Read Online Telesa - The Covenant Keeper by Lani Wendt Young - Free Book Online Page A

the window. Boys were on the field chasing a rugby ball. Girls stood laughing under a palm tree. It was all so alien to me. I was very much the foreigner here. And I felt it. A wave of homesickness swept through me. I shrugged at Simone, wishing he would just leave me alone.
    “I guess so. I just didn’t like what he said about Westerners coming here to exploit people you know? I mean, I get so much crap from people back home about being mixed that hearing it here was just – I don’t know – I couldn’t handle it.”
    Simone considered me thoughtfully before answering. “Maybe you should know something. The reason why we were all laughing when Daniel was going on about that was because he was talking about himself there. HE’S mixed like you. Like a lot of us. It’s no big deal here. We make fun of ourselves all the time. Daniel’s dad was palagi , white. And his mom wasn’t even full Samoan, she was mixed Tongan, so I guess that makes him even less of a pure cultural product than you.”
    I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The cold dread of realization washed over me as Simone continued.
    “Maybe it’s different back where you come from, but here we’re all afakasi , mixed and it’s no big deal. Daniel gets teased about it all the time, especially since he’s part Tongan and historically Samoans and Tongans hate each other. Today, back there, he was talking about himself, which is why everybody was laughing.”
    “Oh no.” I groaned, putting my head in my hands as it hit me that, once again, I had jumped in to attack mode on the pure assumption that I was being picked on. Humiliated? How many times had my dad warned me about this? How many times could I have avoided a conflict if I would just listen, take a breath and get my facts straight before I rushed to kill people?! I had wanted to reinvent myself, yet not even a week in this new school and already I had committed the same fatal error that was a classic Leila move. Glumly, I sighed.
    “Thanks Simone for clearing that up. I appreciate it. I thought something else entirely was going on in the classroom back there and I kinda jumped too quickly. Everyone must think I’m a total freak now. Ugh. What an idiot.” With slumped shoulders I sat on a hall bench. Suddenly it occurred to me.
    “Hey what do you care anyway? Why are you explaining this to me? What’s it to you?” My tone was suspicious and my eyes narrowed. What was this boy-girl’s agenda anyway?
    Simone raised a perfect eyebrow at my burgeoning hostility.
    “It’s not about you, trust me. I just don’t like to see anyone go off at Daniel like that. He doesn’t deserve it. So consider this a heads up or a warning, whatever way you want to take it. Next time you want to get aggressive, take it out on some other boy. Goodness knows there’s tons of others who are stupid enough to deserve it.” A sigh as Simone paused and continued, this time without any of his usual exaggerated mannerisms. “I’ve known Daniel since primary school and he’s different from a lot of the others. I know. I used to get picked on, you know, for being so ‘unique’,” a smile, “and Daniel looked out for me. Thanks to him, I made it through primary school in one piece. So, go easy on him okay.”
    With that quizzical remark, Simone turned and flounced away. My audience with royalty was at its end. I shrugged, clutching my backpack close as I made my way down to the open courtyard for what was left of lunch period, hoping I hadn’t just lost the only friend I had made so far in this place. I thought about what Simone had revealed about the Chunk Hunk – Daniel – I amended in my mind. Somehow, after being mean to him when he hadn’t deserved it, made it wrong to keep calling him a brainless lout. Oh well, I conceded, it didn’t really matter what I called him because, after today, I was sure that I wouldn’t have to worry about ever speaking to him again. For a reason that I couldn’t name,