Page 6 (2/2)

Ronan said, "So let’s drive to the Barns"

Gansey gave him another look It was a look that asked how Ronan, of all people, could be so stupid as to think that Gansey would agree to soal on so little sleep

Ronan said, "So let’s go get soe juice"

Gansey considered He looked to where his keys sat on the desk beside his e nu by a bin at the duot soe juice

6

You are an unbelievable phone tramp," Blue said

Orla, unoffended, replied, "You’re just jealous that this isn’t your job"

"I alared up at her older cousin as she tied her shoe Orla towered over her in a shirt stunning both for its skintight fit and its paisley print The flare of her bell-bottoh to hide small aniure eight

The phone in question was the psychic hotline that operated out of the second floor of 300 Fox Way For a dollar aof their archetypes-- a slightlyif Orla answered -- and a host of tactful suggestions for how to i it Everyone, as Orla was pointing out, but Blue

Blue’s summer job required absolutely no extrasensory perception In fact, working at Nino’s would have probably been unbearable if she’d possessed any enerally had a policy of not doing things she despised, but she despised working at Nino’s and had yet to quit Or to get fired, for thatsmile, and the ability to continuously turn the other cheek while keeping diet sodas topped up Blue possessed only one of these attributes at any given time, and it was never the one she needed It didn’t help that Nino’s clientele was ht rudeness was a louder sort of f lirting

The problem was that it paid well

"Oh, please," Orla said "Everyone knows that’s why you’re so irritable"

Blue stood up to face her cousin Apart fro brown hair croith an e face pierced by a nose stud, and a long body , Blue -- barely five feet tall -- only ca psychic or not" Which was partially true Blue didn’t envy Orla’s clairvoyance She did envy her ability to be different without even trying Blue had to try A lot

Again with the waving of the phone "Don’t lie to me, Blue I can read yourher buttoncovered wallet from the counter Just because she wasn’t psychic didn’t lanced at the oven clock Almost late Practically late Barely on time "Unlike some people, my sense of self-worth isn’t tied intodown the hall, storklike She traded her Henrietta accent for a gloriously snotty version of Old South "So out with Richard Campbell Gansey the third too much ‘My sense of self-worth isn’t tied into erated rendition of Gansey’s accent possible She sounded like a drunk Robert E Lee

Blue reached past Orla for the door "Is this aboutyou a phone tramp? I don’t take it back No one needs to hear their future in that voice you do Moo"

Fro roohtly taller version of her daughter, her features a to Nino’s? Come take a card"

Despite her lateness, Blue was unable to resist It’ll only be a moment Ever since she was s Unlike the elaborate Celtic cross tarot spreads hershe did for Blue was playful, fond, and brief It wasn’t so much a clairvoyant experience as a thirty-second bedtime story where Blue was always the hero

Blue joined her mother, her spiky reflection di up froave Blue’s hand an affectionate shake and flipped over a card at randoe of cups, the card Maura always said reminded her of Blue In this deck, the art was of a fresh-faced young person holding a jewel-studded goblet The suite of cups represented relationships -- love and friendship -- and the page stood for new and budding possibilities This particular bedtime story was one Blue had heard too many tioing to say next: Look at all the potential she holds inside her!

Blue cut her off "When does the potential start being a real thing?"

"Ah, Blue"

"Don’t ‘ah, Blue’ me" Blue released herpotential and starts being so more"

Maura briskly shuffled the card back into her deck "Do you want the answer you’re going to like, or the real one?"

Blue harrumphed There was only one answer she ever wanted

"Maybe you’re already sothere Maybe the potential you bring out in other people is your so more"

Blue had known her entire life that she was a rarity And it was nice to be useful But it wasn’t enough It was not, her soul thought, so to be a sidekick"

In the hallway, Orla repeated in Gansey’s Southern nectar: "I’ out with millionaires, then"

Maura made an ill-tempered tsss between her teeth "Orla, don’t you have a call toto work," Blue said, trying to keep Orla’s words fro in But it was true that she looked a lot cooler at school than she did surrounded by psychics and rich boys