Read Online Ominous by Kate Brian - Free Book Online Page A

execute some kind of sexy move, but she fell backward instead. She tripped into my and Ivy’s arms but quickly righted herself and cleared her throat.
    “Tiffany’s turn!” she shouted, tossing her hands up, then grabbing Tiffany and dragging her into the center of the circle.
    Tiffany blushed but obliged, doing a few hip-swinging moves in the middle before whipping out her camera and clicking off some random shots of the rest of us. That afternoon, she’d also gotten her acceptance letter to the school of her choice, the Rhode Island School of Design, abbreviated as RISD, which everyone pronounced “Rizdee.” She’d gotten into their prestigious photography program, even though she’d neglected to inform them of her famous father’s identity. I bet money they were going to be psyched when they eventually did find out, though. Tiffany’s dad, Tassos, was one of the most sought-after fashion photographers in the world.
    “Go, Tiff! Go, RISD! Go, Tiff! Go, RISD!”
    “Portia’s turn!” Tiffany called out, twirling Portia into the center of the circle.
    “Go, Portia! Go, Sorbonne! Go, Portia! Go, Sorbonne!”
    Portia went right into a series of moves that looked like something out of a stripper-pole exercise video. Everyone whooped and laughed, and I found I couldn’t stop smiling. As much as I was going to miss my friends next year, their excitement and happiness were infectious now. Finally, all three of them got together to bump and grind in the middle of the circle, and Vienna climbed up on the first pew fora bird’s-eye view of the action. While everyone else started hamming it up for the camera, Ivy grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the makeshift snack area—one of the choir pews where we’d set up a few bottles and a bunch of boxes of chocolates Vienna had stashed away for this exact purpose.
    “What’s up?” I asked Ivy, even as my stomach clenched. I knew exactly what was up.
    “Okay, I know I said not to freak, but we have to talk about what happened back in your room,” she said, pressing her fingers together to form a sort of steeple in front of her chest. “What the hell
was
that?”
    “Technology glitch?” I surmised, laughing nervously.
    “Right,” she said with a dubious expression. “The lights in just your room go out, then both our cell phones ring at the same time with no one at the other end. How do you explain that?”
    “Uh …” I racked my brain, trying to think of something that would sound reasonable. “Solar flare?”
    She rolled her eyes. Behind us, Vienna and Lorna attempted to hoist Portia up on their shoulders.
    “Reed, come on—”
    “No, Ivy,
you
come on,” I replied. For some reason I was finding it far easier to doubt the whole thing once someone else started to believe in it. “What are you trying to say, really? You don’t really think something happened when we said the incantation. I mean, do you really think we’re—”
    “Really think you’re what?” Astrid said, reaching past me to swipe a chocolate.
    Ivy and I looked at each other, snagged. I stalled by grabbing a chocolate of my own and shoving it in my mouth. As I bit down, I almost gagged. Ugh. Hazelnut.
    “We were just saying how lucky they are that they all got into their first choice,” Ivy improvised.
    “And I was just saying … do you really think we’re not going to get in to ours?” I added quickly, toying with the locket around my neck. “Ivy’s totally superstitious, so she thinks our chances are somehow, like, less now.”
    Astrid just looked at us, one cheek filled with chocolate, making her look part chipmunk.
    “What do you think?” Ivy asked.
    Astrid chewed slowly and swallowed. “I think you losers should stop worrying and start partying.”
    She grabbed both our hands and dragged us back toward the dancing, shoving us into the center of the circle, where we joined Portia—who was back on her feet—and Noelle and Tiffany. Noelle grabbed me up in her arms and,