Barbie Girl (Baby Doll Series) by Heidi Acosta Read Free Book Online Page A

wall. A man in his late forties clutches the hands of a woman with dark hair and the same dark eyes as Dylan’s. I think I am going to puke. I look at another picture of the man and woman with Dylan and his little sister sitting on rocks at the beach, they are all wearing matching white shirts. How sweet.
    “You are pretty,” Dylan’s little sister is staring up at me.
    “I know,” I smile down at her.
    “What’s your name?” she asks.
    “Barbie.”
    Her eyes get huge. “Are you the real Barbie?” She whispers, “You look like her.” She looks at me with star-struck eyes.
    I kind of like this kid, “Yep, the one and only.”
    The little girl’s smile grows until it reaches her eyes.
    “She is not the Barbie; she is more like those dolls you are not allowed to play with.” Dylan is standing in the doorframe with the same glare and stance he wore before, arms folded tight across his chest.
    Emmy’s eyes wrinkle up like she’s trying to think really hard about something, then she relaxes and smiles again at me. “Bratz!” she squeals. “I love those dolls, they are so cool!” she skips off.
    I smile after her. “Smart kid,” I say.
    He sighs through his nose. “Don’t flatter yourself, she is only six. What do you want?”
    What do I want? That’s the question of the day. “Um, you are supposed to be tutoring me, remember the deal? I hook you up, you get me an A.” I close the distance so we stand toe to toe. “I am also going to pick your virgin flower,” my finger trails up his chest, I am trying to make him nervous, but it is my heart that is beating erratically.
    “Yes at ten o’clock this morning, it is now two thirty,” he looks at his watch on his wrist.
    “So…” I say. His nerdy cuteness of his is starting to wear off.
    “So this is not going to work out.”
    I stare at him; I am the one who calls the shots.
    “Me tutoring you,’’ he says like I am too dense to understand. Images of no diploma fill my mind; my mother never graduated.
    “Look I am late, sorry, it will not happen again.” Now my arms are crossed. I am pissed; he got an apology out of me.
    “Sorry is not going to cut it. You are an irresponsible spoiled brat and I don’t want to deal with it,” he snaps.
    “I am not irresponsible!” I yell back. He has no clue of the responsibility that sits on my shoulders every day.
    “What do you care if you pass anyway,” he says.
    So I am not like my mother. God, I don’t want to end up like her. That is why I want to graduate and get the hell out of Dodge. I take a deep breath, making him angrier is not going to help me, and he is oddly immune to my womanly ways, maybe he is gay and is in denial, Katie does have the body of a thirteen-year-old boy.
    “Will you pleassse tutor me,” I bat my eyes, trying to change my approach with him. “Please,” I try again.
    I can see his façade begging to falter. “I will agree to it…only if you agree to my rules,” he says walking into the kitchen.
    “Yeah. Like what?” I follow him; I jump up on the kitchen counter and swing my legs.
    “No more getting high,” he says like this might be a deal breaker.
    “Done,” I say.
    “And no more cutting classes, you have to be on time and stay until they end,” he raises his eyebrows testing me.
    “Anything else, Dad?”
    He sighs again dropping his hands to his side. “And you cannot be late to your tutoring session anymore,” he says, his hair falling into his eyes.
    “Fine,” I push my chest up so my boobs look bigger. His eyes dart to my chest then back to my face. Definitely not gay .
    “And you have to wear something more conservative around my impressionable little sister,” he says trying to stay focused on my face.
    “I have a Liberian costume I wore for Halloween, I can dig it out,” I tease.
    He lets out a long breath. “No! Just cover up,” he says his cheeks a bright shade of red.
    “So are we going to do this thing or what?” I ask, jumping down