The Weight of the Stars - K. Ancrum Page 0,15

to reading.

Ryann glanced into the kitchen as she walked past on her way to the stairs.

43 SECONDS

Of all the things Ryann Bird had expected to find in Alexandria’s room, Alexandria herself was strangely not one of them. So when she opened the door to find Alexandria struggling to get into the skylight, trying to reconcile her broken arm with the height of the windowsill, Ryann just … stared for a bit.

“Were you born in a barn? Is knocking a foreign concept for you?” Alexandria said sharply. The bandages on her head were gone and the bruises had faded. Her hair was still shorter in one place where they must have shaved it down to put in stitches. Ryann stared at Alexandria dumbly for longer than was appropriate before snapping out of it and walking into the room.

“You shouldn’t be doing that,” Ryann said, watching Alexandria try a new angle to wedge herself up. “You’re going to get hurt again.”

“First of all, I didn’t ‘get hurt.’ You startled me. And second of all, I can do this by myself. You can leave.” Alexandria tried to jump a bit, but without being able to reach, she was too short to pull herself up.

Ryann looked back down the stairs. If Mr. Macallough hadn’t wanted her here to do this, he would have told her so in the living room.

“Okay, get out of the way. I’ll go out and pull you up.” Ryann shouldered Alexandria aside and pulled herself through the skylight. Then she lay down and put her arms through the opening. It was a moment before Alexandria grabbed on to them; which was ridiculous because Ryann knew she was standing right there.

She hefted the other girl up until they were both on the roof. Alexandria quickly snatched herself out of Ryann’s grip.

She crawled over to the spot where Ryann had been sitting for almost two months and took stock of it.

“So you’ve been snooping in my room and ate all my candy. That sounds fair,” she said sarcastically. “Anything else?”

“I played with your Galaxy Switch.” Ryann sprawled out and crossed her arms behind her head.

“If by ‘played’ you mean ‘fucked my charting up, displaced my ship, and put me eight weeks of work behind.’” She brushed the candy wrappers and paper cranes Ryann had made out of the way with a sneer of disgust. Then Alexandria took out her notebook and started writing furiously. “Just. Don’t touch anything else. And be quiet,” Alexandria snapped.

3 HOURS

They spent the night in complete silence.

Ryann dozed off a bit. Every time she woke up, she had the feeling she was being watched, but by the time she opened her eyes or turned around, Alexandria was busy writing.

At midnight, Ryann got up and stretched. “I’m going home and that means you need to get down. Unless you want to stay up here all night.”

“I’m staying until one,” Alexandria said. “Whether you come or go is of no consequence to me.”

“Oh my God, fine!” Ryann snarled. She slumped back down onto the roof and lay there for another hour.

At exactly one a.m., Alexandria folded up her notebook and gathered all the loose paper Ryann had left on the roof and put it all in the pocket of her sweatshirt.

Ryann shook her head to wake herself up a bit, climbed down the roof, and swung inside through the skylight. She stuck the front half of her body back out and sleepily held up her arms to catch Alexandria and guide her down safely back to her bedroom floor.

Alexandria tugged herself free of Ryann’s grip as soon as her shoes hit the ground, and she was giving Ryann a strange and not at all friendly look. But Ryann was too exhausted to care.

“Mmkay. G’night,” Ryann slurred. She tugged her bookbag onto her back and trudged out of Alexandria’s room.

TUESDAY MORNING

Ryann was always late, so she didn’t bother to hurry. Plus, she’d been sleeping in through history for the past eight weeks because of the stargazing, and she was pretty sure if she didn’t show up eventually, they’d start sending letters home or notify the truancy police.

She slammed the door open and walked in, passing right in front of Mrs. Marsh and obscuring the light of the projector—plunging the classroom into darkness.

“Thank you for gracing us with your presence, Ms. Bird,” Mrs. Marsh drawled.

Ryann shrugged and trudged to the back of the room.

“Bird,” Shannon Greenly said demurely.

Ryann scrunched her nose up and grinned.

She walked past Alexandria’s desk. They locked eyes for