Page 211 of Naughty Nelle

CHAPTER 15

Lalala! To my surprise, the birds fly in the next morning and pull down my covers. Hello, my little feathered friends! I’m feeling much stronger. And I’m starving—guess I must have slept right through dinner last night.

After breakfast, I feel well enough to join the others for morning meditation. Our sun salutations make me even stronger. I’m ready to face Shrink.

The climb up to Shrink’s office isn’t easy for me. I have to stop several times to catch my breath. When I finally get there, she’s waiting for me. That’s a first.

“Jane, it’s good to see you.” She smiles. “You’ve been through an ordeal. Would you like to talk about it?”

“Not really,” I say, collapsing onto the chaise. “I want to know when I’m getting out of here.”

“That’s up to you, Jane.” Shrink does a figure eight across the room, then hovers over me.

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is that you have to want to get better.”

“I do.” Surprisingly, I really mean it.

“Good. Then you must trust me. You must start opening up about your past so that I can understand the roots of your addiction and help you recover.”

My past. The words run cold through my veins.

“For tomorrow, I’d like you to write down as much as possible of what you remember about your childhood. Where you were born. Your earliest memories. Your relationship with your father as well as—”

“My father?” I cut her off. “I don’t know who he is.”

“Good. Include that detail. It’s important. And, of course, don’t forget about your relationship with your mother.”

My mother!My stomach knots up into a painful ball. Why can’t I just pretend she’s dead?

“You wrote on your assessment that your relationship with your mother was no one’s business. Well, it’s mine. I need to know about it.”

I take a deep breath. I’m not sure if I can go through with this.

“We’re running out of time for today, Jane. Do you have any questions?”

“Why didn’t The Huntsman kill me?” My eyes tear up. “I deserved to die.”

“No, Jane, you didn’t deserve to die. You deserved to live. That’s why he spared your life.” She pauses. “Did you know that he’s the one who committed you to Faraway?”

The Huntsman committed me?

The all-too-familiar chime sounds.

“Time’s up for today, Jane. I’ll see you here tomorrow.” She shoots out of the room, covering me in a cloud of fairy dust.

I linger on the chaise, unable to stop thinking about The Huntsman. Shrink practically made it sound like I should fall to my knees and thank him. Give me a break! The hatred I feel toward him cannot be put into words. There’s no one who’s more deliberately and underhandedly messed up my life. Not even Snow White. She couldn’t help being born beautiful.

After lunch at group, Grimm introduces two new members to me.

The first is a teenage boy in tan overalls named Pinocchio. I would actually call him beautiful if it wasn’t for his nose. It’s as long as a parsnip.

“Why are you here?” I ask.

The boy stares at me. His expressive brown eyes remind me of my puppy Bambi. “There’s nothing wrong with me,” he says.

He’s got to be kidding. Seriously, with a nose like that, he’s at least got to have girl problems. Suddenly, something happens that makes me almost fall off my chair. His nose grows three inches!

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