The Princes of Tangleforest Read Online Free PDF

the corner. Julia stopped. “She lives over there.” She pointed down the street. “She should be coming around this corner any minute now.”
    He nodded. They stood there for a moment before he asked, “Hey, do you know a girl named Poppi?
    “Poppi? Wow. I haven’t heard that name in, like, forever. How do you know her?”
    “She lives across the street from me.”
    “You moved into Old Man Doo’s house?”
    “Old Man Doo?”
    “You talked to her?”
    “I walked over there last night, and her grandmother or someone started shouting and—”
    “Miss Myra.”
    “Does Poppi go to our school?”
    “Not anymore. She did up until I was in third grade. She left to go live with her grandmother. The last thing I heard she was being homeschooled. I think her friends tried to visit her, but the grandmother scared them away. I don’t know, the kids say she’s a witch and cast spells on them, and that Poppi is her prisoner.”
    “Tuh… that’s stupid. A witch.”
    “It’s what I heard. She wasn’t my friend or anything. She’s two years ahead of me, the same class as Zachary. All I can remember about her was she had this long blonde hair, and all the boys were star…ry. Eyed.  Yep, exactly how you are now.”
    “What?”
    “Never mind. I guess that much hasn’t changed.”
    “What?”
    “Remember, I’m an ex-mind-reader.”
    Tanner felt his face grow hot and knew that if she hadn’t read it before, he had just given her a news flash.
    Julia said, “Be careful. If Miss Myra did half the stuff she is rumored to have done, I think it would be best to steer clear of her yard and especially her granddaughter.”
    “Get out of my way, you freaks.”
    They turned, and there stood Ashley with her arms wrapped around her books.
    “Oh, Ashley. Hi.” Julia took a step toward her. “We want to talk to you for a minute.”
    “I’m not talking to you slackers.”
    “Fabulous,” Julia moaned and scratched the back of her head. “I understand what you’re thinking, but I want you to think back to the time when you were the most popular girl in school.”
    “Yeah, right. Me? I’m nothing compared to Darla. Do you know that she’s planning on being a train engineer or something?”
    Tanner tried to hold back his laugh with a cough.
    “No, Ashley. You’re the most popular.” As Julia said this she touched Ashley’s wrist. “Don’t you remember? You wear the best clothes. Darla is trying to take your place. Look at what you’re wearing. Look at your hair. This is not you.”
    A deep frown settled across Ashley’s face. “No,” she said, touching her pony tailed hair. “You’re jealous. Darla told me you would try to use me to get Zachary back.”
    That time Tanner did laugh out loud. “Sorry,” he said.
    “Well, you can forget it.” Instead of walking around them, Ashley took a step towards them, obviously intending on walking in between them.  “Get out of my way, you losers.”
    Julia nodded to Tanner to let Ashley pass. She strutted down the sidewalk, her long ponytail swinging from side to side.
    Julia shrugged her shoulders in frustration. “I don’t know what happened. That should have worked.”
    “What should have worked?” Tanner said, completely confused. “You didn’t do anything.”
    “I did. You just don’t understand. But I did. It’s called anchoring. I guess I didn’t do it right. It’s been a long time. It didn’t work. Now what am I going to do? Maybe I didn’t really want to help her since it’s kind of fun seeing her so unaccessorized. Hmmm.”  She held a distant stare as she said, “I don’t know. She kicked the kickstand on her bike and started walking beside it.
    Tanner picked up his skateboard and walked beside her. “Now what? Are you going to let her stay like that?”
    “I don’t know. I guess I can try later. She would kill me if she knew I let her walk around wearing knee socks with sandals.”
    “Yeah,” Tanner said. “So hey, is there