Fear Street 5 - The Fire Game Read Online Free PDF Page B

in there," said Andrea. "Anyway, I still want to try on this T-shirt. Hold my purse, will you?"
    She stepped into one of the booths while Jill waited in the corridor.
    What in the world could be wrong with Diane? she wondered.
    Andrea returned--without the T-shirt. "No luck," she reported.
    Jill scarcely heard her. Why is Diane taking so long? she asked herself.
    Maybe I should just go in there and find out--
    But at that moment Diane came out of the dressing room, holding several blouses on hangers. As soon as she spotted her friends, she smiled sheepishly.
    "I'm sorry about before, Andrea," she said. "I just didn't recognize you when you came in the dressing room."
    "Didn't recognize me?" said Andrea in disbelief. "Who'd you think I was?
    Freddy Kreuger?"
    "I was thinking about something else," Diane said. "I wasn't expecting anyone to come in."
    "Well, no problem," said Jill. But she wasn't sure about it. Diane still looked upset, and despite her sarcasm, Andrea seemed bothered by the incident.
    Jill remembered the sound of Diane's scream--the sheer terror in it.
    Andrea must have done--or said--something to have frightened Diane so badly, whether she realized it or not.
    But what?
    Pulling into her driveway, Jill realized that she had forgotten to buy the purple scarf in all the excitement. And her mother's birthday was in just a few days. Her mom said she had everything she wanted, but Jill still wanted to get her something special.

    Maybe if she hung out with her parents for a while, she'd get some other ideas.
    She went into the kitchen and poured a glass of ginger ale, then followed the sounds of the television to the family room. Her parents were sitting on the sofa, watching the tube, while Mittsy sat on the ottoman grooming her long, shiny fur.
    Jill smiled to herself when she saw that her parents were holding hands.
    Whenever they did that, she was a little embarrassed, but she also thought it was kind of sweet. They'd been married for over twenty years and still did that kind of stuff. "Hi," she said.
    "Hi, dear," said her mother. "How was shopping?"
    "Okay," she said. "You'll be happy to hear I didn't buy anything."
    Jill sat on the ottoman and picked up Mittsy.
    "We're watching a nature show," said her father. "It's about the attempts being made to save the Amazon forest. Mittsy seemed to be interested."
    "Is that right, Mitts?" said Jill. She raised her eyes then to check out the show. Thick green foliage filled the screen, along with the droning voice of an earnest-sounding announcer. "Oh, look, Mittsy," she told her pet. "There's one of your little cousins. It's an ocelot. See?" Mittsy wriggled as Jill attempted to turn the cat's head toward the screen.
    "Persians," Jill said in mock disgust. "They have no interest in culture."
    "Hal called while you were gone," Jill's mother said. "He's thinking of bringing a girlfriend home for spring vacation."
    "Really?" said Jill. Hal was her older brother, and he'd been away at college for three years. Most of the time she didn't miss him, but she wasn't sure she liked the idea of his bringing a girl around. That sounded serious.
    "He wanted to know how you're doing," added her father. "We told him about the good grades you've been getting."
    "I'm sure he was just dying to hear that," said Jill. "But that reminds me, I want to go over my research paper for tomorrow. Good night," she added, kissing both her parents on the cheek.
    Jill had finished everything she had to do on the paper that afternoon, but for some reason she felt like being alone for a while. The trip to the mall had been strangely troubling.
    First, Andrea had kept going on and on about Gabe, and then that weird thing had happened in the dressing room between Diane and Andrea. Maybe it's just spring fever, she thought.
    She put her term paper and books into her day pack, then changed into her nightgown and washed her face. She was just weaving her long hair into a single braid when the phone