Trail of Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page A

grade niner belching really loudly, resulting in a ten minute lecture on what constituted inappropriate behaviour and what would get us expelled. We were late leaving assembly, and Kirkpatrick told us to hurry to homeroom for attendance. I sat with a few girls I knew, but Mr. Topper shooed us out as soon as he handed us our timetables.
    I had just made it to biology on the second floor and found an empty desk when Mr. Williams strode into the room. He was short and stout, with flaming red hair to his shoulders and a droopy moustache. No-nonsense was his middle name. I opened my binder to a clean page and grabbed a pen out of my case. For some reason, I looked over to my right. A boy I’d never seen before was staring at me with startling blue eyes the colour of ripe blueberries. He had straight blond hair cut in short layers that suited his high cheekbones and square jaw. He was dressed in a ripped green sweatshirt and patched jeans. When he saw me looking, he smiled and pretended to write in the air, letting me know he needed to borrow a pen.
Could somebody possibly have come to class more disorganized than me?
I dug around in my case again and handed him my back-up. “Thanks,” he said.
    â€œNo problem.” I turned my eyes back to Mr. Williams,who’d begun pacing like a caged lion at the front of the class while he boomed out the class rules. Any thoughts I had about the new boy disappeared as I began taking notes. Mr. Williams insisted on milking every second out of his allotted time, and I had to race to the first floor to be on time for French class with Madame Grégoire, a recruit fresh out of teacher’s college. I hoped she’d find her teaching legs soon, or the boys in the class were going to drive her into another career by Christmas.
    I didn’t meet up with Ambie until English class third period, when she plunked herself down in the seat behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. I swung around. Ambie’s eyes were outlined in black and dusted in satin blue shadow, and her hair was pulled up into a French braid. She was wearing a black and silver striped top I’d never seen before and looked like she could be modelling for
Glamour
magazine. “Forget to set your alarm again?” she asked.
    â€œJust thought I’d start the year where I left off last term,” I said. “You know, don’t turn over any leaves until someone kicks them over. How were your first two classes, by the way?”
    â€œOh, all right. Grade Twelve math and chemistry. They look pretty easy.”
    Ambie wasn’t hallucinating. She was something of a genius when it came to math and science. “Hey, who’s that cute new guy?” She motioned towards the same boy who’d borrowed my pen in first class. “Looks like he could do with a friend.” He was sitting slumped back in his seat with his arms folded across his chest, a sea of calmamidst a group of boys who were tossing a sponge football back and forth at the back of the room.
    â€œNo idea,” I said. I looked around. I noticed the other girls in the room looking at the new guy with interest. I didn’t imagine he’d be lonely for long.
    â€œLooks like the artistic type,” Ambie said. “Gaunt face—high cheekbones, sensuous lips, tortured eyes . . .”
    â€œYou’re nailing those adjectives, Amb,” I said. “Have you been reading romance novels again, by any chance?”
    Ambie grinned. “I think his sister may be the new girl in Grade Twelve math. They look alike, although her hair is dyed red.”
    Since Springhills isn’t that big a place, new students stand out and become topics of conversation until we can figure out where they fit into our social order. In the teenage world, everyone is slotted into a category that it can take a lifetime to get over—or at least, that’s what Mom told me. Ambie and I weren’t in the popular crowd, but