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

to tell you who I am in case you say no.
    She looked behind her, but there were five rows back there, full of unfamiliar, unfriendly-looking boys. None of them even glanced at her; they were either listening to Mr. Slider or (in Bob Jarkmand’s case) staring listlessly out the window.
    A bit off to the left, however, was a new sight—a boy she’d never seen at the school. Angelic, was her first thought. He had wavy, shoulder-length blond hair, a smooth face with sparkling blue eyes, and soft peach skin. He looked up and caught her staring, so she quickly spun around and felt herself blush.
    Glancing to her right, she saw Susan, two desks over, rolling her eyes in a correct guess of the note’s intent.
    Sighing in exasperation, Jennifer folded the note back up and shoved it in her pocket. Susan’s right. Boys are so sad.
     
    “This is so sad!” Jennifer pleaded to her father that evening at home. “We just get back from the funeral of this friend of yours I barely know, and now you want me to go to some dumb dinner party tonight?”
    “Your mother got called into surgery.” Jonathan smiled gamely. “And I’m supposed to bring a date.”
    “I’ll be so bored!”
    “I don’t think so! The hospital here in Winoka wants to build a new rehabilitation center for people with blindness or vision disorders. I’m the architect. Customers will use this center to learn how to live with no sight, and some of them will be at the fund-raiser tonight—including kids.”
    “So this lame event is at the hospital where Mom works?”
    “No, the fund-raiser’s up in Minneapolis! Where the money is. I swear it won’t be like the funeral at all.”
    “But I don’t know how to act around blind people—and even if there are kids, they’ll still be strangers! What will we talk about?”
    He scrunched his nose. “I dunno. You should find some common ground in agreeing you all have lame fathers.”
    “That’s a start. What will I wear?”
    “You can wear the same dress you wore to the funeral.”
    “Daaad…”
    “Please, sweetheart. You’ll make your father happy. Isn’t that what every teenage daughter really wants?”
    She glared at him without a word.
    He patted his own chest. “Deep down inside?”
    Still no response.
    “Thanks, peach. You’ve got ten minutes to get ready.”
    “Aaargh!” She spun around and stomped up the stairs.
     
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    CHAPTER 3
Aunt Tavia
    « ^ »
    In fact, the fund-raiser was not at all bad. First, it was an excuse to go to Minneapolis, which was lively and elegant at night. Second, the event began with an enormous dinner. As she worked through her roasted pheasant and wild rice with steamed vegetables, Jennifer began to understand why her father thought she might not hate it.
    Third…
    “Skip’s here!” She practically upended the table when she saw him sitting across the room. Jonathan did not protest, so she maneuvered through all of the cloth-covered tables until she rested an arm on her friend’s shoulder.
    Then she saw who he was sitting with, and slowly removed it. Skip looked and sounded nervous.
    “Jennifer, I don’t believe you’ve met my aunt Tavia?”
    Even before he gave the name, it would have been easy enough for Jennifer to guess who this woman was. After Otto Saltin died—no one beyond the Scales knew exactly how—his sister had moved to Winoka to take care of Skip. Tavia Saltin, like her nephew and her late brother, had dark chocolate hair and hazel eyes. Her long, maroon-painted fingertips curled around Skip’s neck where Jennifer’s hand had been, and her face betrayed recognition at this girl’s name.
    “Jennifer Scales?”
    “Yes.” Jennifer had no idea whether to shake hands, make a grab for the birthday daggers she had strapped under her dress, or run.
    “My goodness!” Tavia stood up, and without warning, warmly embraced her startled prey. “I’ve been dying to meet the girl who saved my sweet nephew! Oh, bless you, sweetheart! Thank you so