Read Online Keeping Secrets by Ann M. Martin - Free Book Online

to
go
? I want you to go because even with Jacob I’m going to be a target for Melody and Tanya. Like a great big bull’s-eye. There might as well be an arrow pointing to my head, too. And a sign reading KICK ME .”
    â€œOkay, okay,” said Flora.
    â€œSo you want us to be, like, your bodyguards?” asked Nikki.
    Olivia laughed. “Not exactly. I just want you to be there.”
    â€œIt’s going to be fun,” said Nikki.
    Flora remembered her excitement when she had first seen the sign announcing the dance. “It
is
going to be fun,” she said at last. And she set aside the unsettling thought that she was jealous because Olivia had a date.

There was something strange about the Hamiltons. No, not about all the Hamiltons, Flora corrected herself. Just about Mrs. Hamilton. There was definitely something strange, very strange, about Mrs. Hamilton.
    Willow was nice. And Cole was nice, although he was shy, but Flora certainly couldn’t fault anyone for being shy. Mr. Hamilton seemed nice enough, too, but busy at his job, so Flora hadn’t seen him more than two or three times. Mrs. Hamilton, on the other hand …
    â€œGoodness me,” said Min on Monday evening when Flora told her how Willow’s mother had stood at the front door and waved to her and Olivia with a handkerchief. “Although really, when you think about it — waving with a hankie. It isn’t as though she was running up and down Aiken Avenue in a gorilla suit.”
    â€œNo,” said Flora slowly.
    â€œStill,” said Ruby.
    â€œWhat is it, girls?” asked Min.
    Ruby shrugged. “It’s hard to explain. She laughs when you wouldn’t expect her to.”
    â€œAnd she makes jokes that only she thinks are funny,” said Flora. “I feel a little creepy when I’m around her.”
    â€œIt’s hard to explain,” said Ruby again.
    â€œMaybe she’s shy,” suggested Min.
    â€œMaybe,” Flora agreed. “Cole’s shy.”
    Flora, Ruby, and Min were sitting at the kitchen table, eating a late supper. A silence followed Flora’s last comment that was so long that Ruby deliberately broke it with a harsh belch that startled Daisy Dear and caused her to go skidding out of the kitchen.
    â€œRuby!” exclaimed Min.
    â€œI thought we needed a little comedy relief.”
    â€œComic relief,” Min corrected her. “Maybe we do.”
    Min looked troubled. Flora saw an expression on her face that she saw again the next day on Mrs. Morris’s face when Travis, trying bravely not to cry, came home complaining that Cole’s mother had scared him when he and Cole were playing hide-and-seek.
    â€œWhat did she do?” asked Mrs. Morris.
    â€œShe jumped out of a closet and shouted BOO!”
    Flora almost laughed, then realized how troubled she would have been if an adult — one she didn’t know well — had done that to her at Travis’s age.
    Mrs. Morris frowned at the house next door before leading Travis inside, her arm around his shoulders.
    Early on Wednesday morning — so early that the streetlights were still ablaze — the telephone rang at Flora’s house. She heard it faintly, ringing twice in Min’s room before it stopped. Flora could imagine her grandmother answering it sleepily but trying to sound alert. A phone call at that hour couldn’t be good news, thought Flora. But when a few minutes passed and she heard nothing further from Min’s room, she decided it had been a wrong number and fell soundly asleep, waking again only when her alarm went off.
    â€œWho called?” was the first thing Ruby said at the breakfast table that morning.
    â€œGood morning, Min dear,” was Min’s reply.
    â€œGood morning, Min dear,” said Ruby obediently. Then she added, “Good morning, Flora dear. Good morning, King Comma dear. Good morning, Daisy Dear dear.” She looked