Past Perfect Read Online Free PDF Page B

an ideas man. Someone who has Essex running through his veins. Who do I need?”
    “Me!” Bryan shouted. He swung his hand in the air and jumped up and down a little, in case Tawny couldn’t see him.
    “Pick me, pick me!”
    But then Ezra shouted, “Chelsea!” and everyone turned to stare at me.
    I gaped at him through the fire. What was this? Did he think he was doing me a favor? Was he trying to play a prank on me? And how was this his idea of staying out of my way ?
    Then Fiona piped up, “Chelsea would be great at it!” And I would like to know what made my best friend and my ex-34

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    boyfriend, both of whom had never worked here before , suddenly feel that they were experts on what Essex needed in this War.
    Everyone picked up the cry of “Chel-sea! Chel-sea!” with the exception of Bryan, standing near me with his lower lip stuck out, who kept mumbling, “Bry-an, Bry-an,” like that was going to catch on.
    “Chelsea?” Tawny looked down at me. “I would be thrilled to have you as my Lieutenant, and it seems that everyone here agrees.”
    “Yeah!” Loud cheering.
    “What do you say?”
    I locked eyes with Tawny and considered it for a moment.
    It would mean getting in more trouble than anyone else, if we got caught. But no one ever got caught. All the real employees at Essex and Reenactmentland turned a blind eye, just as long as no one got seriously hurt, which people barely ever did.
    And it was such a high honor. The greatest honor anyone could have at Essex was to lead the War efforts. I felt overwhelmed that everyone here would trust me with that responsibility. These were my people. This was my community.
    And as I heard them all chanting my name, I wondered if I had ever seriously intended to trade this in for a retail job.
    There was nothing the mall could offer that would rival this moment.
    So I said, “Yes. General Tawny, I accept.” Fiona shrieked and hugged me like I had just been crowned 35

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    Miss Teen U.S.A. Then Bryan tried to hug me too, as if he were happy for me, even though he obviously was not and just wanted an excuse to touch me with his toadlike arms. Tawny reached a hand down toward me, I grabbed it tightly, and she pulled me up on to the rock with her.
    Still holding my hand, Tawny hoisted our arms high, like we were already victors in this War. I gazed out over my cheering friends and coworkers and ex-boyfriend, and the fire and the fireflies and the brook and the trees and the summertime. And I felt happy, for a moment. For a moment, everything felt perfect.
    And then it all disappeared as I was grabbed from behind, knocked over, pulled backward and down into nothing.
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Chapter 5
THE KIDNAPPING
    A t first I could hear a lot of people screaming, but I couldn’t distinguish any individual voices or words.
    I couldn’t see at all because someone had hastily tied what felt like a strip of cloth over my eyes. And probably I would have been able to pull the cloth down, except that people were gripping my arms and legs, so I couldn’t move at all.
    They were running with me, running fast, and I had no idea where. Soon my friends’ screams faded away, so they must have carried me pretty far. Whoever ‘they’ were.
    I tried to kick my legs, but the people holding on to my ankles and knees were too strong. I twisted my head around as much as I could, hoping I could bite someone’s hand, LEILA SALES
    but I couldn’t find anything. Then I realized that my mouth was unbound—no strips of cloth, no attackers’ hands—so I started screaming. Loud.
    “Help me!” I screamed. “Help! I’m being kidnapped!
    Help! Help!”
    “Shut up ,” someone said. He didn’t sound much older than me, and I couldn’t decide which was worse, getting kidnapped by professional criminals, or getting kidnapped by a gang of underage amateurs. Either way, this was bad, so I kept screaming and thrashing, hoping that I could slow them down, or that someone would find