The Otherworldlies by Jennifer Anne Kogler Read Free Book Online

following Headmaster Mooney’s lead. “We value Fern, as we do all our students.”
    “I appreciate your apology,” Mrs. McAllister said, letting Headmaster Mooney’s backhanded compliment slide this once.
    “Thank you for coming in, I think we’re on the right—” Headmaster Mooney raised his fist in the air as if a pom-pom belonged in it. Mrs. McAllister slammed the door behind her, cutting the headmaster off in midsentence.
    Fern was waiting for her mother as she exited the headmaster’s office. Mrs. McAllister held her hand out for her daughter. Mary Lou’s phony smile was still on her face as she nodded to the various secretaries. All eyes were on the well-dressed blond mother and her undersized dark-haired child as they traipsed through the office, down the stairs, and across the parking lot.
    On the walk to the car, a wave of gratitude passed over Fern. She wanted to grab her mother around the waist and not let go. Although the door to the office was thick, Fern had been able to listen to the exchange between her mother and the headmaster as if there were no barrier at all. She’d heard every word.
    “Thank you for defending me,” Fern said.
    Mrs. McAllister stopped dead in the parking lot. Her olive-shaped eyes were on fire.
    “What’s the matter with you?” Mrs. McAllister said, seething once again. She narrowed her eyes and looked at Fern with unmitigated anger. “Don’t you dare thank me!” she continued. “You put me in a terrible position, Fern Phoebe McAllister. You deserve to be punished, but it will not be by that pompous excuse for a man!”
    Fern spent the afternoon lying on her bed, reading Island of the Blue Dolphins . Mrs. McAllister had decided Fern would spend one week grounded in her room, without any television or computer privileges. At 6:30 sharp, Eddie summoned her to dinner. The three McAllister children devoured their mother’s meat loaf eagerly. Eddie recounted an altercation that had interrupted football practice. Sam laughed at how Mrs. Stonyfield had caught Sally White clutching a drawing of a woman with Clownface written below it. Mrs. Stonyfield was too dense to realize the drawing was a portrait of her.
    Mrs. McAllister was unusually quiet, finally dismissing her children to go do their homework. On the way up the stairs, Sam and Eddie cornered their sister by the top of the banister.
    “What happened today, huh?” Eddie said, his blue eyes glowing with excitement. “Was there a showdown between Mooney and Mom or what? Kinsey said she saw you and Mom storming out of the office.”
    “They were going to expel me. Mom convinced them not to . . . and got them to apologize,” Fern said, almost embarrassed.
    “Really?” Eddie said. “See, Sammy, you don’t mess with the Commander, do you?” Eddie playfully hit his younger brother in the stomach with the back of his hand.
    “When the Commander says jump . . . ,” Sam started.
    “We say, ‘yes ma’am, how high?’” Eddie ended with a forehead salute. He grabbed the banister and hopped toward his room, saying, “Dodged a bullet there, sis! I swear, you’re untouchable!” He closed the door to his room. Fern figured he was in a rush to call Kinsey Wood, his girlfriend of more than a year, as he did every night after dinner. Sam remained in the hallway.
    “Fern?”
    Fern looked at her twin brother. Maybe it was his blue eyes or the freckles sprinkled on his cheeks, but Fern couldn’t help thinking that he was much younger than she was. She loved him, but she never felt that sameness, that twinness she thought she was supposed to. They were so different.
    “Fern?” Sam asked again. He mouthed Follow me and headed toward their mother’s office. Fern walked along the hallway, careful not to make too much noise.
    Sam and Fern hadn’t been able to talk alone until now. The Commander had made sure of that. She’d sequestered Fern in her room as soon as they arrived home from Pirate’s Cove and had