The Shadow Read Online Free PDF Page A

a trench coat and hat, to go with my new line of work. Maybe Shadowing wasn’t such a terrible job.
    I jiggled the lock until little beads of sweat appeared on my forehead, but the drawer wouldn’t budge.
    That’s when the doorknob creaked. I could see the silhouette of Ms. Peterson’s gold, wire-rimmed glasses through the window. My heart jumped into my throat and I ducked underneath the desk.
    “Keys, keys,” she muttered. “Where are my keys?”
    I curled up underneath the desk and prayed that she couldn’t hear my heart beating, which sounded, at least from where I was sitting, like Godzilla stomping through the streets of Tokyo.
    Ms. Peterson puttered around some more, checking on the bookshelves and moving stacks of manila folders around the desk, searching everywhere but underneath the desk itself. Every muscle in my body was knotted. I had to keep my breath shallow so it wouldn’t make a sound, and after a minute of sitting stiffly under that hot desk with my heart racing and my breath as quiet as possible, the room started to spin and my brain went all hot. Do you know when you’re about to pass out and it feels like someone has stuffed your head with corn kernels and then microwaved it? I felt like that.
    After a minute I heard Ms. Peterson reach into her purse and pull out a clanging lump of keys. “Oh!” she laughed to herself. “Hilary Peterson, you idiot!” She shuffled out the door, muttering to herself, and shut it behind her, leaving me alone in the darkened office.
     
     
    After sitting in Ms. Peterson’s swivel chair a moment and taking a few deep breaths, I emerged from her office. The fluorescent hall lights felt like lasers in my eyes, which had grown accustomed to the dark. I blocked my face with my arms, like a vampire.
    “Brooke?” came a voice.
    I squinted some more and managed to see who was calling. The two brunettes who had saved me a seat in chorus were standing together across the hallway with packs on their backs and textbooks in their arms, fidgeting nervously.
    I waved and walked over to them, batting my eyelids wildly. “Hi guys,” I said, smiling my friendliest smile, which at that point must have looked manic.
    “We feel really bad about before,” the taller one said.
    “We just didn’t know what to say to you,” the shorter one said.
    “We didn’t know if we should, like, ask you all about it—” said Tall.
    “Or just let you talk about it on your own time,” said Short.
    I had just come so frighteningly close to falling into Ms. Peterson’s sinister clutches that I didn’t really feel like having a friendly chat with strangers, but they were looking at me with such sad doe eyes that I felt obliged to go on.
    “It’s okay,” I said. “This whole situation is bizarre.”
    And they didn’t know the half of it.
    “Come to the diner tonight,” said Tall.
    “Cheese fries!” said Short.
    I couldn’t help my first reaction, which was to vigorously shake my head no. Even though I couldn’t remember any of the details of my life before I woke up in Brooke’s body, I could feel in my heart that I was an introvert. I seemed to have chatted people up well enough throughout the day, but it had taken a lot out of me, and all I wanted was to sit in my room by myself and read.
    “I’m too tired,” I said. “I just kinda want to stay home tonight.”
    “No!” they both shouted simultaneously.
    “You have to come,” said Tall.
    “Osman has been so worried about you,” said Short.
    I furrowed my brow, as I had no idea who Osman was, but I didn’t really care to find out. “I  . . . ” I trailed off, looking into the sad eyes of these eager girls who clearly loved me and wanted to make my life better. This only made me sadder.
    Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Will traipsing past us on the hallway. “Go!” he said. “Maybe you’ll learn something useful!”
    And so I nodded.
    “Yay!” Tall shouted, wrapping her arms around me. “We’ll