The Amulet by Alison Pensy Read Free Book Online

friend, Amy’s
house. She had arranged to pick Zoë up from there, too. Zoë lived
close to Amy, so it was on the way. She honked the horn to let them
know she was there. A couple of minutes passed. Just as she was
about to honk again, the front door opened and her two friends
appeared. Amy was a little shorter than Zoë, who was about the same
height as Faedra. They were all roughly the same build, but had
very different features. Amy had white blonde hair, cropped into a
short spiky style. She had blue eyes and pale skin, but unlike
Faedra, not a freckle to be seen. Something that Faedra couldn’t
help but be envious of. Amy was a party waiting to happen; there
was never a dull moment when she was around.
    Zoë on the other hand, had long sleek dark
brown hair that flowed down her back and shone in the sunlight. Her
olive toned skin complimented her warm green/brown eyes and she
always looked great in anything she wore. Between the three of
them, they had all the hair colors covered: blonde, brunette, and
redhead.
    Faedra could see the excitement in their
smiles as they made their way down the garden path to the car.
    “Hi, Fae,” Amy chirped as she took her
assumed position in the front passenger seat.
    Zoë didn’t hesitate jumping in the back seat
beside Faen. She loved Faen almost as much as Faedra. It seemed to
Faedra the feeling was mutual.
    “How’s my boy today?” Zoë said as she mussed
Faen’s ears and planted a big kiss on his nose. Faedra was watching
her in the rearview mirror and a big grin spread across her
lips.
    “Hi, guys,” Faedra said. “Well, we’ve got a
great day for it.”
    The journey to Cambridge flew by. They fell
into the usual girlie chatter and didn’t stop talking for the
entire drive there. Amy told them in great detail about her latest
conquest. Faedra had to admit he did sound rather nice and was
looking forward to meeting him. Zoë was already in a relationship
and she was perfectly happy. They had been together since the
beginning of high school, and at this point, it didn’t look like
that was going to change any time soon.
    Faedra hadn’t yet met anyone she felt any
connection with. Although, she had been asked out on numerous
dates, she had always politely declined. She had a feeling that
when the right person came along, she would know in an instant. She
just didn’t want to waste her time, or his, when she knew it
wouldn’t go any further than the first date.
    Cars started to slow several miles out from
Cambridge with all the festival traffic trying to make its way into
the city. They sat in traffic for what seemed like half the day,
but was, in fact, only about half an hour until they were
eventually ushered into a huge field. They followed the line of
cars in front of them until they found a parking space.
    The girls and Faen got out of the car and
mingled in with the crowd of people heading towards the entrance to
the festival. The deep bass of music off in the distance resounded
all around them. As they got closer to the festival, the music
became more distinctive and the crowd got larger. Faedra couldn’t
help but get completely caught up in the atmosphere. She soaked it
all in, observing with interest the people in the crowd surrounding
her. Every age range, from babies in pushchairs to older retirees,
were present.
    It seemed to her that there were three
categories of people attending the festival. Those who dressed in
ordinary clothing, like her and her friends. Those that were
dressed somewhat hippie-ish, with long hair, beards, and
psychedelic t-shirts emblazoned with the ‘peace’ sign. And those
who were just all out eccentric, wearing anything from renaissance
clothing to cross-dressing. One couple that walked past her was
dressed in silver clothing, wearing pink wigs, with one sporting
devil horns and the other a tiara. Faedra guessed they were using
the ‘good versus evil’ take on their costumes.
    Finally, they were through the gates and