Dissonance by Erica O’Rourke Read Free Book Online

honor. I was surprised his exes didn’t have an official club, with a page in the yearbook.
    Judging from the way she trailed her fingers over his shoulder, I could see she’d decided to reprise her role as Simon’s girlfriend. But in all the time I’d been watching him, he’d never gone out with the same girl twice. She had a better chance of nabbing a Broadway lead.
    Which didn’t ease the sting when he turned back to her as if I wasn’t there.
    â€œSince when do you smile at that guy?” Eliot grumbled.
    I elbowed him. “Jealous much?”
    Ms. Powell hit the lights and launched into her lecture on counterpoint, complete with slides. I tuned out Eliot’s sputtering and tried to focus. Even so, my thoughts kept drifting to Park World Simon versus real Simon. Bedhead wasn’t the only difference between the two. The leather cuff on his wrist was gone, replaced by a sporty, complicated-looking digital watch. This Simon had shadows under his eyes, the kind that took longer than a single late night to acquire. I wondered what—or who—had put them there. Eliot had always been better than me at pinpointing the changes between realities, but asking for his take on it would have meant admitting how close I’d gotten to Simon during the Great Balloon Rescue.
    Forty minutes later the lights came back up, and Ms. Powell slapped her hands together with undisguised glee. She looked like a cross between a mad scientist and a 1950s housewife, wiry blond hair piled on her head and secured with pencils, a shirtdressprinted with bluebirds, and a pair of orange patent-leather heels.
    â€œSo, your next project, to be done with a partner, is to develop and perform your own example of counterpoint, sixteen measures long. Fun, right?”
    â€œThis was supposed to be my blow-off class,” Bree hissed to Simon, who shrugged. Despite being my parents age, Ms. Powell was new this year and naive enough to believe everyone was here because they loved music as much as she did. It was kind of endearing.
    Ms. Powell continued. “This time around I decided it would be good to shake things up.”
    Nothing good had ever come from a teacher’s desire to shake things up, and I braced myself.
    â€œRather than pick your own partners for this composition, I’m going to assign them.” She chuckled at the groans that rose up. “You know what they say—familiarity breeds contempt.”
    There was plenty of contempt in the room, but it was all aimed at her. I might have felt sorry for her, if I hadn’t felt like she was pitching her little speech directly to me. Walker training or school projects, Eliot and I were a team, and she was about to split us up. I slouched down as she yanked on the screen. It rolled up, displaying neat columns of names.
    Eliot made a choking noise, but I couldn’t tell if it was because he was partnered with Bree—who didn’t look any more thrilled than he did—or because I was paired up with Simon.
    â€œWe can switch partners, can’t we?” Bree asked, tossing her hair back. “If both groups agree?”
    â€œIf I wanted you to pick your own partners, I would have said so from the beginning,” Ms. Powell replied, unfazed by Bree’s venomous look.
    Bree huffed and flounced without leaving her seat, then bent over to whisper something to Simon.
    â€œYou okay?” Eliot murmured. “You look weird.”
    â€œThanks,” I said through gritted teeth. “I’m fine.”
    He spun a mechanical pencil between his fingers, an over-under pattern I knew he’d spent hours practicing. “Watch him, okay? He’s . . .”
    â€œI know what he is.” Trouble. My area of expertise. “Better than being stuck with Bree.”
    â€œShe’s not terrible,” Eliot said, and pushed his glasses back up his nose. “Not terrible to look at, anyway.”
    It