Read Online Second Time's the Charm by Melissa J. Morgan - Free Book Online Page A

away.”
    â€œForget it,” Gaby said, wrinkling her nose.
    Sophie whisked back into the kitchen with the offending eggs, and slowly the tenor of the room reverted to its usual state of low-level hyperactivity. Natalie, Alyssa, and Tori were tucking into their own breakfast—no eggs, thank you—when Alex marched over from her table, a stern look fixed upon her face.
    â€œWe know it was you guys,” Alex said, pointing a finger accusingly.
    â€œI don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alyssa said breezily. “How would we even have contaminated your breakfast, anyway? Assuming we even wanted to.”
    From her seat at the opposite side of the table, Jenna coughed loudly into her fist. “Sorry,” she rasped, after her choking had subsided. “Bug juice went down the wrong pipe.” She glanced away.
    Oh, Jenna , Natalie thought, even though deep down she was pretty impressed by this prank. How had Jenna managed to get that close to 4C’s breakfast, anyhow? “Yeah, we don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said loyally.
    â€œWhat ever ,” Alex said, clearly not buying it. “I don’t eat eggs, anyway.” Alex was a diabetic and very fanatical about what she put in her body. The one time she had given in to the urge to pig out, she’d gone into diabetic shock, and she wasn’t about to let that happen again. She leaned in closer, practically throwing herself across the table at Jenna. “But I’ll tell you this, Bloom,” she said. “You’d better watch your back.” She cracked a small smile, then marched back to her bunk’s table.
    The girls watched Alex retreat, then burst out into giggles. “Jenna, you are too much!” Tori said. “I can’t wait to tell my mom about this.”
    â€œSeriously,” Jenna said, her eyes wide now. “It wasn’t me.”
    The murmurs around the table indicated that no one believed her.
    Natalie turned to Chelsea, who was frowning and generally pretending to be miles above all of this immaturity. “Still think Jenna’s so lame?” she teased.
    To her credit, Chelsea didn’t bother to dignify the comment with a response.

    â€œNow, folks, it’s really important that you brush every last speck of clay with the glaze before it goes into the kiln. If it’s not totally, completely glazed, it may crack in the heat. Then you’d have to start all over again, and that’s frustrating.”
    Natalie glanced down at the candy dish she was making. It was painted orange and black to look like a basketball, which was Simon’s favorite sport. She planned to wrap it up with a mother lode of white chocolate Hershey’s Kisses for him and give it to him as a surprise on the last night of camp. Which meant that it absolutely, positively could not be cracked. She surveyed the dish again, bending down to peer at it from all angles. Better safe than sorry , she thought, dipping her brush back into the pot of glaze and applying another liberal layer over her dish.
    â€œI think you’ve got it, babe,” Helene, the ceramics instructor, told her gently. “Another coat and you’ll tip the whole clay-to-glaze ratio way out of balance.”
    â€œRight. Done,” Nat said, resting her brush on the newspaper-covered table and stepping backward away from her work. “Finished.”
    â€œLooks good,” Alyssa called to her.
    â€œNot as awesome as yours,” Nat said earnestly. Her friend was creating a very elaborate flowerpot thing with a Jackson Pollock motif. Only Alyssa, Natalie thought.
    â€œSeriously,” Tori broke in, looking up from her simple coffee mug. “There’s a boutique on Melrose that sells that sort of stuff, like funky housewares and whatever. You could totally sell your vase there. It’s that good.”
    â€œAw, shucks, you girls,” Alyssa said, blushing a