A Girl Like You by vinnie Kinsella (good books to read for 12 year olds .TXT) 📕

figure this out,” I said quietly to Nadine.

“No whispering!” Gigi snapped, still drawing.

Nadine and I giggled.

“And no laughing! If you can’t be serious, I will ask you to leave!” And send us…where? Detention? The principal’s office?

“So, we’re supposed to draw each other’s auras?” Nadine said. “I’m not much of an artist. Is it supposed to look like a rainbow?”

“That’s what I thought!” I said, dangerously close to eliciting the wrath of Gigi. “But she said no. The colors are supposed to call out to us.”

“Hmm,” Nadine said, pursing her burgundy lips. “Did I miss the part where she gave instructions?”

“That’s the thing about these night classes…the teachers don’t actually teach. They make us figure it out ourselves.”

Nadine looked thoroughly confused.

“Let me take a stab at this,” I said with more confidence than I felt.

“Do you need to see my eyes, or can I close them?” she asked nervously.

“Eh, close them.”

I heard Gigi say softly to Eddie, “Your colors are alive; they’re calling me closer.”

I glanced at Eddie and he shrugged, still faintly blushing.

For the next twenty minutes, I chose chalk sticks randomly and scribbled on the white paper, forming deep purple circles, red waves, stripes of forest green, and in one corner, a small square of brown. When it felt complete, I stopped and sprayed my work with a bottle of hairspray Gigi had brought to keep the colors from smearing.

“Ohh, that looks great,” Nadine said, leaning over to look. “What does it mean?”

“I have no idea!”

Across the table, Gigi gave a dramatic sigh and put down her chalk. “All right, let’s see what you’ve come up with.”

She looked closely at my drawing, then at me, then at Nadine. We were both too intimidated to laugh.

“This is marvelous work, very intuitive,” Gigi said, running her fingers around the edges of the paper. “You’ve told quite a story about Nadine.”

“I have?”

Even Gigi’s daughter got up and came over to look, showing interest for the first time that night.

“Have her translate it for you,” Brenda said, slipping off her earbuds.

“Well,” Gigi said, clasping her hands over her heart. “The dark purple represents an energy blockage, restricting your spiritual connections. But the deep red here is strength, showing you’re a survivor. This green shows a change coming, or some new growth. Excellent work, Jessica!”

“Cool,” Brenda said.

It was my turn to blush.

“What about that brown in the corner?” Eddie asked.

“That, my dear, is all the crap she has been through,” Gigi said.

“All of that’s true, for sure,” Nadine said, brushing her hair away from her face.” I just separated from my husband and it’s unbelievably hard.”

“I understand,” I said.

“The worst part is it’s been really rough on our son Tristan,” Nadine said, looking down at her hands. But we’re still a family, and who knows what the future will bring, right?”

“Right!”

“But can’t just stand still—gotta gather my wits about me and forge on,” she said, rubbing her palms on her jeans, then looking up and smiling. “Didn’t kill me, so I must be stronger.”

“Can I take this home?” Nadine asked, pointing to the drawing.

“It’s all yours,” I said, helping her roll it up.

Gigi’s drawing of Eddie’s aura was all swirls of yellow and gold. “Edward and I are very psychically attuned,” she raved. “We’re both lovers of exquisite beauty and have deep artistic abilities. Gold auras mean we have many friends and admirers.”

She had gotten right to the very core of him.

“Do you have any hidden jewelry?” Gigi asked, putting her hand on Eddie’s chest. “Yellow aura people like to adorn themselves.”

Eddie took a step backwards and was, for once, utterly speechless.

“He’s married,” I blurted out. “Just doesn’t wear a ring. But boy, is he ever married!”

“I thought he looked married,” Nadine added.

Brenda laughed so hard she had to bend over to catch her breath.

“That’s enough from you, missy,” Gigi said. “You know your aura darkens when you sass your mother.”

Brenda plugged back in and started cleaning up the chalk table.

“You didn’t have your turn, Jess,” Eddie said.

“It’s fine. I think I know my colors.”

“You have that little pile of shit too?” Nadine said.

“Oh, I’ve got that.”

Before we left, Nadine and I exchanged cell numbers. Gigi actually offered her number to Eddie, but he pretended not to hear her.

“Well, Edward,” I said in the overly lit parking lot. “Aren’t you something, man with the golden aura.”

“You too, chicky. Who knew you were psychic?”

“Not me, that’s for sure.”

“Sorry you never had your aura drawn,” Eddie said.

“Eh, I don’t care.”

“Tell you what—order some colored chalk on your favorite shopping site and we’ll do it with the kids.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

60

The next weekend, I called Madison.

“Are you ready for this week’s rundown?”

“Hold on, let me get a drink.”

“It’s four o’clock in the afternoon!”

“It’s freaking iced tea, Mom!”

“You know I hate it when you curse,” I said. “Well, by far my best date in a month was with my new friend Nadine from the aura class.”

“Cool. Maybe you can go lesbo and have a happy life together.”

“Madison!”

“Every day you tell me the guys from Tinder are a mess, but there must be some good ones out there,” Maddy said, sipping audibly. “Otherwise we’d stop doing it, right?”

“I think we’ve all just lost our minds. At least, my matches on Fish seem to have.”

“OK, let’s hear it.”

“Well, there’s the guy, TaurusBull, who wants to call me his sister during sex and say, ‘I hope Dad doesn’t catch us.’”

“Oh, God, Mom, tell me you didn’t—”

“Of course I did not; what are you thinking? He told me this ahead of time, you know, like a script.”

“Sweet Jesus.”

“And some other guy wanted to know if I wore silk or lace panties!”

“What did you tell him?”

“Cotton.”

“Oh, Mombo. Well, at least you were honest. Did you hear back from him?”

“Never. Then there’s a man, StraightArrow, whose hobbies include knife-throwing.”

I heard Madison start to choke into her cell. “Are you kidding me? Geez, if he wants to throw something sharp, why not try darts?”

“Good suggestion. Do you want his number?”

“I mean, is that his