The Ghost Runner Read Online Free PDF Page A

Theater even attends. I’m hoping he’ll notice me.”
    â€œWhere are you from?” I ask.
    â€œLA,” she says. “You’d figure I’d go to school there, right? But my folks are purists. They want me to actually learn how to act before I return to LA. I keep telling them that most people in that town can’t act to save their lives, and they do just fine.”
    â€œSo how did you end up in environmental studies?”
    â€œI’m not sure,” she says. “We’re required to take two science classes, and I figured this would get that requirement out of the way without me actually having to mess with beakers or numbers.”
    â€œWhat do you think of our teacher?”
    She laughs. “You think I’m stuck in the eighties—but what’s up with him? His hair looks like he’s been growing it since the sixties .”
    â€œI’ll bet that hair has some stories to tell.”
    â€œI guess I shouldn’t judge,” Lucy says. “So why’re you in that class?”
    â€œI’m interested in the environment,” I say. “Someday I’d like to have some sort of job that can help. I’m just not sure what that is yet.”
    â€œYou’ll figure it out. That’s cool, that you have such noble aspirations. Me, I’m just hoping ol’ man Lindy doesn’t give us too much homework. I’ve got a play coming up. I haven’t actually made the cut just yet, but I’m an optimist. Auditions are next week.”
    â€œWhat’s the play?”
    â€œThey won’t tell us. We just go up there and read whatever they give us and hope we make it. It’s open to the campus. You should try out.”
    â€œI don’t think so,” I say. Lucy is looking over my shoulder. “What?” I ask.
    â€œThere’s someone watching you,” she says. “No—don’t turn around, or he’ll know you’re onto him.”
    â€œWhat if I want him to know I’m onto him?” I turn around and look.
    â€œHe just went behind a building,” Lucy says.
    â€œWhat did he look like?”
    â€œI didn’t get a good look. He looked older.”
    Immediately my mind turns to Roman. “Maybe he was looking at you, not me,” I say.
    â€œYeah, right. That’ll be the day. The only way I can get men to look at me is when I’m onstage. Speaking of which, you should audition with me.”
    â€œWhy? I’m not an actor.”
    â€œWhy not? Everyone’s a little bit of an actor. Besides, I hate waiting in those tryout lines all alone. Stresses me out.”
    I look back over at the buildings, scanning the crowds, and then I see Roman, passing between two buildings.
    â€œBe right back,” I say, then I take off after him. I rush through the students, but already Roman is gone, behind a building, or maybe inside.
    I turn the corner, and all of a sudden, I’m face-to-face with him—only it’s not Roman. Just a tall, dark-haired student dressed in black.
    I’ve got to stop doing this , I tell myself. Yet a part of me is relieved, and I’m about to head back to Lucy when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around slowly.
    Standing in front of me is my father. The man I thought had died nearly a year ago. The man I thought I might have killed.
    My father. And he’s smiling at me, knowingly.
    â€œWhy, Katie, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he says.
    I feel as though I have.

Four
    W e are running, Alex and I, heading for the deep forest high above Lithia. I haven’t seen him in a while—he’s been busy, juggling work at the co-op and organizing a protest in the community. It’s a project close to his heart; he’s trying to stop a developer from taking ownership of the one last parcel of land—owned by someone named Horton, who died—that’s necessary to move forward with a gigantic housing development.