Double Cross Read Online Free PDF

her.
But Jessica knew exactly what to say to wind me up.
Especially when she teased me about Callie. Actually, now
I come to think about it, only when she teased me
about Callie.
    Once we reached my bedroom, I must admit, I closed
my bedroom door a little louder than was absolutely
necessary. I was more than a little annoyed at my sister's
dense comments. What if Jessica's teasing put Callie off
coming to my room at all?
    'Tobey, should I strip off and lie on the bed?' Callie
asked. 'That'd really give your sister something to tease
you about!'
    'Yes, please.' I grinned. If only.
    'You wish,' Callie scoffed.
    Yeah, I did actually.
    'I can dream, can't I?' I gave a mock sigh.
    I took off my school shirt and put on a clean white
T-shirt pulled out of my wardrobe. Thanks, Mum! I
decided to leave my school trousers where they were, on
my body. I wasn't in the mood to listen to Callie tease me
about my 'skinny uncooked chicken legs', as she kept
calling them. I sat at my tiny desk, connecting my
memory stick to the family computer, which stayed in
my room as I used it the most.
    'Tobey, all joking aside, why don't you tell your sister
we're just friends?' Callie stated.
    I glanced away so that Callie couldn't see my face. 'I've
tried, but she didn't believe me.'
    'I've told Jess more than once that you don't think of
me as anything but a pain in the neck, but she didn't
believe me either. I wonder why?' Callie frowned, sitting
down on my bed. She glanced at her watch. 'How long
d'you reckon today?'
    'I give her three minutes.' I sighed, for real this time.
'And counting.'
    'Nah. I reckon seven minutes, fifteen seconds,' said
Callie. 'Your sister will want to wait until she thinks we're
really into something before she bursts through the door.'
    'You're wrong. Two or three minutes at the most. Any
longer and she'll be afraid she's missing something.'
    'What has she heard about you that I haven't?' Callie
frowned. 'Bit of a fast lover, are you?'
    Careful, Tobey . . .
    'I've never had any complaints,' I replied.
    Callie regarded me, a strange expression on her face
before she turned away to trace the lightning-fork pattern
on my duvet. 'Well, we're not all as easily pleased as
Misty.'
    Misty? What on earth did this have to do with Misty?
More to the point, what did it take to please Callie? Had
Lucas already given her some idea about that? Our
conversation was spiralling away from me dangerously.
Nothing I said now would come out right, so better to say
nothing.
    Callie stood up and headed for my desk. 'Let's see all
this cool stuff you've come up with for our project then.'
    I tried to access the files on the memory stick, but the
computer didn't even recognize that a memory stick was
connected. After trying twice more, I tried to access it
directly via the operating system. Weird symbols and
hieroglyphics scrolled across my screen.
    'Tobey, where are my files?' Callie's voice was low, her
question rhetorical. She could see as well as I could what
had happened to her files.
    'This isn't my fault,' I said quickly. 'I only bought this
thing last month. It's supposed to be state of the art.'
    'State of the another-word-beginning-with-A more
like,' Callie said in disgust. 'Tobey, I really don't want to
have to do all my sections again.'
    'Didn't you take a backup of your notes?' I said.
    'Not the latest version, no. I changed some stuff at
school before loading it onto your memory stick, then I
deleted the files afterwards. And what about all the film
clips you added and the other stuff you said you did at
school? Are they gone too?'
    I nodded. 'I'll just have to do it all again. Don't worry,
it'll only take me a couple of hours.' I tried to reassure
Callie, knowing full well I'd lost a lot more than two days'
work. It would take ages to add all the graphics and re-edit
all the film clips I'd included in our presentation. Godsake!
    'What happened to your memory key? Did you
microwave it or something?'
    'Or something.' I pulled the