The Mayfair Moon Read Online Free PDF

his hand. He looked at me then. “All the way from Georgia, right?”
    How did he know that? My privacy had been threatened already. What if they knew why I came all the way from Georgia? The last thing I needed was to be the poster child for child abuse or alcoholism.
    “Yeah, Athens,” I answered, “I’m Adria.”
    “Adria, cool name,” he said, “I’m Harry—not such a cool name, sounds like an old guy name. Parent’s named me after Houdini.” His face held a slightly embarrassed tone.
    “Well, nice to meet you, Harry,” I said, “and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your name.”
    Harry was tall and lanky with stringy black hair; cute in a strictly brotherly sort of way.
    “Who do you have first period?” Julia asked, taking my schedule from me. “Same as you Harry: Mrs. Scott; Good luck with that,” she warned. “The woman’s Bipolar or skitzo. One day she’s disgustingly cheery, the next she’s snapping your head off for answering a question wrong.” Julia pursed her lips looking down into the paper. “Well, at least you can get the worst out of the way early. Looks like the rest of your teachers are pretty cool.”
    “Let me see that,” Harry said, snatching my schedule from Julia. “No way, Jewels. She’s got Coach Green.”
    “What?” Julia grimaced and snatched my schedule back from him, peering into the text more raptly.
    She looked up at me then and shook her head. I thought maybe I’d just been sentenced the Death Penalty.
    “Coach Green is a retired Drill Sargent,” she said. “Too bad you didn’t get Coach Little.”
    Oh great. A potential failed course. It wasn’t that I was incapable of the more physical classes, just that I never do anything well under pressure.
    “So,” said Harry, “gonna try out for cheerleading or anything?”
    “Ummm, no,” I said matter-of-factly. “I don’t have the personality to pull that off.”
    “Well, there’s other stuff,” said Julia. “Like...well you could try Band, or Bungee Jumping.”
    I made a face. “Are you serious?”
    Harry just laughed. I couldn’t believe I almost fell for it.
    “I wish!” said Julia. “That would be the ultimate class for sure.”
    We made our way to an open classroom and stopped outside the door.
    “This is us,” said Harry. “I wonder what it’ll be today: hyped up on Poppins happy pills, or her head spinning three-sixty.”
    Their mockery of mental illness bugged me a little. My mom had been on medication for depression for three years. But I knew Julia and Harry probably didn’t really mean anything by it. Mrs. Scott was probably a real piece of work. I was worried though, especially about having her as my first teacher of the day.
    “I guess Harry can take it from here,” said Julia. “Catch you again next period.”
    Julia left quickly and slipped into a class at the far end of the hall.
    I turned to Harry. “Looks like we’re late,” I said with a slight edge in my voice. I noticed we were the only students left in the hallway and the classroom was full. I was afraid this notorious teacher was going to embarrass me in front of everyone. Make me stand up in front of the class an introduce myself. Tell everyone where I moved from and if I’m enjoying Maine so far.
    “It’s your first day,” said Harry. “And my excuse is that I’m helping you, so we should be good.”
    It’s one of the most uncomfortable feelings in the world: entering a new classroom late and every pair of eyes on you. Harry walked me to the far corner of the class where his desk was.
    “Miss Dawson,” said Mrs. Scott, “welcome to my class.”
    She was smiling like the Cheshire cat. Did this mean my prayers had been answered and she was ‘hyped up on Poppins happy pills’? I held my breath.
    “Since it looks like Harry’s showing you around,” Mrs. Scott went on, “I’ll let you sit next to him.”
    But there wasn’t an empty seat next to his desk. I waited a long, unnerving