Blue Is for Nightmares Read Online Free PDF

Veronica is sitting there with her friends, pointing toward PJ and me and making that high-pitched cackle she calls a laugh. She focuses on PJ, makes the L-for-loser sign with her fingers, and places it up to her forehead.
    Veronica's lemming-friends follow suit.
    PJ focuses on his lunch, pretending it doesn't bother him.
    'Are you kidding?" Amber asks. "Don't back down. Tell that bitch off. Stacey, do one of your spells on her. Make her get fat."
    "Whatever spell I do comes back at me three times. I think I've gained enough this quarter."
    "So right," Amber says, glancing down at my waist. Amber can be such a bitch.
    "She's not worth it." PJ pours a bit of orange soda into his milk--a daily ritual he calls delicious and drinks in audible gulps. "I hate her, though. I wish she'd croak."
    "You don't mean that," I say.
    "How do you know?"

    I guess I don't know It's just weird hearing PJ talk that way about anyone. PJ, who refuses to swat at flies because of the karmic penalty, who got caught last year trying to free Mrs.
    Pinkerton's pet rabbit from its cage in the chemistry lab.
    "Speaking of death," Amber begins, "dreaming about killing people in the middle of class is kind of freaky, don't you think, Stace?" She peels open her peanut butter sandwich and layers the inside with barbecue-flavored potato chips.
    -Do you think it has something to do with those nightmares you've been having?" Drea scooches her chair in closer to Chad's.
    -Nightmares?" PJ turns toward me. "I didn't know you've been having nightmares. That's so famous. Do tell."
    -Was I not supposed to mention that?" Drea asks.
    -Why not," Amber says. "Everybody knows Stacey can sometimes see shit about people in her dreams. I'm just waiting for her to see shit about me. Like when I should expect Brantley Witherall to give me a jingle."
    -I think you've jingled enough this year," Drea says.
    Amber lizard-flips her tongue out at Drea in retaliation, exposing a size seven barbell. -Maybe he's already called." She reaches into her Hello Kitty lunch box of a purse for her cell phone. She presses at the buttons, waiting for it to work.
    "Let me guess," Drea says. "No charge."
    -Why do I always forget?"
    "Because your name is Amber." Drea forks a cubed tomato into her mouth. -Just put the phone away before we all get in trouble."
    Ms. Amsler, our gym teacher, is in charge of dinner duty tonight, but luckily she's more interested in the slop cafeteria-lady is serving up to concern herself with cell phones or barbells.
    I look down at my chips and see that I have arranged them on my tray in the shape of a heart.
    Completely mortified at my subconscious' perpetual desire to embarrass myself, I cover the chips up with what's left of my sandwich and peek at Chad to make sure he hasn't noticed.
    He's looking straight at me, his off-centered smile curling to the left. "So, what happens in these nightmares?" He flips the most perfect chunk of stray sandy-blond hair from in front of two equally perfect greenish-blue eyes.
    "Well, it's not really clear yet," I swallow, my voice cracking on the word really. "There's this guy and he's sort of following me."
    "Can you see his face?"
    I shake my head. "I can hear his voice though; it's familiar, but I can't place it."
    He leans in closer. "Maybe it just means you're running from something--or someone--who's close to you... and that you shouldn't be."
    I focus into the refuge of my tuna, feeling my cheeks warm over, feeling a smile fight its way across my mouth. Is he really saying what I think he's saying or am I completely reading into it?
    I look back up and he's smiling too, like we're both caught in some weird, romantic-comedy sort of moment. Lucky for us we have Drea to zap us back to the reality of cafeteria food.
    "You know, Chad," she begins, "that e-mail you sent me was so cute."
    "What e-mail?" He grins.
    "The nursery rhyme? 'The House that Jack Built'? So cute."
    -I don't know what you're talking about."
    "You don't have to