It's Only Temporary by Sally Warner Page B

couldn’t stand thinking about the loss of her beloved sketchbook – the last in what had been a whole series of losses. The thought of her own private sketchbook–her
sketchbook!
– being in the hands of the mean football guys and the bad ballerinas – sneering Melissa! patronizing Taylor! –made Skye want to curl up and die.

    What were they doing with the sketchbook right now, besides prying into her innermost feelings and reading about her problems? Laughing at her? Passing around the pages? Or ripping
out
the pages, more likely, getting her drawings photocopied so they could plaster them all over the school on Monday morning?
    Skye felt her face grow hot at the very idea of everyone–especially her new friends, and Ms. O’Hare – seeing the worst of those drawings. Ms. O’Hare, Amanda, Jamila, Pip, Matteo, and Maddy – especially Maddy – would be so hurt.
    And she really, really liked them all now.
    Skye felt like throwing up, only she didn’t have the energy to get out of bed.
    What she wanted most was to run back home to Albuquerque–only there
wasn’t
much home there now. Her house was in an unrecognizable uproar, her parents were fighting more than ever, her brother was changed – maybe forever – and her best friend apparently had forgotten all about her.
    â€œSkye?” Gran asked, rapping gently on Skye’s bedroom door. “It’s time to get up, darling. It’s ten thirty.”
    â€œFive more minutes,” Skye begged. That usually worked, except on schooldays.
    â€œI know you had a wonderful time last night,” Gran said, insistent, “but rise and shine.”
    â€œ
Please
,” Skye mumbled from under her covers. “I didn’t have a wonderful time last night. It was the worst night of my life.”
    Gran was instantly at Skye’s side. She plopped down on the bed and gently pried open one of her granddaughter’s squinched-shut eyes. “Talk,” she said. “What happened?”
    â€œNothing,” Skye said, turning her head to the wall.
    â€œTalk,” Gran said again, but it sounded more like an order this time. “It’s important that you tell me what’s troubling you, darling. I never had a daughter, but I know this much, at least.”
    â€œI can’t. It’s too terrible,” Skye said to the wall.
    Instantly, she could feel her grandmother stiffen – as she probably imagined all kinds of hideous
Law & Order-type
things happening at the dance, Skye realized, guilt-stricken. “Don’t worry, I’m okay,” she reassured Gran hastily. “It’s just that – some kids stole my sketchbook.”
    â€œYour
sketchbook
?” Gran said, unable to hide her relief.
    â€œSee, you didn’t even know I had one, did you?” Skye said, sitting upright in bed. “And, it’s, like the most important thing in my life! It’s the only thing I have any control over, anyway. And now it’s
gone. Worse
than gone.”
    â€œHow could it be worse than gone?” Gran asked, puzzled.
    â€œThose kids are gonna use it against me,” Skye explainedsoftly. “Just to hurt my new friends’ feelings, and make them hate me.”
    â€œBut – why would anyone do such a thing?” Gran asked. “And how could they do it? What’s
in
your sketchbook, for heaven’s sake?”
    â€œPrivate stuff I wrote,” Skye whispered. “And drawings. And some of them are not-so-nice drawings, too, ’cause I was so mad about everything at first.”
    â€œSuch as?” Gran asked, smoothing Skye’s tangled hair back from her face.
    â€œSuch as Scott being so stupid and having that accident,” Skye said, shrugging away Gran’s hand. “And about Mom and Dad fighting all the time, and then making me move here. No offense,” she added.
    â€œNone taken,” Gran said, smiling a