The First Last Day Read Online Free PDF Page A

don’t know. Did his parents come for him?”
    â€œCome for him? Wasn’t he at his grandmother’s when you left after dinner?”
    Why was Mom asking these questions? “Of course he was there when I left. But he was on our couch last time we saw him.”
    â€œOur couch? Sweetie, you must have dreamt he came over.”
    Was Mom so tired she forgot what happened? She had been more forgetful than usual. “Okay, never mind about Kevin,” I said. “Where are all our packed suitcases?”
    Mom stared at me for a second and smiled.
    My eyes locked on hers. “This is serious.”
    â€œI think I know what’s going on,” she said. “You had a wish fulfillment dream.”
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œIt’s when you dream something that you wish would happen.”
    No way would I have wished G-Mags had a stroke.
    Mom took my hand and continued, “You and Kevin have become such good friends, I bet you wish he could come home with us tomorrow.”
    â€œTomorrow? Aren’t we leaving today?”
    â€œFor someone who never wanted to leave the shore, you’re certainly pushing things.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œWe don’t leave until tomorrow. We have all day today.”
    â€œWe do?”
    Mom shook her head. “That must have been some dream you had. You better change out of those pajamas if you’re going to meet Kevin.”
    Just as she said that, I looked down and gasped. I’d gone to sleep in my shorts and T-shirt. Where had those pajamas come from?
    I darted to the kitchen to check the calendar. The day before I’d torn off the page that read 26 and thrown it away. I stopped short when I saw the number 26 staring at me.
    Maybe I was remembering wrong. Maybe the sheet I’d thrown away read 25 . I took a step closer to see the Fun Animal Fact at the bottom of the page. My heart drummed faster and faster as I read the words: A mayfly has an average life expectancy of twenty-four hours.
    It was the same fun fact as the day before.

CHAPTER 11
    T he second I hit the boardwalk, I spotted Kevin walking toward me with a smile on his face. He was wearing the same clothes as the day before: a red, white, and blue Captain America T-shirt and white shorts.
    I looked him up and down for clues and then moved closer to smell his clothes for a sign that he’d already worn them. I got a whiff of lilac detergent as my face banged into his shoulder.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” He grabbed hold of his shirtand brought it to his nose. “Did I pull this out of the wrong laundry basket?”
    I shook my head. “You’re fine. I just had a weird feeling.”
    â€œThat my shirt would smell?”
    â€œNo. Like we did this all before.”
    â€œYou mean reincarnation?”
    â€œNo. Like yesterday morning we did the exact same thing.”
    â€œWe probably did. We’ve been doing the same thing every morning for almost eight weeks. I thought maybe you had a vision of us as a king and queen in a past life or something. That would be awesome.”
    â€œYeah, awesome,” I said as I caught sight of Kevin’s knee. There was no Tweety Bird Band-Aid. And no scab. He couldn’t have healed that quickly.
    Was Mom right? Had I dreamt a whole day?
    â€œSo, what do you want for breakfast?” Kevin said. “I’m in the mood for one of Annie’s egg and sausage bagels.”
    My mouth dropped open. “That’s exactly what you said in the dream I had last night.”
    â€œWhoooo, spooky.”
    â€œIt’s not funny.”
    â€œIt is, really, considering I’ve had an egg and sausage bagel for breakfast a bunch of times this summer.”
    â€œI guess you’re right.”
    Heading through the door of Annie’s Ark, we were greeted with the familiar smell of bacon, along with the sound of the local oldies station playing softly amid the chatter of