A Girl Like Gracie Read Online Free PDF Page A

besides me.
Period,” he says.
    “ In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not
thirteen anymore,” I say. “I can talk to any guy I want to.
Besides, I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I was standing there all
alone and I was just thankful that the boy came and started talking
to me.”
    The doors open up again, and I expect it to
be Claire or Dad, coming to yell at Alfie. But it’s not. It’s Noah.
He’s got a handkerchief pressed against his nose, and it’s stained
red.
    “ Are you all right?” he asks
me.
    “ I think I’m supposed to ask you
that,” I say.
    “ Come back for seconds?” Alfie asks
him, in a taunting voice.
    “ I just came to give you this,” Noah
says, handing me a piece of paper. I grab it from him, and then he
walks back through the doors.
    “ What’s that?” Jace asks
me.
    I hold up the paper.
    It has his phone number on it.
    “ It’s the number to his handphone,” I
answer.
    Alfie tries to grab the paper out of my
hand, but I hold onto it tight. I put the piece of paper in my bra
where I know Alfie can’t get it.
    “ You better not text him,” he
says.
    I don’t respond. I just smile.
    “ Gracie Nicole James, I am serious,”
Alfie says.
    “ You know, I wasn’t going to, but if
it annoys you, I might just do it,” I say.
    Jace who is watching the two of us laughs.
We both turn to look at him and he stops laughing immediately.
    “ You two are fun together,” he says.
“I think senior year might be the best year yet.”
    The limo pulls up in front, and a guy opens
the door for us. The three of us get in and head back home in
complete silence. I can’t help but wonder what this means for Alfie
and me. Are we friends again? I hope so.

Monday, August 22
    Please leave.
     
    A little over two weeks later, school
starts.
    I’m ready for school to start.
    I passed my written examination for my
driver’s test and now I have to wait six months before I can take
the driving portion of the test. Until then, I am going to be
riding with Alfie to school, which he does not seem happy about. Like, at all.
    Whenever we got home from the charity ball
that night, Alfie asked me, in the nicest way possible, to promise
not to call or text Noah. I agreed, and then he went to his room.
He hasn’t spoken a word to me since that night, so I’ve been all
alone.
    I mean, sure, I have Claire. That girl loves
to shop. She took me for a mani pedi on Saturday just so I’d be
ready for school today. She even helped me pick out a cute outfit
to wear and helped me fix my hair this morning. But besides her and
the hired help, nobody in the house is talking to me.
    Well, Dad talks to me in passing, but I
don’t see him very much. He’s always working. I’ve talked to Mom a
few times on the phone, but she never talks to me for very long.
It’s almost like she’s avoiding me, which I don’t like.
    So, here I am, all alone in this big huge
house. It’s kind of depressing.
    That morning, when I come down for school,
Alfie and Jace are both waiting for me in the foyer.
    “ She’s riding with us?” Jace asks, as
he follows Alfie to the door. I follow both of them.
    “ I don’t have a choice,” Alfie says to
him, completely ignoring me. “She passed her written examination,
but she only had a permit for the next six months.”
    “ Did you have your license in Korea?”
Jace asks me. Alfie gets in his car and slams the door.
    I open the passenger side and climb in the
small backseat. Jace gets in the front side.
    “ I didn’t need my license there. I
always walked and took the subway,” I answer. “Besides, driving in
Korea is a little scary. More than one of my friends at school have
been hit by a car while walking. Usually by a taxi. Those taxi
drivers are crazy.”
    Jace laughs.
    I look at Alfie, who puts the car in gear
and takes off. He is gripping the steering wheel so tight that his
knuckles are turning white.
    “ Did you end up texting Noah
Pennington?” Jace asks.
    “ No,” I