13 Gifts by Wendy Mass Read Free Book Online Page B

off, searching for the right word. Finally she finds it.
“Special.”
    “Sure, whatever you say.” I stare down at the jumbled contents of my suitcase. I know it’s silly to be jealous of someone because they actually like where they live, but I can’t help it.
    “Hey,” Emily says, “I’d be bummed, too, if my parents were somewhere really cool where no kids are allowed, but we’ll have fun here, I promise.”
    I wonder if that lie originated from my mother or from Aunt Bethany, but I’m glad to know that Emily doesn’t know the real reason I’m here. “Thanks,” I mutter.
    She returns to throwing her piles of stuff onto other piles of stuff. After a minute of silence, she says, “I emptied out the bottom drawer of the dresser for your things. Will that be enough space?”
    I nod.
    “Maybe you should unpack later, though. I forgot my mom wanted us to come down for dinner. She gets super-cranky when she’s hungry.”
    I zip up my suitcase, not in the mood to unpack anyway. “My mom gets like that, too,” I tell her, glad to be talking about something other than the “specialness” of Willow Falls.
    “It’s kind of weird,” she says as she opens the door, “how they’re sisters, but hardly ever see each other. I always figured if I had a sister we’d be best friends.”
    I shake my head. “I always figured if I had a sister we’d hate each other.”
    She grins and marches into the hall. “You shouldn’t say ‘hate.’ “
    I smile at the back of her head, and the tightness in my chest loosens just the littlest bit.

Chapter Five
     
    Instead of heading downstairs for dinner, Emily leads me past the stairs to the opposite end of the hall. She stops in front of the last door, where big black letters tell us to KEEP OUT. Ignoring the warning, she opens the door and marches right in. I hesitate. I hadn’t planned on breaking any rules within my first hour of arrival.
    Emily yanks me inside and shuts the door behind us. It’s dark. It’s also colder than in the rest of the house. I shiver. She flips on the light and my eyes instantly widen.
    Long wooden shelves cover all four walls, from floor to ceiling. As far as I can tell, the stuff on the shelves is a mixture of toys, action figures, old-fashioned candy and chocolates with labels in other languages, comic books, bobbleheads, baseballs and footballs and soccer balls with autographs scribbled on them, and cookie jars covered in a thin layer of Bubble Wrap. Other than the balls, which are in plastic containers, everything else is still in its original packaging. A long, rectangular table sits in the center of the room with a single computer, a printer, and enough packing supplies to keep a small post office afloat for a year.
    Emily trails her hand along one of the spotless shelves. “Pretty wild, right?”
    “What is this place?” I whisper.
    She laughs. “Why are you whispering?”
    “The sign on the door?” I point out, voice still low. “I figure that means we don’t want to get caught.”
    “Dad doesn’t mind if I come in here. As long as I don’t touch anything.”
    My eyes scan a row of Star Trek toys. “I thought your dad was an inventor.”
    “He is. But not everything is as big a seller as the Sand-Free Beach Towel or the Odor-Absorbing Sock Monkey. So a few years ago he started buying and selling collectibles. Mostly buying.” She gestures to a shelf full of neatly stacked comic books. Each one is tucked inside a plastic slipcover. “He has two or three of each of these. He doesn’t like giving anything up.”
    An astronaut Barbie Doll with the words L IMITED E DITION sprawled across the box stares down at me from the top shelf. “Don’t you ever want to play with any of this stuff?”
    Emily shakes her head. “I’m too busy. Between school and fencing and trying to solve my math theorem, I don’t have much time for toys anymore.”
    In the bright light I can see gray smudges under both her eyes. I wonder if she