Read Online Crystal by V. C. Andrews - Free Book Online

didn't
come with Bernie, did you?"
"Karl took me on the way to work. He's going
to take me every morning, but go home on the bus," I
explained.
"Still calling him Karl, I see," Helga said,
shifting her eyes to her friends. She smiled wryly, her
lips twisting again.
"Well, I wasn't as lucky as the rest of you. I wasn't born into a family," I said. I saw Alicia's
eyebrows lift. Mona's eyes filled with confusion. "I told you she was very intelligent," Helga said
quickly.
Alicia and Mona nodded, but Rachael
continued just to stare down at me.
"It doesn't take a lot of intelligence to know not
to say things that will embarrass someone who is new
and a stranger to the school," I said. "That usually
shows a lack of in" I turned and walked toward my
homeroom just as the bell rang.
Bernie Felder was in my homeroom. He nodded
when he saw me, his eyes softening as if they saw my
distress at being new and unsure of myself, but he
didn't sit near me. He took the last seat in the first
row, as if that seat had been waiting for him all summer. Our homeroom teacher didn't seem to care where
anyone sat, so I sat up front and opened my briefcase. Homeroom was extended on the first day so all
the school's rules could be explained. Most of the students paid little attention. Even our homeroom teacher
seemed bored with it and looked relieved when the
bell for passing to the first class rang.
I did make some friends during the course of
the school day: a pair of redheaded twins named Rea and Zoe, who told me their parents deliberately had looked for names with the same number of letters, a heavy black girl named Haley Thomas, and a tall, very thin boy named Randal Wolfe who was the school's chess champion. There was another girl named Ashley who remained in the background, too shy to say anything The twins wore matching dresses and had their hair styled in a similar fashion. They told me they enjoyed playing tricks on people and even their teachers by pretending to be each other
from time to time.
"When we get married, we'll do it to our
husbands, too," Rea said, laughing.
We all sat at the same table and ate lunch
together. I looked for Bernie, but he wasn't in the
cafeteria. Later, when I saw him in the hallway, I
asked him where he had been. He looked embarrassed
and very nervous because I had stopped him to talk.
His eyes shifted from side to side, and then he looked
down at the floor when he replied.
"I eat lunch in the bio lab. Mr. Friedman lets
me. I get work done and sometimes help him set up
his equipment for his classes. He lets me run some of
my own experiments from time to time, usually after
school," he added, and looked up. "How do you like
your first day so far?"
"It's okay. I really like my English teacher and
our math teacher," I said. Bernie was in my math
class.
He nodded.
"Mr. Albert is the best one to have for
geometry. We're lucky. I gotta go to gym," he said,
moving away. "I'm always late for gym."
I watched him walk quickly down the hallway,
and then I went to the library for my study period. I
didn't see him again until the end of the school day
when I stepped onto the bus. Helga was up front with
Alicia. She smiled at me.
"Bernie's in the back," she said.
"You're not funny," I told her, but she laughed
anyway.
I made my way back, passing Ashley, who sat
alone looking as if she wanted to ask me to sit with
her. Bernie glanced up at me and then looked at the
textbook he had opened. I sat across from him and
gazed out the window.
"Your friend Helga's been saying things about
us," I heard him say, and turned.
"What did you say?"
"Some of the guys in my gym class were saying
things about us," he told me.
"First, she's not my friend. I met her for the first
time when I met you. And second, I don't think I
could be friends with her. She's not very nice," He didn't move his lips, but his eyes smiled. "I wondered how you could be friends with
her," he said, and then looked at his book again. We rode in silence all the way back to