The Stars of Summer Read Online Free PDF

Gladys had appealed to her father’s penny-pinching side and convinced him that it would be a huge waste of his money. But now that it was free . . .
    Charissa was dancing around the shreds of wrapping paper on the floor, her arms opening wide for the big hug of gratitude she no doubt thought she deserved. Meanwhile, Gladys’s dad leaned over her shoulder, reading the letter. “Jen, have a look at this,” he said. “Charissa’s family has given Gladdy a free summer at Camp Bentley!” He plucked the paper out of Gladys’s hand and passed it to her mom.
    â€œOh, how generous!” she exclaimed. “Honey, what a great opportunity for you to make even more friends!”
    But Gladys didn’t want more friends. In fact, she wasn’t sure she wanted to keep all the ones she had at the moment.
    Charissa didn’t see her expression, though—her arms were already around Gladys’s torso, squeezing like a boa constrictor. “You’re welcome,” she said into Gladys’s ear. “It’s going to be the
funnest
summer of your life.”

Chapter 4
    THE CAMP CRITIC
    â€œ LOOK, I’VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT IT,” Sandy said the next day as he ushered Gladys through the door of his room, “and . . . maybe Camp Bentley isn’t such a bad idea for you.”
    â€œ
What?
”
    â€œJust hear me out.”
    He motioned for her to sit down on the floor—which was pretty much her only choice since every other surface in the room was covered with stuff he needed to pack for karate camp. White practice pants exploded out of the big gray duffel bag on his bed; his desk was covered with bottles of sunscreen and bug repellant; and his desk chair could barely be seen under a pile of socks and underwear.
    â€œSo,” Sandy continued, “you’re probably going to get assigned more reviews for the
Standard
this summer, right?”
    â€œI hope so,” Gladys said.
    â€œAnd do you have a plan for how you’re going to get into the city for the next one?”
    She sighed. “Not yet.”
    Sandy pulled a pair of socks off the desk chair and began to ball them up. “Well, you can’t use birthdays anymore—yours and Charissa’s have already passed, and mine’s not until October, plus me and Parm will both be away. So you probably won’t be able to come up with an excuse to get someone’s parents to take you.”
    Gladys ran a fingernail along the crack between the two nearest floorboards. “What are you saying?”
    â€œI’m saying that you might need to sneak into the city on your own—take the train and just do the reviews yourself. And if that’s the plan, well . . . camp may give you the perfect opportunity.”
    Gladys looked up from the floor. “I don’t get it.”
    â€œThink about it this way,” Sandy said. “If you’re supposed to be home and your mom drops in to check on you, she’ll freak out if you’re missing. But if you’re supposed to be at camp . . . well, there are so many kids at camp, they probably won’t even notice that you’re gone!”
    Hmm.
Gladys hadn’t thought about it that way. “So are you saying that camp could be, like . . . a cover?” she asked.
    Sandy tossed his balled socks in the general direction of the duffel bag, but they landed short, rolling under his bed. He shrugged and reached for another pair from his chair. “Exactly,” he said. “I mean, I wouldn’t play hooky right away. I’d take a week or two to figure out the system—when they take attendance, when you could sneak away.”
    â€œYeah, but . . . I don’t
want
to go to camp, even for a couple of weeks!” Gladys could hear the whine in her voice, but she couldn’t help it. “I thought summer was supposed to be fun—a time to do stuff you