The Little Woods Read Online Free PDF Page A

fiction novel. I hoped we could be friends.
    As soon as we were given our assignment (150 pages of
Eastern History, Eastern Thought
), Sophie headed for the door, but I found her waiting for me just outside, her arms crossed in front of her like a schoolmistress’s.
    “I’ll walk you to bio. I have chem down there. There’s something we need to discuss.”
    “That sounds very official.”
    “Listen, I don’t care what Jack says. Iris didn’t run away.”
    “Okay, my interest is piqued,” I said, turning my attention to Sophie. “What happened to her?”
    “She was murdered.”
    “Right.” I laughed, but then I saw that she was serious. My books suddenly felt very heavy on my back.
    “I’m not joking,” she said. “And if you ask me, the police never took her disappearance seriously. There were all these signs that seemed to point to her running away, so everyone just assumed that’s what happened, but I don’t buy it.”
    “What signs?”
    “Well, first off, she started failing her classes. You didn’t know Iris, but Iris didn’t fail stuff. Math, art, physics, you name it, she was brilliant. She was my main competition for two years, and then suddenly last spring—poof—it was like she wasn’t there. You don’t spend half your life busting your butt and excelling just to decide one day that you don’t care anymore.”
    “You do if something bad happens to you.”
    “Exactly,” she said, snapping her fingers repeatedly.
    “But that just lends credence to the whole running-away theory, doesn’t it?”
    “Not necessarily. See, there were other things. She started getting sick all the time. It seemed like she was always camped out in the infirmary. Only, she didn’t really seem sick to me. She seemed like she was avoiding something.”
    “What was she avoiding?”
    “I don’t know, but I started wondering if maybe she was in some kind of trouble. See, Iris didn’t come from money, but last year she started dressing like a model. She was on an academic scholarship like me. Her parents definitely didn’t start buying her designer clothes all of a sudden, so how’d she get them?”
    “Did she have a job?”
    “She did a work-study as Ms. Snow’s lab assistant, but that’s a pittance.”
    “So what are you saying?”
    “I don’t know. I just think there are a bunch of pieces that don’t necessarily add up to a whole, and if I were you, I’d watch my back.”
    “Why me?”
    “Oh, I forgot to mention—because Helen killed her.”
    I tripped over a rock, stumbling forward onto my hands and knees. I heard a smattering of laughter erupt behind me. I pulled myself up, dusted off my shorts, and kept walking.
    “Sorry,” I said. “Did you just say my current roommate murdered her previous roommate?”
    “Yeah,” Sophie said, laughing. “I just thought you should know.”
    “It
was
thoughtful of you,” I said. “Do you have, um, evidence that Helen killed Iris?”
    Sophie shook her head. “Just a gut feeling.”
    We entered the Hardwicke biology building, a redbrick Georgian number in stark contrast to the Gothic gray architecture that dominated the rest of the campus. Inside, everything was white and shiny and unnecessarily curvy.
    “Well, thanks for the heads-up, I guess,” I said, still trying to decide if I was being hazed.
    “I’m gonna be late,” she said. “We’ll talk later.” She gave me a quick wave, then left me alone in a corridor lined with glass cases displaying various bones and models.
    “Okay,” I whispered to myself. “What the hell was that?”
    When I walked into the biology lab, I drank in the cool laboratory rush of fresh oxygen, marble-covered work spaces, and metal spigots ready and willing to spurt air at my bidding. There were only a few kids in their seats, and only one of those stood out. Though I could see a resemblance between her and Noel, they were far from identical and seemed almost to be carved from different material. She was unlike