Bungee Jump Read Online Free PDF

eat!” Mr. Roth finally announces. We pull out our bags of food.
    I wander off to eat with my friends. We skip flat stones into the water.
    Owooo . A weird voice floats over the picnic area.
    “What’s that?” Tom asks.
    “A kid pretending to be a ghost,” I say, ignoring the younger students’ scared faces and searching for the source of the sound.
    “Mr. Roth,” Anya calls out just then. She’s standing over us, holding a half-eaten sandwich that smells like tuna. Her face looks pale to me.
    “Yes, Anya?”
    “I don’t feel so good.”
    “Oh, I’m sorry, Anya. Would you like—”
    She bolts away for some bushes. She sprays them with vomit.
    “Gross!” Tom exclaims. Other kids cover their mouths, giggle or stare at the poor girl.
    “Oh-oh,” Mr. Roth says as he and a mom-volunteer hustle over to Anya.
    A boat with two adults and Anya leaves early. The rest of the kids try to play Frisbee again, but no one seems into it.
    “Anya has leprosy,” I hear someone whisper.
    I leap up to challenge them. I notice a bunch of kids stampeding for the boats. Not Tom or any of my friends, of course. And the kids leaving seem more excited than scared, like they’re thrilled by the drama. But I don’t like the way they look back at Caitlin and me.
    No way. They don’t really think… That is the stupidest rumor anyone could start. But it’s not like anyone asks me. And just like that, the annual school picnic is over.

Chapter Nine
    “A couple of kids are saying it’s your fault that Anya got sick,” Tom warns me over lunch the following Monday. “And three other kids are home sick today. I know it’s stupid. And all of our crowd is sticking up for you. But you should know that everyone is saying you shouldn’t have invited the school to a contaminated site.”
    “It’s not a contaminated site!” I say louder than necessary. “Anya’s mom even called my mom to say it was the mayonnaise in her sandwich.”
    “Yeah right. Trying to cover it all up?” says Bella, seated down the table from Tom. “And that island is haunted too. Something was wailing during the picnic.”
    I shake my head, wanting to laugh, except it’s not funny. “You fell for some kid sneaking away and trying to scare us?” I ask. “And there are always a few kids absent for being sick. Anyway, it can take months or years for leprosy to show up—”
    Oops, dumb thing to say. Now even my friends are looking at each other like they’ve got something new to get worried-excited about.
    “Leprosy is where your arms and legs fall off!” someone declares as they walk by.
    “And you die,” says a younger student.
    “No one will go anywhere near you.”
    “There’s no cure,” someone adds.
    “Not true!” I protest. “There is a cure. Has been since 1982.”
    It seems like everyone has an opinion. Things get loud.
    That’s when Mr. Roth appears. He must have heard some of the comments. He walks over. He rests his hand on my shoulder.
    “Need some scientific clarification here?” He eyes the students at my table and beyond.
    I hunch over and stare at my lunch bag.
    “Teacher’s pet,” someone hisses.
    Mr. Roth removes his hand and narrows his eyes. “There will be a special assembly later this morning to address some rumors we understand are going around. Don’t miss it,” he warns. His stern eyes rest on each student.
    Just what I need, a spotlight on the whole thing. Oh well. Whatever it takes to put things right before the bungee-jump opening.
    I’m headed for the assembly when a hand reaches out from nowhere. It closes around my wrist. It yanks me through a doorway.
    Okay, not any doorway. Into the school library. I’ve never seen Mrs. Dubin look so fierce. She points to a chair. She all but pushes me into it.
    “You asked for this,” she begins.
    “For what?” I ask. What will she do if I bolt? I’m not scared of an old lady, am I?
    She puts her face right up to mine. So close that I can see two hairs growing