The Last to Know Read Online Free PDF

hundred-pound, bespectacled, acne-scarred weakling like Jeremiah comes from the same gene pool as the Fletch Gallagher?
    The handsome, muscular athlete, formerly a star pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, is now practically a celebrity, working during baseball season as a sportscaster for the New York Mets.
    Jeremiah’s father, Aidan, might not have Fletch’s great looks or stud status, but he, too, has an aura of power and masculinity about him. Especially when he’s dressed in his officer’s uniform. Not that Jeremiah sees him in it often—or sees him much at all. He’s been stationed in the Middle East since the last flare-up with Iraq, which happened right after Melissa was killed.
    Before that, Dad was home more. Which was one of the few good things that had happened since he married Melissa. She didn’t want to follow him around the way Mom had.
    When his mother was alive, Jeremiah lived on army bases all over the world. She made every move seem like an adventure, transforming countless ugly, square military-base houses into homes for Jeremiah and his father.
    Not Melissa.
    She insisted on staying put right here on North Street in Townsend Heights while Dad was stationed overseas. She said she had no intention of dragging her daughters, Lily and Daisy, all over creation; they had already been through enough—a reference to the twins’ father, who abandoned his family for another woman.
    The better he got to know Melissa, who could be a real pain, the more Jeremiah didn’t blame her ex-husband. She was spoiled, having grown up an only child in Connecticut. From what Jeremiah could tell, her parents—who both died around the same time her marriage ended—hadn’t been rich, but clearly, her every wish had been their command. Which was exactly how his dad treated her. Why, Jeremiah couldn’t figure out. Unless it was simply because Melissa was a beautiful blonde—so different from his mom—and Dad was psyched to have landed someone like her.
    If you ask Jeremiah, Melissa was the lucky one. She’d been dumped, with two little girls to raise and no parents to help her. And his dad was a great catch.
    After his father married Melissa, she, Jeremiah, and his twin stepsisters lived here, and Aidan came home a lot, sometimes for long periods of time. Jeremiah figured he could put up with Melissa most of the time if it meant seeing more of his father.
    Then Melissa died, and the thing with Iraq happened, and Dad had to leave again. Which means Jeremiah, Lily, and Daisy have to stay with Uncle Fletch and Aunt Sharon for a while. But Dad’s promised that pretty soon, he’ll be home again—maybe even for good. Then maybe things will get back to normal.
    Whatever normal is.
    Jeremiah reaches up to the top shelf of his locker and looks for his chemistry notebook amid the clutter.
    The locker door next to him bangs open and he glances up to see Lacey Birnbach taking off her leather jacket and chatting with a couple of her friends.
    “Hi,” Jeremiah says awkwardly. It comes out nearly silent. He clears his throat and tries again, managing to produce a faintly audible sound.
    Lacey’s really into whatever she’s telling her friends, though, and doesn’t bother to acknowledge Jeremiah. Not that he expects her to. She’s one of those girls who doesn’t seem to know he’s alive—which pretty much sums up the entire female population of Townsend Heights High, he thinks wryly, returning to the hunt for his notebook.
    “So is Peter, like, famous now?” one of Lacey’s friends asks.
    “Definitely. He told me he’s going to be on the six o’clock news tonight. I’m going to call home and tell my mom to tape it because we have a late cheering practice today.”
    “I want a copy of the tape,” another girl says. “He’s so cute. Maybe he’ll be discovered on TV and become a big star.”
    “Like, he’s just being interviewed about finding that lady’s screaming baby on the jogging path, Alyssa,” says