Payback Read Online Free PDF

articulate. But she didn't know what she was supposed to do or say. And it seemed like one of those situations that called for exactly the right thing. Gaia was pretty sure she'd never said exactly the right thing in her life.
    Mary took a deep breath, shifting her feet so that the gravel and silt crunched beneath her boots. "Well, I'm looking into some stuff, like NA and . . . stuff," she said, stumbling over her own words. "My parents are helping. I, uh . . . I told them everything. I figure I can't do this without them, and besides completely freaking out and crying and the whole deal, they're actually being really cool. But I need your help with a very important step in the clean-Mary plan."
    "What's that?" Gaia asked. She noticed for the first time that her friend's pale skin was paler than normal, her unruly red hair oddly flat. The girl needed that unconditional love Gaia was longing for moments ago. She needed it maybe more than Gaia did.
    "The good, clean fun part," Mary said with a smile that held just a trace of the Mary-mischief Gaia had learned to love.
    "Good, clean fun, huh?" Gaia said with a smirk. Little did poor Mary know that Gaia wasn't exactly an expert on the subject of fun. She wasn't even a novice. Up until she met Mary, she'd been pretty sure she was, in fact, immune to fun. Still, she couldn't exactly let Mary down. It was time to throw the girl some kibble.
    "I think I can handle that," Gaia said, pulling her jacket closer to her body and shivering slightly as a breeze fought its way past her collar and down her back. She looked Mary directly in the eye. "I just have one question," she said, causing the smile to disappear from Mary's face. "How do I know you're telling the truth? That you really want to do this."
    Mary gripped the fence harder, and her face became pale. For a moment Gaia thought her friend might faint, but she held her own. Seconds later, her features softened and a little color returned to her cheeks.
    "Because," she said, her voice just slightly shaky. She cleared her throat and tossed back her hair. "Because I'm going to stay here with you and watch these stupid dogs." Mary's brow wrinkled slightly as she glanced around at the assembled owners with their steaming coffees and their leashes wrapped around their hands and wrists. "And you are going to explain to me what, exactly, is supposed to be interesting about this."
    Okay, so maybe the girl was sincere. Gaia tilted her head toward the fence, inviting Mary to come closer. When their foreheads were practically touching the cold metal Gaia brought her tingling cheek close to Mary's in conspiratorial spy fashion.
    "See that dog right there?" Gaia asked, pointing out Katie, who was now terrorizing Sadie the collie by barking at her and chasing her every time she sat down. Mary nodded and smiled. "Keep an eye on that one," Gaia said. "I think you'll like her."

READY AND WILLING
"Come on, Gaia," Ella said, placing her napkin on the table. She was all glee. Tell George about your little Sam.

MOOT TOPICS
    THE LIBRARY WAS PRETTY. THE books? Gorgeous. The leather chair felt like a little piece of cloud. But the people were all very uninteresting. Bland. Ugly, even.
    None of them were Gaia Moore.
    Sam was fully aware that at least three students in the East Asian Library were staring at him with a disturbed sort of curiosity. Why shouldn't they be? He was kicked back in a big green chair, his feet up on the table in front of him, about ten large textbooks piled around him -- and he was smiling like an idiot. Like he was lying on a massage table on a white beach in the Caribbean.
    It was almost finals week, and Sam Moon was summer-vacation giddy.
    "What are you on, man?" whispered Sam's suite mate, Mike Suarez, leaning across the table. "And can I have some?"
    "Shhh!" Keon refused to let anyone get out a sentence without scolding them. Sam and Mike both glanced at him, then smirked.
    "Nope. Definitely not. None for you," Sam said,