Laguna Cove Read Online Free PDF

later.”
    “If I didn’t know you better, I’d swear you were either a drug dealer or a special agent.”
    “Who, me?” Lola asked, grabbing her books and slipping quickly out of the car.

chapter six
    Jade saw Ellie the second she pulled into the parking lot. And she would have run over to greet her friend, if that hadn’t happened to be the exact same moment that Ben had picked her up, thrown her over his shoulder, and headed toward the quad with her.
    “Ellie!” Jade called, hanging over Ben’s shoulder, laughing and waving, determined to ignore the “Ellie look” her friend had plastered across her face. Jade was all too familiar with that look, as Ellie seemed to direct it at her more and more these days. It said something like, I’m disappointed in you, but I still love you, even though I worry about you. But Jade forgave her. Because Jade forgave just about everyone. After all, not everyone subscribed to her “live and let live” credo, especially Ellie.
    Still, they’d been friends forever. Long before pancreatic cancer took Ellie’s mother’s life. Long before Ellie’s dad, angry and wracked with grief, began putting enormous pressure on her to succeed at absolutely everything. Long before Ellie, suffering from the huge emotional void left by her mother’s passing, started putting even more pressure on herself than her dad did.
    Jade understood just how much Ellie had changed in the past few years. And Jade worried about Ellie just as much as she knew Ellie worried about her. But she loved Ellie enough to tolerate her constant disapproval. Well, most of the time.
    “Ellie!” Jade yelled again, kicking Ben in the ribs until he finally set her down. “Great sweater,” she said, her smile exposing that one slightly crooked front tooth that looked like it was determined to overlap the next one, as she pushed her long, dark, out-of-control ringlets away from her face.
    “Thanks,” Ellie said, rubbing her hand absently over the new kelly-green cashmere cardigan she’d bought the day before with her dad’s credit card. “Who is that guy?” Ellie asked, watching Ben joke with some people a few feet away.
    “Ben Parker. He just transferred from Sage Hill,” Jade said, wishing her friend would lighten up just a little.
    “Why would someone transfer here from there? Did he mess up?”
    “No. His parents split and his mom couldn’t afford the tuition anymore. Cut him some slack, okay? He’s a really nice guy.”
    “How do you know him?” Ellie asked.
    “I met him last week at that barbecue at Salt Creek Beach. The one you didn’t go to.”
    “Is he one of the ones that got busted for drinking?”
    Jade shook her head. “Listen, I’m taking the Fifth on that one, because it has nothing to do with me, or you .” Jade was probably the only girl in school that took those yearly anti-gossip vows seriously. “Now come on, our old friend Chris is right over there and I swear he’s even yummier this year than last, if you can believe it. And I don’t even go for blonds.” She laughed.
    “I’ve already seen him,” Ellie said, trying to sound casual, but failing miserably
    “Oh, yeah? Do tell.”
    “I saw him surfing yesterday morning. When I was waiting for you, I might add.” Ellie looked at her.
    “About that. Listen, I know you’re probably really disappointed in me, but it was the last day of summer so I slept in and I just can’t apologize for that because getting up at o’ dark thirty just goes against the laws of nature.” She smiled. “So where’s Lola?”
    “I dropped Lolita off on the corner. Apparently she had a date.” Ellie couldn’t refrain from rolling her eyes
    But Jade had the opposite opinion. “Wow, talk about good time management! Leave it to Lolita to sneak a date in right before the school day has even begun. Oh, how I do admire that girl. Now come on, El, let’s go drool over Chris,” Jade said, smiling and pulling Ellie in his direction.
    But Ellie