Read Online Falcon Quinn and the Black Mirror by Jennifer Finney Boylan - Free Book Online Page A

rubbed his chin. His black eye pulsed softly. “Well, like—they’re going to teach us how to pretend not to be monsters at this school? So we can fit in with everybody else?”
    Megan nodded. “Yeah, I guess.”
    â€œBut if we are monsters,” said Falcon, “they’re going to tell us how not to be ourselves?”
    â€œYeah…”
    â€œWell—is that right?”
    Megan looked sad. “You heard Mr. Hake. We’re abominations, he said.”
    Quimby spoke up. “Well, this is the fundamental question, isn’t it? Is it better to be your true self, if your true self is a monster? Or to learn to be a phony, so you can fit in with everyone else? My, my! It’s the kind of thing that could make a person scratch his head. If he had arms, I mean.”
    â€œWe’ll always be monsters,” said Merideath. “Hel- lo .We’ll just be pretending to be human. So they won’t kill us.”
    â€œYou know what they do to monsters in the world,” said Destynee.
    â€œI don’t want to be a monster,” said Megan.
    â€œToo late!” said Merideath. “You are totally a monster! Look on the bright side. At least you’re a vampire! The bomb!”
    â€œOr is she?” said Quimby.
    Falcon sighed. “I’m going to bed,” he said. “My head hurts.”
    â€œHey,” said Quimby. “I do not!”
    â€œLet us know if your roommates arrive,” said Destynee.
    â€œUnless they’re leps.”
    â€œOr zombies.”
    â€œOr losers.”
    â€œLike you.”
    Merideath and Destynee laughed at this. Falcon waited for Megan to defend him, to say something like Falcon’s not a loser , but she didn’t. Merideath and Destynee, still laughing, pulled her into their room and closed the door.
    Falcon stood in the parlor for a moment, alone. For a second he remembered the feeling he’d had earlier in the day, looking out the window of the school bus as they’d passed the Grogan house and wondering where in the world he fit in. Well, now you know where you belong, Falcon thought. At an academy for mutants.
    â€œPenny for your thoughts,” said Quimby.
    â€œHow do they know I’m a monster?” he asked.
    â€œYou think you’re human?” said Quimby. “With eyes like that?”
    â€œPeople can have different-colored eyes,” said Falcon. “People can be all sorts of things. That doesn’t make them mutants.”
    Quimby nodded knowingly. “You think?” he said.
    Â 
    In his dream that night, Falcon saw Gamm sitting by the woodstove, looking through the glass door at the dying embers in its heart. There were tears on her face, and Falcon knew that the tears she had cried were on his account. Then she began to wail, and the sound of it froze his blood. In all the years he had lived with Gamm, he had never heard her make a sound like this.
    But I’m fine , he wanted to say. I’m here, at the Academy for Monsters. I’m all right!
    Gamm put on her coat and her boots and walked outside. She worked her way through the snow down to the bank of Carrabec Pond, and then stood there looking at the ice. The winter cold had already refrozen the lake in the place where Falcon had broken through, but she could still imagine the series of terrible events—the tuba sliding down the big hill, and the child running, trying to catchup with it, until he fell on the ice and slid out onto the surface of the lake. She imagined the cracks forming all around him, just before the surface caved in. Was that the last thing Falcon had heard, before he’d fallen in, the sound of shattering ice? Or had he heard the voices of Max Parsons and the Crofton girl, trying to save him?
    But I didn’t go through the ice, Gamm. I’m here.
    Falcon tried to form the words, but he could not make the sounds. He felt the icy water seep into his heart.
    Gamm swayed back and