The Chic Shall Inherit the Earth Read Online Free PDF Page B

Novels of Burney and Austen
and
A Galaxy of Disagreeable Women
, when I turned a corner and nearly tripped over Emily, who was sitting on the hardwood floor.
    “Watch it!”
    “Sorry.” I grabbed for the stack of books teetering beside her before it fell over. “You need a cart.”
    “Nah. I only want one of these. It’s picking the right one that’s the hard part.”
    I couldn’t remember ever seeing her looking at a book in public. This was a rare sighting. “I didn’t think you were into studying.”
    She gave me a glance that was this close to an eye roll. “I still have to pass Senior Lit. Besides, it’s not like I have anything else to do.”
    I wasn’t touching that one. The girl needed some new friends and some inspiration, in that order. Much as she exasperated me sometimes, there was a vulnerability about her that made me want to reach out to her. It was this same vulnerability that got her picked on by people like Rory Stapleton. Which, in my opinion, was all the more reason to reach out.
    “I’m looking for some backup for my paper, too.” I glanced over the spines above her, my head tilted to read the titles.
    “Lissa, have you thought any more about what we talked about before?”
    I straightened. “We didn’t really talk about anything. If something’s bugging you, just spit it out and help me understand how I can help, okay?”
    She looked both ways down the rows of shelving, though there was no one in this section but us. Mrs. Lynn, the librarian, wasn’t on duty on the weekend, and the circulation people stayed behind the desk. “That’s the problem. I want to spit it out, but I don’t know who to tell.”
    “Your moral problem,” I prompted. Not that I really wanted to know, especially if it were some A-list drama. But she clearly needed to get it off her chest.
    “Not mine!”
    “Okay.
The
moral problem.”
    “It’s just that somebody’s done something that’s going to come out, like, any day now. She’s trying to hide it, and personally, I don’t think she should even be allowed to stay here.”
    “A friend of yours?”
    Now I did get an eye roll. “Maybe once. Not now.”
    “So… you want to know if you should tell someone? So this person will be expelled?”
    “No-o-o.” She made me sound hopelessly stupid for not getting it. “The person needs help. But of course she won’t ask for it. And I’m afraid the—someone will get hurt.”
    “Did they forget their appointment with their therapist and they’re out of control, or what?” I couldn’t think of anyone who fit that description, unless you counted Rory Stapleton.
    “Urgghh!” Emily jerked her backpack off the floor and stood. “That is so like you. You don’t understand something, so you make smart remarks instead of helping.”
    I blinked. “I was serious. Call me blond, but I don’t know how to help if I don’t get—”
    “Forget it.” She left her stack of books where they were and stalked off down the corridor between the stacks.
    “Okay,” I said blankly. Then I pushed at her pile with my toes. Ooh, look at that.
Reader, I Married Him: A Study of the Women Characters of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot
. “Thanks.” I tucked the book under my arm.
    Back in our room, Gillian took a break from equations and listened to my summary of the situation. “Sounds to me like she’s just looking for attention,” she said finally. “If there was something going on that meant danger to someone, we’d have heard about it.”
    “Not necessarily. Look how long it took us to figure out who was selling the exam answers last year.”
    “Don’t remind me. But that wasn’t physical danger, which is what Emily meant, right? It’s some kind of moral thing?”
    I nodded. “I’m missing the connection between that and someone getting hurt, which is the part she won’t tell me. You’re probably right. So. When does the
Coaching with Kaz
show start?”
    She glanced