leave but Paige took her arm.
    â€œMiki, it sounds funny to me that they’d move into that old building and do such a weird show.”
    â€œWait till you see the dance, Paige. The idea may sound weird, but it’s truly beautiful—magic. There’s something—something—” The first word that came to Miki’s mind was sensual, but she sure wasn’t going to say that to Paige. That wasn’t exactly the right word to help her stop worrying about Miki. “Well, magic is all I can think of to describe it. But I love the swings. I feel like a little girl on them.”
    Except when Romney put his lips to my throat, she remembered. That was no little girl–little boy gesture. The gesture was sensual. Not that she was physically attracted to either Romney or Kyle. But she had reacted the way any woman would. She had rather liked it.
    Her heart pounded faster as she waved to Paige and almost ran to the next block where the old stone Sullivan building hunched over the corner. The ornately carved windows and cornices dated the place back about a hundred years. There had been talk of saving it by making it a historical structure. But no one wanted to take on the task of raising money. Look at how that dance teacher had saved the Lafayette Theater, only to have it burn—and under mysterious circumstances at that.
    Where would this dance troupe get the money to renovate this place? Miki gazed up at broken boarded-up windows, and the smoke and pollution darkened stone—once pink, the original color was revealed now only by the chipping. The rock was coated with charcoal and gray dingy soot that would take sand blasting to remove. Could renovation possibly pay off?
    Maybe when she had worked for the troupe for a time, she could ask about their plans. She could then inquire about their backing and the finances of the troupe. She did have some concern. She realized she’d never asked about pay. At the moment, she’d pay them to dance in their show. But unless they were really