The Crushes Read Online Free PDF Page B

around your crush!
    Rule 33: Do not stalk or stare at your crush!
    Rule 34: Do not get depressed and listen to sad love songs if your crush does not notice you!
    Rule 35: Get to know your crush slowly! (You may discover that you don’t like him!)
    Rule 36: Do not pretend to be a different person when your crush is around!
    Rule 37: Learn to listen! Do not just talk about yourself!
    Rule 38: Carry yourself like you are the stuff! Any guy is lucky to have you!
    As the waiter served the girls their dinner, Alexia capped her pen and handed it back to Sydney. “There you go,” she said to Kelly. “I’ll take this home tonight and typeit up. I’ll get you a copy tomorrow. You should probably start right away.”
    “Or not!” Kelly said. “This is insane, you guys. No way am I pursuing Adam. He’d probably laugh at me.”
    Raven took a big bite of her salad, crunching into the lettuce. After she swallowed, she said, “He doesn’t seem like that type of guy. Besides, did you see the way he smiled at you?”
    Alexia nodded. “He thinks you’re cute at the very least.”
    “It’s worth a try,” Sydney said, twirling spaghetti around her fork.
    Kelly rolled her eyes.
    “I’ll get you all copies tomorrow,” Alexia said. She smiled to herself as she ripped apart a garlic breadstick. She’d wanted to bring the Breakup Code back, but this was ten times better.
    How could this fail?

SIX
Rule 2: Be coy, not shy!
    The elevator doors dinged and slid open on the second floor of Children’s Hospital. Sydney stepped out, holding fast to the strap of her American Eagle messenger bag. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t nervous to start her volunteer shift.
    She emerged beneath a lit sign hanging from the ceiling that said W EST W ING . Directly in front of her, taped on the wall, were posters advertising the twenty-sixth annual Birch Falls Carnival in July and another canned food drive through the end of the month. Next to those flyers was a poster announcing a photography contest on June 19.
    That sounds like fun, she thought absently. Too bad she wasn’t good enough to enter.
    She went to the right down the hallway and came upon a nurse’s station. All around it were hospital rooms with large sliding glass doors so that you could see clearly into each room.
    There were balloons floating around the beds. Flowers topping the bedside tables. Crayon drawings hung on the wall behind the nurses’ station. Noisy cartoons filtered out from various rooms. Machines dinged and beeped.
    Sydney went up to the nurses’ station and spoke to the petite woman there. “Hi,” she said. “I’m Sydney, a new volunteer.”
    “Oh! We’ve been expecting you. I’m Pat, the head nurse on this wing.” Pat was a forty-something woman who wore bright pink scrubs and white Crocs. She extended a delicate hand across the counter and said. “It’s nice to have you, Sydney.”
    “Thanks.”
    “I think I’ll get you started with Quin. He’s been around here awhile so he knows all the important details. If you go down this hall right here and turn into the third room on the left, you’ll find Quin there. If you have any questions, just let us know.”
    “All right. Thanks.”
    Sydney followed Pat’s directions and went into the third room on the left. Quin sat in one of the green rocking chairs next to the bed. He was in another white Oxford shirt, this one unbuttoned and untucked to reveal a black T-shirt. He had on jeans and scuffed brown leather boots.
    In his hands, he held a paperback book with a ghost and werewolf on the front cover. The title was printed in a shiny silver script that said Dead Wolf .
    Quin read out loud while a little boy lay in bed, his tiny frame drowned in white sheets and blankets. Canary blond hair fanned over the pillow while the boy’s pale skin nearly matched the starched white pillowcase.
    Quin finished reading and dog-eared the page. “Hey,” he said, nodding at Sydney. “I heard you were coming