Jenny Pox (The Paranormals, Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

need to have your daddy come fix it?”
    “ No, ma’am.  I was just, uh…”
    “ Out with the sheep, gathering wool,” Ms. Sutland chuckled.
    “ Yes, ma’am.”
    Jenny looked at the girls outside.  There was no way to avoid them.  Her dad’s truck was in plain view, right across the street and less than thirty feet from Ashleigh and friends. 
    Jenny wished Ms. Sutland a nice day, took a breath, steeled herself, and opened the door.  The clump of bells and chimes sounded extra loud to her.
    She hung her head forward and let her long black hair shield her face.  She kept her eyes on her tattered tennis shoes as she walked to the old Ram.
    “Hey, Jenny Mittens!”
    Jenny looked up, and immediately wanted to kick herself in the ass for it.  She should have ignored them, climbed into the truck and left.  Instead, she was looking across the street, right at Ashleigh Goodling’s cloudy gray eyes.  People said Ashleigh’s eyes were exotic and beautiful.  Jenny knew that if she had eyes like that, people would call them hideous and bizarre.
    “Whatcha doing, Jenny Mittens?” Ashleigh yelled. “Shopping for gloves?”
    Cassie and Neesha laughed.  The boys were either out of earshot or too busy to pay attention.  Jenny actually wished the boys were closer.  Ashleigh was at her most vicious when alone with her two best friends.  The more witnesses, the sweeter and more innocent Ashleigh became.  In front of a crowd, she was downright adorable.
    Jenny felt her cheeks burn.  Her humiliation was all the worse because she had, in fact, been shopping for gloves, and now carried the gray pair in one of her brown-gloved hands.  She laid the new gloves against her hip to hide them, then opened the truck door and climbed inside.
    As Jenny backed up and straightened out on the road, she glanced at the green again.  Neesha and Cassie were talking animatedly to each other, Jenny Mittens already forgotten.  Ashleigh, though, was ignoring her friends and watching Jenny drive away, her face placid and expressionless, her gray eyes inscrutable.
     
    ***
     
    When Jenny parked in her red dirt driveway, something blurry darted from the front yard and into the woods.  Jenny smiled.
    Jenny carried in the groceries she’d bought at the Piggly Wiggly and unloaded them in the kitchen.  Her pottery money had allowed her to buy bread, milk, cheese, tissue-thin Carl Buddig ham and turkey, and some fresh fruit.  She’d also picked up a can of dog food.
    She carried the dog food outside and stood over the clay bowl she’d used for ravioli the previous night.  She tapped the dog food can and whistled towards the woods.
    “Come on, boy,” she said. “It’s gonna be okay, now.  Just bringing you a snack!”
    There was some movement in the area where the running blur had disappeared, several yards into the woods.  The dog wriggled out of the underbrush and rose up on his three logs, watching her nervously.
    “Stay,” Jenny said.  She popped open the can and poured chicken and gravy into the bowl.  She backed away to the corner of the house, saying “Stay…stay…stay…”
    When she was safely away from the food, Jenny squatted low near the ground and called out in a high, encouraging voice: “Okay!  Okay!”
    The dog looked between her and the food bowl a few times, then hop-stepped his way out of the woods to the food.  He sniffed it, then chomped it down.  He watched Jenny warily as he ate, as if expecting a trap.  Jenny understood how he felt.
    In the daylight, she could see the dog clearly.  He was some kind of mix, with a lot of bluetick hound; she could tell by the floppy black ears and speckled body.  He was shaggier than a bluetick, though, and little jowly.  His amputated leg looked healed, not a new injury at all, which relieved Jenny.  He seemed to have adapted to three-legged walking as well as he could.
    “Okay,” Jenny said. “If I’m really the best you can do, then you can stay.  But