Me, My Elf & I Read Online Free PDF

One of the girls looks at us and jams her elbow into another girl’s side. That girl smacks one of the guys on the leg. They all stop singing and stare, but Timber ignores them.
    “What ’hood are you in?” he asks me.
    “Hood?”
    “Neighborhood.”
    I try to remember the name of the area we live in. Something about a park or a hill or a slope. We push through the big green doors at the end of the hall and just as I’m about to admit that I don’t know where I live, I see Ari and Mercedes on the steps outside. I run and fling my arms around both of them.
    “Do you know my friends?” I ask Timber.
    He hangs back by the doors. “Uh, no.”
    “Ari Mendelbaum,” Ari says from his perch on the stoop. His voice is different than I remember. More hard-edged and deep now. “We’re in the same improv class.”
    Timber shrugs. “Yeah. There are a lot of people in that class.”
    “I sit in front of you,” Ari tells him. “We were paired up last week for the tug-of-war exercise.”
    “And this is Mercedes,” I quickly interject.
    Mercedes lifts her hand in a weak wave. “How’s it going?” she says. We all look away from one another awkwardly.
    Timber moves first. “Okay, so, yeah. See you around, Zephyr.” He jogs down the stairs with his fist in the air. “Rock on,” he yells without looking back at us.
    “That wasn’t very nice,” I say. “The way he just left like that.”
    Ari and Mercedes look at each other and groan. “Such a jackass,” Ari says.
    Mercedes stands up, then she bumps down the steps exactly as Timber did with her fist above her head. “Rock on,” she bellows in a deep voice, just like him. Ari cracks up and so do I because, hey, at least it’s not me she’s impersonating this time. Now all I have to do is find my way home, and with my friends by my side I feel like I could do anything.

chapter 3
    MY SECOND DAY of school goes better. I think I’m starting to figure this whole erdler thing out. I got there without a problem, found all my classes, aced a botany quiz, and managed not to cause a riot in the cafeteria by upsetting the delicate balance of who can sit where.
    After school Ari and Mercedes decide to escort me all the way home.
    “We have so much work to do, Boo,” Mercedes says as we wait on the crowded subway platform. A sour wind picks up and blows my hair around as the next train approaches with a roar.
    “That ELPH audition is only two weeks away so we’ve got to start now,” Ari yells over the noise.
    I don’t argue because I’m glad for the company on the train. It still feels strange to me to be whooshed around the city in a metal box full of vacant-eyed people. I learned pretty quickly to stare at the advertisements overhead instead of smiling and saying hello to everyone around me. But today, I hang on a pole and listen to Ari and Mercedes plot how to turn me into a superstar.
    I don’t mention that I’m having second thoughts, though. I’d like to try acting, but I’m terrified that I’ll make a fool of myself in front of Bella and her evil minions if I audition and that’s not what I need right now. On the other hand, I’m so happy to be with my new friends that I go along with Ari and Mercedes, nodding my head as they make plans to transform me into the next ELPH elf.
    As we get closer to my stop, I start getting nervous. “You know, you guys, my family’s a little bit weird,” I tell Ari and Mercedes.
    “Whose isn’t?” Ari says.
    Three seats have opened up, so we sit side by side, swaying to the clickety-clack rhythm of the train.
    “You ain’t seen nothing, chica , until you meet my twin sisters and my crazy abuela ,” says Mercedes.
    “But my family is a little bit, um,” I search for the right word to describe us. “Traditional,” I say.
    “You mean like religious?” Ari asks.
    I shake my head. “No, I mean my mom and my older sister are really focused on being at home and taking care of everyone. They don’t understand