tori

Hair is gray and the firers are burning. So many dreams on the shelf. You say I wanted you to be proud of me. I always wanted that myself.

You guys are weird," Tori said.Simon sat on the crate beside me. "That's right. We are totally weird and completely uncool. Your popularity is plummeting just by being near us.

Chloe. Always Chloe with him and his brother. I know I sound like a whiny brat when I complain, but I think I have a good reason. I__ just discovered that I was a witch and my mother was a bitch__he murderous kind. I was now on the run with three kids who didn__ want me along.No matter how hard I tried to keep up and help out, the guys only cared about Chloe. If I ran in front of this bus to push her to safety, they__ race to her side to see if she was okay. Probably give me crap for bruising her when I shoved her out of the way.

My fourteen-year-old sister Lara is a brat. Unfortunately, no one sees it but me. To everyone else, she__ adorable. She__ tiny and blonde and sweet and as helpless as a kitten. Chloe reminded me of Lara, at first. The difference, as I discovered, is that Chloe really is as sweet as she seems and she isn__ as helpless as she looks.

I used to think that once we started going out, Derek would change. When I admitted that to Tori, she nearly laughed herself into an aneurysm and gave me a lecture on the stupidity of expecting to change a guy. Maybe I didn__ have her dating experience, but I knew you didn__ go out with someone because you thought you__ change him. That wasn__ what I__ meant. I liked Derek the way he was. I__ just hoped getting closer would mean landing on the sharp side of his tongue less often.

A hand touched my shoulder, shaking me. I was back on the bus. It was dark and warm and I just wanted to sleep, but Chloe kept shaking my sho

I don't know how to be anything but pretend," I replied, and it ached in me how true that really was. "But if I could be real, I'd be real for you.