Read Online Revealed by Amanda Valentino - Free Book Online Page B

are.” Was this a bad thing? Had Officer Marciano made a return trip? I had a second to feel my neck tightening with anxiety before she announced, “Callie, Hal, Nia, I have a delivery here for the three of you.”
    We looked at one another. What the—
    â€œAmanda,” Nia whispered.
    My heart hammering in my chest, I followed the girls into the main office. On the counter in front of Mrs. Leong’s desk was the pink-wrapped package the delivery guy had been carrying. Stapled to it was a plain purple envelope with HAL BENNETT, CALLIE LEARY, NIA RIVERA written across the front in Amanda’s distinctive capital letters.
    The last message she’d given the three of us together had been the postcard she’d ripped into sections and slipped into our lockers two Saturdays ago while we were sitting in detention. It was all I could do not to grab the package, hug it to my chest, and sprint to safety.
    Luckily, Callie got to the package first. “Thank you so much, Mrs. Leong,” she said, not reaching for it. Her voice was calm, as if there were nothing the least bit remarkable about our receiving a package at Endeavor.
    Mrs. Leong was not so casual. Biting her lip, she put one hand on the package and the other on the counter. “Students don’t normally receive deliveries at school. I’m not sure if . . .” She briefly glanced toward the vice principal’s door, like she’d forgotten she couldn’t ask Mr. Thornhill about the proper protocol in this situation.
    Smiling from ear to ear, Callie leaned toward Mrs. Leong and whispered something in her ear. As she listened to Callie, Mrs. Leong broke out into a wide grin, something I’d never seen her do before.
    â€œReally?” she asked.
    Callie nodded and shrugged as if to say, Aw shucks .
    Mrs. Leong handed her the package, then looked at me and Nia as if she wished she could hug us to her. “Well, let me just say that you three are extremely sweet.”
    Nia tried to hide her confusion behind an uncomfortable-looking smile-grimace combo platter, and I’m sure my expression wasn’t much more natural. Fortunately, Mrs. Leong took our reactions as embarrassment rather than bewilderment.
    â€œLet me know what she says,” Mrs. Leong ordered.
    â€œOh, I will,” Callie assured her, and a second later we were on the other side of the office door, Endeavor’s end-of-day chaos surrounding us.
    As Nia struggled to rip the purple envelope from the package, I asked Callie what she’d told Mrs. Leong.
    â€œOh, you know, just that Ms. Garner was having a hard time and we’d agreed to join the costume crew and do set design and we’d ordered her a little present to let her know how confident we were that the play’s going to be a hit.” She grinned with pleasure at her own subterfuge.
    â€œNice,” I told her.
    â€œMy god,” Nia muttered, teeth clenched as she pulled at the card, “this is, like, nailed on.”
    â€œThe trick to a good lie is to keep it as close to the truth as possible,” Callie explained, shouting to be heard over the crowd.
    â€œI’ll keep that in mind,” I shouted back.
    â€œGot it!”
    Callie and I were huddled on either side of her, and as Nia slipped the card from the envelope, I didn’t need psychic abilities to know how desperate we all were to see what it would say.
    But what it said was . . . nothing.
    There was the familiar coyote stamp in the top left-hand corner, but not a word written on the card. Nia flipped it over, then back, like maybe she’d missed some writing at first glance.
    You could practically hear our disappointment.
    â€œWhat the—” Nia started, but Callie interrupted her.
    â€œInside.”
    â€œWhat?” asked Nia.
    â€œThe message. It’s inside.”
    Nia slapped her forehead, and as Callie held the package, the two of us shredded the nauseatingly bright pink