In Plain Sight Read Online Free PDF Page A

covered in hot fudge and I’m sure her hands are sticky and gross by now, too.
    “Yes, ma’am?” I say, looking back at her in the backseat.
    “Are you going to tell Starla the secret?”
    “Do you think I should?” I ask.
    She nods eagerly, ice cream sliding off her plastic spoon.
    “Hey, Starla,” I say, twisting in my seat to see her.
    Starla looks up from her ice cream, which is mostly all over her face as well.
    “We’re getting a new house today!” I say in my most excited kid voice.
    Starla looks at me and then back at her ice cream. “Kay!”
    Emma laughs. “I don’t think she gets it,” she says.
    “Probably not,” I say, shaking my head.
    When we’re finished eating and we’ve wasted a good hour in the Sonic parking lot, I decide it’s probably late enough to head to our new house.
    Taking the paper, I type the address into the GPS unit in our car. It thinks for a second and then shows the destination.
    I lift an eyebrow. That can’t be right. 4848 Pinegrove Lane is showing up as being in Shady Heights.
    Frowning, I reset the address and try again. It takes me to the same location. My blood runs cold.
    Shady Heights?
    As in, the neighborhood with signs advertising that the homes start from $600,000?
    No. Freaking. Way.
    I call Mom and she answers on the first ring. “I just need to confirm the address you gave me is right,” I say, trying to focus when a million things are running through my head.
    “Yep, that’s right,” Mom says after telling me the address again.
    “That’s in Shady Heights.”
    She laughs. “Surprise!”
    I swallow the lump in my throat and stare at the GPS screen. Not only is Shady Heights the richest subdivision in the county, it’s also still in the RCHS school district, meaning I won’t be changing schools after all.
    “Shady Heights,” I whisper to myself after I’ve ended the call with Mom. I put the car in reverse and then start heading that way, my mind going in a million directions at once.
    I never in my life thought I’d ever step foot inside a house in that neighborhood.
    And now I’m going to live there.

Chapter 6
     

     
    This might be the worst Spring Break ever. It’s as if the moment I realized I didn’t want to be my brother, everything in the universe decided to work against me out of spite. Even my parents seem to like me a little less with each thing I do that doesn’t fit on their agenda for my future. They’re my parents and I love them and all, but they can’t just force me into a mold of something I don’t want to be.
    After the uneventful beach party, I’d driven home feeling miserable and wishing I’d gotten drunk. Then of course, I’d have had to spend the night at the beach, which would have made for a worse night. So I guess staying sober and getting home was a good thing.
    But now that I’m here, it’s three in the morning and I can’t sleep. Senior year is supposed to be the year you glide through school, knowing what your future holds and being old enough to forget about all the lame shit that happens in younger grades. Instead, I feel like I’m stuck spinning my wheels, moving in no direction at all.
    Except maybe down.
    I lay on my back in bed, tossing a foam ball up in the air and catching it over and over again. I’ve spent a lot of time in this bed, not sleeping. Just after football season started, I injured my knee and had to have two surgeries. After the first surgery, my parents and doctors were hopeful that I’d play sports again and attract a scout for college football.
    The very thought made me cringe. It’s bad enough that I’ve been hiking balls and passing balls and playing football since I was in fifth grade—but now they wanted me to play in college, too?
    The first surgery didn’t help much, and my injury was worse than ever. The second surgery helped a lot, but I was given a warning that another injury from football could leave me in a wheelchair, and my parents regretfully let me quit the