Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover Read Online Free PDF Page B

sure I'd seen
before.
    "Cam?" Tina asked, but
I just nodded.
    "Yeah,
Tina." My throat felt strange, as I said it. "Something like
that."
    And then I walked away.
     
     
    When
you're known as the Chameleon, sometimes it can feel like your whole life is
just an elaborate game of hide-and- seek. Fortunately, I am very good at
hiding. Unfortunately, my best friends are very good at seeking.
    "Cam!"
someone called through the shadows. "We know you're in here." The
voice was soft and Southern, the footsteps so dainty that I knew there could
only be one person tiny enough to creep over those particular floorboards
without making a sound.
    "Oh, Cammie," Liz practically sang, as she
crept down the ancient corridor that (I think) had once been a pretty important
part of the Underground Railroad, and had more recently served a far less noble
covert purpose.
    "I
thought we'd find you here," another voice said. My second roommate pushed
her way out of the shadows.
    If
possible, I think Liz had gotten even tinier and Bex had gotten even prettier
over the summer break. Liz's blond hair was almost totally white from spending
all summer in the sun. Bex's accent was stronger, like it always is after
spending months with her parents in England. (Of course, Bex swore that she'd
spent a good portion of that time actually doing surveillance with MI6 in an
African nation that shall remain nameless.) Her dark skin glowed and her hair
was longer than it had been at the start of the summer.
    "Isn't
it a tad early in the semester for hiding, darling?" Bex tried to tease. I
tried to smile.
    "What gave me away?" I
asked.
    "Irregular
dust patterns outside the entrance," Bex said. "You're getting sloppy."
And then she stopped. Strong Bex, brave Bex, seemed to recoil when she realized
what she'd said- "I didn't mean…"
    "It's okay, Bex," I
told her.
    "You weren't sloppy!" Bex blurted again.
    Then
Liz jumped in. "Everyone's talking about how great you were—about how, if
you hadn't been there …" But she didn't finish, which was just as well. No
one wanted to think about how that sentence had to end.
    Bex
eased onto one of the overturned crates and boxes that filled the room.
"Have you seen her?"
    "Not
since the day after. They brought us to Mr. Solomon's lake house, but then they
took her back to her parents."
    "She is coming
back," Liz asked. "Isn't she?"
    "I don't know," I said
with a shrug.
    "I
mean … they wouldn't want her to stay with them all the time, would they?
They'd want her here, where she's safe?"
    "I
don't know, Liz," I said, sharper than I'd meant. "I mean … I don't
know if she's coming," I said, more softly. "I don't know who tried
to do this or why or … I just don't know," I whispered again, then turned
to look out the tiny circular window.
    "She
invited me." Bex's voice cut through the silence. "Before the
convention, she called our flat and asked me to come, but my mum and dad were
home, and I…" Bex trailed off, not knowing, I guess, that wanting to be
with your parents isn't actually a sign of weakness. "I should have been
there." She didn't sound envious about missing out on a good fight.
Instead, she sounded guilty.
    "Me
too," Liz said, sinking to the dusty floor. "When she called, my mom
said I could go, but I only had a few days left with my parents, so I said
no."
    I
nodded. We all thought we'd have the better part of a year to spend together,
hut in any life—especially a spy's life—tomorrow is never guaranteed.
    And
there you have it—the most important thing any of us had learned over our
summer vacation.
    "Tina
Walters says Macey's parents have hired an ex- Navy SEAL to pose as a Sherpa
and hide Macey out in the Himalayas until the election is over," Liz
offered.
    "Yeah,
well Tina Walters says a lot of things. Tina Walters is usually wrong,"
Bex replied. But I thought about how close Tina had been with her campaign
button theory; I remembered that Tina had been saying for years that there was
an elite boys' school