Plastic Confidence (Good Bye Trilogy #1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

head and went back to my bedroom. I didn’t sleep at all that night. I knew who had murdered Grace and there was nothing I could do about it.
    The next day, I fumbled with the OUIJA board box before I gave up, by stuffing just the board and the pointer into my backpack. Mom had called for me to go for the third time and I rolled my eyes at her impatience. She didn’t know that important things were being prepared and I, too, couldn’t wait to get with my friends and try to talk to Grace again.
    The three of us begged our parents off and headed into Angie’s room. The Offspring and Goo Goo Doll posters adorned her walls. Angie was also an amazing artist and had several of her canvases leaning up on every wall, with open and dried up oil tubes littering her floor. The smell of her room sometimes made Emmy sick but for me, it was relaxing to be among creativity. I hadn’t found my real hobby yet. I liked to sing along with male lead bands because my voice was low enough. That, however, was the extent of my musical talent.
    I took the board and pointer out of the backpack and tossed it on the bed.
    “We are not doing that where I sleep at night,” Angie scolded me. I nodded in understanding while Emmy gracefully took the board and with great care, as if she was going to break it, placed it on the floor like she had done the previous day.
    We quickly sat down, placed our fingers at the same spots, and look at each other. Without asking a word, the pointer moved to yes, move away and then went back to yes.
    “She is here,” Angie whispered. “What do we ask?”
    The pointer moved and we watched as it moved from D to A to D. It did this twice before I realized that she would probably leave again.
    “What am I going to be when I get older?” I asked in a hurry. “Oh, this is Jules.”
    The pointer didn’t move for a while as I thought about an early death. Would I get older? Was it like Krysta? Because last I had heard, Kent was fighting with her over the phone. A lifetime they would not last. Finally it moved. Slowly it moved to S. It sat there for several seconds. What was I going to be when I grew up? A singer? A songwriter? A salesman? A sales clerk? Oh god, I was going to be pathetic.
    The pointer moved quickly to L. I couldn’t come up with anything before it moved to U. Then rapidly, it shot over to T. The pointer gained momentum and repeated the word.
    S–L–U–T.
    S –L–U–T.
    I looked at my friends in confusion.
    “What’s a slut?” Emmy whispered. We both shrugged our shoulders and then Emmy asked the same question. I didn’t see what the pointer answered but she looked just as dumbfounded as I did. I blanked out, trying to figure out what a slut was. When Angie asked, I was about to jump up and run to a dictionary but I couldn’t let go before we were done. Emmy and I both stared off at something in the room as Angie got her answer. I looked down to see the last two letters were Z-Y. Angie gasped and withdrew her hands from the pointer. Without her fingers, however, the pointer made its way to GOOD BYE.
    We all started talking at once about how the board was a fake and one of us was moving it. When I asked them why it moved on its own without our hands the previous morning, I was met with silence.
    Angie got up and with shaking hands, put the board and the pointer back into the backpack. Emmy cleared her throat.
    “Let’s go play hopscotch,” she said numbly. We all nodded. As we made it out of the house, Angie’s mom came up and clearly she had been crying. She hugged Angie so hard and then continued to hug both Emmy and I, as well.
    “Mom, what is it? Why are you crying?” Angie asked.
    “Oh honey. They got him. Grace’s killer. They found evidence and he was arrested this morning. You are all safe now. It is so sad for her family but such a relief to us parents,” she said grimly. Her head fell back as she wiped the mascara from under her eyes.
    “Who? Who killed her?” Emmy shakily