Read Online Breaking Up Is Really, Really Hard to Do by Natalie Standiford - Free Book Online Page A

should come to the museum this Friday,” Chandra said. “It's ritual night.”
    “Let me guess,” Lina said. “You cast spells on each other to turn your hair unnatural colors?”
    “I'll let that go,” Ramona said. “Because I know that somewhere in your future there's a bottle of magenta hair dye waiting. And when that day comes, when you realize you're really a magenta-head at heart, you'll look back on the silly comments you made to us and feel a pang of regret.”
    Over hair dye? Talk about over-dramatizing.
    “On ritual night we perform the SDLC,” Chandra said. Off Lina's blank look she added, “The Sacred Dan Love Ceremony.”
    “Don't tell her about it, Chandra,” Ramona said. “She doesn't care about that stuff.”
    Lina wanted to pretend she didn't care, but she was curious.
    “We take one of his artifacts…” Chandra said. The Cult collected Dan memorabilia such as used coffee cups, uneaten pizza crusts, and stray hairs to put on display in the “museum.” “We put it on the altar, light it on fire, and chant ‘See the light as it burns, See the truth in the fire, You have but one love, Chandra, Chandra, She's the one that you desire.’ Except each girl puts in her own name in place of Chandra.”
    “Really?” Lina said. It was even stupider than she'd imagined.
    “We're starting to run out of artifacts, though,” Maggie said. “We've really got to hit the cafeteria tomorrow. He leaves all kinds of stuff on his tray. Used napkins are the best, because they burn so well.”
    “That's disgusting,” Lina said.
    “It's only Dan germs,” Maggie said.
    “I think it's starting to work,” Siobhan said. “You should see what Dan wrote on Ramona's last paper. What did it say again?”
    ‘“Your reading comprehension skills are admirable,’” Maggie recited. ‘“But of course, I'd expect that from you.’”
    “Wow,” Lina said. “Book a caterer—I hear wedding bells.”
    “It's one of those things where you have to read between the lines,” Ramona said. “And know what came before. The context. It could be a secret signal. We'll do a handwriting analysis on it this weekend and find out.”
    “I'd love to come,” Lina said. “But I've got some cuticles that need trimming, and you know how it is—you can't let that go for long. Whoops—that reminds me.” She jumped to her feet and gathered her bag. “I've got my first sportswriting gig for the
Seer
.” She'd gone to an editorial meeting the day before and received her assignment from Kate Bryson.
    “Ooh, the
Seer
,” Ramona said in a mocking voice. “And they call that waste of paper news. What are you covering, fifty minutes of testosterone-crazed morons bashing each other with lacrosse sticks?”
    “No, I'm covering girls’ badminton,” Lina said. “I doubt there will be much testosterone or bashing. Now if you don't mind, I've got to go.”
    “You're hiding something, Ozu,” Ramona called as Lina left the room. “You think I don't have powers, but I do. I can tell when something's up, and something's up. But the goddesses will reveal all when it's time for me to know.”
    Lina hurried down the hall to get away from that goddess talk as fast as she could. And she didn't want to be late for her first sports assignment, even though she'd been disappointed when she found it out was only a badminton match, and intramural to boot. In other words, nobody cared about it at all, except maybe the ten girls in the badminton club. And even that was doubtful.
    “Fault!” the referee, Ginnie the Gym Teacher, called. Lina dutifully jotted it in her notebook. “Scintillating match-up between singles players Bridget Aiken and Lulu Ramos. Score: three-love, Aiken. Ramos faults on first serve—probably distracted by tiny cut-off top that rides up every time she lifts her racket.”
    “Ramos, second serve,” Ginny barked. Lulu, chomping on gum, sighed and whacked the shuttlecock into the net.
    “Aiken serves,” Ginny