Up In The Clouds by Tiffany Heiser (the snowy day read aloud .TXT) 📖

“Don't you even dare. Stop right there, and step away from my radio.” I commanded without even turning around.
“I hate when you use that creepy mind reading crap on me.”
“You won't hate it when Madeline decides to mess with all your stuff.” I folded my last shirt, placed it into the suitcase, and turned to smile at him.
“Maybe.” Jackson thought for a second, and then a broad smile formed on his kool-aide wearing lips. “Mom said I get your room when you leave.”
“Well, that's not until eight o'clock in the morning. This is my room for now, so take a few steps back and keep your hands to yourself.”
I had a whole twelve hours to say goodbye to my normal life. The good one that I've lived for sixteen years now. A life in good old Tolar, Texas- where I have friends that I care about, and my family around all the time. Tomorrow, Saturday, I will become a student of a very different kind of academy. A training school sitting somewhere above the clouds in another realm, created for young demigods to meet others like themselves and learn the full extent of what we are capable of.
I've known all my life that I was different, but I always thought my mom made up the thing about the school in the clouds. It made me laugh at the thought of a floating school, until I received the big white acceptance envelope.
So, I, Skyler Marie Daniels, am a true demigod. Born from human and god, of course I have no idea who my father is. Apparently it was a god free-for-all sixteen years ago, open season to chose the human of your liking and mate. My mom told me that at first she freaked out because she had been only eighteen when the sperm donor first came to her, but once she felt me move for the first time inside her stomach, all of those thoughts vanished. She also said that every detail on how to raise me, and prepare me for my future flashed through her mind. From that day on, her primary goal became to teach me what had been plastered in her mind, and get me ready for this day.
Of course you would think that having one kid born half god would be enough, but then about six years after I was born my mom had a little boy. My younger brother Jackson, a product of an all-you-can-mate day between gods and humans, and my mom had been selected again. I guess she was the one millionth customer, lucky her.
Jackson is already showing signs of powers, and all I can do is hear people's thoughts. He has uncontrollable flames burst from his fingertips every now and then, but he's learned to carry around a cup of water to be prepared to put them out as soon as they pop up.
My mom met the most perfect man a couple of years after Jackson was born, and they got married within months of meeting. I figured mom had been ready for the plain old simple life, and Colin gave her that. He has been the perfect dad to my brother and me, even though he doesn't know our secrets, and he has treated my mom like a queen since the first time they met.
With their happiness came my younger sister, Madeline, who is six years old and completely human. She's lucky that she gets to live a normal life, and be able to choose her future. I'm excited that at least one kid in this crazy family has a chance at being just a human. I'm not completely jealous of her, I am hoping that she uses her humanity to the best of her abilities.
“Sky. C'mon we're putting in the movie.” Mom called from downstairs.
Mom thought it would be nice to have my favorite meal of stuffed peppers, and then watch my fave movie with all of us together enjoying as a family. It was a nice gesture, but it also seemed oddly like the last supper before the warden called me out to face my death sentence.
“Coming.” I yelled back, as I zipped my suitcase closed. The sound alone sent chills down my spine. Tomorrow I would be leaving for four years, forgetting everything normal, and enter the land of make believe.
My family would get to come and visit a few days out of the year, and they allowed us to come home for holidays, which surprised me but I guess the gods had become accustomed to human ways.
I took a deep breath, pushed my red streaked hair behind my ears, and tried not to tear up as I realized this would be the last night with my family for a long time.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The annoying buzz of my alarm clock came a lot faster than I had hoped. I prayed that wherever my acceptance letter took me would provide less obnoxious means of waking up, especially since my current one became out of commission the second I threw it across the room.
“Sky, honey, wake up. You can't be late today,” Mom called from the hallway.
“I'm up. I'm up,” I mumbled into my pillow.
I untwisted myself from the sheets and shuffled to the bathroom. My favorite part of the morning, besides a large cup of coffee, was the steamy shower that would soon be fogging up the mirror above the sink.
Once the steam started to seep into my pores, it forced my eyes to finally open, and a thought popped into my head. What if I had to share a shower? God, I hope this place isn't exactly like a college dorm. I haven't had to share a shower with anyone...ever.
I didn't know what the rooming would be like, or dinners, or how strict they were on attire. Would my pink streaks and black clothing fill the instructors on the campus with concern, and initially place me on the list of students to keep on constant surveillance? Are all the other students going to know each other and I'm the only new one? A million questions came through at once, and I hardly had any time to enjoy the calming wake up of my shower before a pounding came at the bathroom door.
“Hey Sky,” Jackson's tenor voice chimed into the bathroom.
“Hey what, buddy?” I yelled back.
“Mom said you only have about twenty-five minutes left to get ready before we have to go.”
I sighed. “'Kay, thanks.”
The knob to the shower turned easily as I shut it off. I had severely wished that it would stick in the on position and I would be stuck to endure the amazing heat of the shower until it could get fixed.
All of the questions that had found their way into my mind, now created new questions and doubts I didn't have last night.
When the letter first arrived, I still thought mom wrote it to play a huge prank on me. But I quickly found that was false, when she jumped for joy. Knowing that I finally was ready to make the next step into learning about being a demigod had her squealing at the top of her lungs, and made our poor little corgi, Delilah, howl with fear. I sat at the kitchen table, staring at her dumbfounded.
After that I knew it's my fate to step over the threshold of this school, let the info sink in, and become the best damn demigod anyone has ever met. Well, that's paraphrasing of course, but it gets the point across.
I scrambled through the pile of what I'm pretty sure was clean clothes spread out on the recliner in my room, and found my fave pair of black leggings. I threw on my purple and black summer dress over them, and slid my feet into some flip-flops. I brushed and pulled my long wavy midnight hair up into a simple ponytail, and made my way downstairs.
“Ten minutes,” Mom called in a sing song voice.
“I'm here. Ready, and kinda awake,” I answered.
Dad glanced at me over the top of his newspaper. “Oh, there you are sweetheart. Don't you look nice.”
I smiled and took a seat at the table. Mom had cooked breakfast. Eggs, sausage, and huge Belgian waffles were sitting on a plate in front of me. I had always loved waffles as a kid, because I enjoyed pouring syrup into every little square and getting sugar-filled early in the morning.
Mom poured me a cup of OJ. “I don't mean to rush you dear, but you cut it very close don't you think?”
I nodded with a mouthful of waffles, and choked down the last bite with two minutes to spare.
“I'm very proud of you, Sky. I've always known you were a talented writer, but I never thought that this writing training camp would have accepted you at such a young age. Big break kiddo.” My dad hugged me with a prideful gleam in his eyes, and kissed my forehead before picking up my suitcase and stuffing it into the bed of our Ford truck.
I smiled through tears that threatened to break free and flood my face. I hated lying to him, but it was a rule my mom agreed to. No human, except the birth mother, is allowed to know the true existence of our kind.
The knowledge would be too much for a human brain to accept. If they were to learn of the gods and demigods as real beings, the shock would place them into a catatonic state. And I would just die if anything ever happened to anyone in my family. They are my solid foundation, every time I think I might lose myself, they bring me back to earth. So, writing training camp it is.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“We're here sweetheart,” Mom giddily said.
I pulled my headphones from my ears and glanced around. “Those are buses.”
“Duh,” Jackson piped up.
Mom turned to face me without a smile on her face. “These buses, will take you to where you need to go. This card,” she pulled a transparent credit card shaped item from her purse. “This is your pass to leave and come home, so guard this with your life.”
I only nodded, and took the card from mom's hand.
“Alright, well let's get her over there. Don't want them to leave you, do ya?”
“No, Dad.”
He walked to the back of the truck. “You think you were planning on being gone for years with how stuffed this thing is.” Dad complained.
Mom and I only looked at each other as I felt the weight of the lie pressing harder on my shoulders.
“We can take it from here, Dan,” Mom said to Dad.
I knew she had demigod things to discuss, but I hated seeing the rejected expression on my dad's face.
I ran and gave him a huge hug and whispered in his ear. “I love you, daddy.”
He kissed me on the cheek. “I love you too, darling. Have a nice time.”
“Yeah, right,” I mumbled under my breath.
“My turn. My turn,” Jackson screamed as he made his way to me with wide open arms.
I wrapped my arms around his little waist