Read Online Why Did She Have to Die? by Lurlene McDaniel - Free Book Online

to her friend. “Your makeup looks a little streaked, too.”
    Joy took some makeup from her purse and carefully put it on. “Thanks. I hate having phys ed in the morning. It takes me all day to recover. Maybe next year I’ll get a decent schedule.”
    Next year. They’d be ninth graders: the queen bees, the top of the heap. The clang of the bell caused Joy to grab her books. “I’ve got to run. If I’m late to math one more time—” She paused at the door. “Are you coming?”
    “In a minute,” Elly said, combing the short sides of her hair. “The crutches give me an excuse to be late, and so I take advantage of it.”
    “See ya later.” Joy fled the bathroom and Elly glanced around, realizing that she was all alone. The quiet made her feel uneasy. She let out her breath in one deep heave. It echoed hollowly off the walls.
Alone
. Elly was all alone. She pushed the thoughts of Kenny Hughes aside, determined not to think about him or to remember the feel of his arms around her waist.
    She stared into the mirror. Her nose had a bump in its bridge. Her eyes were too far apart and her lashes too skimpy, not like Kathy’s. Elly thought about the pure sapphire blue of Kathy’s eyes and the thick, luxurious lashes that had framed them. She took her eye-liner and drew a moustache on her reflection. Next she drew exaggerated lashes and brows over her mirrored eyes.
    “Better,” she said aloud. Her gaze moved to the remainder of the mirror and the surrounding spotless tile. Fresh paint had covered the usual graffiti. It annoyed Elly. She took the eye-liner and drew funny faces across the surface of the entire mirror.
    “Needs color,” she mused and fumbled in her purse for her lip gloss. She opened it and, with her finger, drew bright pink flowers around the faces.
    Elly stared at her creation, and then smeared the pink and black together with her hand. She wiped it on the clean wall. Then she took the pencil again and doodled along the wall and on the fronts of the toilet stall doors. She took her lip gloss and drew flowers on the paper towel holder and on the soap dispensers. In minutes, the room was draped in pink and black. Elly let out a strange giggle and looked at her handiwork with a smirk. “Perfect,” she said.
    “No so perfect,” a voice behind her said.
    Elly spun around. A heavy feeling swelled in her stomach. Mrs. Wenzel stood at the doorway, her arms crossed and her toe tapping. “What is the meaning of this, Elly?”
    The eye-liner and the lip gloss slipped from her hand and clattered to the floor. The rattling sound echoed inside her head. Her voice wouldn’t work.
    “I think you’d better come with me, Elly. We’ll have to tell the principal what you’ve done. And then we’ll call your parents to come and get you. You know, you could be suspended for this.”
    Filled with dread, Elly gathered her belongings and mutely followed Mrs. Wenzel down the hallway to the principal’s office.

    * * * *

    “I don’t believe it.” Mr. Rowan’s comment was low and grim. “Is this true, Elly? Did you do this?”
    Elly hung her head and stared at the brown carpet in Mr. Grant’s office. They’d called her dad off a construction site when they couldn’t reach her mother. His work shirt was soaked with sweat and covered with a fine, white dust.
    “Look at me when I’m talking to you, young lady.”
    The growl in her dad’s tone caused Elly to look up. She glared at him defiantly. “I was only having a little fun—”
    “Fun?! Since when is it fun to destroy school property?”
    Mr. Grant cleared his throat. “Mr. Rowan, I understand what Elly’s been going through these past few months, what with the death of her sister and all.”
    Mr. Rowan’s expression turned stony. “There’s no excuse for what she did.”
    “I agree,” Mr. Grant said. “Elly’s been a model student for years, and even though I could suspend her, I’m going to be lenient because of all she’s been