Sleight by Jennifer Sommersby Read Free Book Online

staff folowed suit and students began shushing each other. Within a half-dozen seconds, the gym was quiet, though the sudden silence did little to undo the ringing in my ears.
    “Thank you, everyone. Thank you to our band for such a, uh, noble effort!” The crowd booed and hissed. I was immediately glad Marlene hadn’t won the argument about me joining the school’s orchestra.
    “Settle down, people, okay, thank you.” She paused for a moment while the students calmed. “Before we get started, I’d like to take a moment to introduce some wonderful, talented new members to the Eaglefern family…” Ms. Spitzer’s voice faded upon realizing what she was about to do. Please…not us…please don’t say it.
    “Let’s have al the new students from the Cinzio Traveling Players Company stand up so we can welcome you to Eaglefern High School!” Oh, my sweet Lord. She did it. I felt like I might vomit.
    Junie, who never missed an opportunity to grab the spotlight, hooked her arm in mine and hoisted me to my feet, waving her free arm at the crowd. The other circus kids, except Ash who remained sulen and hunched over, raised their arms as if waiting to be caled upon in class. The reception from the student body was lukewarm, and from the far side of the gym, someone yeled, “Marry me, Red!
    Have my ginger babies!” Laughs and claps throughout. I was the only redhead in our crew. When we got home, Junie was going to die a slow, torturous death.
    I kept my head down and alowed my hair to conceal the searing blush of my cheeks and earlobes. My heart pounded behind my eyes, my neck on fire. Even my fingers tingled with the super-heated blood of embarrassment. I felt a hand on my ankle and my eyes shifted to see what or who was touching me. Henry was looking up at my face, his own face awash in sympathy. But from his hand, a wave of cool calm washed up my calf. He winked at me, and as I had earlier in the lunchroom, I felt a sense of ease. In the ten seconds that he held on, an unfamiliar tide of warmth, peace, washed over me. My breathing regulated, my heart rate steadied.
    As soon as Henry let go, however, the anger toward Junie, and at Spitzer for caling us out, surged through me. I found myself wishing Henry would touch me again so I could feel more of whatever it was that had just calmed my simmer.
    It was as though Junie had been involved in this school crap her entire life. Her knees hadn’t stopped bouncing since we’d sat, and judging by the grin on her face, she was having a fantastic time. Her life revolved around risk, big risk. She was a trapeze artist from a distinguished lineage of the same, with a few wire walkers thrown in to keep the bloodline varied. For Junie’s family, flying through the air on nothing but a bar and a prayer wasn’t something they chose to do, not like a person chooses to take up plumbing or study medicine. The circus life, and more specificaly, the trapeze, was heritage, ethnicity, and religion al roled into one pork-and-potato-filed dumpling.
    For Junie, walking into a new school and being put on display was a day at the park. With baloons and ice cream. So once we were seated again and the staff had taken over with boring announcements, I resolved to let her live. It was Junie. She epitomized happy.
    When the principal finaly excused the student body half an hour later, the hordes made their way toward the double-door exits on the east side of the gymnasium. Ash had melted into the crowd before I was able to ask him how things were going. Junie nudged me and with a quick “meet me out front,” she, too, was off, eager to catch up with some unknown person in the herd. Of course…first day in and Junie’s got herself a friend.
    Henry lingered a bit, waiting for the crush of humans to squeeze its way through the doors. I stood nearby, not interested in subjecting myself to squished toes or bruised ribs by students pushing to escape.
    “So, what’d ya think?” he said, a sly