Read Online Forbidden by Syrie James, Ryan M. James - Free Book Online

so.”
    Over the next couple of days, Neil showed vast improvement during their after-school tutoring sessions. Claire grew more and more comfortable around him and wasn’t tongue-tied anymore in his presence. She loved Concert Singers. Her year of piano lessons helped her to sight-read the music with ease, and she fit right in with the more experienced students, as if she’d been doing this for years. She found herself singing in the shower and while doing the dishes. If only she’d had the nerve to try her voice years earlier, instead of being so shy about it!
    To Claire’s disappointment, however, Alec was quiet and standoffish. He didn’t sit at their table at lunch, and when she saw him in class, he didn’t speak to her. She didn’t run into him again with his guitar, and he was never at their locker at the same time she was. Was he just the loner type, or was he angry and purposely avoiding her? When she’d apologized that day at lunch, she’d thought— hoped —she’d smoothed things over with him. His behavior hurt more than she cared to admit.
    Alec wasn’t the only one acting peculiar that week. Twice, while Claire was doing homework in her room, her mom stopped in the doorway to silently stare at her, then walked off without a word.
    On Thursday night, her mom finally spoke. “So! Claire … how was your day?”
    Claire glanced up from the calculus problems she was working on. “Fine.”
    “How’s choir going?”
    “Good.”
    Silence ensued. Why was her mom looking at her like that? Claire wondered self-consciously. She felt like a piece of produce her mom was inspecting for possible defects before purchase.
    “You’ve seemed a little … preoccupied the past few days,” her mom said at last. “Is there anything you’d like to talk about?”
    “No.”
    “Has anything … unusual been going on lately?” Her mom was clearly fishing.
    Claire sighed. It wasn’t like she could tell her mom, of all people, about the weird visions she’d been having. “Mom, I’ve got a lot of homework.”
    “Okay! Just … keep studying. I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.”
    Friday was a shorter day at Emerson. Although Claire had been dreading the week culminating in another one of Mr. Patterson’s belittling lectures, there was no way she could’ve anticipated what would happen at the end of the period.
    In her hands, she now held her history paper—the paper she’d stayed up most of Monday and Tuesday nights writing—which Patterson had already graded and returned with lightning efficiency. It was littered with red marks, and at the top of the paper was a thick, rosy D, accompanied by a note: “Eschew prolixity.”
    D . Claire felt the hot threat of tears behind her eyes. She’d never gotten anything below a B in her life. Patterson couldn’t find fault with her grammar, she knew, or her historical accuracy—but clearly he thought she’d been too wordy. Entire paragraphs had been red-lined, and the pages were full of comments like: “Awkward,” “Why?” “Unsubstantiated,” “Get to the point.”
    “I figured,” Mr. Patterson drawled as he finished handing out the papers, “since I gave you only two days to write these, it was only fair to return them two days later. You’re welcome.”
    The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. Claire stuffed her book and paper into her backpack, her lips trembling. How would this grade affect her scholarship? She felt Alec’s eyes on her but was too mortified to look in his direction. She hurried up to the front of the room. “Excuse me, Mr. Patterson. Can I talk to you for a second?”
    Mr. Patterson didn’t even turn to face her. “No time. Week’s over. See you Monday.” Abruptly, he left the room.
    Shocked by his coldness, Claire trudged out the door. To her surprise, Alec was waiting for her.
    “I saw your grade. I’m sorry,” he said gently.
    It was the first time he’d spoken to her in days. The sympathy in his voice