Read Online Cloudburst by V.C. Andrews - Free Book Online Page A

see what we were doing.
    Me! Me! Me!
    I felt like screaming it after Ryder as he approached the door.
    Hey, Mr. Big Shot. Look at me!
    For a moment, I thought I might have done just that, because he turned at the door and looked back at me. It was just a glance. He wasn’t waiting to hold the door or anything, but pathetic me, I was excited by it. I hurried on.He was in my homeroom, but he was assigned to a seat in the rear. When I walked in, he was taking his seat and didn’t care to look at anyone. Before I could say or do anything to get his attention, my girlfriends began arriving right behind me. I did see him glance my way while they talked excitedly about what they had seen or done last night. I thought he smiled, but maybe it was a sneer. With him, it looked as if it would always be difficult to tell the difference.
    We did have some morning classes together, but in all of them, we were too far apart to talk, and before lunch, I had instrumental music. As more of my girlfriends found him distant and disinterested, their overall opinions were beginning to cement with the most obvious conclusion taking the headline quickly: “He’s very stuck-up. He’s in love with himself.”
    Those thoughts were logical here. Very few of my friends could envision any boy being so aloof and indifferent to them for any other reason. His parents were really famous, so he didn’t want to lower himself enough to have any sort of conversation with anyone here, least of all a relationship.
    â€œHe’s just out-and-out boring,” Joey Marcus decided. That pleased them even more. Jessica was the last to fall in line, but not before she looked at me to see if I was going to be in agreement. I said nothing, so she chanced it, and then, looking for confirmation, asked me if I agreed. We were all gathered outside the library. Some of us had study hall there. We still had another minute until the bell rang for class.
    â€œIt’s too easy,” I said.
    For a moment, it looked as if they had all been put on pause. They stood there staring at me.
    â€œWhat’s that mean? What’s too easy?” Sydney Woods asked first.
    â€œIt’s too convenient to say he’s conceited. You don’t have to think about him at all after that.”
    â€œMaybe we don’t want to,” Barbara Feld said. They all started to nod.
    â€œI don’t believe that. You probably had an orgasm thinking about him last night,” I replied. It was vintage Kiera, for sure. Their mouths fell open. “Better get to class,” I added, and hurried away. Some of them would be late. They were that stunned.
    Ryder was only two desks behind me in the next row in social studies class. He was already seated when I entered the room and started for my desk. Just as I passed him, I heard him say, “Queen bee.”
    I stopped. “Excuse me?”
    â€œFrom the way they gather around you, you look like the queen bee.”
    â€œBe careful you don’t get stung.”
    â€œQueen bees only use their stingers to dispose of other queens,” he replied. “Each of them should be careful, not me.”
    The bell rang, so I slipped into my seat. I wanted to look back at him, but I didn’t do it once during the whole class period. When the bell rang to end it, he was up but talking with Gary Stevens, who I thought was one of the nicer boys in our class. He was slim, with curly red hair andfreckles that looked like drops of pure honey on his cheeks. His father was an accountant whose clients included many of the parents in Pacifica, but Gary seemed the most unassuming of the boys in our class. He had a great sense of humor, was bright and maybe a little immature, but I did find him the easiest to talk with, maybe because he was so meek at times. The girls couldn’t understand why I bothered.
    â€œHis idea of a good time is playing with his Wii,” Mona Kirland said.
    â€œNot his