Connect the Stars Read Online Free PDF Page B

she’d missed a lot and was racing to get all the late work in and all the tests taken before the school year ended. I missed her. I’d even be in the woods, where I hardly ever thought about people, and I’d get this pang in the center of my chest, right where my ribs connected, and it would take me a second, but then I’d understand that the pang was missing Janie.
    So on the day after the last day of school, I got up, gotdressed, and walked to her house. It was the hottest day of the season so far, as though even the sun had gotten word that it was our first day of summer vacation, and the sky was that true, deep summer blue. Under that sky, I suddenly felt like skipping, like the weight of the world Dean Amory was always talking about had fallen off my shoulders, or at least had gotten a lot smaller overnight.
    As I stared up the sidewalk to Janie’s front porch, I noticed that the big planters on either side of the porch steps were empty, which was weird because Mr. Franklin was a serious gardening guy, always pruning, and planting, and moving flower bulbs and bushes from one spot to another, and filling planters. By early June, they should have been overflowing, flowers flopping over the sides and vines trailing like kite tails. Everything else looked normal, though. Even the wind chimes hanging from Janie’s porch sounded like summer.
    But when Janie answered the door, she didn’t look like summer at all, more like one of those days in late February that are so gray and dull you can’t remember that spring is right around the corner; you can’t remember spring at all. She looked rumpled, like she’d just gotten out of bed, which I knew couldn’t be true. Janie was a morning person. Even at sleepovers, she’d be the first one up, and we’d all stumble sleepily downstairs hours after she did, to findher talking to the parents in the kitchen, bright-eyed as a robin.
    â€œHey!” I said.
    Janie didn’t smile, just reached up and twisted a piece of her red hair.
    â€œOh. Hey.”
    â€œYou want to hang out?”
    Janie glanced over her shoulder and lowered her voice. “I can’t,” she said. “Sorry. I still have some makeup work to finish.”
    She was telling the truth, but the nervous look on her face made me wonder if there was more going on than just homework. When she glanced over her shoulder again, I guessed that maybe she’d gotten into a fight with her mom. Janie’s mom was really nice, but even the nicest moms could get mad at their kids, especially when their kids didn’t want to do their homework on the first day of summer vacation. But what kid would? No wonder Janie looked like February.
    â€œThat stinks,” I said.
    From inside the house, I heard Mrs. Franklin’s voice call out, “Who is it, Janie?”
    â€œIt’s nothing, Mom,” Janie called back. “I’ll be right there.”
    I heard her mother’s footsteps coming toward the door.Janie stiffened and said, “Sorry, I have to go.”
    She started to shut the door, but her mom was already there. She was smiling at me and didn’t look mad at all, just a little tired.
    â€œHey there, Audrey,” she said. “Happy summer.”
    â€œThanks!”
    â€œMom,” said Janie, “just give us a minute, okay?”
    Mrs. Franklin looked at Janie with surprise. “Oh. Sure,” she said slowly. She smiled at me again, with worried eyes this time. Then she reached out and touched my cheek.
    â€œLook at you,” she said. “Already tan. Guess you’ve been spending some time outside.”
    â€œYes,” I said. “Just walking around in the woods, mostly.”
    â€œWell, that’s nice.”
    It was when she pulled her hand back that I noticed it: the silver bracelet, that cursive L so sparkly in the sunlight, it threw tiny rainbows across the front of Janie’s white T-shirt. I felt