The Suburban Strange Read Online Free PDF Page B

discussions about music. You’ll get to hear quite a bit of those if you hang out with us. Today’s topic: best opening lines to songs.”
    “My vote is: ‘Love is a stranger in an open car, to tempt you in and drive you far away, ’ ” Marco said.
    “And mine is: ‘Come closer and see, see into the trees; find the girl while you can, ’ ” Brenden said. “We must have been thinking about you,” he added, smiling.
    Celia blushed. “I don’t know either of those.”
    “That’s okay. What’s yours?” Marco asked.
    Celia thought for a moment, trying to come up with something impressive. She felt it was a test, whether they intended it as one or not. “How about: ‘Every finger in the room is pointing at me’ ?”
    Marco nodded in admiration and Brenden said, “That is a good one. I wouldn’t have thought of that.” They ate in silence for a moment and Celia breathed an inward sigh of relief.
    “So, what do you think of Suburban so far?” Marco asked.
    “It’s a lot bigger than my old school. And the teachers are going really fast. But I think I like it.”
    “We all take school very seriously, and we get good grades,” Brenden said. “You should get involved in a lot of things, but classes always are the most important.”
    “We all do other things, too, of course,” Marco added. “Brenden’s on the student council, and I would spend all my time making clothes if I could. But school always comes first.”
    “If you’re having trouble with any subject, we can help you.”
    “A lot of kids come down here on their free periods and waste time. We go to the library and get our homework done,” Marco said. “Let me see your schedule.” Celia turned it over to him and Marco studied it. “We have some free periods together.” He drew a little star in some of the boxes on her schedule. “Look for us in the library.”
    Celia noticed a group of black-clad students off at a corner table. Most of them had hair of multiple colors and lengths, and so many metal accessories; though the kids were sitting still, Celia thought she could hear them clanking. Even at a table in a school cafeteria they looked like they were loitering. But the darkness and the severity of their style made Celia wonder if they might share some interests with the Rosary. “Do you know them?” she asked Brenden and Marco.
    “Not really,” Brenden said. “We don’t have that much in common.”
    “Every day is not Halloween,” Marco said. “But they show up in their costumes nonetheless.”
    “More than that, they don’t take school very seriously, and they seem a little lost,” Brenden said. “Besides, if all your strangeness is on the outside, doesn’t that make you kind of dull on the inside? What’s that quote Liz says all the time?” he asked Marco.
    “The one by René Char? ‘A new mystery sings in your bones. Develop your legitimate strangeness.’ ”
    Celia repeated it to herself, trying to tease out the meaning. She could tell Brenden and Marco subscribed to it, but she wondered how one went about doing such a thing. “I see what you mean,” she said, because she could understand at least how those other kids weren’t polished or ambitious enough to have a place in the Rosary.
    “What’s your last name?” Brenden asked. “Regine told me and I thought it was beautiful, but I can’t remember.”
    “Balaustine,” Celia said. “It means ‘flower of the pomegranate.’ ”
    “Really? That’s fantastic. It reminds me of my favorite song, ‘The Spangle Maker’ by the Cocteau Twins. Do you know them?”
    “No,” Celia admitted.
    “I wrote a blog post about the song. You can read it if you like.” Brenden pointed at the piece of paper he had given her with the website address. “It’s kind of impossible to understand her lyrics, and in the chorus I’m pretty sure she sings, ‘It’s pomegranate,’ but who knows what she’s really saying.”
    “I’ll definitely check it out.”