Read Online Under Cover by Caroline Crane - Free Book Online

toward me. “Cree Penny! You haven’t changed.”
    How did she expect me to change? Cut my hair,
the way she did? Go into mourning for the loss of Troy Zoller?
Anyone who could dump me just before the Harvest Moon Dance wasn’t
worth mourning.
    “It hasn’t been that long,” I said. Not even
a year. “What are you doing these days? Where did you disappear
to?”
    She mumbled, “Here and there. This and
that.”
    “Sounds fascinating.” I didn’t mean to be
sarcastic but I couldn’t think of anything else. I wasn’t about to
ask after her dad. Or Troy. I’d seen Troy around, but didn’t talk
to him. I knew they weren’t still together.
    I asked, “Are you coming back to school?”
    “Haven’t decided yet.”
    That was a lie, I could tell. I’m not too bad
at reading people. She wouldn’t come back, but didn’t want to say
so. Everyone was still too aware of her family situation.
    Finally she asked, “What have you been up
to?”
    “Nothing,” I said. “I’m trying to find a job.
Everybody else has something. My friend Maddie does typing for her
dad.”
    I choked on the word “dad,” because of
Stacie’s, but went on babbling. “Her brother Ben found a job at
Frosty Dan. It’s menial, but he can do it after school and on
weekends, and it will last him through the summer.”
    Now why on earth did I tell her that? She
didn’t know Ben, but she’d seen him a few times with Maddie and me.
At the very mention of him, she got a greedy look.
    Stacie and I grew up together on Riverview,
until her family moved away. She was a blue-eyed blond and guys
went for her. She used to wear her hair long, coiled on her head,
when we studied ballet together. After the studio closed, she cut
it short and told me I should, too. No way would I do that. My hair
was me.
    “Maybe I’ll see you around,” she said as we
left the store.
    “Mm—maybe.” I couldn’t miss those eyes
sliding toward Frosty Dan.
    Quickly they came back. She had a new idea.
“Why don’t we get together sometime?”
    “Us? You and me?” How could she think that,
considering our recent history with Troy Zoller?
    “You know, to talk. Like we used to.”
    When we were kids. That was centuries
ago.
    “About what?” I asked.
    “You know. Stuff. Where’s your car?”
    “Stacie, you know I don’t have a car. Or a
bike, either, anymore. I got here on my two little feet.”
    “All the way from Riverview?”
    “It’s not that far. Walking’s good for
people. It tones your muscles and sharpens your brain. You should
give it a try.”
    She made a resigned sort of noise, like a
moan. “I suppose we could talk in my car.”
    The silver submarine. She still had it, even
though Troy Zoller had managed to crash it into a chain link fence
when she first got it.
    I’d never been in that car and didn’t want
to. “How long has it been sitting there in the sun, all closed up?”
I asked.
    “We could go somewhere shady.” She
contemplated the car. I didn’t see a dent or a scratch on it. She
must have had it body-shopped after Troy’s mishandling. Or else her
dad got her a new one.
    She opened a door and swung it back and
forth, fanning the inside. “Hop in. I’ll turn on the air
conditioner.”
    I entered a wall of heat. She revved it up
and drove us to the high school. I asked, “Do you miss this
place?”
    She parked facing the athletic field and
didn’t answer. She lowered the air conditioner, but kept it on and
finally was ready to talk. “What did you hear?”
    That was blunt. I said, “Huh?” even though I
knew what she meant.
    “About me. You must have heard
something.”
    “Who would I hear it from?”
    She saw through my stupid question. “Around
school. You know how people gossip.”
    “Come to think of it . . .” This much was
true, “I did hear something in the girls’ room.”
    She got a sullen look and stared out at the
field. “What did you hear?”
    “I don’t remember every word.” That, too, was
true. I