Read Online Girl Meets Ghost by Lauren Barnholdt - Free Book Online Page B

doesn’t ask me to hang out. Maybe he’s waiting until later, when we have more time to talk?
    By the time math rolls around, I am officially freaking out. I stopped off at the bathroom to reapply my lip gloss and reposition the chopsticks in my hair. Even so, I’m so wound up and jumpy that I’m one of the first people in the classroom.
    â€œWell, Ms. Williams,” Mr. Jacobi says. “You’re here early.”
    â€œYup,” I say, holding up my notebook. “Here and ready to learn!”
    â€œGood,” he says. And I’m not sure, but I think I hear him mumble under his breath, “You need all the help you can get.” Which is pretty rude when you think about it. Just because some of us aren’t so good at math, that doesn’t give him the right to make comments about it. Not to mention that he’s a teacher, and teachers really shouldn’t be snarky about students. . . .
    Ohmigod. It’s Brandon. Brandon is walking in! He’s wearing khaki pants and this navy-blue long-sleeved T-shirt, and his hair is a little bit messy, but in a really cute, rumpled kind of way, and my heart does a flip and my stomach gets even more butterflies.
    â€œHmmm,” Daniella says, wrinkling up her nose and putting her hands on her hips as she watches Brandon walk into the room. “I guess he’s okay. I mean, if you like that type.”
    â€œShut up,” I whisper at her. The last thing I need is some ghost messing up my maybe-getting-asked-on-my-first-date-ever conversation.
    â€œWhat?” Brandon asks. He’s over by my desk now. “Did you just tell me to shut up?”
    â€œUm, no.” I laugh and reach my hand up to twirl myhair before I realize it’s in a bun. Oops. “Why would I have told you to shut up?”
    â€œI don’t know,” he says, “since I didn’t say anything. But I’m pretty sure I just heard you tell someone to shut up.” He looks around the classroom. Besides us and Mr. Jacobi, there are only two other people in the room, and they’re all the way on the other side, near the windows.
    â€œYou must have been hearing things,” I say. Then I bat my eyelashes and smile at him in an effort to keep him distracted.
    â€œI guess.” But he looks doubtful.
    Daniella laughs. “Great,” she says. “Now he thinks you’re crazy. You better change the subject, pronto.”
    I want to give her a dirty look, but I figure Brandon seeing me glare into the air definitely isn’t a good way to change his mind about the fact that I might be crazy, so instead I say, “So did you do the homework?”
    â€œYeah,” he says. “You?”
    â€œYup.” I did it last night, after picking out my clothes. Although I had a really hard time concentrating. “I don’t know how well I did, though.”
    â€œI’m sure you did great.”
    â€œNo,” I say, sighing. “I don’t think I did.”
    And then Brandon blushes. Seriously, his face gets all red. “Well,” he says, “I could probably help you with it.”
    â€œI think it’s too late for that,” I say. “The homework’s already done.”
    Daniella smacks her hand against her forehead, like she can’t believe how stupid I’m being. Which is ridiculous, since I’m not being stupid. Does she really expect that I can just do my homework all over before the bell rings in a minute? Just because she’s older and probably thinks the quadratic formula is super-easy doesn’t mean she has the right to just—
    â€œNo, I mean . . .” Brandon clears his throat. “I mean, I could help you study. You could maybe come over after school today.”
    Oh. My. God. This is it! Brandon Dunham is asking me to hang out, just like Ellie said he was going to!
    â€œSure,” I say, all casual, even though a million fireworks are