Little Lost Angel Read Online Free PDF

them.
    “I told Shanda that I was proud of her for not skipping school with them,” Jacque said. “I also told her that I didn’t want her hanging around with Amanda anymore.”
    Shanda promised her mother that she would break off the friendship, but she actually had no intention of doing so. Even though she was beginning to develop new friendships, Amanda still had a strong hold over her.
    Shanda’s father and stepmother, Steve and Sharon Sharer, didn’t know that Jacque had forbidden Shanda to see Amanda. So they thought nothing of it when Shanda asked if Amanda could accompany them to Harvest Homecoming, New Albany’s annual fall festival that October. Before they left the house that night, Sharon overheard Shanda talking to someone on the phone.
    “She was asking the person on the other end what kind of cologne they were going to wear,” Sharon recalled. “I thought it must be a boy, so I asked who she was talking to. She said it was Amanda. Then Shanda asked me if she could wear some of Steve’s cologne. She said it was the new fad.”
    Steve and Sharon had met Amanda once before. The girl had been dressed nicely and had been on her best behavior, in the hope of impressing Shanda’s father and stepmother. So when they arrived at Amanda’s house on the night of Harvest Homecoming to pick her up, Steve and Sharon were startled by her appearance.
    “When she came over to our house that first time she looked like any normal little girl, but that night she came out looking like a little boy,” Steve Sharer said later. “She had on a ball cap and a baggy sweatshirt and jeans. She even walked like a boy does, kind of swaggering. I looked at Sharon and said ‘What is this?’”
    Steve and Sharon were also put off by Amanda’s smugattitude. She seemed to be trying to impress Shanda with her toughness. On their way home from the festival, Shanda asked if Amanda could spend the night, but Steve and Sharon said no.
    “I was really concerned about the way Amanda acted,” Steve said. “She carried on like she was a boy.”
    The next day, one of Melinda’s friends told her that she’d seen Amanda with Shanda at Harvest Homecoming. Melinda couldn’t believe it. Amanda had told her that she was staying home that night. Unwilling to accept the girl’s word without confirmation, Melinda recruited a friend, Kristie Brodfuehrer, to check out the story. Kristie didn’t really know Shanda, but she called her at home, saying she was a friend of Amanda’s. During the brief conversation she managed to get Shanda to admit that she’d gone to the festival with Amanda.
    Melinda couldn’t believe that Amanda had lied to her. She felt betrayed and angry. Despite all her threats, Amanda and Shanda continued to flaunt their friendship for the whole world to see.
    “Shanda’s going to pay for this,” Melinda told Kristie. “She’s ruining my life.”
    The fifteen-year-old Kristie, a small, delicately built blonde, listened to her friend rant about how she wanted to hurt Shanda. Finally she turned to her and said, “It’s not Shanda’s fault. She wouldn’t be with Amanda if Amanda wasn’t encouraging her. If you do anything, you need to teach Amanda a lesson, not Shanda.”
    That evening, Kristie and Melinda devised a plan to do just that. Kristie called Amanda and asked if she wanted to sneak out later that night. Amanda agreed that it sounded like fun, not knowing that Melinda would be joining them. Kristie told her she would talk some boys into driving and would come by later that night to pick her up.
    Melinda and Kristie had worked out all the details of their scheme. Kristie would persuade one of her boyfriends to pick up her and Melinda and drive to Amanda’s house, where Melinda would hide in the backseat while Kristie went to the door to get Amanda. When Amanda came out tothe car, Melinda would grab her. Then they would drive to some secluded place, where Melinda would beat up Amanda.
    Melinda and Kristie