Feathermore Read Online Free PDF Page B

me look twice. I strained my eyes, trying to determine what I was looking at. Feeling the same sudden wash of horror and dread I had felt on the street last night, I saw a sort of dark shadow at the end of the hall.
    It was hard to tell whether there really was anything there, because it sort of glided in and out of view. There were a lot of people around, and it seemed to mix in with the crowd. If it actually was something, it seemed to be hiding behind other students. No one seemed to notice it, though. I raised my hand to point at the thing. I was about to ask Nate if he saw it, too, when he pulled me into a classroom.
    There was no time to react. The next thing I knew, I was in a fourth-grade classroom.
    “ What was that?” I said as I tried to move past Nate and take another peek out into the hall.
    “ What are you talking about?”
    “ Don’t play dumb with me, Nate. Why the hell did you pull me in here? And what was that outside?
    “ I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jade.” He looked behind him and then moved toward the door. Claire opened it and walked in, all chirpy.
    “ Come on,” she said. “Let’s go eat!”
    Nate shoved his hands into his hip pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels. “Umm, I’ll see you girls later,” he said as he slid her hand into his and gave her one of their silent looks. “I have to go do some stuff off school grounds, but I’ll be here when you get out, okay?” He kissed the back of her hand and disappeared amid the throng of students in the hall.
    “ What was that all about?” I asked as Claire pulled me forward and we made a short stop at my locker. I couldn’t help but feel that something highly unusual was going on, and for the first time, I had the suspicion that my best friends knew something they didn’t trust me to hear. They seemed to be trying to hide something big under a too-small blanket.
    I sat at the lunch table waiting for Claire to get out of the dreadful cafeteria line. As usual, I had brought my own lunch. I wasn’t really hungry anyway, so to pass the time—and, once again, to keep my mind off the strange things I had been seeing—I pulled out my hardcover copy of To Kill a Mockingbird . The cafeteria line seemed to be barely moving today, and I was having trouble getting into the book. The clamor and clatter of the cafeteria seemed louder than usual, and that wasn’t helping my concentration any.
    Someone sat down across from me. I stiffened, somehow knowing it was him, and put the book down. As usual, my intuition was right. There, across the table from me, sat Avan, chin propped up on his elbows, smiling. He looked around, then put his backpack on the floor beside him.
    “ You know,” I said, “sitting at this table is extremely bad for your rising reputation.”
    “ Good thing no one’s watching, then.” He looked around and then stared at me.
    Claire set her tray down next to me and sat down. “Seriously dude, sitting here is a death wish,” she said. “You’re buddies with Amy. I would suggest you make her happy and sit with her—she’s already giving us the evil eye, so . . .” She nodded toward Amy’s table.
    Avan turned around, trying to be inconspicuous, but Amy caught his eye and waved desperately at him, making sad faces as she patted the wooden bench next to her.
    “ Seems like she misses you,” Claire said.
    I kicked her under the table, and she just looked at me. I couldn’t believe how rude she was being. I turned my attention back to Avan.
    “ That’s okay,” he said to Claire. “Jade already warned me. I’m really not the kind of person you seem to think I am, but if you’d rather I sat someplace else, it’s okay.” He raised an eyebrow as he looked into my eyes, and then stood up and walked away without saying another word.
    I felt terrible. He was being nothing but sweet, and Claire had to run him off. I wanted to talk to him, and I wanted him to sit at our table. Why did she have to