Beauty Read Online Free PDF

Hudson would give that monkey to me. I mean, look at me. I’m not exactly Hudson Taylor material.” I tried to laugh, but it came out more like a sigh.
    Kemper’s brow furrowed as she glanced over at me again. She bit her lip, like she was always doing during her debate team meets when she was trying to figure something out. “Whatever,” she said finally, shaking her head. “Hudson Taylor is so not worth it. And I’m starting to think Hayley isn’t either.”
    That thought gave me an awful feeling in my throat, thick and sour, like I’d gotten a lemon stuck back there. Before I met Kemper and Hayley, I’d had this best friend named Maryann. We met during Gymboree class and my mom said we’d just clicked, right away. We never wanted to hang out with other kids after that; it was better just the two of us. We were sturdy that way, no extra weight to throw us off.
    When Maryann moved away in second grade, I was devastated. Then, the very next year, in Miss Herman’s third grade class, I met Kemper and Hayley. I remember thinking that there was no way it would work, having three of us like that; someone would always be extra weight. But somehow, it worked. We were like a seesaw in a way, Hayley and Kemper on either end, and me in the middle, evening us out. It was our own kind of sturdy. But lately, I wasn’t feeling strong enough to even us out anymore. “I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe Hayley just needs some time—”
    The sound of honking cut me off. A group of senior boys were driving by, honking their horn as they whistled out the window at us. “Uh, Kemper,” I said, as they sped away with a final honk. “I think that was for us .”
    Kemper looked over at me again, her eyes scanning my face carefully. “Yeah,” she agreed. “I think it was.”
    And it kept happening as we rode on. A junior boy shouted out at us, offering us a ride in his truck. A group of freshmen catcalled as they rode by on their own bikes. Even a policeman on the street tipped his hat as we pedaled by. I wasn’t used to having so many eyes on me. I shook my hair out again, wishing I’d had time to blow-dry it just a little before leaving the house. It was going to be one huge ball of frizz by the time we reached school.
    “Don’t look now, Molly,” Kemper said, her eyes glued to the rearview mirror her dad had insisted on installing on her bike. “But I think we’re being tailed.”
    Slowly, I glanced over my shoulder. A pack of little kids was riding behind us on tricycles. They looked like they were racing each other—straight toward us. “Why aren’t they with their parents?” I gasped as one got dangerously close to my back tire.
    “I think they were.” Kemper beckoned to a group of adults about a half-mile back, sprinting down the walking lane. They were waving their arms in the air, their shouts of “Slow down!” and “Wait for me, Henry!” carrying over on the wind. Another car honked as it drove by us.
    “Kids on the loose,” Kemper joked, right as a tricycle bumped into my back wheel.
    “Hi!” the tricycle rider called out. She was a little girl with big brown eyes and long pigtails. I lifted my hand in a hesitant wave and she broke into a huge gap-toothed smile.
    “Let’s pick up the pace,” Kemper suggested. We both began pedaling harder, leaving the tricycle riders behind in our dust. At this rate, I was going to be frizzy-haired, makeup-less, and dripping sweat by the time we reached school.
    “So,” Kemper said as we turned into the school lot a few minutes later. We were both panting a little from our bicycle sprint. “What happened to you at the fair yesterday, anyway? I couldn’t find you anywhere.”
    “I just needed to get away from everyone for a bit,” I said quietly. On the other side of the lot, I noticed Josh climbing out of his SUV. I let out a groan. “Oh, God, I ran into Josh last night and I was a total jerk.” Kemper followed my glance across the parking lot as we