Sass & Serendipity Read Online Free PDF

this reflex. The more athletically gifted girls seemed to take her shortcomings personally and froze her out of all conversation. So instead of finding new friends, Gabby had ended up more alienated than ever.
    Eventually she just stopped going. But rather than argue with her parents about it, she made sure she went somewhere else during that hour and a half she was supposedly at team practice, to prevent them from growing suspicious. She would wander out of sight behind buildings, looking for loose change scattered on the pavement. Or she’d climb the big live oak in Monroe Park and read.
    One day Gabby had been following Chandler Creek, searching for fossils and keeping an eye out for water moccasins, and she’d ended up roaming farther than ever before. The noises of town gradually faded and the brush grew higher around her, forcing her onto the bank. After a while she came upon a clearing she’d never seen. A gently sloping grassy bluff that provided a scenic view of the nearby hills. She wandered into the field and, for some bizarre reason, lifted her arms and started twirling about like Julie Andrews in
The Sound ofMusic
. Even now, she shuddered a bit at the memory. How unlike her. She must have gotten stoned off the stagnant creek-water vapors.
    She’d continued spinning and staring up at the sky until a voice called out, “You aren’t going to dance off the edge, are you?”
    Gabby stopped midwhirl and began scanning the vicinity for her onlooker. She felt as if she’d been intruded upon, but in essence, she was the interloper. She had been the one who showed up second.
    “Let me guess … Julie Andrews?” came the voice again.
    This time she spotted him. It was Sonny Hutchins. He’d been leaning up against a tree, watching her, partially obscured by shadows and branches. Sonny was two years older and went to a private school, but she’d known who he was. For one thing, he was kind of famous. He came from one of the oldest and most well-connected families in town, and his relatives were always leading parades and running for office. But also, every summer their fathers were tapped to judge the annual chili cook-off.
    What was he doing there, sitting under a cypress in the middle of nowhere, away from all his friends and fancy relatives?
    She must have stood gaping at him longer than most sentient beings would have, because he asked again, “So was I right? Channeling your inner Julie?”
    Gabby had nodded and then he’d smiled. She could still see it in her mind—the way leafy shadows played across his face; the way a tiny gust of wind lifted a few strands of hair onthe top of his head and they danced about, waving in all directions like insect feelers.
    That was another thing Sonny was famous for: his looks. Delicate, almost pretty features. A lopsided grin. Blond hair that he somehow managed to keep fairly long, in spite of his superpowerful, superconservative parents. A guy so attractive, it was intimidating—even though he seemed friendly enough. Every festival he would chat with Gabby a bit and make witty observations about the various entries. Meanwhile, she would barely manage to squeak hello and probably turned redder than Eddie Hardee’s celebrated batch of Crying Marine Chili con Carnage.
    She assumed Sonny didn’t recognize her, so she nearly lost her balance when he cocked his head and said, “Gabby, right?”
    Once again, all she could do was nod.
    “Thought so,” he said. “Come over here and look at this.” He held something in his right fist.
    She’d gone right over to him. It still made Gabby shake her head. Older guy she barely knew. The seclusion of trees. Too far away for anyone else to hear or see her. But she trusted him. She hadn’t even stopped to think—she’d just walked straight to him as if pulled by an invisible tractor beam. Then she sat down beside him and peered into his cupped hands.
    He’d been holding a caterpillar. Soft and plump, about the length of his