My Extra Best Friend Read Online Free PDF Page A

sharks now!” Green bands dangle from their wrists.They must have already passed their swim test.
    “Was it hard?” I ask. “The swim test?”
    “Nope,” Quinn replies. “Easy cheesy. You’ll do great!” He gives me a big smile.
    Normally, I would give him a big smile back. Then I would give Stacey or Jenna a secret glance, because they both know I like him.
    But that was before I found out he drew a heart around my name on his burping basketball. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do when a boy likes me back. They never teach you that kind of stuff at school.
    I glance away and pretend to be very interested in Joey Carpenter. He’s crooking his arm like a shark fin and gnashing his teeth at Brooke.
    Brooke swats him away. “Juvenile,” she snips.
    Tom does a sly grin. “That’s
pup
to you.”
    Brooke squints at Tom.
“Pup?”
    Tom nods. “Young sharks. They’re called
pups
.” He tucks his hands under his chin and pants like a dog. The other boys join in, panting and howling at the bright blue sky.
    Brooke gives them a snooty smirk. “I know a better name for
young sharks
.”
    “What?” Stacey asks.
    Brooke sizes up the boys.
“Dumb dorks.”
Then she turns away and scans the beach. “I’m only interested in
hawks
anyway. Do you see them? The girls, I mean. From Hawk cabin?”
    “The place is crawling with girls,” Joey says, dropping his paws. “Connor told us they outnumber guys two to one this week.”
    “Who’s Connor?” Randi asks.
    “Our counselor.” Quinn points at the boy with the floppy orange hair. “He’s awesome.”
    Rusty bobs his head. “We don’t have to shower all week if we don’t want to.”
    “
And
he’s not gonna mommy us about changing our underwear either,” Joey adds.
    I wrinkle my nose.
    All the girls do.
    “That’s totally unsanitary,” Jenna says.
    Rusty shrugs. “Keeps the girls away.” Then he scratches his armpit and gives it a sniff.
    “Not to mention the Meadowlark Monster,” Tom adds. He does that sly grin again.
    Meeka’s eyes go wide. “Monster?”
    Tom nods. “He lives in the woods.”
    “Eats campers for dessert,” Joey adds. “The sweeter, the better. Connor told us.”
    Joey eyes up Brooke’s bare shoulder.
    Then he
licks
it.
    Brooke howls and wipes away the lick germs. Then she practically shoves Joey off his feet.
    “No worries, Brooke,” Joey says. “You’re not nearly sweet enough for
any
monster.”
    Jenna crosses her arms. “If there were a monster here, I would know about it.”
    Quinn shrugs. “Maybe he just moved to town.”
    “That makes sense,” Tom chimes in. “
People
move all the time. Why not monsters?”
    “Because monsters aren’t
real,
” Jenna says.
    “Oh yeah?” Rusty replies. He turns toward their counselor. “Hey, Connor!” he shouts.
    Connor looks up from talking with some other campers.
    “The monster story’s true, right?”
    Connor grins. Gives Rusty a thumbs-up.
    “See?” Rusty says, turning back to us. “Counselors don’t lie. If Connor says the Meadowlark Monster is real, it must be true.”
    A lifeguard on the dock blows his whistle.Campers trudge out of the water. Others tiptoe in.
    Brooke suddenly gasps and points at some soggy girls. “That’s
them
!” she squeals. “The Hawks!”
    Brooke hops off the stone wall and hurries across the beach.
    “C’mon,” Jenna says to the rest of us. “If we don’t take the test, they’ll stick us with the
tadpoles.
”
    I nudge in next to Stacey as we leave the boys behind. “Do you think there’s really a monster here?” I whisper to her.
    Stacey thinks this through. “Maybe. Maybe not. Sometimes older kids—even grown-ups—make stuff up.”
    I nod, thinking of the stories my dad has told me. Once, he convinced me and Elizabeth that there were fairies living under my porch. We’d leave them shiny beads and pretty pebbles. They’d leave us notes written in curly cursive. So tiny we had to use a magnifying glass to read them.