The Lost Queen Read Online Free PDF Page B

school.
    Tania and her girlfriends were occupying a corner table. They each had milkshakes and were picking from a large pizza in the middle of the table. Tania’s end of the table was filled with birthday cards and newly opened presents from Jade, Natalie, Rosa, Susheela, and Lily.
    Lying unwrapped on the table were lip balm, hand lotion and cotton balls in a chrome tin with CHIK KIT ! embossed on it, a pink and white polka-dot notebook with matching pen, a brightly colored photo frame, a box of cosmetics called PAMPERED PRINCESS , which had made Tania smile, and from Jade, a very pretty silver bracelet with green stones set in it.
    â€œWell, I think you’re a total deadbeat for not having a birthday party,” Rosa said to Tania. “What kind of person is too busy to party?”
    Tania shrugged. “The kind of person who has to learn the lines of a really tricky play that she has to perform at the end of next week? Besides, I didn’t say I didn’t want to have a party at all. I just said not right now.”
    â€œForget the party,” Jade said, giving Tania a piercing look. “I want to know what happened with you and Evan.”
    â€œSorry to disappoint you, guys,” Tania said as casually as she could manage. “But precisely nothing happened with me and Evan—if you mean what I think you mean.”
    â€œOh, come on!” Lily said with a snort of laughter. “You’ve got to be kidding. You two have been all over each other for weeks now.”
    â€œAnd then you both vanish for three whole days,” Susheela added. “And three whole nights!”
    â€œYou can tell us,” urged Natalie. “We’re your best friends.”
    â€œI’ve already told you the whole story,” Tania said. “There’s nothing more to tell. Except for the fact that my mum and dad have forbidden me to see him outside school, which is a total pain.”
    Jade grinned. “Well, what did you expect? I’m surprised they haven’t set the police on him for kidnapping you. And as for that curfew you were talking about—that’s nothing! My folks would have locked me in my room and thrown away the key if I’d pulled a stunt like that. You were gone for three days, Anita! I can’t believe you didn’t call me or anything.”
    â€œThat’s right,” said Lily. “You could have sent a Wish You Were Here card from wherever the two of you were hiding out.”
    Tania sighed. “We weren’t hiding out anywhere,”she said. “And can you try to remember I’d like to be called Tania from now on?”
    â€œOkay, Tania ,” Jade said with comic emphasis. “We’ll try, Tania .”
    â€œWhy Tania?” asked Natalie. “Apart from the fact that it’s an anagram of Anita, what’s so great about it?”
    Tania frowned. An anagram of her mortal name? She’d never even thought about that. “I just like the name.”
    â€œI bet it was Evan’s idea,” said Lily. “Go on, admit it. Evan wanted you to change your name.”
    â€œNo he didn’t,” Tania said.
    â€œKind of ironic, though, isn’t it?” Jade said, gesturing with a floppy wedge of pizza. “You and Evan are playing Romeo and Juliet in a couple of weeks, and your folks have forbidden you to see him—kind of like what happens in the play, isn’t it?”
    â€œI hope not,” Tania said. “They both end up dead.”
    Natalie grinned. “You don’t want to die for love of him, then?”
    â€œNo thanks!”
    â€œHey, speaking of people dying of love,” Susheela said suddenly. “Did you guys see the last episode of Spindrift ? I mean, is Coral Masters a total dork or what?”
    Spindrift was a daily soap that everyone at school watched, but somehow Tania couldn’t summon up the enthusiasm to join in the conversation. As they chatted, it felt to