Chapter One

Back-to-school shopping. One of my least favorite times of the year.

And what made it even worse was when Aunt Dulce gave me her credit card to go to the mall with my little sister Ellie as a back to school gift, and told me not to be shy with and purchases and to be sure to get some new clothes and supplies for school while I was there. While this is a dream come true for most fifteen year olds, all it did was remind me of my parents, and how they never could have done this for me. Aunt Dulce is extremely rich, and likes to spoil me and Ellie. I suppose she does it to try to make us feel better after our parents died in the car crash last month, but I wish she wouldn’t do it. My family, owning just a small produce shop and living in the apartment above it, had always struggled financially.

And what really did I need to get for school? I had always been a loner, maybe hanging out with the band or theater kids at school, not that I was a part of the band or drama clubs. Why would an outcast need to impress people when they’ll just get ousted by everyone anyway? I mean, I am starting fresh at a new high school this year, so I’m not an outcast yet, but it’s not like I’m going to go from loner to par excellence. I’d rather go in as an outcast then be outcasted.

But I really had no choice, especially after Ellie heard about the offer. Ellie is going into the seventh grade, and is way more successful at being popular than I ever have been. Back in Pittsburgh, she had a ton of friends, a “boyfriend”, did volleyball and lacrosse, wore way too much makeup, and was the queen of preppiness and drama. All of the things that made you “popular” material.

Starting at a new school would be easy for her; I could see why she was excited. Not that she’d been completely herself recently. She’s still her preppy preteenager self, sure, just a little more moody and quiet. Until this morning.

I found Aunt Dulce and Ellie in the kitchen, talking about some game show they had watched last night. Ellie was drinking orange juice at the breakfast bar, and Aunt Dulce was cooking what looked like scrambled eggs. I slid onto the barstool next to Ellie.

“Good morning, Dani,” Aunt Dulce turned when she heard me, smiling wide. I gave a half-hearted smile back, and a mumbled “Morning,” before grabbing the newspaper, in search of anything interesting. Nothing in the sports section about the Steelers. I was a pretty big fan, not that anyone usually bothered to care, although they would notice if they looked. I wore my Steelers hoodie to school almost every day last year.

“So how about I drop you and Ellie off at the mall this morning, we’ll leave in about forty-five minutes? Will that be enough time to get ready?”

I nodded. “Sure. That’s fine.”

“Good,” my aunt replied. “I think Ellie’s already ready to go.” She laughed, nodding at my sister who ‘d been dying to go to the mall for the past month, and who was, sure enough, already dressed, makeuped, and flat ironed. I silently wondered how early she was up, she’s not a morning person but it’s only half past ten and she usually takes hours. I didn’t waste too much time pondering that mystery though; I still had to shower before we left.

Just as Aunt Dulce said, we left the house almost exactly forty-five minutes later. When we got there and my aunt dropped us off at the entrance, the first thing my sister did was drag me into Forever 21. I’d never admit it to Ellie, but I love this store. I love pretty much everything in it that I see. But what’s worse than an outcast is an outcast who tries to wear whatever’s “in.” I used to just buy my clothes at Target or Clearance in Kohl’s or Belk or something.

“Okay, Dani, we’re shopping for you first.” Ellie announced.

“We’re what? Why?”

She sighed, a little too heavily to be necessary.  “You’re not going to start off here as a total loser again, are you?”

“Uhh..” I hesitated. Yes, I was, but I didn’t want to tell my sister that.

“Ookay, well that’s not gonna happen. Trust me, wear the fashion stuff, the popular girls will take you in like that!” She snapped her fingers. I raised my eyebrows. It was kind of tempting, I guess, but I had no real desire to be claimed or whatever by the popular crowd. Ellie ignored my unenthused expression and headed over to the clearance racks. “Cheap, but still in fashion.” She said. “No one knows you only spent six ninety-nine on a shirt.”

“What, so it’s uncool to buy stuff on clearance?” I asked.

“Well, no, but expensive stuff shows how much money we have.”

“But we don’t have any money, this is our aunt’s!” I reasoned. Ellie just shrugged. “People don’t need to know that. Besides, she practically gave it to us.” I shook my head at the ridiculousness.

“Damn, you guys take that way too seriously.” Ellie just shrugged again. ”It’s part of being popular.”

The rest of the mall trip went on like this, my little sister teaching me popular girl knowledge, finding me clothes. I wasn’t bad when it came to styles, I did a pretty good job picking some outfits out. It just wasn’t really my thing. I never had a use for it.

By the time we were done, it was nearing three o’clock. I was tired from shopping and just wanted to go home and lie down and listen to music. But when we got home my aunt wanted to see everything we bought. I let my sister do all the talking, I sat on the couch and watched her and Aunt Dulce go through everything. We had bought a lot, mostly my sister.  I studied their auras, trying to make something out of them. It’s not like someone’s aura is the first thing you see, it’s sort of like a candlelight, how well you can see it depends on how strong the feelings are. So when a green aura can mean peaceful or jealous, if it’s jealous it usually comes in stronger, because jealousy is usually a stronger feeling than peacefulness.

“So Dani,” Aunt Dulce turned to me. “Are you ready for a new school year?”

I shrugged. “I guess.” I got up. “I’m going to my room for a little bit, okay?” I didn’t really want to talk about school. It started next Monday, I wasn’t looking forward to being ousted and given a ton of work and expectations.

When I got to my room, I dug around under my sheets for my iPod.  I fall asleep listening to music most nights, and my iPod usually ends up tangled at the foot of my bed. I lay down, and turned my iPod on to Florence + The Machine, but I fell asleep before the song was over.