The Fold Read Online Free PDF

doesn’t even know your name.”
    “So?” Joyce said. “I got to see his eyes. And they are amazing. They’re brown and green—”
    “Whose eyes?” Andy asked, popping into the conversation.
    Joyce and Gina jumped back, knocking over some of the saltshakers.
    Joyce frowned. “Jeez, Andy. Don’t sneak up on us like that.”
    “I wasn’t sneaking,” Andy said and shoved an entire steamed dumpling into his mouth.
    “Why do you have to eat that mandu like a Neanderthal?” Joyce asked.
    Andy opened his mouth to show her the contents.
    “Joyce, you have to throw salt over your shoulder,” Gina interrupted. “Which shoulder is it?”
    “Scram, Andy.”
    “Uhmma said that I should help you.”
    Gina tossed salt over both shoulders.
    “I don’t need help. Why don’t you go pretend to play basketball? That’s all you and your midget friends can do, anyway.”
    Andy threw up his middle finger.
    Joyce grabbed it.
    Andy wrestled it away and walked off. “Must be your time of the month!”
    “Shut up, shrimp!” Joyce said and pretended to lunge after him.
    Andy dashed into the kitchen.
    Gina handed Joyce some salt. “Come on. Toss it or else you’ll have bad luck all summer.”
    “Like it’s not following me around, right now?” Joyce said and tossed some salt over both shoulders.
    Gina looked over at the kitchen, double-checking for Andy. “Is he really starting middle school next year?”
    Joyce moved to another table with the tray and set down a saltshaker. “Yeah.”
    Gina laughed. “And he still wants to be a professional basketball player?”
    Joyce nodded.
    “What is with your family?” Gina asked.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Deep denial,” Gina said, shaking her head.
    “What are you talking about?” Joyce asked.
    Gina put one hand on her hip. “You eat chocolate all the time and complain about zits. You spend fifty bucks on some half Korean guy who will not even look in the direction of another Asian, and your brother wants to be a professional basketball player even though he’s as tall as the table,” Gina said.
    “Oh, please,” Joyce said and pretended to gag. “Like you’re some pillar of wisdom? Remember the time you spent all that money on some designer bra that was supposed to give you cleavage and all you got was a backache from the straps being so tight?”
    Gina shuddered. “Okay, okay, I don’t want to relive that purchase. I’m still reeling from all the money I threw away.” Gina held up her hand. “Let’s change thesubject. I still can’t believe John Ford Kang thought you were Lynn. Doesn’t she wear glasses?”
    Joyce nodded. “And she has really bad teeth. Have you ever seen them? They’re so crooked, and she has these bucks in the front that practically scream rabbit. I don’t know why she didn’t get the clear braces.”
    “Maybe she couldn’t afford them,” Gina said quietly, fiddling with a saltshaker.
    Joyce quickly changed the subject, aware that she had stumbled onto another sensitive topic. “Her glasses are so thick they’re bulletproof. Look at me. Do I look anything like Lynn Song?”
    Gina smiled, her lips carefully sealed shut against her misaligned teeth. “Maybe you could use some glamming up.”
    Joyce frowned. “Glamming up? What is that? A verb? Are you trying to tell me something?”
    “No, but maybe you could try and look a little more”—Gina waved her hands in the air, trying to find the right word—“put together.”
    “Put together?” Joyce could feel the anger tightening in her throat, even though she knew Gina was right. “Are you trying to tell me I look like a loser? That I don’t have an alibi? That I’m U. G. L. Y.?”
    “No! I just mean we could use this summer to kindof transform ourselves. You know, like a makeover or something. And definitely a new wardrobe. You have this amazing bod, and you always hide it in baggy jeans and T-shirts. Don’t you want our senior year to rock?”
    “Yeah, but it’s not