Jennifer Scales and the Messenger of Light Read Online Free PDF Page A

you. For heaven’s sake, get a room.”
    “Well, gee, Skippy, I dunno.” Jennifer gave a coquettish smirk and rubbed the floor with her toe. “The dance is almost two months away, and it’s only the first day of school! I could still get a better offer.”
    His smile disappeared and the textbook came down. “Are lots of guys already asking you?”
    She stammered a bit at the question. “Um, well, yeah. A few. But no one I like has asked me yet,” she hastened to add.
    At Susan’s gasp and Skip’s fallen expression, she talked even more quickly. “I mean, no one besides you! Ah, geez, Skip. Yeah, okay, I’ll go to the dance with you.”
    “Don’t do me any favors,” he sulked.
    “What do you mean?” Jennifer began to panic. This had started all in jest, but she began to feel a fun night slip through her fingers. What was going on?
    “I know you could get better offers,” he explained. “If you just want to be friends, just say so. But I don’t want your pity.”
    “Oh, Skip, no! Don’t take it that way. I thought we were just playing around. I want to go with you, really! Look, see, I’ll ask you.” She cleared her throat and straightened up. Her voice came out throaty and serious. “Skip Wilson, will you go to the Halloween dance with me?”
    He paused. Susan stared at him with impatience, and then smacked him on the back of the head with her pocketbook.
    “Cripes, loser, say ‘yes!’ ”
    “Ow! Okay, yes.” His easy smile returned, wider than ever, as he rearranged the chocolate strands of hair at the back of his head. “Cool. Um, here’s your math book back. So, um, I guess we’ll talk more about the dance later, okay?”
    “Okay.”
    “Okay.”
    “Okay.”
    Susan glowered at them both. “Okay. Hit the road.”
    Still sporting a goofy smile, Skip practically pranced down the hallway and out of sight.
    “Boys are so sad,” Susan commented.
    “What the heck was he talking about, better offers?”
    Her friend turned and began walking down the hall. “Oh, just quit it.”
    She scurried after. “Quit what?”
    “This false modesty…it doesn’t become you.”
    “Susan.”
    “Okay, you didn’t know. Whatever you say…I mean, you can’t be this dim.”
    Jennifer restrained herself from picking Susan up by the ankles and banging her pal’s head on the floor a few times. “What. Are. You. Talking. About.”
    Susan stopped in the middle of the hallway, causing Jennifer to run right into her. “You’re only the most talked-about girl at school nowadays. It’s irritating beyond belief—you dye your hair platinum blonde and the boys just fall all over themselves.”
    “I didn’t dye it! You know I can’t control my hair.” This was true—Jennifer’s hair, which used to be a darker blonde, had developed more and more streaks of silver throughout ninth grade, as her weredragon nature emerged. Over the summer, the last of her old hairs had turned, and the sun had toned what was left into platinum.
    “Yeah, whatever, you’re a freak and your life is miserable. Cry me a river. You’re all anybody can talk about. Your shiny hair, your perfect legs, the way you’re already a starting wing on the varsity soccer team…”
    “You made the team, too! And you’ll be a starter next year for sure!”
    “Hmmph. Anyway, it’s day one of tenth grade and you’re already everyone’s favorite person. Good thing no one knows you’re really a lizard in disguise.” Susan softened her comment with a ruby grin, but Jennifer still panicked.
    “Susan, you can’t tell anyone what I told you last spring, you swore you wouldn’t, please…”
    “Easy there, camper. Susan Elmsmith doesn’t do gossip. I’m not that desperate for popularity.”
    Jennifer sighed with relief. At Winoka High, only Susan, Skip, and (unfortunately) Eddie knew about her weredragon heritage. Everyone in her family agreed that was dangerous enough. “Honest, Susan, I’m not trying to attract attention. If the dye