Read Online Ten Things We Did (And Probably Shouldn't Have) by Sarah Mlynowski - Free Book Online Page A

vehicle.
    I stuck the keys in the ignition and turned. And turned again.
    Nothing.
    One more time for good luck.
    Still nothing.
    Agh! I banged my head against the steering wheel. My dad was right. I should have started the car over the weekend. What was wrong with me? How was I going to manage on my own if I couldn’t even run the dishwasher or start my own car?
    I took a deep, icy breath.
    I could just go with Vi and get a ride back with Noah. Although this was the exact reason I had gotten the car in the first place—so I wouldn’t have to depend on other people to get around.
    If I called Noah now, then at least we’d get to talk. Last semester, he’d picked me up every day. But then I’d been on his way, and now I was not. Anyway, driving with Vi made more sense, since we lived together.
    The garage door opened. Vi’s car was running inside. I immediately spotted the problem with my plan to catch a ride with her. My car was blocking hers.
    In her rearview mirror, I saw her slap her palm against her forehead.
    Vi was going to rue the day she invited me to move in.
    ROAD TRIP
    Vi called Dean and Hudson to come get us.
    “I’m so sorry,” I told them through Dean’s rolled-down Jeep window.
    “Are you kidding?” Dean asked. “This is the highlight of my day. I get to be the knight in shining armor!”
    “Technically, I’m the knight,” Hudson said. “Since I’m driving.”
    “Dean, get in the back, and let me sit in the front,” Vi said. “Two guys in the front is ridiculously chauvinistic.”
    “It’s our car,” Dean protested.
    “My car,” Hudson said. “Technically.”
    “I don’t care whose car it is,” Vi said. She pointed to Dean. “Out.”
    “Fine,” Dean said, popping open the Jeep door. “But if I’m in the back, so are you.”
    “Wahoo!” I cheered. “Shotgun!”
    As we all climbed into our spots, I looked over at Hudson. Those cheekbones! Jeez. It was almost a shame to waste them on a guy. If I didn’t have Noah, I don’t think I’d be able to talk to Hudson without freezing up. “Thanks for being my knight,” I told him.
    He smiled. “My pleasure. Do you want me to try jump-starting your car? I have cables.”
    “Oh. Thanks. I don’t want to make us even later, though. I’m really sorry about this. My dad warned me I should start it every day in the winter, but I was feeling rebellious.”
    “Rebelling against parents you don’t even live with. I like it.” He took the car out of PARK and headed down the street.
    “It’s easier to rebel when no one’s around to see it. I’m wimpy like that.”
    He shook his head. “You seem pretty gutsy to me. I don’t know that many girls who would move out on their own at sixteen.”
    I blinked. Gutsy? Me? I moved in with Vi because I was afraid of leaving my life behind. I was the opposite of gutsy. Instead of admitting that, I sat up straighter. “I’m not exactly on my own. I have Vi.”
    “And Zelda,” Vi piped in.
    “Who’s Zelda?” I asked.
    “Didn’t I tell you about the ghost that lives in the oven?”
    I turned around to face her. “No. You did not.”
    “Personally, I think the creaks are because the oven is from 1972, but my mother is convinced they’re from a ghost. Zelda.”
    “Did someone die in the house or something?”
    “No, my mother is just crazy,” she said. “She was convinced we had a ghost. And that the ghost committed suicide in our oven, Sylvia Plath style. Which doesn’t even make sense, because our oven is electric.”
    I wasn’t sure why one couldn’t kill oneself in an electric oven, but decided not to ask.
    “Great to know,” I said instead. “Whenever you’re out and I want company, I’ll talk to Zelda.”
    “Why don’t you get a parrot?” Dean asked. “At least he would talk back.”
    Vi slapped his knee. “Why would you assume the parrot is a male?”
    He bowed his head. “I’m sorry. At least she would talk back.”
    I narrowed my eyes and gave an