Read Online A Perfect Storm by Phoebe Rivers and Erin McGuire - Free Book Online Page A

understand Lily’s obsession. In a purely objective way, of course.
    Mrs. Bowman called the last few kids’ names and then explained that the Harbor Isle kids would be with us for the rest of the semester—most likely until the new year. And that we should welcome them, show them around, help them find their way to classes. I made a promise in my head to be as welcoming as I could.
    I knew what it was like to be new. It wasn’t that long ago that I was the new girl at Stellamar Middle School. I just couldn’t help but feel let down that Mason wasn’t one of the new kids.
    I gave Lily another nudge with my elbow. She nudged back.
    Well, at least Lily could focus on her crush.
    At lunch, Miranda waved over Jody and her friend, Caroline, inviting them to come sit at our table. We all moved over to make room for them.
    Caroline sat across the table, between Tamara and Marlee. Jody sat down between me and Lily. “I see the food here is as delicious as it is at Harbor Isle,” she said drily, poking at her lukewarm slice of pizza.
    â€œYeah, the kitchen got a four-star rating in the New York Times recently,” I said.
    Jody laughed.
    Was Lily right about her? I wondered. She seemed really nice.
    â€œSo is your dad really a famous TV director guy?” asked Avery eagerly.
    Jody rolled her eyes. “I guess you would say so,” she said, taking a dainty sip of her chocolate milk. “But to me he’s just a random dad, as embarrassing as the next dad.”
    We all laughed at that. She seemed so normal.
    â€œHey, tell them about how you stayed in thatcastle this summer, and your ghost story,” suggested Caroline.
    â€œYou stayed in a castle?” asked Miranda, her eyes round.
    â€œWith a ghost ?” added Tamara.
    I swallowed hard.
    â€œYeah,” said Jody. “We were visiting this guy who was in one of my dad’s TV movies. John Fry.”
    â€œWait. You mean, John Fry, John Fry? The guy who stars in that new TV show?” asked Miranda.
    â€œOh. Yeah, I guess he has a show, too.”
    We all knew the show, of course. It was a huge hit, a drama about a guy who has secret superpowers for fighting bad guys. John Fry was this twentysomething, super-gorgeous British movie star who was on the cover of every weekly magazine at the grocery checkout counter.
    â€œAnyway,” Jody continued, “so John owns this huge, rambling castle in Scotland, with a moat and servants and everything, and supposedly there’s a ghost that haunts it, the ghost of a young girl who threw herself off a parapet a few centuries ago.”
    â€œWhy?” asked Tamara, transfixed.
    â€œI guess because she couldn’t marry the guy she loved. Something like that.”
    â€œAnd you saw her? The ghost, I mean?” asked Marlee.
    â€œWell, maybe yes, maybe no,” said Jody. “I mean, I woke up in the middle of the night and was sure I saw a girl in a long white dress standing in my room. Then she vanished. And the next morning when I asked about it, John’s wife told me that was the very room where the girl had once slept.”
    This story seemed to impress everyone at the table. I wasn’t sure what to say, so I kept quiet. Of course.
    Unfortunately, Avery didn’t.
    â€œWell, Sara here has a great-grandmother who can see spirits,” she said. “And she’s totally famous. Just last spring she helped catch a burglar. She was in the news and everything.”
    Jody looked at me, and I saw a flicker of disapproval pass across her face. A second later, though, she was smiling again. Had I imagined it?
    â€œCollins!” a voice boomed at me from across the cafeteria. I jerked my head up to look, although I realized who it was before I even saw him.
    It was the spirit of a gym teacher, long since dead. He bothered me regularly at school, starting back on my very first day last year. I generally managed to avoid him. But today he seemed