Chapter Three

Skye continued to struggle at school. Even though she tried, she was not happy. Mostly, she worried about Cheyenne. Her usually bubbly and happy little sister was becoming a shadow of herself. She did what she was told, brought home a library book every night and read it with Mom or Dad or Skye, but she didn’t delight in the books as she had with her favourite stories.

When Skye’s class went to the library, she purposely looked for the books that Cheyenne wanted, but they weren’t listed in the online catalogue. Curious and puzzled, Skye searched the library shelves for book titles she knew, like Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech and Road Allowance Kitten by Wilfred Burton. She couldn’t find them.

“Can I help you find a book?” the librarian asked.

“I’m looking for books about Cree people, or the Métis. Where are they kept?” Skye asked, looking around. At her old school, the books were always on display and had their own large shelf in the library.

The librarian studied Skye’s brown skin and black shiny eyes and hair, then looked away. “We really don’t have much; just some older books with historical content that are used when classes research First Nations.”

Skye flushed, annoyed. Her culture and history were important; she was a person! “I just wanted to read a book about my People’s history – their REAL history!” she said.

“Sometimes those books are upsetting to readers, so we just don’t keep them in this library,” the librarian said stiffly. “We don’t want to upset anyone.”

“Well, it’s upsetting me that I can’t find any books about people like me in this library. Don’t I count too?” Skye blurted out before she could help

herself, her tone sounding disrespectful. “And what’s wrong with reading books that might make you sad? They also make you learn something. And most of them are about the history of the People! My people!” By the time Skye finished speaking, her voice had risen several decibels and everyone in the library stopped in their tracks, staring at her.

The librarian huffed and pointed a long finger toward the door. “This is a quiet place for serious students with serious requests. Come back when you can be the kind of student we want to have here in this school.”

Angrily, Skye stomped across the room and threw open the door, letting it bang against the wall behind her. Raven and Justin gave her a thumbs-up sign as she walked by them and she couldn’t help but give them a triumphant smile, but she felt deflated inside. All she wanted was to read books about her history and her own people. So why did she feel like such a criminal?

Skye stood seething in the hallway, waiting for her class to finish getting their books. Sage appeared out of nowhere, surrounded by his new friends, heading out to the front of the school to play football. “What did you do now?” he hissed at Skye as he strode past.

Skye shrugged. “I just asked for books about us – about our kind of people – and they don’t have any.”

“Forget about those books,” Sage warned her. “Just read something else, or don’t read at all. You need to learn to fake it to fit in here, like me. You need to get along with everyone, Skye, or life will be hard for you.” Sage turned and followed his friends outside to play ball.

Life is hard, Skye thought miserably. It didn’t seem to matter what she did, life was difficult. She just didn’t know how to fit in. She didn’t know how to let things go, like Sage did. Maybe she should try harder to do things his way. It sure seemed to be working for him.