Read Online The Islanders by Katherine Applegate - Free Book Online

joined them in the dinghy, climbing down with a hand from Nina, and the three of them rowed for shore.
    â€œYou want to do it the easy way or the hard way?” Claire asked Zoey.
    Zoey looked toward shore, mentally calculating the distance. “I’ll race you. Loser hunts firewood.” She shucked off her shorts and blouse, revealing the pale blue maillot underneath. Claire did the same.
    â€œHey, Jake!” Zoey called. “Bring our clothes when you come ashore, all right?”
    Jake nodded and waved from the bridge. He was waiting to be certain the anchor was holding.
    Claire grinned and, without warning, dived like a knife toward the water. Zoey cursed under her breath and dove in after her. The water was cold, but after a day spent in the restaurant kitchen, sweating and covering herself with cleaningsolutions, it felt heavenly. She surfaced and saw Claire, already two lengths ahead.
    Zoey stretched out her arms and went after her. She was the better swimmer but, as usual, Claire had found a way to get an edge. The distance to shore wouldn’t be enough for Zoey to make up for Claire’s early start.
    Claire stood just as Zoey’s feet found the gravel bottom.
    â€œDon’t you ever get tired of cheating, Claire?” Zoey asked, squeezing the water from her hair.
    â€œDon’t you ever get tired of losing?” Claire replied, grinning.
    Aisha rowed the dinghy back out to the boat to retrieve Jake. Claire went back into the water, waist deep, meeting the dinghy just as Jake and Aisha neared shore. She leaned over the side and retrieved her dry clothing. Zoey saw the way Jake’s eyes homed in on Claire’s cleavage, so ostentatiously displayed in her bright red bathing suit.
    If I were the suspicious type, I’d think she did that deliberately, Zoey thought. Jake sent her an innocent smile that proclaimed his guilt. She smiled back with her mouth, letting her eyes tell him that she had indeed noticed.
    â€œWho’s coming with me to scrape up firewood?” Zoey asked, looking pleadingly at Nina and Aisha. Both of her friends volunteered half-heartedly. Zoey put dry clothing on over herwet bathing suit and tied her shoes.
    â€œDry wood this time,” Jake said as they tramped into the woods.
    â€œJust tend to your little barbecue, Jake,” Aisha said. “I’ll be hungry when I get back.”
    â€œI don’t know if I should leave Jake with Claire, undefended,” Zoey grumbled as they shuffled noisily over the carpet of pine needles.
    â€œWhich one is undefended?” Nina asked.
    â€œYou know, guys are going to look,” Aisha said. “They always do, even when they say they don’t.”
    â€œI don’t blame him,” Zoey said. “It’s Claire, always parading those big buffers of hers around.”
    â€œYou know Jake’s faithful to you,” Aisha said, stooping to pick up a fallen tree limb.
    â€œYeah, he lacks the imagination for anything else,” Nina said dryly. “He thinks life comes with a rule book and a set of instructions. He wants to grow up to be exactly like his dad, only with more hair.”
    Zoey flashed on what her mother had insinuated about Mr. McRoyan at breakfast that morning. She wasn’t sure whether she should bring it up or not. Maybe with Nina alone, another time. Somehow telling two people seemed like gossip, whereas just telling Nina would be all right. That made twothings she was hiding from Nina.
    Zoey pointed ahead. “There. Dead tree. We can break off the branches.”
    â€œYou know what I don’t get?” Aisha said. “I don’t get Claire and Benjamin.”
    â€œNo one gets that,” Nina said. “Claire’s been getting by on her looks since she was twelve. Now she’s going out with the one guy who can’t be totally sure she isn’t a gorgon. Go figure. Not to mention the second part of the equation—what’s a nice