I’ve gotten quite good at it actually, though I make a point to never steal from the homes where I live. It’s always been from the places where it doesn’t matter, from big business that wastes more than I’d ever be able to steal … but I’ve grown tired of it.
I’m going to steal just once more. This time, it’s going to be something much, much bigger.
I whirl around and stomp off.
Jokes on Ms. Martin. She doesn’t have anything I need.
I don’t have anything, and I don’t need anything. She can’t see that all I want is to get the hell out. I can’t believe that I thought for one second that she might actually care about me. What a joke.
All my life, I would have killed to be someone—anyone—other than who I actually am.
Fortunately for me, Sadie White went ahead and did the hard part for me.
Chapter 3
One bus ticket and a bottle of bleach later and I’m standing in a gas station bathroom looking in the mirror at a face I don’t recognize. The overwhelming chemical smell draws angry looks from others as they glance my way, but that doesn’t matter. My hair is dry and brittle and a little yellow, but it doesn’t matter.
If I look so much like Sadie White, then why not become Sadie
White.
I’m halfway to the school, and the doubt is really starting to settle in. This is a new start for me. It’s more than an escape from Ms. Martin and the system, it’s an entirely new life without any of the baggage that comes with being Teddy Price.
“Sadie White.”
I try the name on my lips. It doesn’t sound right, so I practice it a couple more times until a lady comes out of a stall and looks at me like I just escaped the nuthouse. I don’t want to draw any more attention to myself, so I throw my things into a plastic bag and hurry back to the bus. No use in turning back now.
My life is going to change forever because of this. All my life I’ve had to fight for scraps … but no more. This is my chance to get ahead; to get a fresh start, a new life. Even if it means stealing someone else’s.
Several connections later, the bus leaves me at the end of a long, winding road in upstate New York first thing the next morning. I don’t watch it go. My eyes are trained elsewhere.
Hawthorne Academy looms like a modern-day castle at the top of the hill. The giant gates guarding it from the road are all that stand between me and my future.
My heart is racing. My mind is racing faster than my heart. So many things can still go wrong, but I’ve already made it this far. With a deep breath, I walk through the gates and down the winding lane to the school. This is where it all begins.
I am no longer Theodora ‘Teddy’ Price.
No. From now on I am Sadie White. Rich girl. Bleach blonde girl. Popular girl. Excellent student on her way to college. On her way to a road of success for the rest of her life.
That’s me, I repeat over and over in my head as I hesitate for a moment outside of the main building’s doors, and then push them open and walk in to begin my new life.
The front hall stretches out before me in a long corridor that branches off into another hallway on the left, but stops short of a glassed-in office on the right. Tiny squares of light dance over the floor and walls, courtesy of the huge crystal chandelier above me. The inside of the school looks every bit as much like a fairy-tale castle as the outside does, though with modern day amenities.
Even though I passed by a fair share of students on the walk up, the front office is mostly empty aside from a group of tiny teary-eyed kindergartners getting paired off in the corner. That anxiety rises up in me again. Most students spend their whole school career here. Even if I was actually Sadie, I’d still be an outsider … the new girl, the inexperienced girl.
I let out a long, slow breath and promise myself that I am going to make this work. I am Sadie White … at least as far as anyone else is concerned. A heavyset older woman with salt and pepper hair twisted up on her head catches my eye from behind the desk, and there’s no more avoiding it.
“Hi!” I say, my voice cracking and too loud. I stop and compose myself before trying again. “Sorry. I’m new … and I’m a little lost. Is this where I’m supposed to check in?”
Her eyes soften slightly from behind a pair of black rimmed glasses perched on the end of her nose.
“What’s the name?” she asks after introducing herself as Evelyn Mason, the school secretary. She waits patiently for my reply, readying her fingers above the computer keyboard. She looks like she’s wearing a garden, her dress is so flowery. I must have been staring for longer than I thought, because she clears her throat. “I’m going to need that name to help you.”
I try to speak, but nothing comes out at first. My heart is pounding so hard that I’m sure she can hear it. I take a deep breath and give it another try.
“Ted—Sadie. I’m Sadie White,” I finally stammer, pushing Sadie’s driver’s license across the desk for her to take a look. She takes one glance at it, up at me, and then goes back to typing … no questions asked.
It’s easier than I ever imagined.