Read Online You’re Invited Too by Jen Malone and Gail Nall - Free Book Online

hers first. She held it up to show me the shiny A-minus on the front page. Ms. Snyder put my test upside down on my desk.
    That’s never a good sign.
    I ducked my head down and lifted the corner of the paper to see the grade. And my stomach dropped.
    Becca pokes me, and I stop reliving the whole horrible scene. For now, anyway. “Lauren, what was it? An F-minus? You know we’ll still love you even if you flunk seventh grade.”
    Vi snickers and then turns it into a cough.
    â€œIt was . . .” I can’t even say it. I look at Sadie.
    â€œIt was”—she pauses—“a B.”
    Becca giggles.
    â€œLaur- en !” Vi says. “You got a B? That’s why you’re in such a bad mood?”
    â€œIt’s probably the only B she’s ever gotten,” Becca says.
    â€œIt is. So what? Some of us have goals, you know. Like big, enormous goals.” I pick up my chair and turn it so I’m facing the ocean, my back to Becca. My flashlight pokes me in the hip. I pull it from my pocket and flick it on, away from the turtle nest. Then off. Then on. Then off.
    â€œOh, come on, Lauren. It’s okay. They’re just teasing you,” Sadie says.
    â€œBut it’s a big deal!” I say over my shoulder. “It starts with a B, and then who knows what?”
    â€œThen you end up getting arrested and tossed in jail,” Becca says, her face all serious.
    â€œOr you run away and live in a cave and forget how to speak,” Vi adds.
    â€œAnd then you have to, like, fill your own cavities because you eat too much coconut,” Becca says.
    â€œYeah, and pull out your teeth, like in that old movie with Tom Hanks where he’s stranded after his plane crashes!” Vi shudders.
    â€œI don’t think Lo can grow a beard like Tom Hanks.” Becca shines her flashlight at my chin and pretty much blinds me. I twist back toward the water. “Nope, no can do on the beard front.”
    I bite my lip so that I don’t laugh. I get it, I do. Getting a B isn’t the end of the world. But what my friends don’t understand is that now I’m afraid. Am I having too much fun? Are RSVP and that trip to the roller rink with Becca and video games with Zach and playing Words With Friends with Bubby ruining everything I’ve worked so hard for? Or maybe it’s just that I haven’t been using my study time as well as I should. That’s got to be it. I just need to study harder, more efficiently. If I can do that, I can still do the fun stuff.
    â€œHey, look,” Sadie says. “Is Lance hanging out with that Philippe guy?”
    I move my chair back around to see what she’s pointing at. Mostly I’m just happy that the attention is off me.
    Both Becca and Vi shade red in the glow of their flashlights and look down. Vi toes the sand and Becca starts messing with her hair. Which is pointless since the wind off the ocean just keeps messing it up anyway.
    â€œOoookay,” Sadie says. She looks over Becca’s head toward me for help.
    I shrug. It’s kind of obvious that Becca likes Philippe, even if she won’t admit it, and Vi’s been ignoring Lance for three weeks—since the whole dance-and-Linney fiasco. Fiasco: a completely humiliating failure—like Vi at the dance or me getting my test back yesterday.
    We sit in silence for a few minutes while the turtle volunteers peer into the sand that covers the nest.
    â€œWe have movement!” one of them announces.
    A ripple of excitement rolls through the crowd. I sit up a little straighter in my chair.
    And then nothing happens for an hour.
    As the beam from Bodington Lighthouse sweeps across us every thirty seconds, Becca goes on and on about Philippe’s accent and his hair, and Vi keeps reminding her that she’s sworn off boys. Sadie smiles as they talk, but it’s not a real smile. I get up and move around Becca to kneel behind Sadie’s