Blair’s Nightmare by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Read Free Book Online Page A

Eloise that she used to feel sorry for her because she thought she was a victim of child abuse, until she realized that her black eyes were just too much eye shadow.”
    David laughed. “She didn’t really say that to Eloise, did she?”
    â€œSure,” Amanda said. “In a loud voice in the cafeteria line.And then Eloise—the one with the long skinny tail—said she was really surprised to hear that Tammy had been worrying about her because she’d always thought that fat people never worried about anything—except maybe what was for lunch.”
    â€œWow,” David said. “I thought they were real good friends.”
    â€œThey are. They’re crazy about each other.”
    â€œThen how come they . . .”
    â€œThat was last week. This week they’re mad at me. They went to the Doom Flume today, and they both called me up to tell me I wasn’t invited. That’s why I didn’t have anything to do.”
    David was curious. Amanda sounded slightly sarcastic, but not too upset. Maybe she was just hiding it. “Well, next week they’ll probably hate each other and be crazy about you,” he said.
    Amanda shrugged. “I couldn’t care less. They both totally gross me out.”
    David nodded. It figured. Personally he wasn’t too good at insulting people, whether they happened to be his best friends or not. But with Amanda he guessed it kind of came naturally.
    When they’d finished eating, David said that he’d planned to go over the next ridge and then on down into the valley to a little lake where animals sometimes came to drink—but they could go back now if Amanda was tired.
    â€œWho’s tired?” Amanda said. “I’m beginning to like this ‘Wild Kingdom’ stuff.”
    So they went on, and when they were almost to the top of the next range of hills, they begin to hear the dirt bikes. Even before they got to where they could see anything, he could tell they were dirt bikes because of the noise they made.
    â€œWe might as well go back,” he told Amanda. “There won’t be any animals in a hundred miles with all that noise going on.”
    â€œCome on,” she said. “Let’s see who it is. I know some guys who have dirt bikes.”
    So they went on climbing, and when they reached the crest of the hill the noise got a whole lot louder. Directly down below them, where some little rolling foothills surrounded the narrow valley, little clouds of exhaust were rising up into the sky, and in two or three places you could see where the bikes had torn away the grass in a network of deep muddy trails. As they watched, a bike came shooting into view, flew over the top of a rise and plunged down the other side.
    â€œHey. I know him,” Amanda said. “He’s in my history class. His name is Greg. Let’s go on down. Maybe they’ll give us a ride.”
    â€œWell,” David said, “I don’t know.” He wasn’t feeling too enthusiastic about the whole thing even before the second bike came over the top of the hill. But when it did, he stopped in his tracks. There was no way Amanda was going to talk himinto going any farther. The guy riding the bike was Pete Garvey.
    Amanda had already started out, but when she realized David was staying right where he was, she stopped. “Well, come on,” she said.
    â€œNo way. Did you see who that was? On that last bike?”
    â€œNo. Who was it?”
    â€œPete Garvey.”
    â€œSo? I thought he was a friend of yours.”
    â€œLook,” David said. “I hate to disappoint you, but that day Garvey told you he was looking for me, it wasn’t because he’s my friend. He was looking for me because he wanted to punch me out.”
    â€œPunch you out? Why would Garvey want to punch you out? He’s twice as big as you are.”
    â€œActually, I’d noticed that,” David said